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Lot Essay
Square-back chairs with gothic arches and turned column spindles were a popular form in New York and numerous examples survive. The back is clearly described in The New-York Book of Prices for Cabinet and Chair Work for 1802 as a "Square Back Chair, No. III With four gothic arches, and four turned columns, sweep stay, and top rail, with a brake in ditto; sweep seat rails, for stuffing over ditto; plain taper'd legs." Ornamental extras include the carving of the tablet in the crest rail or rosettes in the corners of the back, the treatment of the tops of the columns as well as the columns themselves, beading around the back, reeding of the legs and spade feet. This set of chairs exhibits a vertically carved crest tablet, gothic arches and turned spindles, carved rosettes in the corners of the chair back as well as heading the arm supports, squared and reeded legs and spade feet.
Chairs of this model have traditionally been attributed to the partnership of Abraham Slover and Jacob B. Taylor. The attribution is based upon its similarity to a labeled example illustrated in The Magazine Antiques (November 1923), p. 215. However, as the New-York Book of Prices indicates, this pattern was widely disseminated and undoubtedly made by many competing chairmakers. In addition, a surviving account book of the chairmaker Fenwick Lyell indicates that Lyell made furniture for many well-known New York cabinetmakers, including chair frames for Slover and Taylor (Manuscript account book of Fenwick Lyell, Monmouth County Historical Society, Freehold, New Jersey, 15, discussed in part in Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture, The Federal Period (New York, 1966), p.113.)
Abraham A. Slover appears first as "cabinet-maker" as early as 1792 and continued to work alone in 1793. By 1794, he had moved to 30 Cortlandt Street and a year later was in partnership with a Mr. Kortwright. His partnership with Kortwright was short-lived and he was listed alone in 1796 and 1797. From 1798 to 1802, he was working alone at 94 Broad Street. He collaborated with Jacob Taylor at that address between 1802 and 1804, after which he is listed as a "grocer." Taylor is listed as working at 27 Broadway between 1804 and 1807, but little else is known about him (William C. Ketchum Jr., American Cabinetmakers, Marked American Furniture 1640-1940 (New York, 1995); Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America (Garden City, NY, 1957), p. 208; Phelps Warren, "Setting the Record Straight: Slover and Taylor, New York Cabinetmaker," The Magazine Antiques (October 1961), pp. 350-351).
This set differs from the labeled example by having a tablet with fluting rather than a sunburst and additional rosettes in the lowermost corners of the backs. Chairs demonstrating virtually identical carving patterns are illustrated in Richard A. Randall, Jr., American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1965), pp. 216-217, cat. no. 177, Israel Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection (New York), vol. 2, p. 534, ill. 1260; and vol. 4, p. 1053, ill. P3706; Decorative Arts Photographic Collection (DAPC), Winterthur Museum (no. 85.473.)
Chairs of this model have traditionally been attributed to the partnership of Abraham Slover and Jacob B. Taylor. The attribution is based upon its similarity to a labeled example illustrated in The Magazine Antiques (November 1923), p. 215. However, as the New-York Book of Prices indicates, this pattern was widely disseminated and undoubtedly made by many competing chairmakers. In addition, a surviving account book of the chairmaker Fenwick Lyell indicates that Lyell made furniture for many well-known New York cabinetmakers, including chair frames for Slover and Taylor (Manuscript account book of Fenwick Lyell, Monmouth County Historical Society, Freehold, New Jersey, 15, discussed in part in Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture, The Federal Period (New York, 1966), p.113.)
Abraham A. Slover appears first as "cabinet-maker" as early as 1792 and continued to work alone in 1793. By 1794, he had moved to 30 Cortlandt Street and a year later was in partnership with a Mr. Kortwright. His partnership with Kortwright was short-lived and he was listed alone in 1796 and 1797. From 1798 to 1802, he was working alone at 94 Broad Street. He collaborated with Jacob Taylor at that address between 1802 and 1804, after which he is listed as a "grocer." Taylor is listed as working at 27 Broadway between 1804 and 1807, but little else is known about him (William C. Ketchum Jr., American Cabinetmakers, Marked American Furniture 1640-1940 (New York, 1995); Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America (Garden City, NY, 1957), p. 208; Phelps Warren, "Setting the Record Straight: Slover and Taylor, New York Cabinetmaker," The Magazine Antiques (October 1961), pp. 350-351).
This set differs from the labeled example by having a tablet with fluting rather than a sunburst and additional rosettes in the lowermost corners of the backs. Chairs demonstrating virtually identical carving patterns are illustrated in Richard A. Randall, Jr., American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1965), pp. 216-217, cat. no. 177, Israel Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection (New York), vol. 2, p. 534, ill. 1260; and vol. 4, p. 1053, ill. P3706; Decorative Arts Photographic Collection (DAPC), Winterthur Museum (no. 85.473.)