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Lot Essay
As described by Dean Lahikainen, this pair of armchairs is among the earliest manifestations of the Neoclassical style in late eighteenth-century Salem. They are recorded in 1791 in the accounts of Major General John Fiske, who on June 29th of that year paid cabinetmaker Jacob Sanderson £31-4-0 for “12 Mahogany Chairs compleat for the house.” Six years later, the same set is described as “ten mahogany chairs & two arm’d” and valued at $85. Establishing the connection between the surviving forms and those owned by the Fiskes, six of the side chairs from this set were given to the Essex Institute by the couple’s granddaughters in 1913 (Peabody Essex Museum 103713).
Lahikainen also attributes the carving to Samuel McIntire (1757-1811), noting that McIntire may have emulated the eagle-carved handholds seen on a Boston-made armchair owned by Salem’s Elias Hasket Derby. McIntire also designed and built the Fiskes’ Walnut Street mansion, which was completed in 1787 and their accounts include further payments to Sanderson, McIntire and cabinetmaker William King. See Dean T. Lahikainen, Samuel McIntire: Carving an American Style (Salem, 2008), pp. 52-55.
The chairs are recorded in Mrs. Blair’s 1943 inventory in which she describes them as “Pr. Mahog. Armchairs. Carved Shields. Bird’s Head Arms. McIntyre. Salem.” She also notes that they descended in the North and West Families and that she purchased them from Willoughby Farr in 1931 for $6875.
Lahikainen also attributes the carving to Samuel McIntire (1757-1811), noting that McIntire may have emulated the eagle-carved handholds seen on a Boston-made armchair owned by Salem’s Elias Hasket Derby. McIntire also designed and built the Fiskes’ Walnut Street mansion, which was completed in 1787 and their accounts include further payments to Sanderson, McIntire and cabinetmaker William King. See Dean T. Lahikainen, Samuel McIntire: Carving an American Style (Salem, 2008), pp. 52-55.
The chairs are recorded in Mrs. Blair’s 1943 inventory in which she describes them as “Pr. Mahog. Armchairs. Carved Shields. Bird’s Head Arms. McIntyre. Salem.” She also notes that they descended in the North and West Families and that she purchased them from Willoughby Farr in 1931 for $6875.