Lot Essay
The crisply articulated carved feet, well-defined carved shell with scrolled lower border, pierced volute splate and the broad proportions are features that identify this pair of chairs with Rhode Island and the shop of John Goddard (1724-1785). Apprenticed to Job Townsend and husband of Townsend's daughter, Hannah, John Goddard was deeply rooted in the craft and kinship ties of Rhode Island furniture traditions. The earliest furniture associated with his shop dates to 1745 and he continued to produce desks, tables, case pieces and chairs until the 1780s (Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport (New Jersey, 1984), pp. 195-200).
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Goddard's work is the robust manner in which he carved ball-and-claw feet. As on these chairs, in typical Goddard fashion the balls are proportionally wider than they are tall (in contrast to the work of John Townsend), the knuckles are delineated but not in a bulbous manner, the rear digit meets the ankle in a distinctive rounded joint, the talons are slender and tall, and there is a flattened region between the tendons of the ankle where they meet the foot (Moses, pp. 210-11). Furniture made by Goddard which share the same foot design include a tea table made for Jabez Bowen in 1763 and now in the collection of Winterthur Museum (Moses, plate 7, fig. 4.4) a drop-leaf dining table in a private collection which John Goddard sold to James Atkinson 1774 (Moses, fig. 4.6), and a corner chair with a history of ownership in the Brown family of Providence (Moses, fig. 5.25).
This pair of chairs was originally part of set of at least eight. Related to other Newport chairs with a pierced and scrolled splat design, this pair differs from similar examples in that the downward curling scrolls are carved rather than simply cut to form. This splat treatment relates to Newport and Providence 'pretzel back' splats that are designed with double, rather than single scrolled volutes in which the bottom two scrolls are carved like this pair and top scrolls continue to sweep up to form the crest and rounded shoulders (see Carpenter, The Arts & Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island (Newport, 1954) no. 14 for a chair that descended in the family General James of Providence; Downs, American Furniture: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (New York, 1952) for a chair from the Bangs family of Newport; Goddard designed the John Brown corner chair with this pattern as well). Goddard's partial integration of the carved splat into this pair of chairs may indicate a specific date of execution or simply a single commission in which the client chose an adaptation from chairs with carved double scrolled splats; regardless, it is a detail which adds dimension and gusto to the design.
Similar chairs associated with the shop of John Goddard include a set of six chairs from the Collection of Walter B. Guy, sold in these Rooms, January 18, 1992, lot 426; see Moses, fig. 1.49, this chair also has chamfered rear legs like this pair; Hipkiss, The Magazine and M. Karolik Collection (Boston, 1941), fig. 80; The Magazine Antiques (May 1971): 661; Nutting, Furniture Treasury (New York, 1954), fig. 2155; Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone (Wisconsin, 1984), fig. 52; and for related chairs with square seats and carved knees, see Heckscher, American Furniture (New York, 1985), no. 9; Moses, Plate 21.
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Goddard's work is the robust manner in which he carved ball-and-claw feet. As on these chairs, in typical Goddard fashion the balls are proportionally wider than they are tall (in contrast to the work of John Townsend), the knuckles are delineated but not in a bulbous manner, the rear digit meets the ankle in a distinctive rounded joint, the talons are slender and tall, and there is a flattened region between the tendons of the ankle where they meet the foot (Moses, pp. 210-11). Furniture made by Goddard which share the same foot design include a tea table made for Jabez Bowen in 1763 and now in the collection of Winterthur Museum (Moses, plate 7, fig. 4.4) a drop-leaf dining table in a private collection which John Goddard sold to James Atkinson 1774 (Moses, fig. 4.6), and a corner chair with a history of ownership in the Brown family of Providence (Moses, fig. 5.25).
This pair of chairs was originally part of set of at least eight. Related to other Newport chairs with a pierced and scrolled splat design, this pair differs from similar examples in that the downward curling scrolls are carved rather than simply cut to form. This splat treatment relates to Newport and Providence 'pretzel back' splats that are designed with double, rather than single scrolled volutes in which the bottom two scrolls are carved like this pair and top scrolls continue to sweep up to form the crest and rounded shoulders (see Carpenter, The Arts & Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island (Newport, 1954) no. 14 for a chair that descended in the family General James of Providence; Downs, American Furniture: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (New York, 1952) for a chair from the Bangs family of Newport; Goddard designed the John Brown corner chair with this pattern as well). Goddard's partial integration of the carved splat into this pair of chairs may indicate a specific date of execution or simply a single commission in which the client chose an adaptation from chairs with carved double scrolled splats; regardless, it is a detail which adds dimension and gusto to the design.
Similar chairs associated with the shop of John Goddard include a set of six chairs from the Collection of Walter B. Guy, sold in these Rooms, January 18, 1992, lot 426; see Moses, fig. 1.49, this chair also has chamfered rear legs like this pair; Hipkiss, The Magazine and M. Karolik Collection (Boston, 1941), fig. 80; The Magazine Antiques (May 1971): 661; Nutting, Furniture Treasury (New York, 1954), fig. 2155; Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone (Wisconsin, 1984), fig. 52; and for related chairs with square seats and carved knees, see Heckscher, American Furniture (New York, 1985), no. 9; Moses, Plate 21.