Lot Essay
The set is a rare survival of a group of eight scroll-back sidechairs that are identical, except for the carved lozenge in the banisters, to a set of ten chairs by Duncan Phyfe made for $15 each and delivered on November 21, 1807 to New York merchant William Bayard for his home at 6 State Street (Montgomery, American Furniture (New York, 1966), fig. 66).
The design of these chairs, with scrolled back and carved crest, crossed banisters and sabre reeded legs was one of the more popular chair forms produced in the early nineteenth century by Phyfe and his competitors. The double crossed banisters of these chairs, however, are more unusual and more costly that the standard single crossed banister seen on the majority of chairs of this form. The design for scroll-back chairs with crossed banisters was available to New York City cabinetmakers by 1802 with the publication of the London Chairmakers' and Carvers' Book of Prices. The illustrationn (Plate 2, fig. 1) for the crossed banisters is shown above, and the scrolled stiles, or back legs, are illustrated in Plate 5, No. 14, not shown here but described below in conjunction with other details:
"Framing a square chair (for stuffing over), with scroll upper
end back legs"
"Banisters...Framing"
"If a banister be jointed against the back legs at the corners"
"Grecian [swept] front legs"
The carved reeding that embellishes the chairs was an extra expense, with each additional reed charged seperately. Each reed on a "sweep'd front leg" was one and a half pence; the cost of reeding "back legs upper ends" was five pence per leg.
By 1810, the New York Revised Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair-work, had elaborated on the form as follows:
"A Scroll Back Chair"
with Straight rails for stuffing over, one cross banister
in the back
Each exra cross banister
Springing the front legs one way, each leg"
Although patterns were not widely available until the first decade of the nineteenth century, the first chairs of this form with scroll-backs, crossed banisters and sabre legs were made by the French ébeniste Georges Jacob after designs by Hurbert Robert in 1787 for Marie Antoinette's dairy at the Chateau de Rambouillet; the set of furniture was named "The Etruscan Suite" after the classical sources they were based upon. In 1797, a similar chair was illustrated in the Tableau General du Gout and by 1799, Pierre de La Mésangère also published a chair with scroll-back and sabre legs (see Woodside, "French Influences on American Furniture" Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1986, pp. 37, 77).
The design of these chairs, with scrolled back and carved crest, crossed banisters and sabre reeded legs was one of the more popular chair forms produced in the early nineteenth century by Phyfe and his competitors. The double crossed banisters of these chairs, however, are more unusual and more costly that the standard single crossed banister seen on the majority of chairs of this form. The design for scroll-back chairs with crossed banisters was available to New York City cabinetmakers by 1802 with the publication of the London Chairmakers' and Carvers' Book of Prices. The illustrationn (Plate 2, fig. 1) for the crossed banisters is shown above, and the scrolled stiles, or back legs, are illustrated in Plate 5, No. 14, not shown here but described below in conjunction with other details:
"Framing a square chair (for stuffing over), with scroll upper
end back legs"
"Banisters...Framing"
"If a banister be jointed against the back legs at the corners"
"Grecian [swept] front legs"
The carved reeding that embellishes the chairs was an extra expense, with each additional reed charged seperately. Each reed on a "sweep'd front leg" was one and a half pence; the cost of reeding "back legs upper ends" was five pence per leg.
By 1810, the New York Revised Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair-work, had elaborated on the form as follows:
"A Scroll Back Chair"
with Straight rails for stuffing over, one cross banister
in the back
Each exra cross banister
Springing the front legs one way, each leg"
Although patterns were not widely available until the first decade of the nineteenth century, the first chairs of this form with scroll-backs, crossed banisters and sabre legs were made by the French ébeniste Georges Jacob after designs by Hurbert Robert in 1787 for Marie Antoinette's dairy at the Chateau de Rambouillet; the set of furniture was named "The Etruscan Suite" after the classical sources they were based upon. In 1797, a similar chair was illustrated in the Tableau General du Gout and by 1799, Pierre de La Mésangère also published a chair with scroll-back and sabre legs (see Woodside, "French Influences on American Furniture" Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1986, pp. 37, 77).