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Lot Essay
This settee once formed part of a larger suite which included at least eight side chairs. The settee and these eight chairs were formerly in the collection of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss. The Blisses purchased their home Dumbarton Oaks (then called The Oaks) in 1920 at which time they embarked on a full renovation of the interiors and exterior between 1921 and 1923. The suite appears in photographs of the First Floor Gallery (one view reproduced here) taken by the photography studio of Lewis P. Woltz, Washington, D.C. sometime between 1933-1939. Certainly, the suite had entered the collection by 1938, at which time it is recorded in an inventory listing. The chairs from the suite were sold, the Property of a Gentleman, Christie's London, 20 November 1986, lot 153 (£104,500). The chairs were purchased by Mallett & Son, London and are illustrated in L.Synge, Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p.48, fig.39.
Mr. Bliss served in the Diplomatic Corps, receiving posts in Europe and South America, and it was mainly on the occasion of his diplomatic postings that the Blisses acquired their collections. However, there is no record as to the purchase of these pieces which may indicate that the suite may have come from Mrs. Bliss's mother's estate, Casa Dorinda in Montecito, California in 1935. In 1940, Dumbarton Oaks, its collections and gardens were gifted by the Blisses to Harvard University at which time many of the household furnishings were sold, and many of these pieces were put on consignment with French & Company in New York. This settee was acquired by the Davises from French & Company in 1968.
The general form of the back with its foliate-scrolls and horizontal joins features on a chair illustrated on a 1740s trade-card of Landall and Gordon (reproduced in A. Heal, The London Furniture Makers, p.93). This type of splat was found on chairs that Cescinsky referred to as 'Hogarth'. A chair with a similar splat from the collection of Sir John Ramsden is illustrated in R. Edwards, ed., The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1974, p.137, fig.80. Another is illustrated in H. Cescinsky, English Furniture from Gothic to Sheraton, New York, 1937, p.164.
See front cover for detail of back.
We would like to express our thanks to James Carder at Dumbarton Oaks for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Mr. Bliss served in the Diplomatic Corps, receiving posts in Europe and South America, and it was mainly on the occasion of his diplomatic postings that the Blisses acquired their collections. However, there is no record as to the purchase of these pieces which may indicate that the suite may have come from Mrs. Bliss's mother's estate, Casa Dorinda in Montecito, California in 1935. In 1940, Dumbarton Oaks, its collections and gardens were gifted by the Blisses to Harvard University at which time many of the household furnishings were sold, and many of these pieces were put on consignment with French & Company in New York. This settee was acquired by the Davises from French & Company in 1968.
The general form of the back with its foliate-scrolls and horizontal joins features on a chair illustrated on a 1740s trade-card of Landall and Gordon (reproduced in A. Heal, The London Furniture Makers, p.93). This type of splat was found on chairs that Cescinsky referred to as 'Hogarth'. A chair with a similar splat from the collection of Sir John Ramsden is illustrated in R. Edwards, ed., The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1974, p.137, fig.80. Another is illustrated in H. Cescinsky, English Furniture from Gothic to Sheraton, New York, 1937, p.164.
See front cover for detail of back.
We would like to express our thanks to James Carder at Dumbarton Oaks for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.