Lot Essay
With its fully carved gothic-splat, squared serpentine arms, double- volute carved arm supports, and overall broad proportions, this chair exemplifies the English-inspired rococo furniture of eighteenth-century Portsmouth.
Chairs with squared serpentine arms and double-volute carved arm supports have been associated with the cabinetmaker Joseph Short of Newburyport, Massachusetts based on a labeled lolling chair with similar arm supports sold at Skinner's Boston, June 12, 1994, lot 154. Nevertheless, the discovery of the signature "Hon. Geo G Brewster Portsmouth NH 1832" on a chair with similar arms and arm supports at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, has reattributed this feature to Portsmouth (see Brock Jobe, Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast (Hanover, New Hampshire, 1993) p. 325).
The design of the splat further supports its attribution to Portsmouth. The design is thought to have possibly been introduced by Robert Harrold, the English-born Portsmouth cabinetmaker, when he immigrated to America. The design, popular in London at the time, appears in Harrold's work but does not appear in contemporary pattern books. A chair attributed to Harrold with a closely related splat of the chair offered here is in the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (illustrated in Jobe, p. 322, no. 87). The survival of other chairs with similar splats and Portsmouth provenances, indicate that the design became popular with other local makers aside from Harrold (see Jobe, p.324, note 3 for a list of comparables).
Chairs with squared serpentine arms and double-volute carved arm supports have been associated with the cabinetmaker Joseph Short of Newburyport, Massachusetts based on a labeled lolling chair with similar arm supports sold at Skinner's Boston, June 12, 1994, lot 154. Nevertheless, the discovery of the signature "Hon. Geo G Brewster Portsmouth NH 1832" on a chair with similar arms and arm supports at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, has reattributed this feature to Portsmouth (see Brock Jobe, Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast (Hanover, New Hampshire, 1993) p. 325).
The design of the splat further supports its attribution to Portsmouth. The design is thought to have possibly been introduced by Robert Harrold, the English-born Portsmouth cabinetmaker, when he immigrated to America. The design, popular in London at the time, appears in Harrold's work but does not appear in contemporary pattern books. A chair attributed to Harrold with a closely related splat of the chair offered here is in the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (illustrated in Jobe, p. 322, no. 87). The survival of other chairs with similar splats and Portsmouth provenances, indicate that the design became popular with other local makers aside from Harrold (see Jobe, p.324, note 3 for a list of comparables).