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Lot Essay
Robustly carved with tassels, elaborate rocaille-like shells and deeply pronounced ear volutes, this pair of chairs is a striking survival from mid-eighteenth century Philadelphia. With broad splats and generous proportions, chairs similar to these have in the past been considered “provincial” and ascribed to late eighteenth-century Chester County, Pennsylvania or Maryland. However, as indicated by their refined workmanship and family histories, these chairs are the products of urban craftsmen working in the emerging Chippendale style. The chairs offered here are two from an original set of at least ten of which five are known today. These comprise the pair in the current lot (marked III and X), the pair in the following lot (marked VI and VIII) and a single example at Winterthur Museum (marked VII) (fig. 1). Two were advertised by Israel Sack in 1953 and may represent the chairs in this lot or another pair from the same set (Israel Sack, Inc., advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (December 1953), p. 425). Closely related examples include two armchairs, which appear to be identical to each other, in the collections of the US Department of State and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; both feature most of the same design elements seen on the set represented by the pair offered here, but they differ in their knee carving, which does not overlap the seat rails. As noted by Morrison Heckscher, the carving of the crest of the MMA chair appears to be by the same hand that carved the Winterthur side chair (Morrison H. Heckscher, American Furniture: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles (New York, 1985), pp. 108-109, cat. 61; Clement E. Conger and A. W. Rollins, Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State (New York, 1991), p. 96, cat. 15). Furthermore, the execution of the acanthus carving on the knees, with similarly positioned double gouged relief marks and the webbing and high knuckles of the feet, strongly supports the likelihood that the armchairs and these side chairs were made in the same shop or at least embellished by the same carver.
Bien venu en Amerique
-George Washington to Jacques Marie Rosét, circa 1792
With two separate associations to the Rosét family of Philadelphia, this set of chairs may have been owned in the early nineteenth century by French émigré Jacques Marie Rosét (Jacob Rozet) (1764-1850). The pair advertised in 1953 (which may be the pair offered here) were noted by Israel Sack, Inc. to have been “purchased from a descendant of John Rozet, a Frenchman and friend of Lafayette.” The reference to “John” may be a misunderstanding of the Anglicization of the émigré’s name or mistakenly a reference to his son, John Rozet (1794-1870). In addition, one of the chairs in the following lot was noted to have been owned by “Dr. Livingston Ludlow” before being given to his nephew, George W. Childs Drexel (1868-1944). Dr. Ludlow was John Livingston Ludlow (1819-1888), and the husband of Mary Ann Laning Rozet (1824-1885), a granddaughter of the émigré. Her sister, Ellen Bicking Rozet (1829-1891) married Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826-1893), the founder of the banking firm Drexel, Morgan and Co. (later J.P. Morgan) and Drexel University and their son-in-law, Edward Biddle (1851-1933), provided the following information regarding Rosét: He was born in Lyons, France and moved in 1777 to Austria where he was educated in the Imperial Academy. Like Lafayette, he was a great admirer of George Washington’s character and immigrated to Philadelphia in 1792. Soon after his arrival, he and some fellow countrymen ran into Washington on Chestnut Street and, acknowledging the debt of France’s assistance during the Revolutionary War, the American President shook Rosét’s hand and wished him “Bien venu en Amerique,” an anecdote fondly and frequently recounted by Rosét. He worked in the Foreign Department of the General Post Office and later became a successful merchant. In 1793, he married Elizabeth Stubert, who hailed from Austria, and the couple lived in a townhouse on the northeast corner of 7th and Arch Streets, later moved to Richmond Hill and finally, in 1821, settled on Manheim Road in Germantown (fig. 3) (recounted in Townsend Ward, “The Germantown Road and its Associations, Part Fifth,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. VI, no. 1 (1882), pp. 7-9; the encounter between Washington and Rosét was published as early as 1844 by Rosét’s friend, John Fanning Watson in his Annals of Philadelphia, vol. II (1844), p. 63).
Israel Sack, Inc. also notes that according to family tradition, the chairs advertised in 1953 were a gift from George Washington to Rosét. While this cannot be substantiated, Rosét’s admiration of Washington and his proximity to Washington’s Philadelphia-area residences indicate he had the inclination and opportunity to acquire furnishings from houses occupied by the first President. Rosét’s townhouse at 7th and Arch (then Mulberry) Streets was less than two blocks from the Presidential Mansion (the Morris House) on Market, just west of 5th Street and Rosét’s house in Germantown (Manheim and Portico Streets) was about five blocks from the Deshler-Morris House, aka “the Germantown White House,” the residence of the First Family during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic. As the chairs were made well before Washington’s time in Philadelphia, they would not have been commissioned by him but could have been among the furnishings of one of these houses. Interestingly, a closely related side chair that appears to differ only in the presence of an applied shell on the front rail, variant rear legs and use of cherrywood rather than walnut, bears a plaque noting its ownership by Washington (fig. 2) (Israel Sack, Inc., advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (February 1960), inside front cover). Thus, associated with Washington by two different sources in the mid-twentieth century, chairs of this design may very well have used by him during his years in Philadelphia.
Bien venu en Amerique
-George Washington to Jacques Marie Rosét, circa 1792
With two separate associations to the Rosét family of Philadelphia, this set of chairs may have been owned in the early nineteenth century by French émigré Jacques Marie Rosét (Jacob Rozet) (1764-1850). The pair advertised in 1953 (which may be the pair offered here) were noted by Israel Sack, Inc. to have been “purchased from a descendant of John Rozet, a Frenchman and friend of Lafayette.” The reference to “John” may be a misunderstanding of the Anglicization of the émigré’s name or mistakenly a reference to his son, John Rozet (1794-1870). In addition, one of the chairs in the following lot was noted to have been owned by “Dr. Livingston Ludlow” before being given to his nephew, George W. Childs Drexel (1868-1944). Dr. Ludlow was John Livingston Ludlow (1819-1888), and the husband of Mary Ann Laning Rozet (1824-1885), a granddaughter of the émigré. Her sister, Ellen Bicking Rozet (1829-1891) married Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826-1893), the founder of the banking firm Drexel, Morgan and Co. (later J.P. Morgan) and Drexel University and their son-in-law, Edward Biddle (1851-1933), provided the following information regarding Rosét: He was born in Lyons, France and moved in 1777 to Austria where he was educated in the Imperial Academy. Like Lafayette, he was a great admirer of George Washington’s character and immigrated to Philadelphia in 1792. Soon after his arrival, he and some fellow countrymen ran into Washington on Chestnut Street and, acknowledging the debt of France’s assistance during the Revolutionary War, the American President shook Rosét’s hand and wished him “Bien venu en Amerique,” an anecdote fondly and frequently recounted by Rosét. He worked in the Foreign Department of the General Post Office and later became a successful merchant. In 1793, he married Elizabeth Stubert, who hailed from Austria, and the couple lived in a townhouse on the northeast corner of 7th and Arch Streets, later moved to Richmond Hill and finally, in 1821, settled on Manheim Road in Germantown (fig. 3) (recounted in Townsend Ward, “The Germantown Road and its Associations, Part Fifth,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. VI, no. 1 (1882), pp. 7-9; the encounter between Washington and Rosét was published as early as 1844 by Rosét’s friend, John Fanning Watson in his Annals of Philadelphia, vol. II (1844), p. 63).
Israel Sack, Inc. also notes that according to family tradition, the chairs advertised in 1953 were a gift from George Washington to Rosét. While this cannot be substantiated, Rosét’s admiration of Washington and his proximity to Washington’s Philadelphia-area residences indicate he had the inclination and opportunity to acquire furnishings from houses occupied by the first President. Rosét’s townhouse at 7th and Arch (then Mulberry) Streets was less than two blocks from the Presidential Mansion (the Morris House) on Market, just west of 5th Street and Rosét’s house in Germantown (Manheim and Portico Streets) was about five blocks from the Deshler-Morris House, aka “the Germantown White House,” the residence of the First Family during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic. As the chairs were made well before Washington’s time in Philadelphia, they would not have been commissioned by him but could have been among the furnishings of one of these houses. Interestingly, a closely related side chair that appears to differ only in the presence of an applied shell on the front rail, variant rear legs and use of cherrywood rather than walnut, bears a plaque noting its ownership by Washington (fig. 2) (Israel Sack, Inc., advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (February 1960), inside front cover). Thus, associated with Washington by two different sources in the mid-twentieth century, chairs of this design may very well have used by him during his years in Philadelphia.