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Lot Essay
A masterpiece of an iconic form, this easy chair displays the dramatic curvilinear design embraced and so successfully rendered by Philadelphia’s mid-eighteenth century chair makers. The double outscrolling arms and rear legs with a pronounced rake are hallmarks of easy chairs made in the city while the stylistically early panelled feet suggest it was made prior to 1750. Surviving in remarkable condition with its original framework intact, this chair is an exceedingly rare form from 1740s Philadelphia.
Composed of three raised panels, each with a rounded top, and a circular foot with faceted profile, the feet are distinctive and closely related examples feature on other forms from this early period. These include a corner chair and dressing table attributed by William MacPherson Hornor to Joseph Armitt (d. 1747) as they descended in the cabinetmaker's family with a history of his authorship (fig. 2; William MacPherson Hornor, Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (Washington DC, 1935), caption to pl. 71 and p. 200; for a closely related corner chair, see Morrison H. Heckscher, American Furniture: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles (New York, 1985), pp. 87-89, cat. 43). A stool that descended along a different branch of the same family bears closely related feet, supporting the case that Armitt’s shop produced furniture with this foot design (figs. 1, 3; Christie’s, New York, 22 January 2010, lot 346; for its probable mate, see Sotheby’s, New York, Property of Rear Admiral Edward P. Moore and Barbara Bingham Moore, 26 September 2008, lot 117). The same foot design is seen on dressing tables with carving attributed to Samuel Harding (d. 1758); he may have also executed the feet on these forms or they may have been the work of a journeyman in the cabinet shop (see Luke Beckerdite, “An Identity Crisis: Philadelphia and Baltimore Furniture Styles of the Mid Eighteenth Century,” Shaping a National Culture: The Philadelphia Experience, 1750-1800, Catherine Hutchins, ed. (Winterthur, 1994), p. 256, fig. 11; James E. Mooney, “Furniture at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,” The Magazine Antiques (May 1978), p. 1041, fig. 12; see also Alan Miller, “Flux in Design and Method in Early Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia Furniture,” American Furniture 2014, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2014), p. 77, fig. 66; Christie’s, New York, 24 January 2014, lot 128).
This easy chair was part of the renowned collection of May and Howard Joynt of Alexandria, Virginia. In 1936, the couple moved into the 1785 Benjamin Dulany house and began furnishing their new home with early American furniture and decorative arts. For more than fifty years the couple were active collectors and acquired masterpieces such as a pair of scroll-foot side chairs from Philadelphia with carving now attributed to Martin Jugiez. In 1990, their collection sold at Christie’s for $3.93 million, a record at that time for the auction house for any single-owner collection of American furniture (Rita Reif, “Auctions,” The New York Times, 12 January 1990, accessed online).
Composed of three raised panels, each with a rounded top, and a circular foot with faceted profile, the feet are distinctive and closely related examples feature on other forms from this early period. These include a corner chair and dressing table attributed by William MacPherson Hornor to Joseph Armitt (d. 1747) as they descended in the cabinetmaker's family with a history of his authorship (fig. 2; William MacPherson Hornor, Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (Washington DC, 1935), caption to pl. 71 and p. 200; for a closely related corner chair, see Morrison H. Heckscher, American Furniture: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles (New York, 1985), pp. 87-89, cat. 43). A stool that descended along a different branch of the same family bears closely related feet, supporting the case that Armitt’s shop produced furniture with this foot design (figs. 1, 3; Christie’s, New York, 22 January 2010, lot 346; for its probable mate, see Sotheby’s, New York, Property of Rear Admiral Edward P. Moore and Barbara Bingham Moore, 26 September 2008, lot 117). The same foot design is seen on dressing tables with carving attributed to Samuel Harding (d. 1758); he may have also executed the feet on these forms or they may have been the work of a journeyman in the cabinet shop (see Luke Beckerdite, “An Identity Crisis: Philadelphia and Baltimore Furniture Styles of the Mid Eighteenth Century,” Shaping a National Culture: The Philadelphia Experience, 1750-1800, Catherine Hutchins, ed. (Winterthur, 1994), p. 256, fig. 11; James E. Mooney, “Furniture at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,” The Magazine Antiques (May 1978), p. 1041, fig. 12; see also Alan Miller, “Flux in Design and Method in Early Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia Furniture,” American Furniture 2014, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2014), p. 77, fig. 66; Christie’s, New York, 24 January 2014, lot 128).
This easy chair was part of the renowned collection of May and Howard Joynt of Alexandria, Virginia. In 1936, the couple moved into the 1785 Benjamin Dulany house and began furnishing their new home with early American furniture and decorative arts. For more than fifty years the couple were active collectors and acquired masterpieces such as a pair of scroll-foot side chairs from Philadelphia with carving now attributed to Martin Jugiez. In 1990, their collection sold at Christie’s for $3.93 million, a record at that time for the auction house for any single-owner collection of American furniture (Rita Reif, “Auctions,” The New York Times, 12 January 1990, accessed online).