PHILADELPHIA, 1750-1770

Retaining an old dry surface preserving the walnut’s rich warm color, this finely carved open armchair was sold in a small, regional auction in 1984 on the lawn of the house, known as Spring Hill Farm, in Vincentown, New Jersey where it had remained for more than a hundred years. The home was built by George Stretch Eayre (1835-1921), a Vincentown native who moved West as a young man. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was enlisted in the First Colorado Cavalry, eventually rising to the rank of captain. After the war, Eayre returned to New Jersey, becoming a farmer. A descendant of Thomas Stretch (1697-1765), first Governor of the Colony in Schuykill, as well as Quaker merchant Samuel Howell (1723-1807), Capt. Eayre married in 1866 Marie Burr Bryan, a great-great-granddaughter of Col. Timothy Matlack (1736-1829), nicknamed the ‘Fighting Quaker’ and the scribe of the Declaration of Independence (Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, vol. I (New York, 1910), p. 236). It is possible that this armchair was originally made for the Howell or Matlack families.

A closely related chair previously in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Blum was sold, Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 15 August 2015, lot 669.