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拍品專文
Identical in design to several chairs with a history of ownership at Graeme Park, this side chair is most likely part of a set made for Dr. Thomas Graeme (1688-1772) after he purchased and remodelled the estate in 1739. Chairs from the same set have been recorded as follows: Christie’s, New York, ? September 2013, lot ?, Colonial Williamsburg (acc. no. 1957-106,A), David Stockwell, advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (September 1956), p. 173, Wechsler's Auction House, Washington D.C., 17 January 1998, lot 185. Another closely related set with slightly different shell carving is represented by a chair at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 25.115.9).
Originally called Fountain Low and probably constructed for utilitarian purposes, Graeme Park was built in 1722 for Lieutenant-Governor Sir William Keith (1669-1749) on his 1,735 acre estate about twenty five miles north of Philadelphia. Graeme had accompanied Keith to Philadelphia in 1717 and two years later married Keith's step-daughter, Ann Diggs (d. 1765). Keith returned to England in 1728 and after purchasing the house, Graeme re-named the estate and began its transformation into a Georgian summer mansion by re-planting the gardens and retrofitting the house with interior panelling. Graeme bequeathed the estate to his daughter, Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson (1737-1801), a respected poet and scholar who hosted America's first salon, attended by Philadelphia's leading intellectual figures such as Dr. Benjamin Rush and Francis Hopkinson. Based upon the provenance of other chairs from the same set, it appears that the set remained intact through the late nineteenth century and was owned by successive proprietors of Graeme Park.
Originally called Fountain Low and probably constructed for utilitarian purposes, Graeme Park was built in 1722 for Lieutenant-Governor Sir William Keith (1669-1749) on his 1,735 acre estate about twenty five miles north of Philadelphia. Graeme had accompanied Keith to Philadelphia in 1717 and two years later married Keith's step-daughter, Ann Diggs (d. 1765). Keith returned to England in 1728 and after purchasing the house, Graeme re-named the estate and began its transformation into a Georgian summer mansion by re-planting the gardens and retrofitting the house with interior panelling. Graeme bequeathed the estate to his daughter, Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson (1737-1801), a respected poet and scholar who hosted America's first salon, attended by Philadelphia's leading intellectual figures such as Dr. Benjamin Rush and Francis Hopkinson. Based upon the provenance of other chairs from the same set, it appears that the set remained intact through the late nineteenth century and was owned by successive proprietors of Graeme Park.