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Lot Essay
With its rich brown surface and exquisitely carved back, this armchair is a superb example of American Neoclassicism attributed to master Salem designer and carver Samuel McIntire (1757-1811). One of eight, and the last remaining in private hands, this chair was part of the furnishings of the east parlor in the home of Jerathamiel Peirce (1747-1827), a successful leatherworker turned merchant and part-owner of the merchant ship Friendship. Peirce had built the stately Georgian three-story home at 80 Federal Street in 1782 based on plans provided by a young McIntire at the start of his career. The eastern side of the house remained unfinished until 1801 when the occasion of his daughter Sarah’s (1804-1879) marriage to Captain George Nichols (1778-1865) spurred the renovation in the more stylish Federal fashion. For the unified design of the interior of the east parlor, McIntire relied heavily on the English Neoclassical pattern books of Thomas Sheraton and George Hepplewhite. As Dean Lahikainen notes, it appears that McIntire was particularly inspired by a schematic plan for a drawing room published in Sheraton’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book featuring a large suite of matching furniture corresponding with the surrounding architectural elements. For the east parlor, Peirce and McIntire placed eight identical armchairs against the east and west walls, with two small sofas on either side of the fireplace on the north wall and four benches to be set into the recesses of the windows.
The chairs, made by an as yet unidentified cabinetmaker and carved by McIntire, are faithful reproductions of plate 33 for “Parlour Chairs” in Sheraton’s Drawing-Book, and are the only known American examples of this pattern. The crest rail is profusely stippled with a snowflake punch and punctuated with four panels of triglyphs, which align with the similarly decorated chair rail of the parlor. The two back slats are carved with graduated bellflowers topped with McIntire’s signature bow motif that adorn his later chairs, such as the set made for Elias Hasket Derby, circa 1790-1798.
Of the set of eight chairs, the other seven are in museum collections, comprising three at the Peabody Essex Museum that are displayed in the Peirce-Nichols house, one at Winterthur Museum, two in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Gift of George Horace Lorimer, acc. no. 1929-157-1a & b) and one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 45.105) (for more see Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period (New York, 1966), p. 82, cat. no. 23). According to tradition, the present lot descended in the family of George Nichols, Jr. (1809-1882), the eldest son of Sarah (Peirce) and George Nichols, who married Susan Farley (Treadwell) (1810-1892) in Salem in 1834.
The chairs, made by an as yet unidentified cabinetmaker and carved by McIntire, are faithful reproductions of plate 33 for “Parlour Chairs” in Sheraton’s Drawing-Book, and are the only known American examples of this pattern. The crest rail is profusely stippled with a snowflake punch and punctuated with four panels of triglyphs, which align with the similarly decorated chair rail of the parlor. The two back slats are carved with graduated bellflowers topped with McIntire’s signature bow motif that adorn his later chairs, such as the set made for Elias Hasket Derby, circa 1790-1798.
Of the set of eight chairs, the other seven are in museum collections, comprising three at the Peabody Essex Museum that are displayed in the Peirce-Nichols house, one at Winterthur Museum, two in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Gift of George Horace Lorimer, acc. no. 1929-157-1a & b) and one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 45.105) (for more see Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period (New York, 1966), p. 82, cat. no. 23). According to tradition, the present lot descended in the family of George Nichols, Jr. (1809-1882), the eldest son of Sarah (Peirce) and George Nichols, who married Susan Farley (Treadwell) (1810-1892) in Salem in 1834.