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拍品專文
A sophisticated design with a veritable profusion of masterful carving, the back of this chair is one of the most arresting survivals of Philadelphia Rococo furniture. While the execution of the ornament illustrates highly skilled craftmanship, the deliberate placement and absence of carving reveals that this carver was also an accomplished designer. Here, the contrasting plainness of the shoe and seat rails complements and showcases the intricacy of the chair back and the knees to the greatest overall effect.
Trained in London with access to avant-garde designs, John Pollard (1740-1787) was one of pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia’s most talented carvers. Details of his background are unknown, but he may have trained under the British carver and designer, Thomas Johnson (1723-1799), as did Hercules Courtenay (c.1744-1784), a fellow carver whose life in many ways paralleled Pollard’s. Seen on this chair and that in the following lot, some of the ornament appears to have been inspired by Johnson’s 1762 design for a chimneypiece frieze; while the swirling acanthus leaves is similar to the chairs’ knee carving, the trailing bellflowers at lower left and the presence of floral, berry and leaf tendrils along the top are more specific motifs that are seen on the chairs’ crests and stiles respectively.[i] Furthermore, the leafy cluster at top center of the splat is a simplified version of a device from Johnson’s 1758 design for a ceiling (fig. 1). The same ceiling design features an array of floral tendrils akin to those on the chairs’ stiles, as well as several leafy sprays that may have been the basis for preliminary cut strokes seen on the inner surface of the rear seat rail of the chair in the preceding lot (fig. 2). For Pollard’s use of this plate on a set of chairs made for the Deshler family, see lot 503 in this sale.
The set of chairs represented by the lot offered here and that in the preceding lot illustrates Pollard’s artistry around the time he crafted some of the most important commissions of his career. The leafy clusters in the upper splat are closely related to those that adorn the renowned hairy-paw saddle-seat chairs made for John Cadwalader. Both ornaments also feature a device favored by Pollard for finishing passages of carving—two short leaves placed abutting each other and scrolling in opposite directions. It is seen under the leafy cluster on the splat of the Cadwalader chairs and at the sides of the present lot where the carving joins the strapwork of the splat (fig. 1).[ii] The cabochons on the chairs’ ears are another motif frequently used by Pollard around this time, including a circa 1770 marble-top table made for Cadwalader and related chairs, such as the set commissioned by the Deshler family in about 1769 (see lot 503).[iii] Featuring a distinctive repetition of leaves, paired flowers and single or clusters of berries, the exquisite tendrils adorning the stiles of this chair are related to other examples of Pollard’s work dating from the early 1770s. These include architectural carving for the parlor of Thomas Ringgold’s Chestertown, Maryland house, molds for the Batsto furnace in Burlington County, New Jersey and several looking glasses.[iv]
From August 1769 until 1773, Pollard was the principal carver in the shop of Benjamin Randolph (1737-1791/2) and it is very likely that the set represented by this chair was made in this shop. Pollard is first documented in Philadelphia in December 1765 when Randolph paid his rent. He worked under Randolph’s employ alongside Hercules Courtenay until the latter announced his own business on August 7, 1769. Thereafter, Pollard continued to work in the cabinetmaker’s shop until he similarly established his own business in 1773.[v] Also, the set’s first owner, John Dickinson (1732-1808) (fig. 3), is known to have patronised Randolph. Dickinson appears in the cabinetmaker’s accounts and among the Norris family papers is a receipt signed by Randolph for mahogany boards owned by Dickinson.[vi] Another detail noted by Morrison Heckscher is the distinctive raised bead projecting just below the top of the shoe that appears on chairs bearing Randolph’s label, such as those at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (acc. nos. 41.602A, B) and Yale University Art Gallery (acc. no. 1930.2495).[vii] As qualified by Heckscher, this detail alone does not prove Randolph’s involvement, but its presence on this set of chairs further supports a possible attribution.
JOHN DICKINSON: THE PENMAN OF THE REVOLUTION
The chairs offered in this lot and the preceding lot are from an original set of probably fourteen chairs made for Founding Father John Dickinson (fig. 3). Coined “the Penman of the Revolution,” Dickinson was the author of a number of texts that played a critical role in America’s struggle for independence, most notably of Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer (fig. 4). Based on designs of Thomas Chippendale, as well as those of Ince and Mayhew, the splat is particularly complex with intersecting and overlapping straps enclosing carved ornament. Interestingly, of the three other sets of chairs known with the same splat design, two were also made for Founding Fathers—Charles Thomson (1729-1784) and Arthur Middleton (1742-1787).[viii] As proposed by Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, the social ties and political affiliations of these men may have played a role in all seeking furnishings of a similar design.[ix] Adding to this argument, Pollard most likely held similar views to these patrons as in the midst of the Revolutionary War, he named his newborn son George Washington Pollard.[x]
In quantity and opulence, this set of chairs was an extraordinary commission. It was likely made around the time of Dickinson’s marriage to Mary (Polly) Norris in 1770 or in the few years following when Dickinson’s Chestnut Street house underwent extensive renovation. In addition to a highly detailed listing of the carpentry, a 1772 bill from Hercules Courtenay describes over £105 worth of architectural ornament, such as “14 ft. 2 Inches Ribbon & flower” and “19 ft. French Egg & Tongue.”[xi] As noted by Luke Beckerdite, this bill exceeds that by the same carver for Cadwalader’s house.[xii]
All but one of the chairs from this set are known today. Previously, one armchair, now at Winterthur Museum, was thought to have been first owned by Isaac Cooper, but in his discussion centered on the survivals at Stenton, Philip D. Zimmerman notes that the Winterthur example is virtually identical to the armchair at Stenton and these chairs are sequentially numbered XIII and XIIII.[xiii] Similarly, based on evidence from several examples, the side chairs display the same design details, construction practices and numbering system (with no repeats) on the chair frames and slip-seat frames. Furthermore, the roughly carved leaves on the inside of the rear rail of the previous lot are akin to similar renderings in the same location on the side chair numbered VI at Stenton. Finally, new findings on several of the chairs’ histories support their original ownership by Dickinson.
After Dickinson’s death, the chairs may have been divided between his only two surviving children, daughters Sarah Norris Dickinson (1774-1854) and Maria (Dickinson) Logan (1783-1860). As Sarah pre-deceased her sister and died unmarried, Maria inherited most of Sarah’s estate. Thus, Maria could have owned the entire set in the mid-1850s. She had married Albanus Charles Logan in 1808 and from the 1830s, the couple lived at Stenton. According to a note on one of the chairs at Stenton, they were previously at Stenton before being owned by “Mrs. Elizabeth Betton.”[xiv] She was Maria’s daughter, (Sarah) Elizbeth Logan (1812-1859), the wife of Dr. Thomas Forrest Betton (1809-1875) and as she died before her mother, the chairs had probably been gifted to her earlier. Thereafter, the chairs now at Stenton passed to Elizabeth’s sister, Maria, before leaving the family but were later re-acquired by a Logan descendant and bequeathed to Stenton. Elizabeth may have owned at least three additional side chairs, which descended to her son, Samuel Betton (1842-1915). Betton outlived his wife and two young sons and his will and subsequent codicils make numerous bequests to extended family, friends and charitable organizations, including Stenton. One of the recipients of his bequests was Phebe Warren (McKean) Downs (1874-1968). Her familial relationship, if any, to Betton is unknown. However, she was the first cousin once removed of Beauveau Borie (1846-1930), who along with his wife, Patricia Duffield Neill (1846-1940), sold this chair and another from the same set to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1928.
An alternative scenario is that the chair transferred to the McKean family in the early nineteenth century and then descended directly to Beauveau Borie. Borie’s great-grandfather, Thomas McKean (1734-1817) was a close friend of Dickinson’s; he was also a Founding Father, signer of the Declaration of Independence and later lived near Dickinson in Wilmington, Delaware. Dickinson mentioned him by name in his probate papers as a source for assisting Dickinson’s daughters with the division of their father’s estate. Thus, it is very conceivable that at least two chairs from this set were acquired by McKean at this time.[xv]
The chair in the present lot remained in the Museum’s collection until it was deaccessioned in 2011; its mate, accession no. 1928-118-2, is discussed in Kirtley’s recent catalogue, American Furniture, 1650–1840: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, 2020), pp. 113, 306, cat. 77.
Christie’s would like to thank Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, the Montgomery-Garvan Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Laura Keim, Curator, Stenton, for sharing information on the chairs in their respective institutions.
[i] For a full discussion of these craftsmen, see Luke Beckerdite, “Thomas Johnson, Hercules Courtenay, and the Dissemination of London Rococo Design,” American Furniture 2016, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2016), pp. 23-61, an illustration of Johnson’s design for a chimneypiece frieze is on p. 34, fig. 22. See also Beatrice B. Garvan, entries, Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia, 1976), pp. 111-114.
[ii] Leroy Graves and Luke Beckerdite, “New Insights on John Cadwalader’s Commode-Seat Side Chairs,” American Furniture 2000, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2000), pp. 154-160.
[iii] The marble-top table is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 18.110.27a, b. For comparative illustrations of these cabochon motifs, see Andrew Brunk, “Benjamin Randolph Revisited,” American Furniture 2007, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2007), p. 31, fig. 46 and Beckerdite 2016, p. 51, figs. 52-55.
[iv] Brunk 2007, p. 26, fig. 40; Luke Beckerdite, “Pattern Carving in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia,” American Furniture 2014, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2014), pp. 126-129, figs. 90-92. For looking glasses with similar garlands attributed to Pollard, see Christie’s, New York, Philadelphia Splendor: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Max R. Zaitz, 22 January 2016, lot 175, Freeman’s, Philadelphia, 14 November 2018, lot 104.
[v] Garvan, p. 114.
[vi] Brunk 2007, p. 49; William MacPherson Hornor, Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (Washington D.C., 1935), p. 87.
[vii] Morrison H. Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles (New York, 1985), p. 97.
[viii] For the set owned by Charles Thomson, see Christie’s, New York, 28 September 2011, lot 13; the Arthur Middleton set features fret-carved stiles and straight legs, see Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America, vol. II (New York, 1951, third edition), p. 99, fig. 570. The original ownership of a third set, with variant carving and shaped front rails, is unknown and includes chairs at Winterthur Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Heckscher 1985, pp. 97-98, cat. 52).
[ix] Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, American Furniture, 1650–1840: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, 2020), p. 113, cat. 77.
[x] Garvan, p. 114.
[xi] Nicholas B. Wainwright, Colonial Grandeur in Philadelphia: The House and Furniture of General John Cadwalader (Philadelphia, 1964), pp. 142-148.
[xii] Beckerdite 2016, p. 44.
[xiii] Philip D. Zimmerman, “Eighteenth-Century Chairs at Stenton,” The Magazine Antiques (May 2003), pp. 127-129. Recent scholarship by Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley has uncovered differences in construction and execution of some details; while these observations may possibly indicate separate sets, they could also indicate variations within a single shop. See Kirtley, pp. 113, 306.
[xiv] Zimmerman, p. 127.
[xv] Kirtley, pp. 113, 306.
Trained in London with access to avant-garde designs, John Pollard (1740-1787) was one of pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia’s most talented carvers. Details of his background are unknown, but he may have trained under the British carver and designer, Thomas Johnson (1723-1799), as did Hercules Courtenay (c.1744-1784), a fellow carver whose life in many ways paralleled Pollard’s. Seen on this chair and that in the following lot, some of the ornament appears to have been inspired by Johnson’s 1762 design for a chimneypiece frieze; while the swirling acanthus leaves is similar to the chairs’ knee carving, the trailing bellflowers at lower left and the presence of floral, berry and leaf tendrils along the top are more specific motifs that are seen on the chairs’ crests and stiles respectively.[i] Furthermore, the leafy cluster at top center of the splat is a simplified version of a device from Johnson’s 1758 design for a ceiling (fig. 1). The same ceiling design features an array of floral tendrils akin to those on the chairs’ stiles, as well as several leafy sprays that may have been the basis for preliminary cut strokes seen on the inner surface of the rear seat rail of the chair in the preceding lot (fig. 2). For Pollard’s use of this plate on a set of chairs made for the Deshler family, see lot 503 in this sale.
The set of chairs represented by the lot offered here and that in the preceding lot illustrates Pollard’s artistry around the time he crafted some of the most important commissions of his career. The leafy clusters in the upper splat are closely related to those that adorn the renowned hairy-paw saddle-seat chairs made for John Cadwalader. Both ornaments also feature a device favored by Pollard for finishing passages of carving—two short leaves placed abutting each other and scrolling in opposite directions. It is seen under the leafy cluster on the splat of the Cadwalader chairs and at the sides of the present lot where the carving joins the strapwork of the splat (fig. 1).[ii] The cabochons on the chairs’ ears are another motif frequently used by Pollard around this time, including a circa 1770 marble-top table made for Cadwalader and related chairs, such as the set commissioned by the Deshler family in about 1769 (see lot 503).[iii] Featuring a distinctive repetition of leaves, paired flowers and single or clusters of berries, the exquisite tendrils adorning the stiles of this chair are related to other examples of Pollard’s work dating from the early 1770s. These include architectural carving for the parlor of Thomas Ringgold’s Chestertown, Maryland house, molds for the Batsto furnace in Burlington County, New Jersey and several looking glasses.[iv]
From August 1769 until 1773, Pollard was the principal carver in the shop of Benjamin Randolph (1737-1791/2) and it is very likely that the set represented by this chair was made in this shop. Pollard is first documented in Philadelphia in December 1765 when Randolph paid his rent. He worked under Randolph’s employ alongside Hercules Courtenay until the latter announced his own business on August 7, 1769. Thereafter, Pollard continued to work in the cabinetmaker’s shop until he similarly established his own business in 1773.[v] Also, the set’s first owner, John Dickinson (1732-1808) (fig. 3), is known to have patronised Randolph. Dickinson appears in the cabinetmaker’s accounts and among the Norris family papers is a receipt signed by Randolph for mahogany boards owned by Dickinson.[vi] Another detail noted by Morrison Heckscher is the distinctive raised bead projecting just below the top of the shoe that appears on chairs bearing Randolph’s label, such as those at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (acc. nos. 41.602A, B) and Yale University Art Gallery (acc. no. 1930.2495).[vii] As qualified by Heckscher, this detail alone does not prove Randolph’s involvement, but its presence on this set of chairs further supports a possible attribution.
JOHN DICKINSON: THE PENMAN OF THE REVOLUTION
The chairs offered in this lot and the preceding lot are from an original set of probably fourteen chairs made for Founding Father John Dickinson (fig. 3). Coined “the Penman of the Revolution,” Dickinson was the author of a number of texts that played a critical role in America’s struggle for independence, most notably of Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer (fig. 4). Based on designs of Thomas Chippendale, as well as those of Ince and Mayhew, the splat is particularly complex with intersecting and overlapping straps enclosing carved ornament. Interestingly, of the three other sets of chairs known with the same splat design, two were also made for Founding Fathers—Charles Thomson (1729-1784) and Arthur Middleton (1742-1787).[viii] As proposed by Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, the social ties and political affiliations of these men may have played a role in all seeking furnishings of a similar design.[ix] Adding to this argument, Pollard most likely held similar views to these patrons as in the midst of the Revolutionary War, he named his newborn son George Washington Pollard.[x]
In quantity and opulence, this set of chairs was an extraordinary commission. It was likely made around the time of Dickinson’s marriage to Mary (Polly) Norris in 1770 or in the few years following when Dickinson’s Chestnut Street house underwent extensive renovation. In addition to a highly detailed listing of the carpentry, a 1772 bill from Hercules Courtenay describes over £105 worth of architectural ornament, such as “14 ft. 2 Inches Ribbon & flower” and “19 ft. French Egg & Tongue.”[xi] As noted by Luke Beckerdite, this bill exceeds that by the same carver for Cadwalader’s house.[xii]
All but one of the chairs from this set are known today. Previously, one armchair, now at Winterthur Museum, was thought to have been first owned by Isaac Cooper, but in his discussion centered on the survivals at Stenton, Philip D. Zimmerman notes that the Winterthur example is virtually identical to the armchair at Stenton and these chairs are sequentially numbered XIII and XIIII.[xiii] Similarly, based on evidence from several examples, the side chairs display the same design details, construction practices and numbering system (with no repeats) on the chair frames and slip-seat frames. Furthermore, the roughly carved leaves on the inside of the rear rail of the previous lot are akin to similar renderings in the same location on the side chair numbered VI at Stenton. Finally, new findings on several of the chairs’ histories support their original ownership by Dickinson.
After Dickinson’s death, the chairs may have been divided between his only two surviving children, daughters Sarah Norris Dickinson (1774-1854) and Maria (Dickinson) Logan (1783-1860). As Sarah pre-deceased her sister and died unmarried, Maria inherited most of Sarah’s estate. Thus, Maria could have owned the entire set in the mid-1850s. She had married Albanus Charles Logan in 1808 and from the 1830s, the couple lived at Stenton. According to a note on one of the chairs at Stenton, they were previously at Stenton before being owned by “Mrs. Elizabeth Betton.”[xiv] She was Maria’s daughter, (Sarah) Elizbeth Logan (1812-1859), the wife of Dr. Thomas Forrest Betton (1809-1875) and as she died before her mother, the chairs had probably been gifted to her earlier. Thereafter, the chairs now at Stenton passed to Elizabeth’s sister, Maria, before leaving the family but were later re-acquired by a Logan descendant and bequeathed to Stenton. Elizabeth may have owned at least three additional side chairs, which descended to her son, Samuel Betton (1842-1915). Betton outlived his wife and two young sons and his will and subsequent codicils make numerous bequests to extended family, friends and charitable organizations, including Stenton. One of the recipients of his bequests was Phebe Warren (McKean) Downs (1874-1968). Her familial relationship, if any, to Betton is unknown. However, she was the first cousin once removed of Beauveau Borie (1846-1930), who along with his wife, Patricia Duffield Neill (1846-1940), sold this chair and another from the same set to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1928.
An alternative scenario is that the chair transferred to the McKean family in the early nineteenth century and then descended directly to Beauveau Borie. Borie’s great-grandfather, Thomas McKean (1734-1817) was a close friend of Dickinson’s; he was also a Founding Father, signer of the Declaration of Independence and later lived near Dickinson in Wilmington, Delaware. Dickinson mentioned him by name in his probate papers as a source for assisting Dickinson’s daughters with the division of their father’s estate. Thus, it is very conceivable that at least two chairs from this set were acquired by McKean at this time.[xv]
The chair in the present lot remained in the Museum’s collection until it was deaccessioned in 2011; its mate, accession no. 1928-118-2, is discussed in Kirtley’s recent catalogue, American Furniture, 1650–1840: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, 2020), pp. 113, 306, cat. 77.
Christie’s would like to thank Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, the Montgomery-Garvan Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Laura Keim, Curator, Stenton, for sharing information on the chairs in their respective institutions.
[i] For a full discussion of these craftsmen, see Luke Beckerdite, “Thomas Johnson, Hercules Courtenay, and the Dissemination of London Rococo Design,” American Furniture 2016, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2016), pp. 23-61, an illustration of Johnson’s design for a chimneypiece frieze is on p. 34, fig. 22. See also Beatrice B. Garvan, entries, Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia, 1976), pp. 111-114.
[ii] Leroy Graves and Luke Beckerdite, “New Insights on John Cadwalader’s Commode-Seat Side Chairs,” American Furniture 2000, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2000), pp. 154-160.
[iii] The marble-top table is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 18.110.27a, b. For comparative illustrations of these cabochon motifs, see Andrew Brunk, “Benjamin Randolph Revisited,” American Furniture 2007, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2007), p. 31, fig. 46 and Beckerdite 2016, p. 51, figs. 52-55.
[iv] Brunk 2007, p. 26, fig. 40; Luke Beckerdite, “Pattern Carving in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia,” American Furniture 2014, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2014), pp. 126-129, figs. 90-92. For looking glasses with similar garlands attributed to Pollard, see Christie’s, New York, Philadelphia Splendor: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Max R. Zaitz, 22 January 2016, lot 175, Freeman’s, Philadelphia, 14 November 2018, lot 104.
[v] Garvan, p. 114.
[vi] Brunk 2007, p. 49; William MacPherson Hornor, Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (Washington D.C., 1935), p. 87.
[vii] Morrison H. Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles (New York, 1985), p. 97.
[viii] For the set owned by Charles Thomson, see Christie’s, New York, 28 September 2011, lot 13; the Arthur Middleton set features fret-carved stiles and straight legs, see Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America, vol. II (New York, 1951, third edition), p. 99, fig. 570. The original ownership of a third set, with variant carving and shaped front rails, is unknown and includes chairs at Winterthur Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Heckscher 1985, pp. 97-98, cat. 52).
[ix] Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, American Furniture, 1650–1840: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, 2020), p. 113, cat. 77.
[x] Garvan, p. 114.
[xi] Nicholas B. Wainwright, Colonial Grandeur in Philadelphia: The House and Furniture of General John Cadwalader (Philadelphia, 1964), pp. 142-148.
[xii] Beckerdite 2016, p. 44.
[xiii] Philip D. Zimmerman, “Eighteenth-Century Chairs at Stenton,” The Magazine Antiques (May 2003), pp. 127-129. Recent scholarship by Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley has uncovered differences in construction and execution of some details; while these observations may possibly indicate separate sets, they could also indicate variations within a single shop. See Kirtley, pp. 113, 306.
[xiv] Zimmerman, p. 127.
[xv] Kirtley, pp. 113, 306.