ENGLISH, CIRCA 1798

According to family tradition, this intricately carved fireplace is said to have been from the home of Gouverneur Morris a signer of the Constitution who started his career as a lawyer. Morris also served on the New York Provincial Congress and the Continental Congress, was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and United States minister to France and was elected United States Senator. In 1788, after serving as a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Morris purchased his New York estate Morrisania. The house was renovated in 1798 and this was likely when the subject fireplace surround was installed. The central frieze of the fireplace surround has a relief depicting Aegis of Pallas Athena, the peacemaker, in the center. On either side of her is Mother England and a Native American binding up the instruments of war (Tom Armstrong, Amy Coes, Ella Foshay, and Wendell Garrett, An American Odyssey: The Warner Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts (New York, 2001), p. 173, 188).