Chippendale Carved Mahogany Open Armchair

Object Details

Object Essay

Once part of a large set, this armchair is a handsome example of New York Chippendale-style design. Typical of New York furniture, it combines elements of the English George II and Chippendale styles. Cabriole legs with claw-and-ball feet, shell carving on the knees and crest rail, and eagle’s-head arms are standard features of George II furniture; trapezoidal seats, pierced splats, and serpentine crest rails with ears are identified with the Chippendale style. English chairs exist with very similar patterns.^{1_{Advertisement, Antiques 97, no. 5 (May 1970): 692.}}

The Collection’s armchair so closely matches an armchair in the Los Angeles County Museum that they may be considered part of the same set, rather than from two identical sets. The original owner of the armchair at the Los Angeles County Museum (and by extension the Collection’s chair) was Colonel Thomas Ellison (1701–1779) of New Windsor, New York, or his son, Thomas (1732–1796), a merchant in New York City. The Ellison family ran an extensive and successful trading business. 

At least two additional sets exist with the same splat design. An armchair and possibly a side chair, each more elaborate than the Collection’s chair, came from a set that descended from Samuel Verplanck (1739–1820).^{2_{In the New-York Historical Society (acc. no. 1956.135), and illustrated in an advertisement, Antiques 78, no. 5 (November 1960): 408. A large collection of Verplanck’s furniture is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Heckscher 1985, figs. 24, 68, 75, 82, 92, 93, 105, 125).}} The Verplanck chairs are fully developed in the Chippendale style, with acanthus leaves flowing down the knees, gadrooning under the seat rail, scrolled rather than eagle’s-head arms, and rocaille carving on the crest rail. Although a chair from a third set has the same splat, it is finished with carved ears and plain knees, unlike the Collection’s chair.^{3_{Illustrated in an advertisement, Antiques 80, no. 1 (July 1961): 20.}}

The eagle’s-head arms are unusual features, found only on a few examples of New York and New England furniture. The motif appears first on George II chairs made in England; by 1750 it was used on New York furniture.^{4_{See Macquoid and Edwards, 1:figs. 79, 81. For similar examples, see Downs 1952, cat. nos. 26, 52 (the correct line of inheritance appears in Heckscher 1985, cat. no. 146); and a pair in the Schuyler Mansion, Albany, owned by the New York State park system.}} Another small but distinct feature is the pendant on the front rail of each chair. Most New York Chippendale chairs have either an applied gadrooned molding or no decoration on the front rail. This unusual detail is also found on a card table that descended in the Backer family of Newburgh, New York.^{5_{Illustrated in Bernard & S. Dean Levy, New York, Catalogue 6 (January 6, 1988): 111.}} As the table shares the same knee and foot design, it could be the product of the same maker.^{6_{The “E S Conkling” inscribed in black paint on the rear rail of the armchair probably refers to Enos S. Conkling, who appears in the New York Directory in 1832 as a merchant living in Manhattan. After changing occupations and living quarters several times, he is listed as a jeweler on Broadway in 1853. He moved his residence to Brooklyn in 1858 and remained listed as a jeweler in Manhattan until 1863, when he disappeared from the directory. As the word “Brooklyn” inscribed on the side chair is written in the same hand, Conkling’s ownership must have extended over a portion of his residence in Brooklyn, from 1858 to 1863.}}

Gilbert T. Vincent 

Excerpted from Jonathan L. Fairbanks. Becoming a Nation: Americana from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State. New York: Rizzoli, 2003.