Pair of Side Chairs

Artist / Maker

Attributed to Duncan Phyfe (1770–1854)

City of Manufacture

New York

Date

c. 1810–1820

Dimensions

32-¾× 17-¾× 16-1/2 in.

Medium

Primary woods: mahogany

Secondary woods: ash, tulip poplar

Surface treatments: replacement upholstery

Labels / Inscriptions

Chiseled on rear seat rails: “V” on one chair and “XII” on the other; chiseled on slip seat of “XII” chair: “I”; painted museum loan numbers: “L2378.27” on “V” and “L2378.28” on “XII” chair.

Provenance

Family of Governor William Livingston (1723–1790), NJ. Richard Townley Haines Halsey (1865–1942), New York; Philip Haas Hammerslough Jr. (1894–1978), Hartford, CT. With Jerome Blum, Lisbon, CT. With John Walton, Jewett City, CT; Robert M. Rosenberg (b. 1938), Weston, MA; With Clark Pearce, Essex, MA, by 2011; Purchased by Schrimshers, 2011.

Publications / Exhibition History

Davidson, Marshall and Elizabeth Stillinger. The American Wing: A Guide. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. Fig. 228.

Tracy, Berry B., Marilynn Johnson, Marvin D. Schwartz, and Suzanne Boorsch. 19th-Century America: Furniture and Other Decorative Arts. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970. Cat. 27.

Cornelius, Charles Over. Furniture Masterpieces of Duncan Phyfe. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1922. Pl. VI.

Valentiner, Wilhelm Reinhold, Henry Watson Kent, and Florence Nightingale Levy. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration. Catalogue of an exhibition held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art commemorative of the tercentenary of the discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson in the year 1609, and the centenary of the first use of steam in the navigation of said river by Robert Fulton in the year 1807. 2 vols. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1909. (Vol. II, fig. 219)