AN IMPORTANT PAIR OF QUEEN ANNE CARVED AND FIGURED MAHOGANY SIDE CHAIRS Circa 1765, Newport, Rhode Island, attributed to John Goddard

A Rhode Island Family
Sotheby's New York, January 28, 1984, lot 865, for $143,000

John T. Kirk, American Chairs, Queen Anne and Chippendale, New York, 1972, p. 135, fig. 172 and p. 185, fig. 245
Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards, plate 21, for a related example

chair XII: proper right rear heel cracked and reglued and pinned, rear seat rail, shoe, splat and crest rail numbered VI, partially repinned, slip seat frame replaced chair XIII: rear seat rail, shoe, splat and crest rail marked XI, proper right rear heel cracked, reglued and repinned, proper side knee return replaced, repinned, wear to central stretcher, slip seat frame replaced one chair bearing Roman numeral XIII on inner seat frame, the other chair bearing the number XII, each with identifying assembly Roman numerals on the backside, crest, seat rail and shoe.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

High-style side chairs of this superb quality and historical significance and preserved condition from colonial Newport are extremely rare. Reflected on this pair and most indicative of the celebrated craftsmanship of John Goddard is the distinctive way in which he articulated ball-and-claw feet. In the characteristic manner, the feet of these side chairs display balls proportionally wider than they are tall, slender and elongated talons, delineated knuckles with the rear talon meeting the ankle in a rounded joint, and a flattened area between the tendons of the ankle.¹ Goddard rendered virtually identical feet on the pair of corner chairs and table made for John Brown in 1760 and the tea table made for Jabez Bowen in 1763.²

The present pair of chairs were purchased by the Hascoes at Sotheby's New York in January 1984.  They exemplify the design ability and skill of the celebrated master craftsman John Goddard.  Another chair from the same set as the present pair was purchased by the Hascoes in the Seidlitz sale at Sotheby's in January 1988, and is offered as lot 65 in the present sale.  Two chairs which are en suite descended in the Winthrop family and were sold at Christie's New York, October 5, 2000.  Another chair from the same set is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.³  Each of the chairs in this exceedingly rare set have the same perfect proportions, bold sculptural shell on the crest, trapezoidal seats and rare anthemion-carved peaked knees.  This is the only set of Goddard or Townsend Newport seating furniture known with petal carving on the knees.  The two en suite chairs (seat rails marked III and XIII) offered at Christie's New York, October 2000, sold for $176,000 and $134,000, respectively.  Interestingly, each of the chairs bears two schemes of numerical identification that confirm their production as part of a very large set.  Presumably as an aid for the assembly of the chairs' backs, a separate Roman numeral numbering scheme is evident with some small chisel stamps on the rear façades of the chairs' crests, splats, shoes and rear seat rails.

Other Goddard chairs include four with compass seats, molded stiles and plain knees made for Nicholas Brown, sold at Sotheby's New York, Property of the Goddard Family, on January 22, 2005, lots 827 and 828.  Two additional chairs from the Nicholas Brown set were sold at Sotheby's New York on January 27, 2001, lots 591 and 592.  Two roundabout chairs made by John Goddard and perhaps corresponding to the "2 arm chairs leather bottomed" listed in the parlour of Nicholas Brown's inventory at £3-4-0 were sold in Property of the Goddard Family as lot 822 for $1,584,000 and lot 842 for $1,696,000. A tea table made by John Goddard for Nicholas Brown sold as lot 809 in the same sale for the record price of $8,416,000.

See lot 65 in the present sale for a side chair en suite with this lot.

¹ Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport, Tenafly, NJ: Americana Press, 1984, pp. 210-11

² One corner chair and the tea table owned by John Brown are in the collection of the John Brown House, Rhode Island Historical Society. The other corner chair is in a private New York collection (see Albert Sack, The New Fine Points of Furniture: Early American, Good, Better, Best, Superior, Masterpiece, (New York: Crown Publishers, 1993). The tea table owned by Jabez Bowen is in the collection of Winterthur Museum (see Nancy E. Richards and Nancy Goyne Evans, New England furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale periods, (Winterthur, DE: Winterthur Museum, distributed by University Press of New England, 1997). 

³ The Hascoe Collection chairs were sold in these rooms, January 26-8, 1984, sale 5142, lot 865. The Seidlitz chair was sold in these rooms, Important American Furniture: The Collection of Doris and Richard M. Seidlitz, January 30, 1988, sale 5682, lot 1772. The chair in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is illustrated in Morrison H. Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985, pp. 44-5.  The pair of chairs were sold at Christie's New York, October 5, 2000, sale 9468, lots 95-6; a detail of the crest shell was featured on the cover of that catalogue.