Important Set of Six Chippendale Carved Mahogany Side Chairs, Carving possibly by William Bampton, Baltimore, Maryland, Circa 1770

Those four chairs were acquired by the collector Robert Stuart, Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania;

Two chairs from the set were owned by Henry Francis du Pont. He traded the chairs to Robert Stuart for a labeled William Savery chest of drawers;

Robert Stuart sold the set of 6 chairs to Francis J. Purcell III on February 1, 1995.

Robert C. Moon, M.D. The Morris Family of Philadelphia Vol. II (Philadelphia: Robert C. Moon, M.D., 1898): p. 681. Two of the chairs are illustrated in Washington’s Breakfast Parlor, Morris Mansion, Germantown Avenue.

These side chairs are numbered 1 through 6 and retain their original corresponding slip seat frames. In 2003, they were analyzed by Luke Beckerdite who provided the following excerpted report in October of 2003:

These chairs constitute one of the most distinctive sets produced in the colonies. Although clearly influenced by contemporary Philadelphia work, these chairs were most likely made in the upper Chesapeake Bay region during the 1760s. Philadelphia styles did move to the West and South into the backcountry of Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas, but the use of white cedar as a secondary wood would seem to rule out towns in those regions as possible places of origin for the chairs.

At least two Philadelphia cabinetmakers moved from Philadelphia to Baltimore during this period. A notice for a missing horse indicates that Robert Moore arrived in Baltimore before April 30, 1771. Subsequent advertisements placed by him refer primarily to runaway apprentices, indentured servants, and slaves. Moore apparently retired from the cabinetmaking trade in 1784.

Assuming these chairs were made during the 1760s, Moore arrived in Baltimore too late to be considered a candidate for their maker. The only Philadelphia cabinetmaker documented moving to Maryland during the 1760s is Gerrard Hopkins. Born in Anne Arundel County, Maryland in 1742, Hopkins came from a prosperous Quaker family with ties to both Eastern Maryland and Pennsylvania. At age twelve, his parents Samuel and Sarah sent him to Philadelphia where he apprenticed to cabinetmaker Jonathon Shoemaker. Assuming that Gerrard was bound until the age of twenty-one, he probably became a journeyman in 1764. The receipt book of Philadelphia merchant Samuel Preston Moore documents business dealings with Hopkins in September of that year.

While in Philadelphia, Hopkins also maintained an account with Quaker merchant Stephen Collins. On April 24, 1765, William Crisp charged twenty-five yards of linen to Hopkins account. The former may have been William Crisp who advertised independently a few years later. Hopkins evidently traded work for such goods. On May 20, 1766, Collins credited the cabinetmaker’s account “To Two Chaimber Tables @ 2-18 ea. 5-16pds.” Although Hopkins reputedly worked as a journeyman in the shop of Robert Moore, his bartering with cabinetwork suggests that he worked independently before moving to Maryland. The label on the Kindig Hopkins high chest also supports this conclusion. The location of his shop in Philadelphia has been crossed out and “Baltimore” has been added at the top.

Hopkins moved to Maryland by 1767. In April of that year, The Maryland Gazette reported: “GERRARD HOPKINS, Son of Samuel, Cabinet and Chair-Maker, from Philadelphia, at the Sign of the Tea Table and Chair, in Gay-Street, Baltimore-Town, Makes and sells the following goods in the best Manner, and in the newest Fashions, in Mahogany, Walnut, Cherry-Tree and Maple, viz. Chests of Drawers … Desks, Bookcases…Tea-Tables; Chairs of various Sorts, such as Easy, Arm, Parlour, Chamber and Corner Chairs ….Any of the above Articles to be done with or without carved Work.” Subsequent advertisements indicate that Hopkins also operated a sawmill. This proved to be fairly lucrative. In 1798, the cabinetmaker offered for sale 40,000 feet of “first quality” Honduras mahogany and 10,000 feet of St. Domingo mahogany.

The carving on the Kindig chairs shares several features with work documented and attributed to Hopkins’ shop, particularly that found on the Kindig Hopkins high chest. Since the former object is labeled, it has traditionally been considered a benchmark for attributing other work to his shop. The distinctive carved shells on the upper and lower drawers and the skirt are basically the same as those on the seat rails of at least three armchairs, a set of side chairs, and a dressing table that may be the mate to this high chest. These simple shells have smooth convex and concave lobes with no fillets separating them and lancet-shaped chip cuts running along each convex lobe.

The ornament on the high chest appears to be by the same hand that furnished the relief carved tablet, trusses, and appliques for the large northwest room of the James Brice House in Annapolis. According to Brice’s ledger, work on his new residence began in 1767 and continued through 1774. The only carver identified in the ledger is William Bampton who received 40.0.1 pds for “Finishing largest Room in my House the Carpenters and Joiners & carving Chimney Piece” in March 1770. Additional expenditures under the heading “Carver” include 9.15 pds for chimneypieces at 8.1 pds for twenty-three stair brackets. Bampton, who was described as a runaway, received his last payment on October 5, 1772. If Bampton executed the carving on the labeled high chest, he probably did so before working for Brice. The fact that the label has Philadelphia crossed out and Baltimore written in suggests that Hopkins made the pieces soon after moving to Maryland.

The carving on the Kindig chairs shares several details with that on the high chest and chimney piece in the Brice House. The feet on the chairs and chest have well-defined toes that become larger as they approach the floor. The fact that they differ significantly from the feet of all other chairs from Hopkins shop indicates that he employed at least one additional carver. Features linking these various objects include the use of lancet shaped chip cuts (found on either side of the V-darts on the knees of the chairs, the convex folds of the knee acanthus on the high chest, and the convex surfaces of the leaves in the tables and other chairs), knee block leafage that emanates from a scroll volute and points abruptly up (on all but the pillar and claw table), and a diapering (all seating forms). The diapering on these chairs is bolder than that found in seating traditionally ascribed to Hopkins and is fluted rather than stippled.

Although comparisons of the acanthus on these chairs and architectural carving in the Brice house is complicated by differences in scale, there are similarities in the outline and the surface contours of the leaves – particularly the almost exaggerated form of the ends. The carving is also similar in quality, as the design and execution of the furniture and architectural work has naïve passages not found in contemporary Philadelphia work. The same can be said of the carving documented and attributed to Hopkins shop.

The construction of the Kindig chairs differs from all of the seating traditionally attributed to Hopkins. The former chairs have front legs with a gradual curve, well defined feet and through-tenons, whereas the latter have compressed cabriole legs, toes with minimal modeling, and conventional mortise-and-tenon joints. If the Kindig chairs are associated with the Hopkins shop, they represent the work of a different chairmaker and carver.

The similarities and differences between the Kindig chairs and the furniture documented and attributed to Hopkins suggest that the former was probably produced in the same area, most likely between Annapolis and Baltimore. With tassel-backs inspired by Philadelphia chairs from the 1755-1765 period, the Kindig examples are stylistically earlier than all of the seating forms traditionally attributed to Hopkins.

The high chest labeled by Gerrard Hopkins is also offered in this sale. A set of six side chairs attributed to Gerrard Hopkins is in the collection of the U.S. Department of State and illustrated in Clement Conger and Alexandra Rollins, Treasures of State (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991): no. 36, pp. 116-117. An armchair from the set sold in These Rooms, Property from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. George Fenimore Johnson, January 19, 2008, sale 8401, lot 67. It is illustrated in Israel Sack, Inc., American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, Vol. 3, P3491, p. 796.