An Important Chippendale Carved Mahogany Open Armchair, Attributed to Gerrard Hopkins, Baltimore, Maryland circa 1770

the chair numbered I.

Israel Sack, Inc., New York

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. S. Chelsey Anderson, California

Israel Sack, Inc., New York

The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore Furniture: The Work of Baltimore and Annapolis Cabinet Makers from 1760-1780, Feb. 21 - April 6, 1947. Lent by the Honorable and Mrs. Breckinridge Long. Exhibited as from the family of Governor Bowie.

Beckerdite, Luke. "A Problem of Identification: Philadelphia and Baltimore Furniture Styles in the Eighteenth Century," Journal of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (May 1986), fig. 5, p. 35

Comstock, Helen. "American Furniture in California." The Magazine Antiques (January 1954): 56. The chair is illustrated as the property of Mr. and Mrs. S. Chesley Anderson and the photograph was courtesy of Israel Sack Inc

Kirk, John. American Chairs: Queen Anne and Chippendale. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972, no. 223, p. 161

The Magazine Antiques (September 1951): 149. The chair is illustrated in an Israel Sack Inc. advertisement and mistakenly attributed to New York

The Magazine Antiques (May 1972): inside front cover. Israel Sack Inc. advertisement

Sack, Israel, Inc. American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection. Volume III, pp. 797-8, no. P3491

secondary wood is yellow pine; seat frame possibly replaced; later screws covered with wooden plugs added through side seat rails to secure arm supports; both arm supports with later screws that have been plugged exteriorly; a 8 1/2 by 5/8 inch patch to center of crest rail at junction of splat; both proper left and right sides of back of crest rail have been patched
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There are many extant examples of Chippendale style seating furniture made in Philadelphia and other major Eastern seaboard centers before the Revolution, but Baltimore examples, particularly armchairs, are extremely rare. With its interlaced Gothic strapwork splat, scrolled ears, shell-carving at the crest and skirt, triple-reeded stiles, and flattened arched seat rails, this armchair displays a design clearly inspired by the Philadelphia school.¹ The splat and crest have been enlarged proportionally to accommodate the broader dimensions, resulting in a handsome rendition of the form.

This chair is attributed to Gerrard Hopkins (1742-1800), a Philadelphia-trained cabinetmaker working on Gay Street in Baltimore from 1767 to 1800 on the basis of the appearance of the distinctive concave shell and stippled ground acanthus knee carving on a high chest of drawers in a private collection bearing his label.²  Hopkins made an armchair nearly identical to this one as part of another set for Governor Robert Bowie (ca. 1750-1818) of Prince George's County.³  That armchair is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art and differs slightly from the present example in its molded arm supports curving outward rather than inward at their bases and lack of spiral beading on the supports and armrests.

The same skirt pendant and knee carving are also found on a dressing table (whereabouts unknown) from the Chase-Lloyd house in Annapolis and six side chairs in the collection of the U.S. Department of State.⁴  The latter were once owned by Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), the Maryland lawyer and poet best known as the author of The Star-Spangled Banner who probably inherited them from his parents, John Ross Key (1734-1821) and Ann Phoebe Charlton (1756-1830) of Frederick County, Maryland. The dressing table and all of the chairs attributed to Hopkins exhibit consistencies in design, construction, and carving, such as the distinctive stippling, indicating a common shop tradition and carver. The carver may be William Bampton, who is identified in the ledger of James Brice as receiving payment for carving a virtually identical shell on the chimneypiece in the large northwest room of the James Brice House in Annapolis.⁵

Born in Anne Arundel County, Maryland in 1742 into a prosperous Quaker family, Gerrard Hopkins trained in Philadelphia with Jonathan Shoemaker (working 1757-1793) and worked in Baltimore from 1767 at a shop on Gay Street, which became the principal site of his manufactory for 33 years.⁶ He announced his business and Philadelphia training in a 1767 advertisement, stating that he worked in "mahogany, walnut, cherry-tree, and maple...To be done with or without carved work."⁷  He also operated a sawmill, where he sold logs and boards. His business grew into a considerable enterprise and he soon became the leader of the pre- and post-Revolutionary cabinet community in Baltimore. He counted many prominent Marylanders among his clients and prospered in his business for over three decades until his death in 1800.

This armchair exhibits a strong resemblance to contemporary Philadelphia work in its design and construction. Like some other examples of Philadelphia seating furniture, it lacks through-tenoned side rails and displays mortise and tenon joints at the front corners and sides that were originally secured with glue. As noted by Luke Beckerdite, it also exhibits the additional Philadelphia details of large quarter-round blocks used to reinforce the rear leg and rail joint, arm supports lapped over the side rails and attached with screws from the inside, and screws used to attach the arms to notches cut in the stiles.⁸ This chair also displays an idiosyncratic crest rail centering a distinctive carved ruffle above crosshatching and stipplework as well as an openwork back splat mounted in an unusually high cove molded shoe. Nevertheless, it is a vigorous statement of the Rococo idiom and serves as testament to the high quality work emerging from Baltimore cabinet shops of the Colonial period.

¹ For Philadelphia side chairs of this pattern, see Patricia Kane, 300 Years of American Seating Furniture, Boston, 1976, no. 106, p. 127 and William Hornor, Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture, Philadelphia, 1935, pl. 274.
² See William Voss Elder III and Jayne Stokes, American Furniture 1680-1880 from the Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art, fig. 15a, p. 30.
³ See ibid, no. 15, pp. 28-31.
⁴ See William Voss Elder, "Maryland Furniture, 760-1840," The Magazine Antiques (Feb. 1977): fig. 4, p. 358 and Clement Conger and Alexandra Rollins, Treasures of State, New York, 1991, no. 36, pp. 116-7.
⁵ Luke Beckerdite, "A Problem of Identification: Philadelphia and Baltimore Furniture Styles in the Eighteenth Century," Journal of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (May 1986), figs. 3 and 3a, pp. 28-32.
⁶ Ibid, p. 24.
⁷ Ibid, p. 25.
⁸ Ibid, p. 34.