The Tredick-Brewster Family Very Fine and Rare Inlaid Birchwood and Mahogany Sofa, Portsmouth, New Hampshire circa 1805

center two rear legs replaced

Henry Tredick (1769-1815);
Thomas T. Tredick (1799-1888) son;
Charles Tredick (1846-1895) son;
Abbie Rowell Tredick (1843-1927) wife;
Martha Tredick Brewster (1870-1958) daughter;
Israel Sack, Inc., New York
Emily Post, Baltimore, Maryland

Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast exhibition, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, September 1992 thru December 1992.

The Magazine Antiques 75:1 (January 1959) inside cover;
Charles E. Buckley, "Fine Federal furniture attributed to Portsmouth," The Magazine Antiques 83:2 (February 1963), pp-196-200;
The Magazine Antiques 90:3 (September 1966);
American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, Vol 1, p. 53 and Vol 2., p. 357;
Brock Jobe, Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast, (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for the Society, 1993), no. 106, pp. 378-81.

center two rear legs replaced, Frame not examined under upholstery.
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.

This sofa, which descended in the Tredick and Brewster families of Portsmouth, is the best documented example of a form traditionally associated with the town.  Henry Tredick, a sea captain from neighboring New Castle, moved to Portsmouth in 1794.  The captain and his wife, Margaret Tarlton Tredick, appear to have owned several fine examples of locally made furniture, including an inlaid card table that bears his brand.¹  The sofa remained in the family until the mid twentieth century.

The Tredick sofa closely resembles the lolling chair owned by his fellow townsman, Jacob Wendell.  Both examples feature short cylindrical feet, reeded legs, and reeded bulb-shaped arm supports with curved handholds.  What sets the Tredick sofa apart, and others like it, are the bands of vertically arranged flame-birch veneer that delineate the wings and arched crest rail.  This striking detail provides upholstered sofas with the same contrasts of color and pattern more commonly seen on case furniture.  Like the drop-panel chest of drawers, the veneer-crested sofa has become a signature of Portsmouth federal furniture.

The cost of these large decorative sofas was considerable.  In 1810, Landley Boardman charged the ship captain Reuben S. Randall $35 for a standard model.  Three years later, he billed another customer $46 for a more elegant example.  In 1816, Jacob Wendell paid approximately $40 for a plainer version without veneer on the crest.²  Sofas compared in price with an ornate sideboard or secretary and bookcase but far exceeded other forms of seating furniture.  A mahogany side chair with horsehair cover and brass nails cost about $9; an easy chair sold for $15.³ 

Despite their expense, sofas became increasingly popular.  Fashion prescribed their placement along the walls of the best parlor.  As the centerpiece of these ceremonial interiors, sofas took on special significance.  They soon became valued family heirlooms, and many have survived as a result.  Six with veneered crests retain histories of ownership in the Portsmouth area.⁴  Another twenty sofas without provenances can be attributed to the town.⁵  The members of this sizable group share numerous similarities.  All have eight legs and, with one exception, measure from six to seven feet in width.⁶  The construction of their frames is remarkably consistent.  Most resemble one originally owned by George McClean, a Portsmouth ship captain.  Though none in the group retains its original upholstery, all appear to have had a stuffed back and seat, perhaps a series of pillows along the back or against the wings but not a separate seat cushion.  Two of the sofas nearly match the Tredick family version in design.⁷  The rest vary slightly in three areas: the choice of wood for the crest, the shape of the outer front legs where they join the seat rails, and the ornament on the legs and arms supports.

All of the sofas have a band of veneer along the crest and wings, but the type and embellishment of that veneer differs.  Most customers preferred figured birch, but some selected curly maple, bird's-eye maple, or she-oak instead.  On the most elaborate sofas, craftsmen enhanced the crest with a central panel, sometimes fitted with an inlaid oval.

The corner legs of both the McClean and Tredick sofas have a cylindrical turning at the juncture with the seat rails.  On the latter, birch veneer wraps around the turning-a popular detail that appears on almost half of the sofas in the group.  On the rest, the leg terminates in a block ornamented with a rectangular panel of light-wood veneer, like that on James Rundlet's sofa.  The block permits a stronger joint between the leg and seat rails but interrupts the graceful continuity of the turned leg and arm support.

On the Tredick sofa, the decoration of the legs and arm supports is limited to reeding and ring and baluster turning.  Craftsmen offered other, more expensive options, including carved leaves and scribed lines on the legs and arm supports.  Usually the leaves are long and narrow with little definition or relief, as on the Simes lolling chair.  On one rare exception, the leaves display much more detail, and on another, deeply carved oak leaves ring the upper portion of the leg.⁸

The Tredick sofa and its many relations document the wide appeal of this classic Portsmouth form.  A statement of luxury and opulence, it offered its owners comfort as well as status.  Like the parlor for which it was intended, it possessed "all the elegance embellishments can give."⁹

This note is from Brock Jobe, Portsmouth Furniture, pp. 378-81

¹ A card table bearing the brand "H.TREDICK" and resembling the example in Brock Jobe, Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast, (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for the Society, 1993), no. 61 sold at the American Art Association, sale 4085, Feb. 9-10, 1934, lot 367.  It is not known if the sofa is branded; the frame could not be examined because of the upholstery.  Since its initial publication in 1959, this sofa has been known as the Brewster sofa.  The authors would like to thank the Rev. Charles Brewster for clarifying the original ownership of the sofa in the Tredick family.  Letter to authors, Apr. 7, 1992.
² Langley Boardman to Reuben S. Randall, bill, Jan. 26, 1813, Wendell Collection, case 3, Reuben S. Randall bills, Baker Library, Harvard Business School; Boardman v. Wentworth, 1813, series A, docket 38657, Rockingham County (N.H.) Court, State Archives; Judkins and Senter to Jacob Wendell, bill, June 29, 1816, Wendell Collection, case 13, folder 4, Baker Library, Harvard Business School.  The Wendell bill refers to the purchase of a sofa and a pair of card tables for $70.  At the time, the standard price for a pair of card tables was $30, suggesting a price of $40 for the sofa.
³ The price of the mahogany chair is based on Langley Boardman's bill to George Ffrost for a set of fashionable square-back chairs.  The charge for an easy chair is based on accounts between Boardman and both James Rundlet and John Wendell; see 8A and Langley Boardman to "M Wendell Esq.," bill, Aug. 4, 1802, Wendell Collection, case 13 Jacob Wendell bills, Baker Library, Harvard Business School.
⁴ Four of the six can be linked to specific residents of Portsmouth: Henry Tredick, Captain George McClean, the silversmith William Simes (Antiques 2:2 [Aug. 1922]: 50), and the lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster.  The Webster sofa passed to Webster's nephew, Benjamin Webster of Epsom, N.H., and descended in his family until the early 1960s.  It subsequently was bought by the antiquities dealer John Walton and sold to the White House (961.24.1); see The White House 1969, 106.

One of the remaining sofas was located in the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion on the outskirts of Portsmouth during the early twentieth century and perhaps for much of the nineteenth century as well; see Randall 1965, no. 192.  The final sofa descended in the Thaxter family of Kittery, Me.; see Skinner , Inc., sale 1362, Jan. 12, 1991, no.177.
⁵  These twenty sofas include five in the following public collections: Currier Gallery of Art (Antiques 83:3 [Mar. 1963]: 259); Henry Ford Museum (28.1.31); Metropolitan Museum of Art (10.125.176); Winterthur Museum (Montgomery 1966, nos. 271, 272; the latter was deaccessioned and sold at Christie's, Jan. 26, 1991, lot 360).  Privately owned examples are illustrated in American Art Association, sale 4193, Oct. 25-26, 1935, lot 187 (later pictured in Antiques 116:1 [July 1979]; 4); American Art Association, sale 4267, Oct. 9-10, 1936, lot 176; American Art Association, sale 4366, Jan. 21-22, 1938, lot 66; Parke-Bernet, sale 204, May 18, 1940, lot 239; Antiques 54:4 (Oct. 1948): 221; Antiques 58:2 (Aug. 1950): 75; Antiques 100:4 (Oct. 1971): 534; Antiques 116:6 (Dec. 1979): 1214; Christie's , Oct. 13, 1984, lot 444; Christie's, Jan. 23, 1988, lot 387; Phillips, sale 621, Apr. 19,1989, lot 293; Christie's, Jan. 17-18, 1992, lot 493; Sack Collection, 6:1506; Sack Collection, 8:2258 (this sofa, which varies from others in the group in the extreme boldness of its turnings, may have originated in another community, perhaps in southern Maine or northeastern Massachusetts).  Finally, a rare version of the form with oak leaf carving on the legs instead of the standard reeding or narrow stylized leaves is privately owned and unpublished.
⁶  The exception is an enormous sofa, measuring nine feet in length, that supposedly belonged to General Henry Knox, a man also known for his great size.  The Massachusetts native weighed nearly three hundred pounds and, according to a friend, lived in lavish grandeur "in the style of an English nobleman."  Knox built an imposing federal mansion in Thomaston, Me., during the late 1790s.  She Antiques 58:2 (Aug. 1950): 75.  For information on Knox and his home, see Kirker 1969, 93-100, Roy 1988, 62-82, and Taylor 1990, 37-47.
⁷ The related sofas are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Winterthur Museum; see note 5.  Both differ slightly from the Tredick sofa.  The latter has the addition of an inlaid oval panel at the center of the crest rail, and the former has arrow inlay on the front edge of the wing stiles.
⁸ Sack Collection, 6:1506; the sofa with oak leaf carving is privately owned. 
⁹ Hepplewhite 1794, 24.