The Lloyd-Trimble Family Fine and Rare Federal Paint-Decorated Klismos Side Chair, Attributed to John and Hugh Finlay, Baltimore, Maryland 1810-1815

Sally Scott Lloyd (1834-1913) and David Churchman Trimble (1832-before 1900) at Wye Heights, Talbot County, Maryland;
To their son, Dr. Isaac Ridgeway Trimble (1860-1908), who married Margaret E. Jones (1865-1954) at their home located at 8 West Madison Street in Baltimore, Maryland;
To their granddaughter, Alison Arden DeRopp (1925-2006) of Ruxton, Maryland;
Thence by descent to the current owner.

Paint with restoration. the chair has been blacklighted and nearly all of the repainted areas appear in the yellow area and front of legs; secondary woods are poplar and white pine. Proper left and right stiles are broken out and repaired at junction of crest rail.
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 sophisticated side chair and its mate offered as lot 561 in this sale closely follow the form of the klismos chair in use in Greece from the 5^th through the 4^th centuries B.C. Distinctive for its sweeping curving lines and elegant simplicity, the klismos form was revived in the early 19^th century, when there was a renewed interest in the classical arts of Rome, Greece, and Egypt, and popularized by designs published by Thomas Hope, in Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807), Thomas Sheraton, in The Cabinet Maker's and Upholsterer's Drawing Book (1791) and Cabinet Dictionary (1803), and George Smith, in Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808).

The chairs have a history of ownership from David Churchman Trimble (1832-before 1900) and his wife, Sally Scott Lloyd (1834-1913) of Wye Heights, Talbot County, Maryland, who purchased them as part of a set of "6 Empire Egyptian style chairs" at an unspecified date.¹ They have descended through successive generations of their family until the present time. Two side chairs from the same set are in the collection of Winterthur Museum.² They share the same history as being part of the set purchased by David and Sally Trimble and descended along with the present chairs through the family until the mid-20^th century.³

With their classically inspired and boldly executed painted decoration, these chairs are exceptional examples of American Fancy furniture. Their klismos form, ornamentation, color scheme, and quality of painted decoration have precedent in the work of John (1777-1851) and Hugh Finlay (1781-1831), leading manufacturers of Fancy furniture in Baltimore from 1799 to 1837. John began his career as a carriage painter by 1799 and Hugh joined the business in 1803.  The brothers continued in carriage work and expanded their repertoire to include the ornamentation of Fancy furniture at their manufactories on South Frederick Street and Market Street, as well as the operation of a series of retail establishments. They advertised from 1804 to 1810 that they made fancy japanned furniture, fancy chairs, and coaches, among other services.

In 1809, Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820), the English-born architect and engineer, commissioned John and Hugh Finlay to make a suite of seating furniture for James and Dolley Madison for the President's House in Washington.⁴ The suite of furniture designed by Latrobe, which included 36 klismos chairs, 4 settees, and 2 sofas with scrolled arms and tapered legs, was destroyed when the British burned the White House in 1814, although the designs survive in the Maryland Historical Society.⁵  Latrobe had designed a similar Grecian style suite of Fancy furniture in 1808 for the Philadelphia merchant William Waln and his wife, Mary (Wilcocks).⁶ The Waln suite was manufactured in Philadelphia and painted locally by the English ornamental painter, George Bridport (1783-1819).

Although the present chairs display a construction similar to a chair from the Waln suite in the use of three different pieces of wood for the seat rail, front leg, and stile/rear leg, they display a dramatic design more consistent with that of the Madison chairs. As seen in the Latrobe design for the Madison chairs, the present chairs follow the ancient klismos model characterized by a horizontal tablet, concave contiguous stiles, and sweeping front and rear legs. Both the Madison chairs and the present side chairs are unusual in Baltimore work for their incurvate front legs, which are not otherwise known. The present chairs differ in their tablets with scrolled ends and lack the horizontal seat rails and stretchers found in the Latrobe design for the Madison chairs, which the Finlays ornamented with a grain-painted ground overlaid with laurel leaves on the tablets and rails. 

On September 8, 1809, Latrobe updated Dolley Madison on the commission in a letter, stating: "The furniture of the drawing room, as far as depended on Mr. Rae has been finished since the beginning of July. But Mr. Findlay of Baltimore who has the Chairs and Sofas in hand, appears not to have been equally attentive. I therefore went to Baltimore in July, and found all the Chairs ready, and such as I wished them, but the sofas were unfinished ... However as all the Chairs are finished, the Drawing-room may be furnished thus far ... I had to design, and even lay out in the frame the whole of the furniture of your drawing room ... workmen require constant watching in the commencement of work which is new to them. They must be taught like Children."⁷ The furniture was delivered to the President's House by late September of 1809. Three chairs were returned to the Finlay shop the following spring for repairs to the back.

The Finlays style changed significantly after the Madison commission, around the time that these chairs were made in circa 1815. They favored bolder forms, such as the klismos design for seating furniture and table supports inspired by ancient Greece prototypes. They utilized dramatic color schemes of black and gold on a red ground or green ornament on a yellow ground for their work into which they incorporated classically inspired designs such as palmettes, anthemia, paterae winged thunderbolts, sphinxes, swans, and bound fasces. Their painted designs were often inspired by patterns published by Thomas Hope, George Smith, and Thomas Sheraton. The designs displayed on the tablets of the present chairs recall an "Ornament for a Frieze or Tablet" illustrated in Sheraton's Drawing Book.⁸

Other nearly identical klismos chairs representing the work of the same shop and possibly stemming from the same or a very closely related set are known. Two klismos armchairs in the collection of the Missouri Historical Society have a history in the Mullanphys family of St. Louis until their gift to the Historical Society in 1972.⁹ Family history notes that the chairs came from the estate of the last Spanish lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana, the French-born Charles Delassus, although it is possible the chairs came into the Mullanphys family through another source.

Two side chairs numbered "III" and "IV" are in the collection of the Maryland Historical Society.¹⁰ Both chairs have a history of ownership from Joseph Whyte (1850-1915) and his wife Euginia R. Miller (1858-1949) of Baltimore. One is illustrated in Edgar G. Miller, Jr., American Antique Furniture, Volume I, Baltimore, 1937, #319 as the property of Mrs. Joseph Whyte. The chairs descended to the Whyte's daughter Elizabeth Whyte Carton (d. 1958) and next to her son, William Pinkney Carton (d. 2005), who bequested them to the Maryland Historical Society at his death. William Pinkney (1764-1822), the U.S. Senator, Attorney General, and Minister to Great Britain, has been proposed as a possible original owner, along with his daughter Isabella Pinkney (1794-1871), who married Joseph White (1791-1867) in May of 1815. The chairs bear an attribution to John and Hugh Finlay and have survived in good structural condition but display significant areas of overpainting.

Other extant pieces of Fancy furniture with related painted ornamentation attributed to the Finlay shop include a sabre-leg card table in the Kaufman Collection made for John W. Stump of Oakington, in Hartford County, Maryland, a window bench in the collection of the St. Louis Art Museum, and a set of eleven klismos chairs owned by Arunah Abell of Baltimore represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art.¹¹ Another related set of furniture comprised of 16 side chairs and 2 scrolled armchairs was advertised in Art and Antiques Weekly on April 21, 1989.

Sotheby's would like to thank Alexandra Kirtley, Associate Curator of American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Anne Woodhouse, Shoenburg Curator at the Missouri Historical Society, with their assistance with the research for this lot.

¹ This information is recorded in a notebook belonging to Ted Trimble, their grandson, who recorded their purchase of a "6 Empire Egyptian style chairs." The notebook is still the property of the family.
² Accession numbers 92.29.1 and 92.29.2. H.: 31 3/8" x W.: 20 1/8" x D.: 21 1/2."One chair is illustrated in Sumpter Priddy, American Fancy: Exuberance in the Arts 1790-1840, Milwaukee: The Chipstone Foundation, 2004, fig. 100, p. 61.
³ The Winterthur chairs descended to Dr. Isaac Trimble and his wife, Margaret, and next to their granddaughter, Margaret du Vivier (Alison DeRopp's sister). Margaret and Paul du Vivier sold the chairs to Winterthur Museum in 1992.
⁴ Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, "Contriving the Madisons' drawing room: Benjamin Henry Latrobe and the furniture of John and Hugh Finlay," The Magazine Antiques (December 2009): 56-63.
⁵ See Kirtley, figs. 7-9, p. 59 and fig. 11, p. 61.
⁶ See Kirtley, fig. 10, p. 60 for a klismos side chair from the set. The dimensions of the chair are H.: 34 1/4" x W.: 20" X D." 20 inches.
⁷ Kirtley, p. 61.
⁸ Priddy, fig. 97, p. 60.
⁹ Accession number 1972.84.0.
¹⁰ Dimensions of the chairs: 31 7/8" H x 20" W x 22" D
¹¹ See Priddy, fig. 81, p. 50 and Wendy Cooper, Classical Taste in America, 1800-1840, New York, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1993, fig. 78, p. 116.