A Fine Chippendale Mahogany Serpentine-Back Sofa, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Circa 1770

Retains portions of original under upholstery on arms and back.

The Morris Family of Philadelphia at Cedar Grove to Lydia Thompson Morris (1849-1932);
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928-7-1, Gift of Lydia Thompson Morris, 1928.

Secondary wood Poplar, Oak, Mahogany and Yellow Pine. Lacking upholstery. Central rear leg with replaced tennon into frame. A period cabnet-maker's patch to proper right side of back. Proper left rear leg and proper right rear leg with corner patches above upholsery line. Proper left ear of back cracked and reglued. Proper left and right corners of front legs patched above upholstery line.
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.

A combined effort of a cabinetmaker and upholsterer, the camel back form represented here corresponds to the description “Soffas Marlborough Feet” listed in the 1772 and 1786 Philadelphia price list. The frame with “plain feet & rails without Casters” would have cost £4.10 in mahogany with the upholstery adding as much as £10 to £20 to the cost. Equal in price to a desk in bookcase, sofas of this type were extremely costly and not common in Philadelphia, even among affluent families.

Boldly proportioned and measuring nearly eight feet long, this handsome sofa has the classic Rococo style characteristics of a boldly arched crest rail and steeply pitched outward-scrolling arms, while the Marlborough legs became fashionable in Philadelphia about 1765. The sofa has a history in the Morris family of Philadelphia and was given to the Philadelphia Museum of Art by Lydia Thompson Morris (1849-1932). She was the daughter of Isaac Paschall Morris (1803-1869) and Rebecca Thompson (1811-1881) and granddaughter of Isaac Wistar Morris (1770-1831) and Sarah Paschall (1772-1842). This sofa may have been among the furnishings of Cedar Grove, the summer home for five generations of the Paschall/Morris family built outside Philadelphia by Elizabeth Coates Paschall (1702-1767) in 1748. Her granddaughter, Sarah Paschall, inherited the house from an aunt in 1793 and following her marriage to Isaac Wistar Morris in 1795, significantly enlarged it to accommodate their family of nine children. Their son Isaac Paschall Morris inherited Cedar Grove next and his daughter, Lydia Morris, was the last family member to own the house. In 1888, when construction of railroad tracks cut through the property, she and her brother, John T. Morris (1847-1915), moved all the family furnishings from Cedar Grove to Compton, their new house in Chestnut Hill which is today part of the Morris Arboretum. In 1926, Lydia gave Cedar Grove to the City of Philadelphia and it was relocated to Fairmount Park and opened as a historic house museum administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1928. She donated the furnishings from Cedar Grove, including this sofa, to the Philadelphia Museum of Art that same year.

A related Philadelphia camelback sofa with cuffed Marlborough legs and similar broad proportions is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and illustrated in plate 202 of Hornor’s Blue Book as the property of Harry G. Haskell of Wilmington, Delaware. Another at Winterthur Museum is illustrated in Joseph Downs, American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods, New York, 1952, pl. 274. An example at Bayou Bend with a serpentine rail and cuffed Marlborough legs has a history in the Harrison Wood family (see David Warren, American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection, Houston, 1998, F101, p. 60).