A Very Fine and Rare Chippendale Carved Mahogany Side Chair, carving Attributed to John Pollard and Richard Butts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, circa 1775

Term attaching legs to seat rails replaced. Secondary wood is yellow pine.
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This unique Philadelphia side chair is a supreme example of rococo design and craftsmanship during the Revolutionary era.  Combining motifs in an innovative design not seen in other surviving examples; this chair uses a stylistic rhetoric that was prevalent in the city of Philadelphia at the time.  The overupholstered serpentine-front and side seat is its distinguishing feature.  No other Philadelphia chair with this seat design is known.  The technique and quality of the carving on the interlaced gothic splat and knees indicates that the chair likely originates from the same shop as the well-known set of chairs made for Charles Thomson (see Christie’s, New York, Important American Furniture, Folk Art & Decorative Arts, September 28, 2011, sale 2468, lot 13) and the celebrated Willing-Francis-Fisher Cadwalader easy chair (see Sotheby’s, New York, Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Folk Paintings, and Chinese Export Porcelain, October 25, 1986, sale 5500, lot 238).

Displaying the number V on the rear seat rail, this side chair relates directly to another group of four surviving overupholstered compass-seat side chairs.  These examples display the same round tenon joint of securing the front legs but have flat front rails. A pair is illustrated in the Israel Sack, Inc., American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol.1, (Washington, DC: Highland House Publishers, Inc., 1969), p. 199, no. 505. Another is illustrated in Joseph K. Kindig III, The Philadelphia Chair: 1685-1785, (York, PA: Historical Society of York County, 1978), no. 51 and the last resides in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Sack remarks, “The pair of Philadelphia Chippendale chairs not only are superb in form and condition but are important in demonstrating the idiom of American 18^th century furniture, the successful blending of two style periods into transitional masterpieces combining the best elements of both periods with brilliant and original conceptions.”  These four exceptional chairs are indeed important survivals from the period:  Especially important in relation to the current chair, for it is likely that they are from the same shop.

While the forms are nearly identical, the only difference being the front seat rail and consequently the front knee brackets that conformingly sweep back.  The design and decoration of the crest rail, splat, and stiles are quite similar.  The carving on the crest rail and splat, and the carving on the knees follows the same design and is possibly by the same hand.  Both sets of knee brackets have s-curved outlines embellished with swirled acanthus carving.  The carving can be attributed to shop of John Pollard (1740-1787) and Richard Butts.  John Pollard, a highly skilled London-trained craftsman, was the principal carver in Benjamin Randolph’s shop during the 1760s and early 1770s.  However by February 22, 1773 as advertised in the Pennsylvania Packet, Pollard had established a partnership with another highly skilled carver Richard Butts.

POLLARD AND BUTTS -- At the sign of the Chinese Shield in Chestnut-street between Third and Fourth streets, and nearly opposite to the Carpenters Hall, Beg leave to inform the public that they undertake, to do all manner of Carving in the House, Cabinet, Coach and Ship way, in the newest and most elegant taste, and on the most reasonable terms. (Alfred Coxe Prime, The Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia, Maryland, and South Carolina, 1721-1785 (Philadelphia, 1929), p. 224)

For additional references to Richard Butts, see Beatrice B. Garvan, entries, Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia, 1976), p. 114; Sotheby's New York, January 18, 2003, lot 907; Andrew Brunk, "Benjamin Randolph Revisited," American Furniture, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee: The Chipstone Foundation, 2007), pp. 47, 76.