A Very Fine Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany Side Chair, possibly the shop of Thomas Tuft, the carving attributed to John Pollard and Richard Butts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, circa 1775

Retains a rich dark historic surface.  Chair and seat frame numbered III.

Ethel McNeal Hughes (1880-1976) by inheretence as per family tradition;
Elvira Hughes Brigg;
Pamela Brigg McKown

Crack to splat glued. Minor abrasion to the legs and feet comensurate with age.
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.

The exceptional carving on this side chair can be attributed to John Pollard (1740-1787) and Richard Butts. The carving of leaves, C-scrolls and bellflowers on the crest rail and interlaced gothic splat is executed with outstanding grace and fluidity not regularly encountered on a majority of Philadelphia chairs. For additional information on Pollard and Butts see lot 430.

This previously unknown chair likely belongs to a set of eight known side chairs. Two with no recorded history are in the collection of the Chipstone Foundation (see Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone, Madison, 1984, no. 59, pp. 136-7). One is numbered “IIII.” Another is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, acc. no. 1968.5. Four chairs are mentioned by Helen Comstock, "American chairs in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Irving S. Olds," Magazine Antiques, (December 1953), 474-5, fig 4. William M. Hornor illustrates another side chair from the set in Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture, 1935, pl. 354 as the property of Richard Wistar Harvey (1868-1939), the son of Alexander Elmslie Harvey and Rachel Lewis Wistar of Philadelphia who married in 1865. Rachel Wistar was the daughter of Richard Wistar (1790-1863) and Hannah Owen Lewis (1795-1857) and a descendant of the prominent Wistar, Morris and Wharton families of Philadelphia. A finial chair is illustrated in Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, no. 2189 as belonging to Henry V. Weil. It appears however that this chair was later purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Olds and is one of the examples mentioned in Comstock’s aticle.

A pair of side chairs at Winterthur Museum displays the same overall design and closely related carving (see Joseph Downs, American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods, New York, 1952, no. 134). They are labeled on the inside back seat rail by Thomas Tuft (d. 1788), who worked in Philadelphia from circa 1770-1787 and adapted the design for the chairs from plate XVI of Chippendale’s Director. He made a set of six mahogany chairs of the same design with Marlborough legs for the Logan family in 1783, for which he received £20 (see Hornor, pl. 272). The present chair and those documented to Tufts offer the combination of the distinctive features of small ears of the crest and a nearly identical Gothic splat with an open trefoil and two pierced daggers at the base. A side chair at Yale University attributed to Tuft with the same splat and carved knees is also related (see Patricia Kane, 300 Years of American Seating Furniture, Boston, 1976, no. 103, pp. 123-4).