Fine and Rare Queen Anne Shell-Carved Mahogany Compass-Seat Side Chair, attributed to John Goddard, Newport, Rhode Island, circa 1765

chair marked VI, slip seat marked I, base of proper right rear leg with triangular patch.

Christie's, New York, Important American Furniture, Silver, Prints, Folk Arts and Decorative Arts, January 26, 1995, sale 8076, lot 128.

George Parker, “Early American Furniture in Wisconsin,” Wisconsin Academy Review,  43: 2 (Spring 1997), 8.

Chair refinished, splat cracked. Appears to be a triangular splice to bottom of proper right rear leg. Small area of infill to bottom of proper left rear foot.
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.

Marked VI on the seat rail and I on its slip seat, this side chair displays distinctive claw and ball feet that link it with the work of the celebrated Newport cabinetmaker, John Goddard (1723/4-1785). The feet are articulated in Goddard’s characteristic manner, with balls proportionally wider than they are tall, slender and elongated talons, delineated knuckles with the rear talon meeting the ankle in a rounded joint and a flattened area between the tendons of the ankle.¹ John Goddard made four related side chairs with similar shell carving, splats and feet for Nicholas and Rhode (Jenckes) Brown of Providence after they married in 1762. The chairs were sold in these rooms, Property of the Goddard Family, January 22, 2005, sale 8055, lots 827 and 828.

The chair represents a pattern made in Rhode Island during the Colonial period with rounded crest rails, “pretzel” back strap work splats, compass-shaped seats with flat arches, front cabriole legs with plain knees, block-and-turned stretchers, front claw feet and rectangular slightly flared rear legs. The unusual splat pattern derives from designs published in The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director by Thomas Chippendale, who may have been influenced by the work of De La Cour, a French engraver working in England between 1741 and 1747.²

Several additional sets of side chairs associated with John Goddard displaying closely related claw feet and single scrolled volutes as seen here closely relate to the present chair. Two side chairs formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy Nicholson stem from one set.³ A second nearly identical set differing in downward curling scrolls cut to form, rather than carved, is represented by six side chairs with a history in the family of Stephen Hopkins, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Rhode Island and side chairs at Chipstone and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ⁴ Others include a set of six chairs from the Walter B. Guy Collection, ⁵ one formerly in the collection of Israel Sack,⁶ and a side chair in the Karolik Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.⁷

¹ Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport (Tenafly, NJ, 1984), pp. 210-11.
² Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director, London, 1762, p. XVI.
³ See Christie’s, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy Nicholson, January 27-28, 1995, sale 8082, lot 1089.
⁴ See Christie’s, Important American Furniture, Silver, Prints, Folk Art and Decorative Arts, January 17-18, 1992, sale 7398, lot 426, Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone (Madison, 1984), no. 52, pp. 122-3, and Morrison Heckscher, et al., “Anatomy of an Acquisition: Treasures from the Ann and Philip Holzer Collection,” The Magazine Antiques (August 2001): fig. 1, p. 191.
⁵ Sold at Christie’s, January 18, 1992, lot 426.
⁶ Moses, fig. 1.49, p. 58.
⁷ Edwin Hipkiss, Eighteenth-Century American Arts: The M. and M. Karolik Collection (Boston, 1950), no. 80, p. 143.