A Rare Pair of Federal Gilt Ash Armchairs

A Rare Pair of Federal Gilt Ash Armchairs, Philadelphia. 1795-1810. Each having a concave molded rectangular crest with intertwined leaves and berries, five baluster-turned uprights below, the trapezoidal seat with removable cushion, the seat rail centering flowerhead-molded appliques on fluted reeded tapering legs; each now painted black over the apparently original gilding.

According to tradition, these chairs descended from John Derby and were once owned by the same family that owned an ash armchair now in the Kaufman Collection. The ash armchair sold at Sotheby’s on January 31, 1981, lot 1514. (See J. Michael Flanigan, American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection, Princeton, 1986, p. 130, fig. 46.)

Four chairs from the same set as the Kaufman chair recently sold in New York on October 19, 1991 and are now in the following collections: Yale University Art Gallery, Bayou Bend, and two chairs in the collection of Joe and Jane Hennage.

As with all of our furniture, in ‘as found’ condition.
Each with repairs and exfoliation, appears to retain some original upholstery