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Chest on chest
Artist: Made by Samuel Loomis
(1748–1814) Colchester, Connecticut
Mahogany, tulipwood, and pine
1780–1785
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur L. Shipman, Jr., 1967.140
This chest, commissioned by the West Indies merchant Jonathan Deming from the Colchester cabinetmaker Samuel Loomis, is a masterpiece of American regional furniture. By inviting Loomis to test the limits of his skill and inventive power, Deming provided an ideal context for innovation. The resulting work demonstrates what can happen when a craftsman is challenged by new styles and technologies. Loomis responded to the threat of Newport block-front furniture (which the chest resembles) by emphasizing spectacle. The architectural character of this chest’s components suggests a hand (and tools) accustomed to building doorways, while the berries and tendrils that flank the upper block and shell drawer reveal the persistence of folk ornament, an intriguing response to the polished formality of Loomis’ Newport rivals.
Desk
Artist: Made by Samuel Loomis
(1748–1814) Colchester, Connecticut
Mahogany, tulip wood, and ivory
about 1770
Gift of Edward R. Bulkeley in memory of his parents, Morgan Gardner Bulkeley, Jr. and Ruth Collins Bulkeley, 1991.44
Samuel Loomis is the most celebrated maker of Colchester/Norwich style furniture. This desk, with its remarkable “waterfall” interior, is a Loomis masterpiece. It is similar to a desk signed, made, and dated 1769 by Benjamin Burnham, a Philadelphia-trained joiner to whom Loomis may have apprenticed in Colchester. The influence of Philadelphia cabinetmaking is not apparent in furniture made by either man. Loomis’s desk is boldly inventive. Its fanciful and unorthodox combination of stylistic details pushes the essential qualities of Baroque form in new and unprecedented directions.
Chest with Drawer
Artist: Unknown
Hampshire County, Massachusetts
Oak and pine
about 1690
Wallace Nutting Collection, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1926.303
During the seventeenth century, Connecticut Valley craftsmen used paint to seal and finish the surface of wood. Commonly, the panels and framing elements were set off in contrasting colors. When this chest came to the Atheneum in 1925 it was already stripped of its original paint. A recent analysis revealed evidence of the original paint color hidden in the pores of the wood and between the joints of the frame and panels. The colors have been carefully restored to suggest the chest’s early appearance.
See Thomas Andrew Denenberg, Wallace Nutting and the invention of old America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Armchair
Artist: Probably made by Eliphalet Chapin (1741–1807) East Windsor Hill, CT
Mahogany and pine
1780–1790
J.J. Goodwin Fund, 1974.102
This chair, with its complex interlaced splat and gracefully conceived cabriole legs with sharp knuckled claw-and-ball feet, is the finest known example of Chapin-style seating furniture. Its construction and ornament so closely resemble the few documented examples of Chapin’s work that it is almost certain he made it. The chair’s feet, rear stump legs, cabriole arm supports and boldly “eared” crest rail with shell relate to Philadelphia chairs of the period.
Tall Clock
Artist: Eli Terry (1732–1852)
East Windsor, Connecticut
Cherry and pine case, oak and maple 30-hour movement
1792–1794
Bequest of Mrs. Leontine Terry Hatch, 1978.5
This was reportedly the first clock completely made by the greatest name in Connecticut clock making, Eli Terry. It remained in his family, where it was a cherished heirloom until its acquisition in the 1970s. Terry revolutionized clock making by developing an affordable shelf clock, mass-produced from standardized components. Terry was an apprentice to another Connecticut clock maker, Daniel Burnap, and was living in Burnap’s hometown when this clock was made.
Settee
Artist: Designed by Stanford White (1853–1906) American, probably New York
Gilded wood, upholstery
c. 1886
Gift of the Estate of Anne Wells Cheney, 1944.339
In 1886, nationally acclaimed architect Stanford White was commissioned to design a house and furnishings for Anne Wells Cheney, of Manchester, Connecticut. Cheney was the heiress of the Cheney Brothers silk-manufacturing fortune. This sofa, which is perhaps the most ambitious furniture design documented to White, was part of the furnishings of the grand parlor. As part of the plan, Anne Cheney purchased Thomas Wilmer Dewing’s The Days (1887), an allegorical scene regarded as one of that artist’s most important works. White designed a frame for the picture, which was hung above the sofa. Large in scale, intricate in ornament and bright in color, this sofa was meant to convey a sense of grandeur, elegance, and power. As a style of American furniture, it is unprecedented.
Paterson Holster Pistol
Artist: Patent Arms Manufacturing Company
Steel, ivory and engraved silver
c. 1838
Bequest of Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt, 1905.1009
Sam Colt’s holster pistol was the largest and most popular handgun that the Patent Arms Company produced, and was adopted into service by the United States government. It gained particular fame in the Republic of Texas, where fifteen Texas Rangers armed with Colt’s pistol defeated a force of Comanche Indians. This example is an elaborate presentation piece from Sam Colt’s personal collection. It features a dazzling array of decorative detail—foliate, scroll, and border engraving cover the barrel, frame, recoil shield, and backstrap. Both sides of the hammer are engraved with the profile of an eagle, and ten inlaid bands of German silver adorn the revolver from barrel to recoil shield. Instead of the walnut grip issued on standard models, this pistol features an ornamented ivory grip.
Court Cupboard
Artist: (Unknown)
Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts
Red oak, red and white cedar, white pine and maple
1665–1675
Wallace Nutting Collection, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1926.289
This cupboard, which belonged to Thomas Prenze (c. 1600–1675), Governor of Plymouth Colony, is among the masterpieces of seventeenth-century joined furniture. Wallace Nutting bought the cupboard from a descendent of Governor Prenze in 1921 and prized it as the most important object in his collection. Court cupboards were the most expensive furniture form in seventeenth-century households. This monumental joined case is decorated with carving, molding, turning and paint. It is among the finest of a small group of cupboards made by the joiners who crafted the “serrated chests” of Plymouth Colony. Replacements include some of the applied turnings on the drawers, the side corbel brackets, the side turnings and bosses, and all four stiles below the bottom rails.
See Thomas Andrew Denenberg, Wallace Nutting and the invention of old America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Parlor Memorial
Artist: Eliza Trask (1834–1919)
Maine
Cherry with seashells, mastic, Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, and tintype photographs
1865–1870
Gift of Carl Cramer, by exchange, 1986.66
This shell-incrusted parlor memorial was made by Eliza Trask to commemorate her husband’s (Adoniram Judson Trask, 1833–1897) service with the 21st Maine Infantry during the Civil War, and his safe return to their home in Maine. It is fashioned from an old candle stand, surmounted by a four-sided wooden superstructure, which is embedded with seashells and photographs of Adoniram and other family members. Such pieces have been called “memory ware,” and are considered vernacular masterpieces of folk art.
Chair
Artist: Aaron Chapin (1753–1838)
Hartford, Connecticut
Cherry
1791
Gift of Norman M. Isham by exchange, and Priscilla West Whelden, 1987.2
This chair was part of the original furnishings of the formal reception room of “Elmwood,” the Windsor mansion of Oliver and Abigail Ellsworth (1745–1807). The chair and the room in which it was used were bought as part of an ambitious remodeling campaign undertaken by the Ellsworths at the height of Oliver’s fame. The chair was originally upholstered with red wool and trimmed with silk fringe fastened with glistening brass nails and is cited as the earliest documented use of the Neoclassical style in Connecticut furniture. It was made in the shop of Aaron Chapin. Aaron was the cousin of Eliphalet Chapin, the likely maker of the Chippendale-type slip-seat armchair also in the museum’s collection (1974.102).
See Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Ralph Earle: Face of the Young Republic. New Haven: Yale University Press; Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum, c. 1991, pp. 180–181.
Armchair
Artist: Herter Brothers
Rosewood, oak, gilding, silk (modern)
c. 1874
Gift of the Estate of Mrs. James J. Goodwin, 1939.444.1
This armchair was part of a suite of furniture made by Herter Brothers for the parlor of Woodlands, the residence of James Goodwin of Hartford, Connecticut. Woodlands was built between 1871 and 1874. Herter Brothers provided the furniture and interior decoration for the parlor and furniture for two or more of the bedrooms. This classically inspired armchair, with its square carved lion’s heads surmounting the stiles and front legs, draws from the tradition of overstuffed, tufted-seat furniture, but has been tempered by the English reform movement known as the Arts and Crafts style. Incised, gilded floral designs adorn the faces of the stiles, and side rails with turned spindles form the arms. Exotic rosewood, luxurious upholstery and tufting (probably originally in French silk), and casters on all four legs, combine to make a statement of comfort and luxury.
See Katherine S. Howe, et. al., Herter Brothers: furniture and interiors for a gilded age. New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, c. 1994, pp. 166–170.
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