H. F. du Pont's fondness for furniture: A collecting odyssey - Winterthur - art collectors

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2002 by Wendy A. Cooper

Like many collectors, Henry Francis du Pont (p. 154, P1. I) had a fascination with American arts, which started in the early 1920s when he and his wife, Ruth Wales du Pont, built a large weekend residence, Chestertown House, Southampton, New York, and began decorating and furnishing it. Having grown up at Winterthur amid dark, baronial, Victorian and European furniture, du Pont had appointed their New York City apartment with French and English antiques. But a 1923 visit to the Shelburne, Vermont, home of Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960), and a subsequent visit to Beauport, the weekend retreat of Henry Davis Sleeper in Gloucester, Massachusetts, fixed his mind upon the acquisition of American objects for his seaside retreat. (1)

Chestertown House, an enormous brick structure overlooking the dunes and the ocean, had large rooms for entertaining, cozy rooms for contemplation, and numerous bedrooms for weekend guests. (2) When du Pont began this project, he is reputed to have said to his wife, "Everybody has English houses and half the furniture I know...is new. Since we're Americans it's much more interesting to have American furniture." (3) Hence, as the house was being constructed between 1924 and 1926, du Pont voraciously began buying American antiques. In 1924 alone, he purchased a total of 226 pieces of furniture and many other objects. These were all itemized on the 137 invoices he received from a wide variety of dealers. Being greatly impressed with Sleeper's taste and collections, du Pont sought his assistance, for he was both a trained architect and a practicing decorator. Consequently, many of du Pont's early purchases focused on furniture made of pine, maple, and other light woods; painted and decorated objects; and windsor chairs, hooked rugs, pottery, painted tin, and ironwork. The tone was definitely comfortable colonial revival (see P1. II). While the main drawing room contained some of the most stylish urban pieces, including du Pont's great Newport corner chair, the dining room had an "assembled" group of country Chippendale chairs with rush seats. (4) Much to the dismay of today's textile curators, du Pont even upholstered his easy chairs with quilts and coverlets to give them an early American aural!

Painted furniture figured prominently in the decor of Chestertown House, and by the end of the 1920s du Pont had already assembled a significant collection of Pennsylvania German arts that he continued to add to over the next five decades. Pennsylvania dealers like Hattie Brunner (1889-1982) in Reinholds, A. H. Rice in Bethlehem, and Francis Brinton (1877-1951) in West Chester were among the many people who offered him objects. In December 1926, Rice advertised in The Magazine ANTIQUES a collection of eleven pieces of "Early Furniture...collected by me personally in Remote Sections of Pennsylvania" to be sold as a lot for $7,300. (5) The advertisement pictured "No. 1 Desk with Birds, Stars, and Horses" (Pl. I), a regional type of Pennsylvania painted furniture today identified as being from the Mahantango-Schwaben Creek Valley region east of the Susquehanna River and north of Harrisburg. (6) As described, the remaining ten pieces in this lot were also clearly from the same region and consisted of five chests , three bureaus, a second desk, and a "Kitchen Cabinet with Two Angels, Birds, and Stars." Rice's offer as a lot was effective from December 1, 1926, to January 1, 1927. Thereafter, Rice advised his public that "Pieces Will be Sold Separately." Whether du Pont expressed any interest in these pieces in 1927 or 1928 is unknown, but in December 1929, Rice wrote to him, "Sending under separate cover photos of Penna Dutch painted desk and Bureau the only two pieces of this type of furniture left." (7) Rice offered both pieces at a bargain price of $700 but said he would sell them separately, for $350 each, "delivered to Winterthur." Du Pont's keen eye and penchant for painted furniture resulted in the purchase of both pieces. Although they went to Chestertown House for a time, they eventually came to Winterthur.

On December 31, 1926, H. F. du Pont's father died, which appears to have allowed the forty-six-year-old collector to begin acquiring on a more ambitious scale. With the passing of "the Colonel," as his father was known, du Pont inherited Winterthur, and was able to change its interior furnishings and enlarge it to hold his own growing American collection. Already in October 1926, before his father's death, he bought one of his most expensive and significant high style pieces--an "Antique Sideboard" that he acquired for $12,000 from the New York City dealers Collings and Collings. Typically, many invoices of that period provide little or no description, but judging from the price and the limited number of sideboards du Pont ever acquired, this must be the magnificent New York example (P1. IV) that has graced the Du Pont Dining Rcom at Winterthur for many years.

Mr. and Mrs. Collings became a major source for some of du Pont's finest acquisitions, often acting also as purchasing agents at auctions and with individuals. In January 1929, du Pont paid one of the highest prices that he had spent to date when he bought from Collings and Collings an "American Oak and Pine Court Cupboard" for $35,000. This was no doubt the superb Middlesex County, Massachusetts, example that he lent nine months later to the Girl Scouts Loan Exhibition in New York City discussed below. (8) The purchase that truly called public attention to du Pont's extravagances was his winning bid of $44,000 for the famed "Van Pelt" Philadelphia high chest from the Howard Reifsnyder collection in April 1929 (P1. III). This set an auction record as the highest price paid for a piece of American furniture. Not surprisingly, du Pont was determined to keep secret the items he had purchased at this sale.