American painted furniture: A new perspective on its decoration and use - Winterthur - Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum's collection

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2002 by Wendy A. Cooper

Most of the surviving early Federal New England painted furniture is seating furniture, with few accompanying card or pier tables. Ironically, the impressive New England card table in Plates IX and IXa, probably originally one of a pair, has no known en suite seating furniture. (30) Purchased in 1952 by du Pont from Charles Woolsey Lyon (1872-1945) of New York City, the table was accompanied by a history that it had come "from the home of Mrs. Louis de Koven Hubbard [1872-1965], High Street, Middletown, Connecticut." (31) Whether or not this table was originally made for a Connecticut house has not been determined, and no other painted examples from this area are known. However, judging from its decoration, which includes, roses, honeysuckle, and sweet peas, along with a central tablet of music, musical instruments, and a shepherd's crook, the table could have been made for entertainments in a light and airy room that adjoined a garden setting.

Fashion clearly dictated that the elite of the young republic purchase colorfully decorated, light, and readily moveable furniture. While the designs on surviving examples of this furniture show that it varied from shop to shop, city to city, and region to region, there was a definite continuity of theme focused on realistic flora, fauna, romantic landscapes, and exotic influences from the East. (32) Although where and how this furniture was used are not easily revealed, hopefully the theories and documentation put forward in this article will stimulate further research and open the doors for understanding these objects in the context of the lives of the elite of the early republic.

WENDY A. COOPER is the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Senior Curator of furniture at the Winterthur Museum.

(1.) Another suggestion of this use is seen in a painting by Thomas Birch (1779-1851) of the terrace overlooking the Delaware River at the house of Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844) at Point Breeze, New Jersey, illustrated in Roger W. Moss, The American Country House (Henry Holt, New York, 1990), p. 104. A pencil sketch for this painting is in the collection of the Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, Delaware.

(2.) William Chambers, Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines and Utensils... (London. 1757), p. 9.

(3.) Frances Collard, Regency Furniture (Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1985), pp. 198-199.

(4.) Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale (Macmillan, New York, 1978), vol. 2, p. 103.

(5.) Ibid., pp. 100, 213.

(6.) Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet Dictionary (1803; reprint, Praeger, New York, 1970), Vol. 2, p. 299.

(7.) Quoted in Pauline Agius, Ackermann's Regency Furniture and Interiors (Crowood Press, Rambury, Wiltshire, 1984), p. 94.

(8.) Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821, ed. Margaret Law Callcott. (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1991), p. 234. I am grateful to Ann Vass, Staff historian at Riversdale, for calling this quotation to my attention.