Queen Anne and Chippendale chairs in Delaware

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2001 by Philip D. Zimmerman

Two armchairs, representing separate sets, have independent histories of ownership by Dr. John McKinly of Wilmington, the first president of the Delaware General Assembly. Such provenances must always be approached cautiously, but McKinly's estate inventory describes the two sets in question: "Two Mahogany Arm Chairs & 7 ditto without arms, $53.00" in the "Best Parlor," and "One Arm Chair & 6 Chairs Without Arms, Mahogany $45.00" in the "Best Chamber." [22] The latter set appears to be the one given to the Historical Society of Delaware in Wilmington by the estate of Maria Whitney Bellah, who died in 1927 (see Pl. XIV). The unorthodox carved decoration of the ears of the crest rail and the gadrooning applied under the seat rails as well as the modern-looking surface led some scholars to conclude that this set was out of period. [23] But circumstances suggest otherwise. The tradition of ownership extends back to the donor's husband, Thomas S. Bellah (1845-1910), who came from a prominent Wilmington family. Mo reover, the physical properties of each set of chairs suggest that they were made in the same shop, thus reinforcing their common ownership by McKinly.

The two-armchair set listed in the McKinly estate inventory (see Pl. XI) [24] differs in appearance from the other one-armchair set, but it shares several construction and design features. Both sets have the same pattern of pins securing the eight mortise-and-tenon joints that form the seat frame; both have through tenons; and both use a laminated board inside the rear seat rail. Among the decorative details that are common to both sets of chairs are the shape of the shoe and the arm handholds and the unusual shaping at the base of the arm support (see Pl. I). The leg carving, although slightly different in design in the two sets, embodies similar layouts and carving techniques.

As is the case with so much Delaware-owned seating furniture, determining the place of origin in the absence of written records is speculative at best. The unusual arm supports and the distinctive, non-Philadelphia decorative qualities of the one-armchair set (see Pl. XIV) combine to suggest that both McKinly sets were more likely made in the vicinity of Wilmington than Philadelphia. Design sources for these chairs were abundant. Even such accomplished details as the crisply executed acanthus motif in the crest rail of the two-armchair set (see Pl. XI) have ready prototypes, such as a pair of chairs (see Pl. XV) once owned by Captain Jacob Jones, who must have acquired them from a previous generation. These chairs, which also have splat shoes of the same shape as the McKinly chairs, descended in the Ridgely family in Dover, where McKinly served as the president of the Delaware General Assembly in 1777. [25]

Delaware-made furniture is better defined by what it is not than by what it is. Identification of the Jones chairs as products of Philadelphia relies on the simple premise that Delaware chairs must exhibit some design or construction attribute considered outside the range of Philadelphia practices. Admittedly inexact, this standard is still useful. For example, another chair that descended in the Ridgely family is very similar to the Jones chairs but was probably made in Delaware. It is of cherry a wood more commonly used outside Philadelphia and specifically favored in documented Delaware furniture. [26] More telling of its nonurban origin is a delightfully original detail in the crest rail shell. The incised lines that texture the flanges of the clamshell are cross hatched (see P1. XVI), whereas in Philadelphia this was almost universally rendered by parallel lines.