Classical furniture in Savannah, Georgia

Magazine Antiques, May, 1995 by Page Talbott

By the early nineteenth century. American coastal shipping was also bringing news of new trends as well as actual goods from one part of the country to another in a matter of weeks. Foreign trained craftsmen immigrating to the United States, European pattern books, and American furniture price books emulating those published in Europe were all means of transmitting new styles.

In its early phases (from about 1780 to 1810), the classical revival was characterized by antique decoration applied to traditional forms, while in its later phases (until about 1840), the form as well as the omament imitated Greco-Roman examples. Both phases influenced the furniture made and used in the southern seaport of Savannah, as can be seen from the objects illustrated in this article. The vast majority of classical furniture used in Savannah was of American manufacture, and it was similar to that owned by the wealthy in other cities along the east coast during the period, with one important distinction: Savannah consumers preferred furniture in the English taste and ignored a number of forms in the French style, such as the columned fall-front secretary or the columned pier table, which were popular in Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia.

An example of the early neoclassical style in Savannah is the linen press in Plate IV, which is believed to have belonged to Henry McAlpin of Savannah and was part of the furnishings of the Hermitage (now demolished), his estate outside the city.(2) Probably made in Philadelphia or New York City, the elegant yet restrained linen press is related to examples made in the South, notably in Charleston and Savannah.(3) It reflects two important innovations promulgated by the Scottish designer Robert Adam (1728-1792), whose decorative vocabulary had a significant impact on Federal design, namely the juxtaposition of ovals and rectangles within a single piece and the use of contrasting light and dark woods. On the linen press, large expanses of highly figured mahogany veneer accentuate the oval panels on the rectangular doors, and the horizontal and vertical grains of the veneer give the appearance of contrasting light and dark woods.

Despite tragic fires and epidemics that plagued Savannah in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,(4) the city boasted a golden age, which began with the end of the War of 1812. Peace with England in 1815 brought an end to the economic hardships caused by embargoes and naval conflicts. Savannah's merchants thrived anew, residential and commercial building projects were vigorously launched, and local citizens faced the future with optimism and confidence. Notable churches, hotels, banks, schools, and houses can all trace their construction to the decade after the war, many owing their existence to a young architect named William Jay (1792-1837). A native of Bath, England, Jay was the oldest son of the Reverend William Jay, a nonconformist British minister well known for his lengthy and emotional orations. During the younger Jay's stay in Savannah between December 1817 and 1822, he left an indelible mark on the style and taste of the entire city.

The houses built by Jay were filled with the finest of fashionable furnishings, many of which remain in the hands of descendants of Savannah's most affluent citizens of the first four decades of the nineteenth century. Judging by almost daily newspaper accounts of goods arriving in Savannah, the majority of the furniture came from New York City, followed in order of frequency by Philadelphia, Providence, Boston, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.(5) Ships' manifests document the arrival of vast quantities of boxes and bundles of furniture and provide information about both the shipper and the consignee as well as the contents of the shipment.(6) In some instances the shipper was the furniture craftsman himself; in other cases a merchant purchased goods from the maker to export; ship captains occasionally consigned venture cargo to be disposed of wherever possible; and sometimes a Savannah furniture maker or retailer traveled north to purchase goods to sell at home. The recipient in Savannah could be the owner of a genes merchandise store, a cabinetmaker selling his own wares and imported goods, an auctioneer, or an individual.(7)

Several surviving pieces of furniture ordered by members of the Gibbons and related Telfair families of Savannah offer rich documentation of the prevailing taste in the city between 1800 and 1840. Written records indicate that these furnishings were generally ordered directly from cabinetmakers in either New York City or Philadelphia, not purchased through a retailer in Savannah.(8) In 1802 William Gibbons traveled to New York City to procure furnishings for his Savannah house. His account book for 1802 to 1804 and estate inventory of 1804 give a remarkably complete glimpse of his buying habits, including purchases from the New York City furniture makers George Shipley, Samuel and William S. Burling, and Duncan Phyfe (from whom he bought a pair of card tables and a tea table).(9) Among his purchases on the 1802 trip were "a dozen bamboo gilt chairs at $3.50 each and 4.50 for 2 armed," acquired from the chairmaker William Palmer (see Pl. VIII) and a dozen black and gold painted rush-seated chairs bought from Joseph Riley for $19.50 (see Pl. V).(10) At the time of his death Gibbons owned four dozen painted fancy chairs, which in the early years of the nineteenth century the wealthiest Americans used side by side with more formal mahogany chairs in parlors and dining rooms. A number of New York City makers produced chairs like Riley's, among them Thomas Ash (w. 18151824), Charles Fredericks (w. 1812-1837), and the firm of Stephen Wheaton and Robert Davis (w. 1817-1825), all of whom exported chairs to Savannah.