.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
With its distinctive intaglio knee carving and carved trifid front feet, this chair relates stylistically to various furniture forms attributed to the shop of William Savery (1721/22-1787), a Philadelphia cabinetmaker who opened his own business on Second Street in 1742 after completing his apprenticeship in the workshop of Solomon Fussell (1704-1762). Based on differences to the carving of the trifid feet and knees as compared to a labeled Savery side chair, one of a pair, in the collections of Colonial Williamsburg (acc. No. 1958-616,1), the present example cannot firmly be attributed to Savery's shop, but was perhaps produced by another local cabinetmaker familiar with Savery's work.
In his New Fine Points of Furniture, Albert Sack categorized this easy chair as 'Best'. He sold the chair to Mrs. Charles Hallam Keep (1872-1954), who formed one of the most important early twentieth-century collections of American Furniture (Albert Sack, The New Fine Points of Furniture (New York, 1993), p. 72). The chair, along with her Chippendale scallop-top tea table that was sold, Christie's, New York, 25 January 2014, lot 125, was part of her loan to the pioneering Girl Scouts Exhibition in 1929 (fig. 1), and prominently displayed in the center of the "Chippendale Room." Keep was born Margaret Williams, the daughter of George L. Williams (b. c. 1845), a prosperous financier in Buffalo, New York whose mansion designed by McKim, Mead & White still stands today on 'Millionaires' Row.' In 1894, she married Charles Hallam Keep (1861-1941) of nearby Lockport, a lawyer who graduated from Harvard and Harvard Law School. They later resided on Manhattan's Upper East Side and in York Harbor, Maine (A History of the City of Buffalo and Niagra Falls (Buffalo, New York, 1896), pp. 267-268; Mark D. Donnelly, The Fine Art of Capturing Buffalo (Buffalo, New York, 2008), p. 44; "Mrs. Charles H. Keep," The New York Times, 26 December 1954). The dealer Jess Pavey later sold the chair to collectors Russell Wasson Nowels (1893-1976), an owner of a lumber yard, and his wife Grace (Fink) (1893-1979) of Rochester, Michigan. Other items from their collection were sold after her death at Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 19-22 November 1980.
In his New Fine Points of Furniture, Albert Sack categorized this easy chair as 'Best'. He sold the chair to Mrs. Charles Hallam Keep (1872-1954), who formed one of the most important early twentieth-century collections of American Furniture (Albert Sack, The New Fine Points of Furniture (New York, 1993), p. 72). The chair, along with her Chippendale scallop-top tea table that was sold, Christie's, New York, 25 January 2014, lot 125, was part of her loan to the pioneering Girl Scouts Exhibition in 1929 (fig. 1), and prominently displayed in the center of the "Chippendale Room." Keep was born Margaret Williams, the daughter of George L. Williams (b. c. 1845), a prosperous financier in Buffalo, New York whose mansion designed by McKim, Mead & White still stands today on 'Millionaires' Row.' In 1894, she married Charles Hallam Keep (1861-1941) of nearby Lockport, a lawyer who graduated from Harvard and Harvard Law School. They later resided on Manhattan's Upper East Side and in York Harbor, Maine (A History of the City of Buffalo and Niagra Falls (Buffalo, New York, 1896), pp. 267-268; Mark D. Donnelly, The Fine Art of Capturing Buffalo (Buffalo, New York, 2008), p. 44; "Mrs. Charles H. Keep," The New York Times, 26 December 1954). The dealer Jess Pavey later sold the chair to collectors Russell Wasson Nowels (1893-1976), an owner of a lumber yard, and his wife Grace (Fink) (1893-1979) of Rochester, Michigan. Other items from their collection were sold after her death at Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 19-22 November 1980.