John and Hugh Finlay
Side Chair
1814-1824
Physical Qualities
Maple, cherry, paint, gilt, 33 7/8 x 20 3/8 x 24 3/16 in. (86 x 51.8 x 61.4 cm.)
Credit Line
The George C. Jenkins and Decorative Arts Funds, by exchange with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Object Number
1972.46.1
Like a klismos chair sketched on an ancient Greek vase, this vigorous Baltimore-made piece has a dramatically raked back and rear saber-shaped legs that seem to thrust the trapezoidal seat forward. The designer controlled this sense of motion with abruptly vertical front legs derived from Roman, rather than Greek, chairs. Capping an array of green and black ornament, including an eagle standard quirkily set sideways to decorate the small stay rail, is a magnificently painted tablet back. Here, spirited swans center the flourishing scroll derived from Thomas Sheraton’s Cabinet- Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book (London, 1793). The suite of 12 chairs was eventually housed at Woodburne, a large house owned by an entrepreneurial Baltimorean, Arunah S. Abell (1806 – 1888). Eleven of the 12 chairs survive today.
From a set of 12 chairs made originally for Arunah S. Abell's house 'Woodburne'.
Wendy A. Cooper, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Classical Taste in America 1800-1840", June 27-September 26, 1993, no. 78, ill. p. 116, pp. 117 & 292; circulated to Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Dr. David Park Curry, "PAINT! Japanned, Ebonised, Grained, and Polychromed Furniture in the Baltimore Museum of Art," December 2006-
Dr. David Park Curry, "PAINT! Japanned, Ebonised, Grained, and Polychromed Furniture in the Baltimore Museum of Art," December 2006-
William Voss Elder III and Jayne E. Stokes, American Furniture 1680-1880 from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore: BMA, 1989, no. 32, pp. 50-51.
Robert Morton, Southern Antiques and Folk Art, Birmingham, Alabama: Oxmoor House, 1976, p. 63.
'Collecting American Art for the Metropolitan 1961- 1966,' Antiques Magazine, April 1967, p. 483, ill.
BMA Today, Summer 2009, p. 18, ill.
Wendy A. Cooper. "Classical Taste in America 1800-1840". Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art; New York: Abbeville Press, 1993, page 116.
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