John and Hugh Finlay
Side Chair
1819
Physical Qualities
Maple, cherry; polychrome paint, gilt; replacement cane seat, 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
1972.46.2
Unicorns decorate the tablet back of this Baltimore chair, originally from the 12-piece suite eventually owned by Arunah Abell. He was a publisher and philanthropist, founder of the Baltimore Sun, and pioneer in the use of the telegraph to transmit news. Attribution of the chair rests upon its similarity to others that the Finlay brothers made for the White House, based on the design of architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe during the James Madison administration. When the British marched on Washington in 1814, setting the White House ablaze, the president’s fashionable Grecian-style furniture was lost. However, surviving drawings suggest the similarity between the Finlays’ White House chairs and those of the Abell suite. The group offers a high-style precedent for a regional form that was regularly produced through the 1820s and 1830s.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, by exchange, 1972; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1965; Norton Asner, Antiques, Baltimore, Maryland, by 1965; by descent to Margaret Abell Fenwick; Arunah S. Abell (1806-1888), Woodburne, Baltimore, Maryland, by 1888.
Arthur R. Blumenthal (editor), The Art Gallery and The Gallery of the School of Architecture, University of Maryland, College Park, "350 Years of Art & Architecture in Maryland", October 26-December 1, 1984, no. 65, p. 82.
William Voss Elder III, Baltimore Museum of Art, "Baltimore Painted Furniture", April 18-June 4, 1972, no. 52, p. 61 & cover (detail).
Berry Tracy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, "19th Century American Furniture & Other Decorative Arts", April 16-September 17, 1970.
William Voss Elder III, Baltimore Museum of Art, "Baltimore Painted Furniture", April 18-June 4, 1972, no. 52, p. 61 & cover (detail).
Berry Tracy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, "19th Century American Furniture & Other Decorative Arts", April 16-September 17, 1970.
'Collecting American Art for the Metropolitan 1961- 1966,' Antiques Magazine, April 1967, p. 483, ill.
Morton, Robert. Southern Antiques and Folk Art. Birmingham, Alabama: Oxmoor House, 1976, p. 63.
Elder III, William Voss and Jayne E. Stokes. American Furniture 1680-1880: From the Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Museum of Art, 1987, p.50, ill. 32.
On View at the BMA
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