$149,000
Chippendale Mahogany Carved Easy Chair, Boston, c. 1760-80, the serpentine crest above the shaped wings continuing to outscrolled arms on the cabriole front legs with arris knees which continue to carved ball and claw feet which are joined to the rear maple square, chamfered, raking legs by block and turned stretchers, old surface, modern wool damask red show cover replicating the appropriate cover for this 18th century chair, ht. 46, seat ht. 14 3/4 in. to the rail. Provenance: According to Lyman family history, this chair descended in the family from Theodore Lyman, a Boston merchant, to the consignor. In 1793, Theodore Lyman, who had amassed a fortune in the China trade, purchased 150 acres of farm and woodland in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he established his country set including a Palladian-style mansion designed by the prominent architect Samuel McIntire of Salem. The surrounding landscape included ornamental ponds, a deer park, greenhouse, garden, and vast meadows. When Theodore Lyman died in 1839, the property including the house and land stayed in the Lyman family until it was gifted in 1951 to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, a Boston museum which has preserved the Lyman estate as an historic house known as "The Vale." Note: The conservation report on this chair was prepared by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities in 1994, when the show cover was hand-loomed for the chair.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2004-02-22
