5
The Eddy Family Set of Six Queen Anne Walnut Compass-Seat Side Chairs
Estimate: $50,000-$100,000
Sold
$50,000
Live Auction
Selections of Fine Americana from the Millhiser Collection
Description
The Eddy Family Set of Six Queen Anne Walnut Compass-Seat Side Chairs
Boston, Massachusetts, Circa 1745
The front seat rail and slip seat of each example marked, most retain the original slip seat, including examples, "I, III, IIII, IIIII and IIIIII," the sixth example is marked, "VII," with slip seat, "VIII."
Height 41 3/8 x width 21 1/2 x depth 21 inches.
Condition
Chair I - Appears to retain the original slip seat. Old age crack to splat at junction with crest rail. Crestrail and proper right stile are pinned at their junction. Reglued crack to the proper right stretcher at junction with the cross-stretcher.Chair III - Appears to retain the original slip seat. Area of loss to the carved scroll to the inside of the proper front right leg, with another section previously cracked and reglued. Vertical patches visible to the block at the top of each front leg.Chair IIII - Appears to retain the original slip seat. The crestrail previously cracked and reglued at the junction with the stiles. Vertical patch to the top of the leg stock of the proper front right leg. Chair IIIII - Appears to retain the original slip seat. Patch visible to top of leg stock of proper front right leg. Previous crack reglued to front seat rail at junction with the proper left foreleg, with two associated pinholes visible. The bottom scroll element on this leg (about 1” x 3/4”) previously cracked and reglued. The proper back right leg previously cracked and reglued at the junction with the side and rear seat rails, possibly a patch. Chair IIIIII - Appears to retain the original slip seat. The upper left corner of the splat appears to be cracked and reglued, may be a maker’s flaw that’s existed since manufacture. Vertical patch to the top of the leg stock of the proper front left leg. Old reglued crack to the underside of the proper left stretcher at the junction with the cross-stretcher. Chair VII - Slipseat, while seemingly early, is associated, but likely of the same set. A similar reglued crack to the top of splat as to chair IIIIII. Small old chip loss to base of splat where it meets the shoe. All chairs refinished, likely while still in the hands of Sack.
Provenance
Provenance:By descent through the Eddy Family, Warren, Rhode Island,The Collection of Philip Flayderman, Boston, Massachusetts,Sold by American Arts Association Anderson Galleries, New York, New York, January 2-4, 1930, lot 492,Israel Sack, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts,American Art Association Anderson Galleries, Inc., January 9, 1932, lot 80,Israel Sack, Boston, Massachusetts Inventory Auction, November 23, 1932, E. Ross (1894-1971) and Bessie S. Millhiser (1895-1987), Richmond, Virginia,Kenneth (1924-2021) and Katherine Millhiser (b. 1937), Piedmont, California.Literature:"American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, Inc., advertisement," The Magazine Antiques, 16, no. 6 (December 1929), pg. 450, ill."100 Important American Antiques" auction catalogue of 1932, pl. 80.Albert Sack, "Israel Sack: A Record of Service 1903–1953," Israel Sack, Inc. (1953), pgs. 36–37.Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, New Jersey: MMI Americana Press, 1984), pgs. 248, 255, fig. 6.2.Joan Barzilay Freund and Leigh Keno, "The Making and Marketing of Boston Seating Furniture in the Late Baroque Style," American Furniture (1998), pgs. 33–34, fig. 52.Milo M. Naeve, "A New England Chair Design of 1730-1760 and Attributions to the Job Townsends of Newport," Newport History: Bulletin of the Newport Historical Society, 72 (Spring 2003), pgs. 3, 13–17, charts I–II, IV, fig. 2.Patricia Kane, Art & Industry in Early America Rhode Island Furniture, 1650-1830 (Yale University Press, 2016), pg. 254-256.Rhode Island Furniture Archives (RIF214).