What: A Chippendale mahogany side chair that sold for $40,625 this April at Doyle New York was made by a Boston cabinetmaker around 1770. The classic design has leaf and rope carving, plus acanthus carved cabriole legs.
More: Originally part of a set of at least eight chairs, the chair is incised both IIII and VIII, indicating that the seat may come from a different chair. A chair from the same set marked V sold at Sotheby’s for $464,000 in 2006. Chair number I is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and chairs VII and VIII are in the collection of Winterthur Museum.
Smart collectors know: Furniture by known Colonial cabinetmakers is highly prized and pricey. Makers in Boston, New York, Maryland, Virginia and Rhode Island developed distinctive riffs on traditional English furniture.
Hot tip: It is wrong to use a 2006 result as absolute value. Value is only what an object sells for at a specific time. Past sales are just a benchmark.
Bottom line: With furniture of this type, provenance matters. Lineage and documentation on this and other chairs in the set include the names DeWolf, Quincy, Haskell and the like.
