Description:
Rococo side chair with pierced splat, over-the-rail upholstered seat, scrolled arms and cabriole legs. On a label, in ink is sewn on the underside of the unpholstery is: "This chair was owned by Caleb Strong/First US Senator from Massachusetts 1788 to 1794/and 1794 to 1800 and Governor of Massachusetts/ 1800-1810./I bought it of Miss Clara C. Allen who/inherited it from her father, Judge William Allen/who was executor of Caleb's estate and received/it as part of his compensation for services as/executor./April 14, 1920. E.E. Strong." Caleb Strong (1745-1819), who was born and died in Northampton, was a US senator from 1789-1796 and Massachusetts governor from 1800-1807 and 1812-1816. Clara Channing Allen (b. 1860-after 1927) was the daughter of William Allen (1822-1891) who also sold a chest of drawers made by John Townsend (1732-1809) to the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1927. Her father was born after Caleb Strong's death in 1819 so if the story is true, the executor may have been her grandfather, Rev. William Allen (1784-1868) who was the President of Dartmouth College in 1817 and then the President of Bowdoin College from 1820-1839 when he retired and moved to Northampton. Around 1825, William Allen commissioned a local cabinetmaker to add the scrolled arms in the neoclassical style, emulating the arms on chairs from ancient Greece. The back has a pierced splat with shaped crest rail and projecting ears; the seat is upholstered in patterned horse hair; and the two front cabriole legs terminate in pad feet. "500-26-1763" is scratched into right rear leg (see object file). This chair joins other pieces owned by Strong at HD: high chest of drawers (63.164); desk-and-bookcase (1246); "fancy" armchairs and side chairs (64.062).
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+90.220 |
