1. Solomon Fussell Account Book, 1738–1748, Stephen Collins Collection, Library of Congress (hereinafter cited as LC), Washington, D.C. (microfilm, Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Winterthur Museum Library, Winterthur, Del. [hereinafter cited as DCM and WML]).
2. John Gaines II and Thomas Gaines Account Book, 1712–1762, DCM; David Haven Account Book, 1785–1800, DCM.
3. John Durand Account Book, 1760–1783, Milford Historical Society (hereinafter cited as Mfd HS), Milford, Connecticut (microfilm, DCM); James Chase Account Books, 1797–1812, private collection (transcription, Charles S. Parsons, New Hampshire Notes, Visual Resources Collection [hereinafter cited as VRC], WML).
4. Amos Denison Allen Memorandum Book, 1796–1803, and Elisha Hawley Account Book, 1781–1805, Connecticut Historical Society (hereinafter cited as CHS), Hartford; Samuel Durand Daybook, 1806–1838, Mfd HS.
5. “York” chairs with pad feet are documented by brand to the New York shops of David Coutant (collection of Historic Hudson Valley) and Jacob Smith (collection of New York State Museum, see John L. Scherer, New York Furniture at the New York State Museum [Alexandria, Va.: Highland House, 1984], cat. 22). Connecticut examples are in Robert F. Trent, Hearts and Crowns: Folk Chairs of the Connecticut Coast, 1720–1840 (New Haven, Conn.: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1977), figs. 34, 38, 39. James Chestney in Albany Chronicle (Albany, N.Y.), August 10, 1797, as illustrated in Dorothy Ellesin, “Collectors’ Notes,” Antiques 106, no. 6 (December 1974): 1033.
6. Francis Trumble Bills to Thomas Wharton, August 14, 1761, and to Hollingsworth and Rudolph, June 10, 1770, Harrold Gillingham Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania (hereinafter cited as HSP), Philadelphia, Pa.; Sheed and White in South Carolina Gazette (Charleston, S.C.), June 23, 1766, Prime Cards, WML; Walter Franklin Inventory, September 18, 1786, DCM.
7. William Davis Bill to State of Rhode Island, April 28, 1784, Rhode Island Colony Records, v. 12, p. 517, Rhode Island State Archives, Providence; Aaron Lopez Outward Bound Invoice Book, 1763–1768, Newport Historical Society, Newport, R.I.; Stephen Girard Journal, 1786–1790, Girard Papers, Girard College, Philadelphia, Pa.; Isaac Smith Inventory, December 4, 1787, Suffolk County Probate Court, Boston, Mass. (microfilm, DCM).
8. Inventories of Silvanus Coffin (September 25, 1784), Andrew Myrick (January 14, 1783), Henry Clark (August 30, 1792), Jonathan Burnell (May 1799), and Richard Bunker (January 6, 1794), Nantucket County Probate Court, Nantucket, Mass.
9. Sheed and White, South Carolina Gazette; Garrett Meade Receipt Book, 1759–1762, Dreer Collection, HSP; Lopez Invoice Book.
10. Nicholas Lechmere Confiscated Estate, 1779, Confiscated Loyalist Estates, DCM; Franklin Inventory; Rebecca Seaton Inventory, 1766, Register of Wills, Philadelphia, Pa. (microfilm, DCM).
11. Andrew Gautier in New York Gazette (New York), June 6, 1765.
12. Francis Trumble Bill to Hollingsworth and Rudolph, September 5, 1770, Gillingham Collection; Francis Trumble Bill to John Cadwalader, July 19, 1771, Cadwalader Papers, General John Cadwalader, HSP; Uriah Woolman Bills of Lading, 1772–1775, HSP; John James and Sykes and Lushington in South Carolina Gazette, December 7, 1771, and September 12, 1774; Isaac Hazlehurst and Company List of Disbursements and Invoice of Cargo for Ship Canton, December 1, 12, 1789, William Constable Shipping Papers, Constable-Pierrepont Papers, New York Public Library (hereinafter cited as NYPL), New York.
13. Allen Memorandum Book; Ebenezer Devotion Ledger, 1775–1799, New London County Historical Society, New London, Conn.; Solomon Cole Account Book, 1794–1809, CHS.
14. Hazlehurst Invoice of Cargo; William Cox Bill to Stephen Girard, September 5, 1787, Girard Papers; Joseph Henzey Bill to member of Coates family, November 25, 1785, Coates-Reynell Papers, HSP; Stephen Collins and Sons Letter to Joseph Blake, June 15, 1795, Letter Book, 1794–1801, Collins Collection; John Lambert Estate Records, 1793, Register of Wills, Philadelphia, Pa.; Ansel Goodrich Estate Records, 1803, Hampshire County Probate Court, Northampton, Mass.
15. Henzey Bill to Coates family; Owners of Schooner Nancy Account with Winslow Lewis, July 30, 1791, Greenough Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston; Thomas Beck vs. William Campbell and William Freeman vs. George Labottiere, Miscellaneous Legal Suits, 1808, Cumberland County, Massachusetts (Maine), DCM; Nicholas Low Account with Miles Beach, June 7, 1805, Nicholas Low Papers, LC; William Seaver Bill to Joseph Russell, October 18, 1794, Boston Theatre Papers, Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass.; Ebenezer Knowlton Estate Records, 1811, Suffolk County Probate Court, Boston, Mass. (microfilm, DCM); Oliver Avery Account Book, 1789–1813, DCM; Samuel Douglas Account Book, 1810–1858, Connecticut State Library (hereinafter cited as CSL), Hartford.
16. Robert Blackwell Receipt Book, 1783–1792, HSP.
17. Jones and Clark in Charleston City Gazette (Charleston, S.C.), July 7, 1791, Prime Cards, WML; William Cox Bill, March 12, 1791, and Joseph Henzey Bill, September 20, 1792, to Stephen Girard, Girard Papers; John B. Ackley Bill to Samuel Coates, November 26, 1800, Reynell and Coates Collection, Baker Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Lambert Estate Records; Francis Trumble Estate Records, 1798, Register of Wills, Philadelphia, Pa.
18. Allen Memorandum Book.
19. Josiah Austin Bill to Waters and Sinclair, March 1, 1790, Waters Family Papers, Essex Institute (hereinafter cited as EI), Salem, Mass.; Elijah and Jacob Sanderson Account with Micaiah Johnson, 1794–1795, Papers of Elijah Sanderson, EI; Elihu Alford (Alvord) Bill to Nicholas Low, July 30, 1804, Low Papers; Hector Sanford in Scioto Gazette (Chillicothe, Oh.), December 11, 1805 (reference courtesy of John R. Grabb).
20. Peter Tillou Bill to Mrs. Montgomery, March 6, 1792, Robert R. Livingston Papers, New-York Historical Society (hereinafter cited as NYHS), New York.
21. Elisha Hawley Account Book, 1781–1805, CHS.
22. Allen Memorandum Book.
23. Taylor and King Bill, May 21, 1799, and Joseph Burden Bill, December 12, 1810, to Stephen Girard, Girard Papers; James Brobson, Shipping Record Book, 1790–1805, DCM.
24. David Alling Account Book, 1801–1839, and Ledger, 1815–1818, New Jersey Historical Society (hereinafter cited as NJHS) (microfilm, DCM); Allen Holcomb Account Book, 1809–ca. 1828, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
25. Cole Account Book; Silas E. Cheney Account Book, 1807–1813, Litchfield Historical Society (hereinafter cited as LHS), Litchfield, Conn. (microfilm, DCM).
26. Charles C. Robinson Daybook, 1809–1825, HSP; Henry Prall Estate Records, 1802, Register of Wills, Philadelphia, Pa.; Thomas Adams Bill to U.S. War Department, November 9, 1814, Miscellaneous Treasury Accounts of the First Auditor, Treasury Records, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
27. Thomas Boynton Ledger, 1810–1817, Dartmouth College Library (hereinafter cited as DCL), Hanover, N.H. (microfilm, DCM); William G. Beesley Daybook, 1828–1836, Salem County Historical Society, Salem, N.J.; Caleb Gallup Inventory, November 28, 1827, in Jane Sikes Hageman and Edward M. Hageman, Ohio Furniture Makers, 2 vols. (Cincinnati, Ohio: by the authors, 1989), 2:23.
28. David Alling Invoice Book, 1819–1820, NJHS (microfilm, DCM); Holcomb Account Book; Boynton Ledger; Elizur Barnes Account Book, 1821–1825, Middlesex Historical Society, Middletown, Conn.; Henry May and Thomas S. Renshaw in Scioto Gazette and Fredonian Chronicle (Chillicothe, Ohio), February 29, 1816 (reference courtesy of John R. Grabb).
29. Bernard Foot Bill to Ebenezer Pearson, September 24, 1813, Pearson Family Papers, EI; David Pritchard, Jr., Account Books, 1800–1810 and 1827–1838, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Conn.; Silas E. Cheney Account Books, 1816–1822 and 1813–1846, LHS (microfilm, DCM); Isaac Stone Bill to Ebenezer Fox, November 28, 1811, Papers of Ebenezer Fox and Family, EI; Anthony Steel Estate Records, 1817, Register of Wills, Philadelphia, Pa.
30. Benjamin Bass Inventory, 1819, Suffolk County Probate Court, Boston, Mass. (microfilm, DCM); Henry Beck in New Hampshire Gazette (Portsmouth), September 20, 1808, as quoted in Parsons, New Hampshire Notes; Boynton Ledger.
31. Alling Ledger.
32. Thomas Walter Ward II Inventory Book, ca. 1838–1845, DCM; Jacob Felton Daybook 1836–1838, Old Sturbridge Village (hereinafter cited as OSV), Sturbridge, Mass.; Elbridge Gerry Reed Daybook, 1829–1851, private collection (photocopy, OSV); Philemon Robbins Account Book, 1833–1836, CHS.
33. Barnes Account Book; Peter A. Willard Estate Records, 1842–1843, Worcester County Probate Court, Worcester, Mass.; Charles Riley Estate Records, 1842, Register of Wills, Philadelphia, Pa. (microfilm, DCM).
34. Willard Estate Records; Reed Daybook.
35. David Pritchard Estate Records, 1839, Genealogical Section, CSL; William Knights Letter to Joel Pratt, Jr., September 21, 1837, private collection (microfilm, OSV); Calvin Stetson Account Book, 1843–1857, DCM.
36. Steel Estate Records; Joel Pratt, Jr., Account Book, 1822–1829, private collection (microfilm, OSV); Reed Daybook.
37. William Haydon in United States Gazette (Philadelphia, Pa.), June 20, 1815; W. A. and D. M. Coggeshall in Rhode Island Republican (Newport), July 15, 1835; A. and J. B. Mathiot in Matchett’s Baltimore Director[y], for 1840–1841 (Baltimore, Md.: Baltimore Director[y] Office, [1840]), n.p.
38. Reed Daybook; Pratt Account Book.
39. Josiah Prescott Wilder Daybook and Ledger, 1837–1861, Charles S. Parsons, Wilder Family Notes, VRC; Felton Daybook; Reed Daybook; Samuel Stuart Estate Records, 1829, Worcester County Probate Court, Worcester, Mass.
40. Luke Houghton Ledgers A to C, 1816–1851, Barre Historical Society, Barre, Mass. (microfilm, DCM); Robbins Account Book; Congdon and Tracy in Norwich Courier (Norwich, Conn.), October 27, 1830.
41. The London Chair-Makers’ and Carvers’ Book of Prices for Workmanship (London: T. Sorrell, 1802), pl. 3, fig. 6, and p. 41; John K. Cowperthwaite in Longworth’s Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory (New York: Jonathan Olmstead, 1819), p. 4; The New-York Book of Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair Work (New York: J. Seymour, 1817), pl. 6.
42. Alling Account Book; David Alling Receipt Book, 1824–1842, and Daybook, 1836–1854, NJHS (microfilm, DCM); Benjamin W. Branson Estate Records, 1835, DCM; Richard D. Blauvelt Bill to Mr. Shaler, April 10, 1833, Landaur Collection, NYHS; Robert C. Scadin Daybook, 1829–1831, Chauncey Strong Daybook, 1842–1852, and Miles Benjamin Daybook and Ledger, 1821–1829, all New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, N.Y.
43. Levi Stillman Account Book, 1815–1834, Sterling Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; Barnes Account Book; Pritchard Account Books; Robbins Account Book; James Gere Account Book, 1809–1839, and Ledger, 1822–1852, CSL.
44. Pratt Account Book; Reed Daybook; Felton Daybook; Wilder Daybook and Ledger; Thomas Boynton Ledger, 1817–1847, DCL (microfilm, DCM); Robbins Account Book.
45. Reed Daybook.
46. Robbins Account Book; Ward Inventory Book; Wilder Daybook and Ledger.
47. Frederick Fox in Berks and Schuylkill Journal (Reading, Pa.), April 26, 1845; Riley Estate Records.
48. Branson Estate Records; Reed Daybook; Daniel W. Badger Estate Records, 1847–1848, CSL.
49. Samuel Claphamson in Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia, Pa.), January 8, 1785, as quoted in Alfred Coxe Prime, comp., The Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia, Maryland, and South Carolina, 1721–1785 (Philadelphia: Walpole Society, 1929), p. 162. William Palmer in Weekly Museum (New York), October 15, 1796, John Mitchell in The Argus (New York), March 4, 1796, and William Challen in New-York Gazette and General Advertiser (New York), February 22, 1797, all as quoted in Rita Susswein Gottesman, comp., The Arts and Crafts in New York, 1777–1797 (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1954), pp. 113, 124, 140.
50. William Haydon and William H. Stewart Bill to James J. Skerrett, March 17, 1818, Loudonn Papers, HSP; George Hepplewhite, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1794; reprint of 3d ed., New York: Dover, 1969), pls. 3 left, 6 left; London Book of Prices, pl. 3, fig. 1, and pl. 5, no. 13.
51. John and Hugh Finlay in Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Advertiser (Baltimore, Md.), November 8, 1805, as quoted in William Voss Elder III, Baltimore Painted Furniture, 1800–1840 (Baltimore, Md.: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1972), p. 11; May and Renshaw in Scioto Gazette and Fredonian Chronicle; Joshua Moore Bill to Humberston Skipwith, July 12, 1819, Peyton Skipwith Papers, Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.
52. David Tilden vs. William Seaver, 1804, Colonial Court Records Project, Social Law Library, Boston, Mass. (reference courtesy of Charles A. Hammond and John T. Kirk); Asa Holden in New-York Evening Post (New York), August 4, 1812.
53. Alling Account Book; Holcomb Account Book.
54. Alling Account Book, Receipt Book, and Daybook; Abijah Coon advertisement for rush in Weekly Museum, July 22, 1797, as quoted in Gottesman, comp., Arts and Crafts, pp. 136–37; Elisha H. Holmes Account Book, 1825–1830, CHS.
55. Alling Ledger and Invoice Book; photographs of Skellorn chair and billhead in VRC, no. 69.11.
56. Alling Account Book, Ledger, and Invoice Book; David Alling, Receipt Book, 1803–1824, and Ledger, 1803–1853, NJHS (microfilm, DCM); William Palmer Bill to Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, June 22, 1807, Robert R. Livingston Papers, NYHS; William Buttre Bill to Oliver Wolcott, December 8, 1810, CHS; Stillman Account Book; Gere Account Book; Barnes Account Book; Pritchard Account Book, 1800–1810; Cheney Account Books, 1816–1822, 1813–1846; Boynton Ledger, 1810–1817.
57. Barnes Account Book; Silas E. Cheney Account with William Butler, March 26, 1808, Superior Court Records, Litchfield County, Conn., CSL; Alling Daybook.
58. Alling Account Book; Cheney Account Books, 1816–1822, 1813–1846; Ebenezer West, Timothy West, and (?) Hatch Bill to Silas Cheney, December
26,1814, Superior Court Records, Litchfield County, Conn.
59. Alling Invoice Book, London Book of Prices, pl. 4, no. 13, and p. 24.
60. Longworth’s Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory (New York: David Longworth, 1813), p. 89.
61. London Book of Prices, pl. 3, figs. 1–3; Samuel J. Tuck in Columbian Centinal (Boston, Mass.), October 15,1803; (?) Nolen and William S. Gridley in Columbian Centinel, December 12, 1810.
62. Buttre Bill to Wolcott; Alling Ledger, 1815–1818; Holcomb Account Book.
63. Bass Inventory; Nolen and Gridley, Columbian Centinel.
64. The three-stick Windsor chair is illustrated in Nancy Goyne Evans, American Windsor Chairs (New York: Hudson Hills, 1996), fig. 7-29.
65. London Book of Prices, pl. 3, fig. 6.
66. Holden, New-York Evening Post; London Book of Prices, pl. 3, fig. 6; Alling Invoice Book; Henry Wilder Miller Account Book, 1827–1831, Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester, Mass.; Thomas Sill in Middlesex Gazette (Middletown, Conn.), December 22, 1814; Davis and Bussey in B. Pearce, The Albany Directory (Albany, N.Y.: E. and E. Hosford, 1819), n.p.
67. The family and purchase background of the chair in figure 29 is given in Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast, edited by Brock Jobe (Boston: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1993), cat. 100; and Gerald W. R. Ward and Karin E. Cullity, “The Wendell Family Furniture at Strawbery Banke Museum,” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1993), pp. 253–55. New-York Book of Prices, as excerpted in Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period (New York: Viking Press, 1966), p. 104; Holcomb Account Book; London Book of Prices, pl. 6, no. 9, and p. 46. Chairs with similar elbows and supports are in: The Ornamented Chair, edited by Zilla Rider Lea (Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1960), pp. 51–52, figs. 33, 35; Northeast Auctions, “New Hampshire Auction,” August 3–4, 1991, lot 570; Sotheby’s, “Fine American Furniture, Folk Art, Folk Paintings, and Silver,” June 21, 1989, lot 346; Ronna L. Reynolds, Images of Connecticut Life (Hartford, Conn.: Antiquarian and Landmarks Society of Connecticut, 1978), p. 79.
68. Sill, Middlesex Gazette; Thomas West in Connecticut Gazette (New London, Conn.), February 10, 1810; James S. Chapman in Connecticut Herald (New Haven, Conn.), April 18, 1809; Stillman Account Book; Gere Ledger; Sidney Twidel Bill to Silas E. Cheney, December 3, 1819, Superior Court Records, Litchfield County, Conn.
69. Seymour Watrous in Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.), March 2, 1824, as illustrated in Lea, ed., Ornamented Chair, p. 90; Alling Invoice Book.
70. New-York Book of Prices, pl. 6, fig. D, as illustrated in Montgomery, Federal Furniture, p. 104; T. Deland Bill to Daniel W. Rogers, April 13, 1829, Papers of Daniel W. Rogers, EI; Alling Invoice Book.
71. Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterers’ Drawing-Book (1793; reprint ed., New York: Dover, 1972), pl. 36, no. 1. Federal-period chairs patterned after Sheraton’s designs are in: Montgomery, Federal Furniture, cats. 58–60; Marshall B. Davidson, The American Heritage History of American Antiques from the Revolution to the Civil War ([New York]: American Heritage, 1968), p. 49, top; 19th-Century America (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970), cat. 5.
72. Bryson Gill and Company in Matchett’s Baltimore Directory for 1824 (Baltimore, Md.: R. J. Matchett, 1824), n.p.; John Robinson in American and Commercial Daily Advertiser (Baltimore, Md.), October 6, 1825.
73. Gregory R. Weidman, “The Furniture of Classical Maryland, 1815–1845,” in Classical Maryland, 1815–1845 (Baltimore, Md.: Maryland Historical Society, 1993), pp. 89–110, including figs. 124, 131. A nineteenth-century “Roman” chair with tapered legs is in Pauline Agius, Ackermann’s Regency Furniture and Interiors (Marlborough, England: Crowood Press, 1984), pl. 15.
74. Agius, Ackermann’s Regency Furniture, pl. 78, left; designs by P. and M. A. Nicholson (H. Fisher, publisher) and George Smith in Edward Joy, Pictorial Dictionary of British 19th-Century Furniture Design (Woodbridge, England: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1977), pp. 214–15.
75. Pritchard Account Book, 1827–1838; Lambert Hitchcock Bill to Gerral(?) Adams, December 12, 1834, as illustrated in John Tarrant Kenney, The Hitchcock Chair (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1971), p. 134; Isaac Wright Account Book, 1834–1837, CSL; Robbins Account Book; Frederick Parrott and Fenelon Hubbell Insolvency Inventory, 1835, CSL; Alling Account Book and Daybook; Reed Daybook; Anne Castrodale Golovin, “Cabinetmakers and Chairmakers of Washington, D.C., 1791–1840,” Antiques 107, no. 5 (May 1975): 906–22.
76. Alling Account Book; Parrott and Hubbell Insolvency Inventory; Agius, Ackermann’s Regency Furniture, pl. 78, right.
77. Robbins Account Book; Willard Estate Records; Felton Daybook.
78. London Book of Prices, pl. 4, no. 14, and pl. 5, no. 13; Thomas Hope, Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807; reprint ed., New York: Dover, 1971), pl. 40, no. 6; Agius, Ackermann’s Regency Furniture, pls. 2, 34.
79. Tuck, and Nolen and Gridley, Columbian Centinel; William Cunningham Bill to Mr. A. Broadwell, March
23, 1839, W. Graham Arader III, New York; Fox, Berks and Schuylkill Journal.
80. William Haydon in United States Gazette (Philadelphia. Pa.), June 20, 1815; James Mitchell Bill to James J. Skerrett, April 10, 1818, Loudonn Papers; William Miller Bill to Peter Gansevoort, December 27, 1834, Gansevoort-Lansing Collection, NYPL; Stetson Account Book; Benjamin F. Heywood Estate Records, 1843, Worcester County Probate Court, Worcester, Mass.
81. James Helme Book of Prices, 1838, DCM. |