Daniel Kurt Ackermann
Sitting on the Severn: A Group of Mid-Eighteenth Century Chairs from Annapolis

American Furniture 2024

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Contents
  • Figure 1
    Figure 1

    Augustine Herrman (1621 or 1622–1686), Virginia and Maryland as It Is Planted and Inhabited This Present Year (London: Augustine Herrman and Thomas Withinbrook, 1673). Engraving. 31 1/2" x 37 1/2" (1 map on 4 sheets). 

  • Figure 2
    Figure 2

    John Callahan, copy of James Stoddert’s 1718 “A ground platt of . . . Annapolis,” 1798. (Courtesy, Collection of the Maryland State Archives.) Stoddert’s map was based on a plan by Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson.

  • Figure 3
    Figure 3

    “Furniture from Brice House, Annapolis: Now in the Collecion of Mrs. Breckinridge Long, at Laurel, Maryland,” Antiques 27, no. 1 (January 1935): 13.

  • Figure 4
    Figure 4

    James Brice House, 42 East Street, Annapolis, Maryland, built 1767–1774. (Photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

  • Figure 5
    Figure 5

    Detail of fig. 3 showing the Brice armchair, Annapolis, Maryland, 1745–1755. Walnut. Dimensions and current location unknown.

  • Figure 6
    Figure 6

    John Brice II House, 195 Prince George Street, Annapolis, Maryland, built 1739. (Photo, Historic American Buildings Survey, no. HABS MD,2-ANNA,14—1.)

  • Figure 7
    Figure 7

    A comparison of the numbers of craftspeople documented in the MESDA Craftsman Database in Annapolis, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Williamsburg, and their environs. 

  • Figure 8
    Figure 8

    Armchair, Annapolis, Maryland, 1745–1755. Woods not identified. Dimensions not recorded. (Current location unknown; photo, MESDA Research Center.) This armchair was sold by Craig and Tarlton, Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1980.

  • Figure 9
    Figure 9

    Armchair, Annapolis, Maryland, 1745–1755. Woods not identified. Dimensions not recorded. (Current location unknown; photo, MESDA Research Center.) Photographs of this chair were sent to Craig and Tarlton by Mrs. J. G. Whitman in 1982.

  • Figure 10
    Figure 10

    Side chair, Annapolis, Maryland, 1745–1755. Walnut and yellow pine. H. 37 3/4", W. 23", D. 20 1/2". (Private collection; photo, Wes Stewart.) This side chair is one of six in a private collection. Three other chairs from the same set survive in the collections of Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, acc. nos. 69.765, .1, .2 and Colonial Williamsburg, acc. no. 2010-26 (see fig. 23).

  • Figure 11
    Figure 11

    Armchair, Annapolis, Maryland, 1745–1755. Walnut and yellow pine. H. 41", W. 22 1/2", D. 19 1/4". (Private collection; photo, the author.)

  • Figure 12
    Figure 12

    Detail of the side chair in fig. 10. (Photo, Wes Stewart.)

  • Figure 13
    Figure 13

    Detail of the numbered strip on the rear rail of a side chair from the same set as the side chair in fig. 10. (Private collection; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

  • Figure 14
    Figure 14

    Detail of the side chair in fig. 10 showing the double-tenon joint between the seat rail and rear stile. (Photo, Wes Stewart.)

  • Figure 15
    Figure 15

    Detail of the side chair in fig. 10 showing the joint between the front and side seat rails. (Photo, Wes Stewart.)

  • Figure 16
    Figure 16

    Detail of the armchair in fig. 11. (Photo, the author.)

  • Figure 17
    Figure 17

    Side chair, Annapolis, Maryland, 1745–1755. Walnut and yellow pine. H. 39", W. 22", D. 20". (Courtesy, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, gift of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Sears Jr.; photo, Wes Stewart.)

  • Figure 18
    Figure 18

    Detail of the side chair in fig. 17. (Photo, Wes Stewart.)

  • Figure 19
    Figure 19

    Armchair, Annapolis, Maryland, 1755–1770. Mahogany and yellow pine. H. 37 3/4", W. 27 1/4", D. 24". (Private collection [courtesy, Sumpter Priddy, Inc.]; photo, Dennis McWaters.)

  • Figure 20
    Figure 20

    Dressing table, Annapolis, Maryland, 1745–1755. Walnut, poplar, white cedar, and yellow pine (by microanalysis). H. 29", W. 34 1/8", D. 19 1/2". (Courtesy, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts; photo, Dan Routh.)

  • Figure 21
    Figure 21

    Details of the feet on the chairs in figs. 10 and 19, and on the dressing table in fig. 20. (Photos, Wes Stewart [left], Dennis McWaters [center], and Dan Routh [right].

  • Figure 22
    Figure 22

    Side chair, Ireland, 1745–1755. Mahogany. H. 38 1/2", W. 22", D. 21 3/4". (Collection of Marshall Field V; photo, Christie’s Images.)

  • Figure 23
    Figure 23

    Interior of Sands House, 130 Prince George Street, Annapolis, Md. Undated photograph, Maryland Historical Trust Survey. At the far right is the side chair now at Colonial Williamsburg and part of the same set as the chair in fig. 10.

  • Figure 24
    Figure 24

    John Hesselius (1728–1778), Portrait of Horatio Sharpe, ca. 1760. Oil on canvas. 50" x 40" (approx.). (Private collection; photo, courtesy of the Frick Art Research Library.)

  • Figure 25
    Figure 25

    Governor Samuel Ogle House, 247 King George Street, Annapolis, Maryland, ca. 1739. (Photo, Historic American Buildings Survey, no. HABS MD,2-ANNA, 1—5.)

  • Figure 26
    Figure 26

    Detail (inset of Governor’s House) of Bird’s Eye View of the City of Annapolis, Capital of the State of Maryland, ca. 1858. Lithograph. (Courtesy, Collection of the Maryland State Archives.)