Pair of Armchairs En Gondoles

EX COLL.: [art market, Beacon, New York, circa 1987]; to private collection, 1987-1997; to [Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1997-1998]; to private collection, and by descent, until 2013; to private collection

One of the most popular forms of chairs made in France during the early years of the 19th century was the chaise gondole, literally gondola chair, in which the rounded plan of the chair actually enveloped the sitter, much like that of a more conventional barrel chair. The form was also used in England, and even enjoyed some popularity in the United States. The side chairs that are a part of the suite of furniture that Duncan Phyfe made for New York lawyer Samuel Foot in 1837, now in the Greek Revival Parlor in The American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, represent a type that became popular in the later 1820s and through that 1830s.

Like the whole genre of easy chairs in American neoclassical furniture, chaises gondoles with open or closed arms are extremely rare, only a very small number having been recorded. One of this group is published in Oscar P. Fitzgerald’s three centuries of American Furniture (New York: Gramercy Publishing Company, 1982), p. 113 fig. VI-4, where it is simply called “American, circa 1830.” It is very likely of New York origin, as is this pair of chairs of virtually identical form but with handsomely veneered and scrolled backs instead of the upholstered back of the published example.

These chairs appear to be unique in form. Although adapted from a generic French form, they have been modified to create an indigenously American expression that would not easily be mistaken for French examples.

The inside of the seat rail of one chair is marked with the incised number “I,” as is the accompanying slip seat. The second chair bears the number “II,” as, again, does the accompanying slip seat.

Condition: The curved seat rails have been repaired above the rear legs. The top four inches of one front leg have been replaced. One scrolled end of each of the back splats has been restored. Cleaned and French polished.