Fancy side chair (one of a set of three, related to 1981.72)

1820-1835

Measurements

33 in x 18 in x 18 1/2 in

Materials

Maple and unidentified hardwoods, rush seats

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation

Accession Number

1981.71

Inscription

One chair (71.1) has “MFJ” written on an early twentieth-century “jelly label” affixed to the inside front of left rear leg immediately below the rush seat. Another chair (71.2) has a label with “MJH” attached to the inside of the front seat casing.

Condition Notes

The three chairs survive in excellent condition, including original rush seats.

Provenance

These three side chairs and a fourth (accession no. 1981.72), having a slightly different paint scheme, were purchased from the estate of Miss Margaret Janvier Hort; she had said that the set had been owned by Thomas Janvier (1772–1852) of New Castle, Delaware.

Comments

This set of three chairs (1981.71.1 was photographed) and a fourth with slightly different painted decoration (accession no. 1981.72) was owned by Margaret Janvier Hort, who identified Thomas Janvier, the cabinet-making nephew of John Janver Sr., as the original owner.  Reinforcing that provenance, one chair bears a paper label with Hort's initials; another has the initials MFJ, probably for Mary Fries Janvier (1862–1947), with whom Hort corresponded regularly about Janvier family affairs.  The fourth chair (1982.72) has the name Janvier written in pencil inside one of the seat casings.  The two paper labels suggest the set had been divided between Margaret and Mary.  After Mary's death, the set was likely reunited.

Thomas Janvier's ownership of the set does not necessarily imply that he made them.  By the time of their manufacture, he had developed interests beyond furniture making, notably working as a banker in his home town of New Castle, Delaware.  The chairs are indistinguishable from ones made in Philadelphia, from where he might have purchased them.

Aside from paint differences, the fourth chair is identical to these three .

Bibliography

Zimmerman, A Storied Past, 167-168, no. 53.