Sofa

1795-1805

Maker

Possibly Jacob Wayne (1760–1857)

Measurements

33 1/2 in x 76 in x 25 in

Materials

Mahogany, lightwood stringing; secondary woods not examined

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.661

Condition Notes

The bottom 3 inches of all feet are restored, except the left rear leg, which is a replacement. Some stretchers are replacements.

Provenance

The sofa descended from William Corbit through the Sara Corbit Levis branch to the donor, Mrs. Earle R. (Mary Louise Curtis) Crowe (1897–1976).

Comments

William Corbit's 1818 estate inventory listed a "sopha" in the parlor, where this example now stands.  Its provenance suggests that it is the same one.  It is of the "square-back" variety, in contrast to those with curved lines and shapes.  Its square tapered legs reinforce the date range in general, but more specific comparison likens it to a sofa made in 1796 for Casper Wistar Haines now at Wyck, his house in Germantown.  (See Joseph Downs, “Jacob Wayne, Cabinet-maker,” Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Museum 25, no. 135 [May 1930]: 25.)  All of this dating places manufacture of the Historic Odessa sofa at least twenty years later than completion of Corbit's house.  New research reveals that he bought a pair of four-drawer chests (acc. nos. 2020.115 and 2020.132) in 1793.  In 1794 he moved to Philadelphia with his family for several years, where and when he might have purchased this sofa.

Bibliography

Sweeney, Grandeur, 115–16, pl. 9.

Raley, “Restoration,” 67, 69.

Zimmerman, A Storied Past, 134-135.