Fine Pair Massachusetts Federal Shield Back Side Chairs, Attributed Samuel McIntire

Salem, Massachusetts, 1780-1800, backs carved with swags and wheat, urn splats on semicircular leaf and punch carved medallions, compass seats with brass tacked red moire silk over the rail upholstery, square tapered legs, maple, ash, and white pine secondaries, 38-1/2 x 21-1/2 x 18 in., seat height 18 in.

Provenance: Nathan Liverant and Son, Colchester, Connecticut, May 1996 (accompanied by copy of 2007 appraisal); Estate of Richard and Shirley Roberts, Virginia Beach, Virginia

Literature: Deanne Levison, "Living with Antiques: A Collection on the Chesapeake Bay", The Magazine Antiques (December 2001), p. 808, pl. VIII.

Note: This exact design is featured on a chair in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and illustrated in Dean T. Lahikainen, Samuel McIntire, Carving an American Style (2007), on the back cover as well as on p. 224, fig. 5-13. Samuel McIntire was influenced by George Hepplewhite's design in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide (Bell, p.10).

Other comparable chairs are held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston at Bayou Bend, Winterthur Museum, Library and Garden, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.