Has anyone seen this chair?
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Victorian Furniture thread on victorianforum.com · started March 24, 2010 by dietzberger · 3 posts, 1 image attachment · discussion in 2010.
This painting, by American artist Lilly Martin Spencer, was painted in Newark for Marcus L. Ward in the late 1850s. The chair in it, made by John Jelliff & Co. of Newark, appears in photographs in the Newark Museum archives. It disappeared in 1921, when the house was emptied…
This painting, by American artist Lilly Martin Spencer, was painted in Newark for Marcus L. Ward in the late 1850s. The chair in it, made by John Jelliff & Co. of Newark, appears in photographs in the Newark Museum archives. It disappeared in 1921, when the house was emptied (and ultimately torn down to build the Newark Museum!). Why didn't we take the chair!? And where did it go. The 1718 date carved into the crest represents the granting of a royal charter by Queen Anne to a Ward ancestor. I can't believe this chair doesn't exist still--even in the victorian hating 1920s they wouldn't have trashed a baby like this. Right?
Hopefully it will be found one day.
Did you notice the Hunzinger chair in the lower left portion of the second image? I hunted down a recent photo of the same chair.
Did you notice the Hunzinger chair in the lower left portion of the second image? I hunted down a recent photo of the same chair.
The array of furniture in that photograph--NY Chippendale, NY federal, NY 1860s, the Hunzinger chair--all of it disappeared. Not one stick was left to us in 1921 when we inherited lots of things from Marcus L. Ward's estate. The painting we did inherit (10 feet tall) is just out of camera view, to the left of the gothic chair in the photograph. I dream that it's out there somewhere, waiting to be rediscovered.