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Side Chair
circa 1740maple with modern upholstered seat
40 5/8 in. x 21 1/4 in. x 20 1/8 in. (103.19 cm x 53.98 cm x 51.12 cm)
Museum Purchase: Gift of Mr. Christos Papoutsy, Cogswell Benevolent Trust, Amoskeag National Bank and Trust Company: Estate of Benjamin S. Cohen, Priscilla Sullivan, Henry Melville Fuller, Sturm, Ruger and Company, Inc., William S. Banks Foundation, Mrs. Mary Shirley, Anne and Norman Milne, and Mrs. Ruth B. Drake, 1987.58
attributed to John Gaines III
American
1704–1743
John Gaines is the most important name in the early history of New Hampshire furniture making. Gaines, who was a member of a prominent woodworking family from Ipswich, Massachusetts, settled in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during a period of economic expansion. At the time of his death in 1743, Portsmouth was one of the fastest-growing ports in colonial America. Growth and the desire of the city's merchant class to participate in the international consumer revolution created a market for chairs of remarkable vitality and ostentation.
The Ipswich of Gaines's youth boasted a vibrant local economy. Situated between Boston and Salem, it was not wholly dependent on either place for its prosperity or aspirations. John Gaines's father, John Gaines II (1677-1748), was a farmer whose livelihood involved turning on a lathe everything from hoe handles, rolling pins, and cider barrel taps to church pew balusters and chairs. A rare surviving family account book documents the Gaineses' labor and production. The Gaines family specialized in turned work at a time when most joiners offered a general range of products and services. The family is remembered today almost exclusively for its chairs, widely regarded as among the most artful creations in American furniture. It is not certain whether the father or the son was primarily responsible for the design elements of the most admired chairs, but clearly John III's move to Portsmouth furnished patronage that enabled him to adapt and refine them.
This chair is typical of the more sophisticated examples of John Gaines III's production at the time of his death in 1743. The signature features of the old-model Gaines chairs-intricately carved yoke crests, complex vase and flange-shaped splats, and excessively turned legs and stretchers-are further exaggerated, resulting in a piece that is unmatched among American chairs for its exuberance of ornament and form. Here, the baroque idea of verticality and excessive curvature is taken to new heights and crowned with a deeply carved and tightly sculptural compound shell. The turner has now merged another specialization-that of the wood-carver-to create a splendid hybrid of great distinction.
Not surprisingly, John Gaines III attracted a clientele that included several of the leading merchant families of New Hampshire, including Sir William Pepperrell and John Moffatt. The original owner of this chair is not known, but it was one of a set of twelve of Gaines's most expensive chairs and thus inevitably found a place in one of Portsmouth's wealthiest families.
WNH and KB
REFERENCES
Helen Comstock. "An Ipswich Account Book 1707-1762." Antiques LXVI, no. 3 (September 1954): 188-92.
Brock Jobe. Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast. Boston: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1993. Pp.295-300.
The Ipswich of Gaines's youth boasted a vibrant local economy. Situated between Boston and Salem, it was not wholly dependent on either place for its prosperity or aspirations. John Gaines's father, John Gaines II (1677-1748), was a farmer whose livelihood involved turning on a lathe everything from hoe handles, rolling pins, and cider barrel taps to church pew balusters and chairs. A rare surviving family account book documents the Gaineses' labor and production. The Gaines family specialized in turned work at a time when most joiners offered a general range of products and services. The family is remembered today almost exclusively for its chairs, widely regarded as among the most artful creations in American furniture. It is not certain whether the father or the son was primarily responsible for the design elements of the most admired chairs, but clearly John III's move to Portsmouth furnished patronage that enabled him to adapt and refine them.
This chair is typical of the more sophisticated examples of John Gaines III's production at the time of his death in 1743. The signature features of the old-model Gaines chairs-intricately carved yoke crests, complex vase and flange-shaped splats, and excessively turned legs and stretchers-are further exaggerated, resulting in a piece that is unmatched among American chairs for its exuberance of ornament and form. Here, the baroque idea of verticality and excessive curvature is taken to new heights and crowned with a deeply carved and tightly sculptural compound shell. The turner has now merged another specialization-that of the wood-carver-to create a splendid hybrid of great distinction.
Not surprisingly, John Gaines III attracted a clientele that included several of the leading merchant families of New Hampshire, including Sir William Pepperrell and John Moffatt. The original owner of this chair is not known, but it was one of a set of twelve of Gaines's most expensive chairs and thus inevitably found a place in one of Portsmouth's wealthiest families.
WNH and KB
REFERENCES
Helen Comstock. "An Ipswich Account Book 1707-1762." Antiques LXVI, no. 3 (September 1954): 188-92.
Brock Jobe. Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast. Boston: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1993. Pp.295-300.
Exhibition
1992-1993 "Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast." Organized by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, MA. Traveled to: Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, Sept. 15 - Dec. 6, 1992; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, Feb. 7 - April 4, 1993; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME, May 1 - July 11, 1993. 1994 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "A Seat for All: Chairs from the Permanent Collection." May 28 - Aug. 14.
1995-1997 "American Art from the Currier Gallery of Art." Organized by the Currier Gallery of Art and the American Federation of Arts. Traveled to: Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, Dec. 3, 1995 - Jan. 28, 1996; Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL, Mar. 15 - Apr. 7, 1996; Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA, Aug. 10 - Oct. 13, 1996; The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, Feb. 2 - Mar. 30, 1997; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA, Apr. 25 - June 22, 1997; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, July 18 - Sept. 8, 1997, cat. no. 36.
Provenance
Private Collection Nathan A. Nager (dealer)
Purchase and Gift to Currier Gallery of Art, 1987
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