Portraits & Sideboard Vignette, with Details of Each Piece

Pair of Portraits
Attributed to Aaron Dean Fletcher
Vermont
Circa 1840
A handsome matched pair of portraits of a man and woman, unsigned. The man is dressed in a black coat with rolled cuffs, vest, white shirt with a high collar and black stock, he is seated with his arm draped on the back of a fancy painted chair. The woman wears a white turban, a black dress with puffed sleeve, lace collar closed with a brooch, gold pearl and coral pendant earrings, a gold ring on her right middle finger, she is holding a red leather hymn book, and is seated on an ebonized and gilded chair. The background of each painting is in an olive brown. Each is framed in a simple gilded cove wood frame. There is some in-painting on the woman's cheek and along one side at stretcher, there are a few small spots on the background of the man's portrait, both portraits are unlined.
Aaron Dean Fletcher (1817 - 1902) was a self-taught artist. He apparently began painting portraits and landscapes in the Springfield, VT area c. 1835 - 1839. He moved to Keeseville, NY c. 1840 and c. 1856 to Indiana. He returned to NY where he remained until his death in 1902. (Approximately 34-inches x 31-inches framed, view area approximately 26-inches x 23-inches.)
Price: $19,875
121-144

Pair Of Chippendale Mahogany Side Chairs
Massachusetts, probably Boston
Circa 1775
This carved mahogany side chair with a serpentine crest ending in molded scrolled terminals above the openwork pierced scroll owl splat; above the over-upholstered trapezoidal seat frame; on frontal square beaded legs joined to the chamfered rear legs by square H-stretcher. The chairs have good rich color and are in fine condition. (Height: 37.5 inches; Seat Height: 17.5 inches; Width: 21.5 inches; Depth: 18 inches.)
Price: $5,400
492-9

A DIMINUTIVE FEDERAL SIDEBOARD
MAHOGANY
ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS HOWARD, JR.
PAWTUXET & PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island
CIRCA 1810
This fine sideboard has a warm old color; rectangular top with cross-banded edge above a conforming case. The case is fitted with a string-inlaid door flanked on one side by two similarly decorated stacked short drawers and on the other side by a single deep drawer simulating two. The case is raised on square tapered legs inlaid with panels of figured light mahogany. The legs are joined by the shaped apron veneered with vibrant mahogany and having a cross-banded border.

The form and style of this attractive small Federal sideboard is closely associated with the School of Thomas Howard, Jr. (1744-1833), Pawtuxet and Providence, Rhode Island. With its vibrant mahogany veneers and delicate line inlay, this sideboard exemplifies the restrained elegance of American Federal furniture. The stringing design seen on the drawers and doors relate the sideboard to a card table documented by an 1817 bill of sale to Thomas Howard, Jr. (1774-1833) of Pawtuxet and Providence, Rhode Island. Based on this similarity, a group of sideboards of similar form and like ornament to that offered here have been attributed to Howard's hand. Like that illustrated here, all of these sideboards share the same diminutive form, layout of drawers and doors (including the deceit of one large deep drawer decorated to simulate two stacked drawers) and shaped skirt. Howard began practicing his trade in Pawtuxet in 1790 and a few years later set up a branch of his business in Providence. In 1812, he removed to Providence where except for a brief sojourn to Philadelphia, he remained until his death. His 1804 advertisement in the Providence Gazette includes a long list of forms that begins with "Side-boards, with serpentine, elliptic, sash-cornered or straight fronts."
The sideboard is in excellent original condition with expected shrinkage cracks to each side. The brasses are appropriate replacements (Height: 53.25-inches; Width 40.25-inches; Depth 29.5-inches.)

Documentation: .* (Hewitt et al., The Work of Many Hands: Card Tables in Federal America (New Haven, 1982), cat. 33, p. 152).

Illustration: For several related example see, one in the collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society (Ott, The John Brown House Loan Exhibition of Rhode Island Furniture (Providence, Rhode Island, 1965), cat. 48, pp. 68-69); one in the collections of Pendleton House (Monkhouse and Michie, cat. 52, pp. 114-115); one in the collections of Colonial Williamsburg (Greenlaw, New England Furniture at Williamsburg (Williamsburg, VA), cat. 111, p. 131-132). See also, Sotheby's New York, June 28-30 1984, lot 702 and September 26, 1981, lot 424, Sack, American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection, vol. 2, p. 408, no. 1031 and Antiques (April 1977), back cover.
Price: On Request
270-63

If you are interested in buying any of these items, please call (978) 597-8084 or email David Hillier at drh@aaawt.com or Lynn Morin at lfm@aaawt.com

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