A rare and unique complete set of ten carved mahogany chairs from the federal period made in New York circa 1810- 1815. The continuous line and curved stiles and seat rails are inspired by the Greek klismos chair form repeated here with this amazing set. The klismos form enjoyed a wide popularity in American variants from about 1810 until Mid-century. Each of the top panels have a finely carved foliate waterleaf design joining to a carved central shell andlotus leaf with small carved rosettes on each side with an inset panel of rich tiger grain striped mahogany veneer flanked by a vertical carved waterleaf on top of each chair stiles.

The unusual middle back splat of carved scrolls and flower rosettes reflects the embodiment of Egyptian motifs in American furniture design used by Duncan Phyfe, New York ca 1815- 1820. Numbered one to ten this complete and matching set of chairs along with their matching original seat frames from this period are a testament to the family descendants of Benjamin Sears that each generation cared for until now being sold for the first time. The Sears family have over 200 years of Orange county history in NY complete sets of chairs of this period are extremely rare survivals.

The set of chairs are carved from rich Cuban mahogany typically used by the Phyfe cabinet shop and relate to numerous examples with similar carved items such a Lyre Chairs and other known carved lyre motif such as we see on various card table examples.

The top vertical waterleaf carved chair stiles relate to similararm and side chairs associated with the workshop of Duncan Phyfe NYC (1815- 1820) a pair having been sold at Sotheby’s auction Lot # 1181, 2018 Important Americana, NY.

Classical America, The Newark Museum exhibition 1963 Berry B. Tracey

Primary wood: Mahogany, With Ash seat rails front and rear, Seat frames Ash and Cherry.