Physical Qualities
Maple and ash painted black with gilt and polychrome decoration, 33 1/8 x 21 7/8 x 22 15/16 in. (84.1 x 55.6 x 58.3 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Lydia Howard de Roth and Nancy H. DeFord Venable in Memory of their Mother, Lydia Howard DeFord; and Purchase Fund
Object Number
1966.26.9
Oakley, the house painted on the crestrail of this armchair, was built by Levi Pierce in about 1795. It stood northwest of Baltimore’s late 18th-century urban center in the area that eventually became known as Walbrook. With its pedimented, two-story central block and flanking single-story wings, the house was a small Anglo-Palladian villa, based ultimately on the 16th-century Italian farmhouses of Antonio Palladio.
The house depicted is Oakley, owned c. 1800 by Levi Pierce.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Baltimore Furniture: The Work of Baltimore and Annapolis Cabinetmakers from 1760-1810", February 21-April 6, 1947, p. 154-157.
Museum and Library of Maryland History, "Francis Guy and His Maryland Career", April 10-August 15, 1981
Museum and Library of Maryland History, "Francis Guy and His Maryland Career", April 10-August 15, 1981
Katherine Scarborough, Unique Record of Baltimore Mansions, 'The Baltimore Sun,' March 1, 1936, p. 11
BMA 'News,' June 1944, pp. 4-5
'Antiques,' Vol. XC, No. 3, Sept. 1966, p. 374, repro. 66.26.8
Elder, William Voss. Baltimore Painted Furniture, 1800-1840. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1972, cat no. 3, page 25.
Luke Beckerdite. American Furniture. London:Chipston Foundation, 2003, p.202, ill.
Mary Ellen Hayward and Frank R. Shivers, Jr. , 'The Architecture of Baltimore: An Illustrated History.' Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, p.38, ill.
On View at the BMA
