THE CARVING ATTRIBUTED TO SAMUEL MCINTIRE (1757-1811), SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, CIRCA 1801

In nearly every detail, this window stool matches the four designed and carved by Samuel McIntire (1757-1811) for the east parlor of the home of wealthy Salem merchant Jerathamiel Peirce. Made to fit in the recess of the double-hung windows (fig. 1), the stools were based on the carving seen in plate 20 of George Hepplewhite’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholster’s Guide (1789) and feature oval paterae on each stile, above which float a row of waterleaves and rosette terminals. This waterleaf motif was a favorite of McIntire and was used on the column capitals, half pilasters flanking the entry door and the pilasters on the overmantel. Unlike the pattern book, which pictures rounded legs, these stools feature square tapered legs. The front legs were torqued into a trapezoid to conform to the canted sides of the window well (Dean T. Lahikainen, Samuel McIntire: Carving an American Style (Salem, 2007), pp. 253-255).

There are differences from those four remaining in the Peirce-Nichols and the lot offered here. The paterae rest on a plain ground on the examples from the parlor, while those on the present lot rest on a snowflake-punched ground similar to that seen on the armchairs McIntire carved for this commission (see lot 91). In his advertisement for the present lot, Albert Sack speculated that it and another in a private collection occupied similar window recesses in an upstairs room of the Peirce-Nichols house; the mate may have been the one sold, Christie's, New York, 20 January 2012, lot 296.