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Lot 295
Description:
A Rare Carved Mahogany Campeche Armchair, late 18th/early 19th c., arched palmetto and scroll carved crest, continuous back, arms with knuckle terminals, scroll supports curule base, shaped stretchers; tenoned construction, retains original surface, old leather seat with nailhead trim, height 39 1/4 in.
- Notes: Note: The contour frame and classical curule base combination that characterizes Campeche chairs originated in the late Roman Empire. From the Iberian Peninsula it was transferred to the New World by Spaniards. There is a large concentration of early nineteenth-century Campeches in Louisiana, to which they were first exported from the Greater Antilles and "New Spain" during the years of Spanish control. Named for the Yucátan port city from which it was first shipped to New Orleans, the Campeche chair is an icon of American material culture, particularly in the Deep South. Extant 19th century New Orleans cargo manifests list them as "boutaque" chairs, a French spelling (and popular local pronunciation) of the Spanish word butaca meaning armchair. Notably, Campeche chairs were enjoyed by Thomas Jefferson who popularized their use among his contemporaries. Louisiana Campeche chairs related to this lot have been offered in these salesrooms as lot 529, November 1988; lot 433 March 1988; lot 659 October 1993; and lot 799 April 2008 Reference: Cybèle Trione Gontar, "The Campeche Chair in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 38, 2003; Gontar, "The Louisiana Campeche Chair: Origin, History and Transference, Master of Arts Thesis, Parsons School of Design, 2002; Francis Puig, "The Early Furniture of the Mississippi River Valley," The American Craftsman and the European Tradition. p. 165
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October 11, 2008 10:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US
Neal Auction Company
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