The William Ellery Chippendale Block-and-Shell Carved and Figured Mahogany Kneehole Dressing Table, Attributed to Edmund Townsend, Newport, Rhode Island, circa 1760

Appears to retain its original hardware; patching to several feet; proper right front side foot facing restored.

Descended in the family of the Ellery family of Newport, Rhode Island
William Ellery (1727-1820), the original owner;
Edmund Trowbridge Ellery (1763-1847), his son, given as a wedding present at the time of his marriage to Katy Almy in 1792;
Conrad C. Ellery (b. 1807), his nephew;
K. Tennison, his niece;
Katy Thaxter;
Miss Lena Thompson, Brockton, Massachusetts;
And thence to the present owners;
Sold in these rooms in Important American Furniture, Folk Art and Related Decorative Arts, October 21 and 22, 1983, sale 5094, lot 334
Israel Sack, Inc., New York

Moses, Michael. Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards, (Tenafly, NJ, 1984), fig. 1.17.

Secondary wood is White Pine; top reset with two later wooden butterflies added to underside of top to secure and stabilize both top boards; two later drawer guides nailed to the proper right and left case sides at junction of top; two small patches to tips of proper left shell, small patch to long drawer face at the top edge that is to the left of the proper left drawer pull; drawer runners restored; a 4 ¾ inch by 1 inch trapezoidal patch a center front edge of dust board below shell drawer (damage due to insects); a 2 inch by 1/8 inch patch to center of bead of drawer divider; two vertical boards behind prospect door on interior replaced (damage due to insects); hinges on prospect door replaced; a 2 ¼ inch by 1/8 inch patch to center proper left side of prospect door at location of old hinge; two 3 inch by 16 ½ inch by ¾ inch blocks of wood added to top side of bottom board on proper left and right side below lower most small drawers to stabilize feet; proper left middle front foot facing with bottom ½ inch restored; proper right middle foot facing with bottom 2 3/8 inches restored; proper right side front foot facing with a 3/8 inch by 6 inch patch at top edge where it meets the base molding; proper right front side foot facing restored; proper right rear foot facing with bottom 2 ½ inches restored; proper right middle drawer with patched backboard; proper left bottom small drawer with a patched knot hole in bottom board; bottom back board loose.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

William Ellery, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence was born in Newport, Rhode Island, on December 11, 1727, a son of Deputy Governor William and Elizabeth (Almy) Ellery.  His great-grandfather, William, came to Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the late seventeenth century, but his grandfather, Benjamin, moved to Bristol, Rhode Island, and afterward to Newport.  His father was a Harvard graduate and held several public offices.  Graduating from Harvard in 1747, William Ellery the Patriot spent the next twenty-eight years at Newport engaging in various undertakings.  He tried his hand as a merchant, served for a time as a naval officer of the colony, and took up the practice of law.  At this he seems to have had considerable success, developing some practice even outside the colony.

While at Harvard, Ellery met Ann Remington (1725-1764), daughter of Judge Jonathan Remington; when he returned to Harvard for his M.A., he renewed his courting and married her on October 11, 1750.  They had six children before her untimely death on September 7, 1764.  To provide a mother for his young family Ellery married on June 28, 1767, his second cousin Abigail, daughter of Colonel Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Wanton) Carey.  In time she gave him five more children and was an excellent wife through the difficult years of war, keeping the family together during the long periods of his absence.

The death of his father in 1764 left William Ellery with a considerable inheritance.  No longer completely dependent upon business for his livelihood, he began to engage in politics.  This interest coincided with the rising tumult in Rhode Island and the other colonies over the Stamp Act.  Ellery soon emerged as an important leader in the Newport Sons of Liberty.  In the convoluted politics of Rhode Island, Ellery at first allied himself with the forces led by Governor Samuel Ward (1725-1776).  (In 1764 he was named a trustee of the proposed Rhode Island College, and with the Ward faction he fought to have it located in Newport; defeated by the Providence Baptists, he campaigned enthusiastically to establish an interdenominational college on the Island.)  Though he was usually a follower of Ward, Ellery on August 27, 1765, assumed the leadership of the radical faction and proposed to evoke a riot by burning effigies of British colonial officials, including the Stamp Agent, and sacked and destroyed their houses.  In May 1768, he was elected Clerk of the Assembly.  When Ward, who had been representing Rhode Island in the Continental Congress, died of smallpox in March 1776, the Rhode Island Assembly chose Ellery to succeed him.

The American Revolution gave Ellery his great opportunity in life.  A sincere patriot from the beginning, he had already served on some local committees when he was elected to Congress by the Rhode Island General Assembly, taking his seat on May 14, 1776.  He served as a member of Congress through 1784, except for the years 1780 and 1782 when, having been temporarily dropped because of turns in Rhode Island politics, he was appointed to one of the places on the Board of Admiralty.  In 1777 and 1778 he served on no less than fourteen committees, including the standing committees on marine, on appeals in prize cases, and on commerce.  During the early years of the war, one of Rhode Island's chief concerns was the threat from British attack by sea.  Not surprisingly, the Rhode Island delegates to the Congress were in the forefront of promoting the interests of an American navy. 

When the British occupied Newport during the Revolution they burned Ellery's house, located in Washington Square, in revenge for his radical activities.  It was, therefore, to discouraging conditions that he returned after the war.  In the long years which followed, however, he seems to have rebuilt his fortunes, if we may judge by the list of his property advertised after his death.

When Ellery returned to Rhode Island, he was elected Chief Justice of the Superior Court.  But he did not remain in that post very long.  Alarmed by the rise to power in Rhode Island of a party favoring paper money and inflation of the currency, Ellery abandoned his state's former position on states' rights, and became a champion of centralized federal power and the national government.  Realizing that he would soon be removed as Chief Justice, he sought and received in April 1786 a federal appointment as commissioner of the loan office and receiver of continental taxes, and he used his position to staunchly defend the national government and to rally the conservative forces in Rhode Island.  He became a leading advocate for Rhode Island's adoption of the new Federal Constitution.  When the state finally ratified the Constitution in 1790—the last to do so—Ellery was rewarded for his efforts by being named Collector of Customs for the Newport district by President George Washington, a post he held until his death in Newport, on February 15, 1820.

Ellery's nature was genial and kindly, and he had a wide knowledge of literature—English, French, and Latin.  His second wife died on July 27, 1793, and thereafter Ellery devoted his time to his large family of which he was the wise and humble patriarch.  In his ninety-fourth year he contributed a long book review to the North American Review.  Greek and Roman classics were the favorite reading of his last years; what proved to be his last morning was spent reading Cicero.  Channing was fortunate in his grandchildren: Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882), the author of Two Years Before the Mast (1840); Edward Tyrrell Channing (1790-1856), Boylston Professor of Rhetoric at Harvard, who wrote a biographical sketch of Ellery (1836); and William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), the chief clergyman of and spokesman for New England Unitarianism. 

Wendell Garrett

Sources:
Conrad, Dennis M., "William Ellery," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
Fowler, William M., Jr., William Ellery: A Rhode Island Politico and Lord of Admiralty (1973)
Hubbard, C.C., "William Ellery," Dictionary of American Biography (1925)
Jordy, William H., Buildings of Rhode Island (2004)

 

Kneehole bureaus of this form appear to represent a multigenerational craft tradition established in the shop of Job Townsend (1699-1765), as Edmund Townsend (1736-1811) and his brother-in-law, John Goddard (1723-1785), who both trained there, made bureaus of very similar design.

The attribution to Edmund Townsend as the maker of this bureau is based on comparisons with a labeled four-shell kneehole bureau in the Karolik Collection and signed three-shell bureau originally owned by John Deshon of New London, Connecticut.¹ All three display the same form and shared details such as the thumb-molded top, bead molding attached to the case surrounding each drawer, cyma-shaped moldings above a deep straight fillet, and ogee bracket feet with C-scroll marginal carving ending in sculpted volutes. Similarly, the applied convex shells marking the outer vertical line of the blocked façade are defined by eleven lobes, the center one convex, while the interiors of the shells are fashioned with seven fluted petals. Michael Moses illustrates three other three-shell kneehole desks associated with Edmund Townsend's shop: one formerly in the Serri Collection, one in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design, and a third example in a private collection.²

A related four shell example made for George Gibbs of Newport sold at Sotheby's, January 29, 1983, sale 5001, lot 433, setting a world auction record at that time for American furniture. Additional kneehole desks associated with Edmund Townsend include an example sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., The Lansdell K. Christie Collection of Notable American Furniture, October 21, 1972, sale 3422, lot 20, one at the State Department with a history in the Watts family of Newport, and another originally owned by Samuel Whitehorne sold at Sotheby's, Important Americana: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Henry Meyer, January 20, 1996, sale 6801, lot 48.

John Goddard made a closely related three-shell kneehole bureau for his daughter, Catherine (1757-1816), on the occasion of her marriage to Perry Weaver on January 29, 1778. It sold in these rooms, Important Americana, January 20-23, 2005, sale 8053, lot 1203 as property of a descendant of John Nicholas Brown. Both the Goddard bureau and this one display the same form, construction and shell profile, with the applied convex shells marking the outer vertical line of the blocked façade defined by an odd number of lobes, the center one convex, and the interiors of the shells fashioned with fluted petals.³ The central concave shells of both case pieces have an incised surround with an odd number of fluted petals at the center.

An additional related kneehole bureau attributed to Goddard was owned by Stephen Hopkins (1707-1785), a signer of the Declaration of Independence and colonial governor of Rhode Island. It sold in these rooms, Important Americana from the Collection of Diane and Norman Bernstein, The Lindens, Washington, D.C., January 22, 2006, sale 8160. lot 173. From its thumb-molded top down to its ogee bracket feet, it is very similar in design to this one. Although its four shells are articulated with open centers, the outer shells are comprised of eleven lobes, with the center one convex, and the concave shells have nine lobes and incised surrounds. The moldings and feet are also closely related.  A kneehole bureau with a history in the Tibbits family of Rhode Island also displays characteristics associated with the work of both cabinetmakers.⁴

¹ See Edwin Hipkiss, Eighteenth-Century American Arts: The M. and M. Karolik Collection, 1950, no. 38, p. 68-9 and Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards, Tenafly, N.J.: Americana Press, 1984, plate 15.
² Ibid, figs. 7.12-7.14, pp. 285-7.
³ Ibid, p. 212-3.
⁴ Christies, January 18-19, 2007, sale 1787.