The Hollingsworth Family Pair of Chippendale Mahogany Side Chairs, attributed to Thomas Affleck, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, circa 1770

William Macpherson Horner, Jr., Blue Book: Philadelphia Furniture, 1682-1807: William Penn to George Washington, Philadelphia, 1935, pl. 220

Albert Sack, The New Fine Points of Furniture, New York, 1993, p. 41, illustrated as a “Masterpiece”

Numbers II and III of their set, these side chairs retain their original slip seats numbered III and V, respectively, as well as their original flame stitch upholstery. They stem from a set of chairs originally owned by the Philadelphia merchant, Levi Hollingsworth (1739-1824) and his wife, Hannah (Paschall) Hollingsworth (1744-1833). One side chair from the set is illustrated by William M. Hornor as plate 220 of Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (1935) as the property of “Mr. and Mrs. W. Logan MacCoy Also Miss Ellen Morris, Mr. and Mrs. Paul D. I. Maier, and other descendants” as well as “a Hollingsworth-Morris Family Example with slight modifications of the following, executed by Thomas Affleck.” Hornor also noted: “Among the best chairs traced to a Philadelphia-Chippendale cabinet-shop are those made for Levi Hollingsworth by Thomas Affleck, just before the Revolution. They too are of the cabriole-leg, strap-scrolled pattern; and though closely related to a rich series [of chairs] in workmanship, design, and orientation, they are yet distinctive. The chairs were fabricated for the dwelling at 16 Dock Street, and perhaps for the same bedrooms as the two highboys and matching lowboys, Mr. Hollingsworth and his cabinet-maker and chair-maker were long associated in the mahogany trade; later in real estate transactions.”¹A native of Elkton, Cecil County, Maryland, Levi Hollingsworth was the son of Zebulon Hollingsworth who operated the family flour mills in Elkton.² In 1758, Levi moved to Philadelphia and worked as a merchant, first in partnership with George Adams in 1759 and next with Zebulon Rudolph in 1767. A devout Quaker, he married fellow Quaker and Philadelphia-native Hannah Paschall on March 9, 1768. By 1772, he was operating his own mercantile firm which concentrated primarily in flour brokering. Throughout the American Revolution, he supplied the Continental Army with provisions and other stores. In 1793, he welcomed his son, Paschall, into the business and the firm remained Levi Hollingsworth and Son until Levi’s death in 1824.

This pair of chairs and the others in the set were part of a larger suite of furniture owned by Levi and Hannah Hollingsworth at their house at 16 Dock Street in Philadelphia. Other extant side chairs from the set include one at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, one in the collection of the Chipstone Foundation, and one in a private collection that also retains its original slip seat and original flame stitch upholstery of an identical pattern to that on the present chairs.³ The latter chair was sold at Christie’s, Important Philadelphia Chippendale Furniture from the Hollingsworth Family, January 16, 1998, sale 8882, lot 501 along with a high chest and matching dressing table from the Hollingsworth suite. Other surviving furniture from the suite includes a second high chest and matching dressing table, pair of stools, tea table, sofa, and sideboard table at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.⁴

Much of the furniture in the acclaimed suite was commissioned by Levi Hollingsworth from Thomas Affleck (1740-1795), the renowned Philadelphia cabinetmaker and also a business associate of Hollingworth’s. On May 21, 1779, Levi Hollingsworth recorded payment in his receipt book of “Four hundred and thirty pounds in full of my bill of Furniture,” to Thomas Affleck.⁵ Born in Aberdeen, Scotland and trained in Ellon, Affleck worked for several years in London, before immigrating to Philadelphia in 1763.⁶ While in Philadelphia, Affleck consistently produced high quality work comparable to leading English cabinetmakers at his shop on Second Street where he advertised that he carried on “the cabinet-making business in all its branches.” He was also one of the few cabinetmakers who owned a personal copy of Thomas Chippendale’s, The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director, which underscored and emphasized his interest in emulating high-style English furniture in the latest London fashion. The design for this set of chairs is adapted from chair patterns illustrated at plates XI and XIIII of the 1762 edition.⁷ The exceptional carving on the chairs is undoubtedly the work of one of the London-trained carvers who emigrated to Philadelphia in the mid-1760s.

In 1993, Albert Sack illustrated one of the chairs offered here as a “Masterpiece” in The New Fine Points of Furniture, noting “it is hard to find superlatives to describe the brilliance of this inspired creation… The balance and integration are perfect… The original condition of this pair of chairs and the vibrant colors of the original needlepoint seats are superb.”⁸

¹ William M. Hornor, Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture, 1935, p. 217-8.

² Alexandra Kirtley and David deMuzio, “A Hollingsworth Family Sofa and its Upholstery Revealed,” Antiques & Fine Arts Magazine, Spring 2007, pp. 216-219.

³ See Alexandra Kirtley, American Furniture, 1650-1840: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (New Haven and London, 2020): no. 39, pp. 76-7. The stools and tea table are promised gifts to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

⁴ See ibid, nos. 37-8, 40-43, pp. 76-9. The dressing table is a promised gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

⁵ Cited in Kirtley, note 6. Levi Hollingsworth receipt book, January 1779-80, no. 488, Hollingsworth Family Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

⁶ ibid, p. 112.

⁷ Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (London, 1762): plates XI and XIIII.

⁸ See Albert Sack, The New Fine Points of Furniture (New York: Crown Publishers, 1993): p. 41.