John Townsend, Newport, Rhode Island, 1760-70, large scale, dense figured mahogany, finely carved feet with open talons, maple, white pine and chestnut secondary, 28 x 19 x 61 in.; 62-1/2 in. open

Provenance: Skinner, Boston, November 7, 2004, lot 127, for $176,500; Chris Considine, Falmouth, Maine, December 2004 (accompanied by copy of receipt for $210,000); Collection of Dr. George and Connie Manger

Literature: Published in Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport The Townsends and Goddards, 1984, p. 226, figs. 5.14, 5.14a and 5.14b; Antiques and The Arts Weekly, November 26, 2004, pp., 56-58; Brock Jobe, Gary R. Sullivan and Jack O’Brien, Harbor & Home, Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, 1710-1850 (University Press of New England, Hanover NH & London) 2009, pp. 123-124, cat. no. 37.

Exhibited: Winterthur Museum, “Harbor & Home Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts 1710-1850”, Wilmington, Delaware, March-May, 2009.

Note: For related tables, see Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport, p. 109, fig 3.21; Christie’s New York, “Highlights from the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Joseph K. Ott,” January 20, 2012, lot 147 ($542,500); The John Brown House Loan Exhibition of Rhode Island Furniture, 1965. nos. 30 and 43; Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr, The Arts and Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island 1640-1820, 1954, p. 67, no. 41, and p. 209, nos 61-62.

Descended in the family of Jerathmael Bowers of Somerset, Massachusetts. Shipbuilder and merchant Jerathmael Bowers was born on the Taunton River, in Somerset. He married Mary Sherburne, an heiress from Boston, in 1763. Around this time, he built a large house that was inherited by his son, John; the paneling of the dining room is now installed at Winterthur Museum. According to the Treasure House of Early American Rooms by J.H. Sweeney (1963), p. 98, “A conservative room of the Chippendale period is the Bowers parlor from the house built in the 1760s by Jerathmael Bowers, at Somerset, Mass.”