AFA Winter 2017

Winter 74 www.afamag.com |  www.incollect.com Fig. 6: Four side chairs, 1740–65, maker unknown, Dover, Del. Walnut. Gift and partial gift of the Loockerman/Bradford Family (2013.10.1-.2); Pembroke table, 1760–80, perhaps Benjamin Randolph (1721–1791), Philadelphia, Pa. Mahogany. Museum purchase (2006.17); Mary Tobias Putman (b. 1943), A Map of the World, 2006. Acrylic on panel, 46½ x 111½ inches. Museum purchase (2010.7). Photo by Andrew Dalton. Fig. 7: Michael Robear (b. 1962), Untethered, 2009. Watercolor on paper, 32½ x 44¼ inches. Gift of the artist; Wainscot chair, 1720–50, maker unknown, Cecil County, Md. Walnut. Museum purchase (2015.5). Photo by Andrew Dalton. pair of which is shown in figure 5. Originally from a set of twelve, of which only the Biggs five are known to have survived, these chairs are the only documented examples made by the famed Delaware cabinetmaker, John Janvier (1749-1801). Recorded in two separate copies of a 1795 receipt made out to Thomas Hardcastle of Castle Hall in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, 2 Janvier’s chairs populate a gallery within the museum dedicated to his work and influence upon the next two generations of cabinetmakers within the state. While the museum continues to celebrate Mr. Biggs’ passion for early- Delaware furniture by exclusively adding well-documented and signed examples to his collection, few are as prized as the four 1740–65 compass- seat side chairs made for the Dover home of wealthy merchant Vincent L o o c k e r ma n ( F i g . 6 ) 3 T h e y complement the contemporaneous set of trapezoid-seat chairs and dressing t able c ol le c t ed by Bi g g s (not illustrated), and are among the earliest known furniture believed to have been made in Delaware. The museum purchased the Pembroke table, also seen in figure 6, which may have been made by Benjamin Randolph (1721— 1791), who suppl ied cha i r s to Loockerman, presumably in the 1760s. 4 The respect paid to Sewell C. Biggs’ interests in the growth of the museum’s collection is also matched by an equally ambit iou s de sire to forge new