Armchair with a view of Bolton

1803-1805

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John and Hugh Finlay and Francis Guy

Armchair with a view of Bolton

Workshop: John and Hugh Finlay
Decorator: Francis Guy

Armchair with a view of Bolton

1803-1805

Physical Qualities Maple and ash painted black with gilt and polychrome decoration, 33 3/4 x 22 1/4 x 21 3/4 in. (85.7 x 56.5 x 55.2 cm.)

Credit Line Gift of Lydia Howard de Roth and Nancy H. DeFord Venable in Memory of their Mother, Lydia Howard DeFord; and Purchase Fund

Object Number 1966.26.2

A view of the north front of Bolton, built by the English-born import-export merchant George Grundy, decorates the crest rail of this armchair. Dating to about 1786, the house took the fashionable form of a freestanding villa without wings, following the design ideas of Scottish architect Robert Adam. The house was included on an important map, Warner & Hanna’s Plan of the City and Environs of Baltimore, 1801, an important source for identifying these now-lost villas.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Baltimore Painted Furniture 1800-1840", April 18-June 18, 1972, pp. 20-23, cat. 3, ill. p. 23

Museum and Library of Maryland History, "Francis Guy and His Maryland Career", April 10-August 15, 1981

Mary. A. Dean et al.,The Art Gallery and The Gallery of the School of Architecture, College Park, "350 Years of Art & Architecture in Maryland", October 26-December 1, 1984, illus. 62

Katherine Scarborough, Unique Record of Baltimore Mansions, 'The Baltimore Sun,' March 1, 1936, p. 11

Discovering Antiques: The Story of the World of Antiques, Vol. II, p. 136

BMA, 'Baltimore Furniture,' exh. cat. 1947, p. 154-157,

'Antiques,' Vol. XC, No. 3, Sept. 1966, p. 374, repr. 66.26.8

Elder, William Voss. Baltimore Painted Furniture, 1800-1840. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1972, cat no. 3, pages 20, 23.

Luke Beckerdite. American Furniture. London:Chipston Foundation, 2003, p.195, ill.

Sumpter Priddy. American Fancy: Exuberance in the Arts 1790-1840. Milwaukee: Chipstone Foundation, 2004, p.52.

Mary Ellen Hayward and Frank R. Shivers, Jr. , 'The Architecture of Baltimore: An Illustrated History.' Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, p. 35, ill.