Passport for Samuel Ashmead, June 25, 1846. Signed by James Buchanan. Framed between two pieces of glass with narrow black wooden frame. Two small metal eye hooks with picture wire at top of frame.
Provenance
Samuel Ashmead was a botanist from the Germantown, PA area. He was the donor's husband's great-great grandfather. Passport hung in the donor's husband's grandfather's house for as long as she could remember.
Framed between two pieces of glass. Top right corner has 2 rips in paper caused by humidity and too small of frame. Paper has been folded into fourths with small hole at center of sheet. Also folds horizontally into thirds. Brown spots or stains all over
Object ID
W.MSS07.4.2
Place of Origin
Washington, D.C.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
American Empire chair; back top rail is a wide concave veneer with gilded decoration surmounting downward sloping arm rests and an urn shaped vertical splat back. The arms are supported by curved uprights surmounting a plain curved apron with an upholstered slip seat. The front legs are flat and shaped in reverse ogee curves with front edges rounded. The rear legs are square and have a backward saber curve.
Provenance
Buchanan, James
To - Buchanan, Edward Young
To - Ewing, Alice C. Buchanan
To - Ewing, Alice B.
To - Niece, Marshall, Cornelia Lausdale Brooke (Mrs. Donnel)
James Buchanan to Edward Y. Buchanan to Alice Cunningham Buchanan to Alice Buchanan Ewing, her daughter. Alice B. Ewing her niece, Mrs. Donnell Marshall / Cornelia Lausdale Brooke, daughter to Cornelia Lausdale Ewing and Robert E. Brooke.
American Empire chair; back top rail is a wide concave veneer with gilded decoration surmounting downward sloping arm rests and an urn shaped vertical splat back. The arms are supported by curved uprights surmounting a plain curved apron with an upholstered slip seat. The front legs are flat and shaped in reverse ogee curves with front edges rounded. The rear legs are square and have a backward saber curve.
Provenance
Buchanan, James
To - Buchanan, Edward Young
To - Ewing, Alice C. Buchanan
To - Ewing, Alice B.
To - Niece, Marshall, Cornelia Lausdale Brooke (Mrs. Donnel)
James Buchanan to Edward Y. Buchanan to Alice Cunningham Buchanan to Alice Buchanan Ewing, her daughter. Alice B. Ewing her niece, Mrs. Donnell Marshall / Cornelia Lausdale Brooke, daughter to Cornelia Lausdale Ewing and Robert E. Brooke.
American Empire chair; the back top rail is a wide concave veneer with gilded decoration surmounting downward sloping arm rests and an urn shaped vertical splat back. The arms are supported by curved uprights surmounting a plain curved apron with an upholstered slip seat. The front legs are flat and shaped in reverse ogee curves with front edges rounded. The rear legs are square and have a backward saber curve.
Provenance
Buchanan, James
To - Buchanan, Edward Young
To - Ewing, Alice C. Buchanan
To - Ewing, Alice B.
To - Niece, Marshall, Cornelia Lausdale Brooke (Mrs. Donnel)
James Buchanan to Edward Y. Buchanan to Alice Cunningham Buchanan to Alice Buchanan Ewing, her daughter. Alice B. Ewing her niece, Mrs. Donnell Marshall / Cornelia Lausdale Brooke, daughter to Cornelia Lausdale Ewing and Robert E. Brooke.
Simple marble top Rococo revival style table characterized by curvilinear lines and carved floral and foliate ornamentation on the apron and cabriole legs. An X-shaped stretcher with a central finial connects and supports the legs.
Blue cobalt toilet bottles. Opaque glass ball-topped stopper with gold dot on top. Flattish lip, long neck with foliate / berry painted design in white and orange. White wreath painted around shoulder with gold line band below.
Quadruple looped chain with ring on end; sliding metal bead, turned and molded; chain looped through ornate, thick ring around larger, thinner double ring connected to handle of signet. Ornate piece with scroll, acorn, foliate, and cabbage rose motifs. B
Said to have been worn by James Buchanan during his Presidency. Given by Miss Mary Kittera Snyder to the donors. Mary Kittera Snyder was thought to be Buchanan's intended for marriage in the 1840s. She or her sister became postmistress of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
Center table. Oval, with white marble top overhanging wood skirt which is double-cyma curved. Four C- and S- scrolled supports curve down to cartouche-shaped shelf. Four scrolled legs curve down to casters.
One of six glass tiebacks. Pressed glass rosettes, basically flat on back, excepting a hexagonal indentation at center and flower. Flower has six double petals, beaded, with 3-D front and round center. Tiebacks are light blue and vary in opaqueness.
Letter from Kirk J. Nelson, Curator of the Sandwich Glass Historical Society and Museum (dated 25 October 1988) says that fragments of this pattern have been found at the site of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company.
Shaving stand has a shield-shaped bullnose-framed mirror on a support that allows the height to be adjusted and is anchored to the marble-topped table. The table's serpentine skirt has a shallow drawer with a molded glass knob in the center. The skirt has a single bead trim at the base and the table rests on a round pillar that terminates with a ring and urn-shaped turning. The table and pillar are all supported by a four-footed raised plinth.
Wearing of wood, crack in base, scratches. Loosened joinings in base.
Object ID
W.1989.341.001
Notes
Donor bought stand in December 1965 from an unnamed individual who purchased it at the Wheatland Willson/Rettew sale in 1936.
Old accession card in file includes the following information: 'Pedestal shaving stand with marble top and drawer. Form not too often seen in American furniture. Top swivels to face the best light.
It is identical to one in the Empire Guest Room at the White House.'
Rocking chair in the Pennsylvania Dutch style with wide, boldly rounded hoop back and wide vase-shaped splat. The arms are downcurved, about two inches wide, and terminate in large convex scrolls. The arms are supported by short, simply turned arm stumps. The solid wood seat is one to two inches thick, rolled at front and upcurved at rear. The seat is supported by four short turned legs mounted on rockers about 28 inches long. These are braced front and rear by single turned stretchers. Body coat of brown is overlaid with clusters of fruit on back top rail, splat and front of seat in polychrome colors and is striped in gilt.
water spotting cleaned by conservator in early months of 2020 following a water leak inside the bedchamber caused by contractor error during roof restoration project.
Brass and glass lamp. Converted to electricity. Marble base is square with brass stem that resembles a column. Lamp globe is frosted with designs in clear glass. Globe is wide at bottom and much narrower at top. Prisms hang from base of globe.
A night commode chair that has a four-slat back crest with a Windsor arrow design at the lower back of the chair. The high back chair has turned legs, which are braced by ring-turned box stretchers. The seat has a hole cut out at its center with a separate wood lid with a wrought-iron handle fixed by two screws. The underside of the seat no longer has rabbets to support its zinc or lead chamberpot.
Windsor-back rocking chair. The comb-shaped crest has gold painted trim and hand-painted floral, fruit and nut designs. The slab seat also has a hand-painted gilt outline. The two front legs have gilded turnings along with the front stretcher. The two back legs are canted into the rockers and are plain and round with a thin round plain stretcher. Dark wood. Six thin back rails.
The brazier brazier is an iron grate with five horizontal bars on the front and elevated above the hearth of the fireplace with a flat iron frame decorated with low-relief tall urns with reeded bodies and acanthus foliate. The elevation aids in the circulation of air, feeding oxygen to the fire.
Mahogany veneer bedstead with a headboard that stands at least twice as high as its scroll cut footboard. The headboard has iron hooks that latch to a corresponding iron pintle on the turned headboard posts. Headboard also features two recessed, crotch grain panels with scroll cut double beaded molding. The crest of the headboard is scroll cut with low relief foliate carvings. Triple ball and ring turnings and acorn finials cap the four hexagonal bedposts, which then terminate on turnip feet.
