AFA Summer 2018

Summer 92 www.afamag.com |  www.incollect.com facing page, clockwise from upper left Fig. 7: Detail of page 1 of Vose & Son’s invoice to the city of Boston for “use of Furniture & Lamps for Rooms furnished for Genl La Fayette & Family,” 1824. Vose’s invoice lists the seventy- eight pieces of furniture he supplied for Lafayette’s lodgings and includes in the “Lower Drawing Room . . . 1 [Rose Wood] Couch coverd [ sic ] with Crimson plush” (illustrated in figure 1). Sixteen chairs of similar rosewood grained finish and upholstery were supplied en suite. Board of Aldermen’s Papers, 1824, City of Boston Archives. Fig. 8: Wall bracket (one of a pair), attributed to Thomas Seymour, carving attributed to Thomas Wightman, possibly for Isaac Vose & Son. Boston, 1815-1824. This lighting bracket in the English Regency style may be similar to the four listed on the receipt to the city of Boston from Vose & Son. Wall brackets like these are depicted holding lighting devices in Henry Sargent’s well-known painting The Tea Party (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Isaac Vose & Son also supplied lamps and candle branches to the city for the occasion. The Winterthur Museum; Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont (1957.0701.001). Fig. 9: Pianoforte, marked “Made by A. [Alpheus] Babcock for G. D. Mackay” on the nameboard, ca. 1823; piano stool by unknown maker. Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff purchased this pianoforte and the stool, which retains its original upholstery, for his daughter, Sally Shurtleff Freeman, at the 1824 auction. She took it to Hillsboro, Illinois, when she moved there with her husband in 1841. The piano never lost its association with Lafayette and remained in the same house until it was donated to Historic New England in 2005. Courtesy of Historic New England; Gift of Evelyn Sawyer Tobias (2005.23.1A, B). clockwise from upper left Fig. 4: Detail of the auction notice for “SPLENDID FURNITURE,” in The Evening Gazette (Boston, Mass.), Sept. 4, 1824. The week after Lafayette’s visit, the city sold the curtains, carpets, lighting devices, linen, silver and furniture at public auction on September 7, 1824. The advertisement does not include Vose & Son’s name. It concludes: “The above Furniture is all of the most superior workmanship and materials, and presents the richest assortment that has ever been offered at public Sale in this city.” American Antiquarian Society (catalog # 2399). Fig. 5: Silk sash with engraving. The tens of thousands of people who swarmed Boston to get a glimpse of the Revolutionary War hero all wanted souvenirs. Local merchants produced these in huge quantities, including sashes imprinted with portraits of Lafayette. This sash was worn by Lucy Lincoln, a teacher of some of the twenty-five hundred schoolchildren who assembled in Boston Common to greet the General. Alan R. Hoffman collection; photo courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Fig. 6: Leather glove with engraving. Women’s gloves imprinted with Lafayette’s portrait were also popular souvenirs. Lafayette reportedly politely declined the honor of kissing the hands of women wearing such gloves, not wanting to salute an image of himself and appear vain. Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society, removed from Anna Cabot Lodge Scrapbook, vol. 22, Henry Cabot Lodge Papers (Ms. N-1592).