Samuel McIntire: Master Carver of Salem

Edited by John Fiske from the exhibition text written by Dean Lahikainen, the Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator of American Decorative Art and curator of Samuel McIntire, Carving an American Style at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Samuel McIntire (1757–1811) transformed his birthplace, Salem, Massachusetts, into the epitome of an elegant American town. Trained as a carpenter, McIntire became an architect, cabinetmaker and sculptor. But it was in his carvings that his artistry shone most brightly. McIntire used his skill with the chisel to embellish the work of Salem’s cabinetmakers, architects and shipbuilders, but his best work is seen on furniture of his own design. A new exhibition at Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum showcases his carvings to celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth.
McIntire developed his own distinct version of the neo-classical style. In the arts of Greece and Rome he found motifs and figures by which he could express the beliefs and aspirations of the first generation of Americans to experience economic, political, and artistic freedom. The merchants of Salem turned to McIntire to design public and private buildings and the interiors and furnishings that embodied their patriotism, their prosperity and their sophistication.
Samuel McIntire spent his entire life in Salem during a period of economic prosperity and cultural awakening. Following the Revolutionary War, merchants established new global trade routes and earned huge profits from importing textiles, spices, tea, and other luxury goods. Cabinetmaking flourished in Salem because of the opportunity to export large quantities of furniture as venture cargo on ships sailing to southern ports and other countries.

The Derby Chest on Chest
Salem merchant Elias Hasket Derby became America’s first millionaire. His wife, Elizabeth Crowninshield Derby, and their daughter, Elizabeth Derby West, commissioned McIntire to design two mansions and the furniture to go in them. The Derby Mansion was completed in 1799 and Oak Hill, in Peabody, a few years later. Both were torn down, the Derby mansion as early as 1815 to make way for a new market house, now known as Old Town Hall, and Oak Hill as recently as 1957 so that Peabody could be graced by the North Shore Shopping Center.
In Oak Hall stood McIntire’s masterpiece: the chest on chest commissioned by Elizabeth Derby West. Centered in the classical pediment stands his finest figural sculpture, an allegorical representation of America adorned with the symbols of liberty, truth, and honor. Below it is his richest interpretation of a basket of fruit, and his most complex and whimsical carvings -- the putti with baskets on their heads. The chest is a Rosetta Stone of McIntire’s signature motifs.
The Derby family chest on chest and the four other pieces illustrated here provide us with almost the full repertoire of McIntire’s ornamental carvings.

The Derby Family chest-on-chest, 1806-1809. Carving by Samuel McIntire, unidentified maker; mahogany, ebony, satinwood, white pine. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The M. & M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth-Century American Arts, 41.580. Photograph © 2007 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Classical Ornaments

Academies in Federal New England gave their students a classical education. The educated citizens of Salem would have recognized instantly both the origin and the meaning of classical motifs such as urns and draperies, garlands and baskets of fruits, grapes, and wreaths of bay or laurel leaves. They would also be familiar with the three orders of classical architecture – Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian – and the columns, capitals and cornices appropriate to each. Statues, engravings and carvings of Roman goddesses – Flora (Spring), Ceres (Summer), and Pomona (Fall) – decorated fashionable homes and gardens throughout Salem. This widespread referencing of Greece and Rome symbolically put the new Federal America on a par with the great classical civilizations.
When McIntire used a classical ornament he did so in the full confidence that his clients and Salem society in general would fully understand it, and respond to its full significance. So he carved bay leaves on sofa arms and the columns on mantels. He used the wavy edged waterleaf to decorate the flat surface of a sofa arm or to form a continuous band of ornament on turned supports for tables. He specialized particularly in urns and draperies. These were originally associated with the funereal practice of covering a body with drapery (a pall) before cremation, after which the ashes were placed in an urn. By McIntire’s time, however, these motifs were viewed as more decorative in nature. Similarly, grapes expressed the sophistication of wine and the boundless generosity of nature rather than the more Bacchanalian excess of classical times.
McIntire’s masterpiece in religious architecture was Salem’s South Church, built on Chestnut Street in 1804. Its soaring 150-foot steeple was ornamented with 21 urns, and the entablatures above the entry doors featured carved draperies and oval flowers of impressive scale. The church was destroyed by fire in 1903.

Side chair, c. 1795-1800. Carving attributed to Samuel McIntire, unidentified maker; mahogany. Peabody Essex Museum, 133582, gift of Mrs. Mary B. Yusko, 1975. Photograph by Dennis Helmar.

Prosperity: The Bounty of Trade and Nature

Classical images of nature’s plenty, such as a sheaf of wheat, cornucopia, or a basket of fruit and flowers, became widely popular in Federal Salem, where they symbolized the citizens’ financial wealth and prosperity, and grounded it in nature and in classical civilization. McIntire carved all of these motifs, but favored two of them in particular: the basket of fruit and flowers, and the cornucopia.
In classical times, a basket of fruit symbolized the harvest. McIntire based his baskets on both classical and seventeenth-century baroque designs, with ribbed gourds or melons paired with apples as the central motif. The gourd was a popular Christian symbol of the Resurrection of Christ (eternal life), and the apple, relating to Adam and Eve, represented evil (death). Around them, he carved clusters of grapes, wheat sheaves, roses, or other flowers. His mastery of perspective gives these shallow-relief carvings the depth of three-dimensional sculpture. No two baskets from his hand are exactly the same.
The cornucopia is a legendary animal horn that provided unending nourishment. It was a particular favorite of the Derby family of Salem, and McIntire used it widely on sofas and on the columns on case pieces after about 1800.

Applique carving of compote of fruit and flowers on the Derby chest.

Patriotism: The New Republic

Samuel McIntire’s repertoire of carvings included many that expressed the ideals and aspirations of the new nation. In 1782, the Continental Congress adopted the Great Seal of the United States, making the eagle the premier symbol of America’s strength and power. McIntire was among the first to carve eagles to ornament buildings, rooms and furniture. He also made a specialty of carving profile portraits of George Washington, the war’s greatest hero and the first president of the new nation. Proudly displayed throughout Salem, McIntire’s carvings expressed the town’s strong patriotic sentiments and shared belief in the ideals they represented.
Eagles form the largest group of three-dimensional sculptures to survive from McIntire’s hand. He adopted a pose that had been used for centuries for lecterns in European churches: the eagle’s powerful talons grasp a ball and its wings are partially stretched as though about to take flight. Monumentally scaled birds were placed on the cupolas and pediments of buildings, more diminutive eagles were used on the tops of desks and bookcases, and one of his smallest is perched on top of the dressing box mirror (p23). All of the surviving three-dimensional examples are gilded. McIntire also carved dynamic eagles in low relief for signs, architectural panels, and to decorate the crest rails on sofas and chairs.

Sign for U.S. Custom House, 1805. Carved by Samuel McIntire, painted and gilded pine. Peabody Essex Museum, 100754, gift of Joseph F. Tucker, 1907. Photograph by Dennis Helmar.

The Exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.

Samuel McIntire, Carving an American Style, marking the 250th anniversary of McIntire’s birth, explores his role as a leading force for creative design during the Federal period (1780-1820). It is the first exhibition to focus on McIntire’s career as a carver, and features more than 200 objects, including his finest carvings for furniture and architecture, and drawings and freestanding sculpture. Carving an American Style opens October 13 and runs through February 24, 2008. It is accompanied by a fully illustrated 304-page publication, Samuel McIntire, Carving an American Style, written by Dean Lahikainen (University Press of New England, fall 2007). Call 866-745-1876 or visit www.pem.org.