By Ellen M. Spindler, Bowne House Collection Volunteer

Mayor Walter Bowne’s horsehair office sofa, small and tall office chairs, portrait of Walter Bowne’s grandson immediately above sofa; Bowne House collection; Photo credit: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

A suite of Empire and Chippendale style furniture from the office of Mayor Walter Bowne (1770-1846), a prominent descendant of John Bowne, is on view in the 1669 parlor of the Bowne House. Mayor Walter Bowne (“Bowne”) is noted for his civic contributions to New York City in the early 1800s. He was appointed for four one-year terms between 1829 and 1833, becoming the 59th mayor of New York City, prior to the incorporation of the outer boroughs in the late 19th century. Bowne had previously served as a New York State Senator from 1816–1822 and 1823–1824 and was also a member of the Council of Appointment in Albany from 1817–1820. After retiring from public life, he became President of the Seventh Ward Bank of New York City.

Mayor Bowne was the great-great grandson of John Bowne and second cousin to Mary Bowne Parsons, whose portrait can be seen above the table and chairs in the image above the title. He married Eliza Southgate Bowne in 1803 and they had two children. A sister, Catharine, married John Murray, who was active with Robert Bowne (founder of Bowne & Co. Printers) in establishing the New York Manumission Society. Walter Bowne (a Democratic mayor) lived in Manhattan just a few blocks from City Hall, but he also had a summer house called Little City Hall in a Queens neighborhood north of Northern Boulevard between 155th and 159th Streets and 29th and 32nd Avenues. Mayor Bowne’s summer house was destroyed by fire in 1925; the property is now occupied by Bowne Park, named for Walter Bowne and part of the United States Broadway-Flushing Historic District.

*Queens Library digital archives,* *See also Bowne Homestead, Flushing, Brooklyn Times Union, June 18, 1904, p.13*

The handsome house in this photo was built in the early 19th century; it had over 15 rooms on a substantial parcel of land as shown on the map below. By the late 1800s, some of the surrounding area was being developed as a suburban enclave later known as "Murray Hill Park,” now known as Murray Hill. Walter Bowne’s house, his estate, and the adjacent Bowne Pond, however, remained undeveloped until its purchase by a realty company in 1906. Later acquired by New York City in the 1920s, it became Bowne Park, and is presently administered by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

One notable and unfortunate event during Bowne’s tenure as mayor was an 1832 epidemic of cholera. At that time, the deadly disease was not well understood; it was thought to be transmitted by contact, rather than by contaminated water. Bowne imposed a quarantine to prevent the spread of disease once its existence in Quebec became known, but in just four months between June and October, 1832, more than 3515 people had died (as reported by Charles Haynes Haswell, an engineer, politician and historian of that era).

Given the expanding population of the city and the crowded conditions, Bowne saw the need for a reservoir system for an adequate supply of fresh water for the City’s future needs. Quantities were needed, both for drinking water and to contain the constant threat of fires, but funds were not then available for the project. The Croton reservoir was not completed until 1842 and still provides fresh water to the city.

Bowne was also a supporter of the Erie Canal, completed in 1825 and overseen by Governor DeWitt Clinton, a relative by his marriage. Another supporter was earlier New York City mayor Cadwallader D. Colden (1818-1821). It was Colden’s grandfather British Governor Cadwallader Colden (whose estate, “Spring Hill,” lay south of the John Bowne House and Farm) who first wrote about the concept of a canal to connect the Hudson River and Great Lakes in his 1727 book History of the Five Indian Nations. Mayor Bowne’s interest in infrastructure was also foreshadowed by an earlier relative: Robert Bowne of Bowne & Co. Printing, who founded an inland navigation company in 1791, paving the way for the Erie Canal.

Mayor Bowne oversaw numerous infrastructure improvements during his tenure, including the widening of several downtown streets; the renaming of Marketfield to Battery Place; the opening of Jefferson Market; the erection of Tompkins Market; the expansion of Union Square Park; and construction on the New York and Harlem Railroad (now part of Metro-North), which began with the first car running between Prince and 14th Streets. Another aspect of Mayor Bowne’s job, along with other New York City mayors in the early nineteenth century, was the acknowledgement of Manumission certificates for freed slaves. While other Bowne and Parsons family members were abolitionists and anti-slavery activists, no record of Walter Bowne’s views on slavery has yet been discovered.

The Walter Bowne furniture in the 1669 parlor is all believed to have come from his office. It includes an Empire style sofa, armchairs, and table, and a Chippendale-style secretary-bookcase.

Bowne House accession records describe Mayor Bowne's black horsehair upholstered Empire sofa as having claw feet with scroll cut out carving underneath, two round pillows, and brass tacks. The materials used were mahogany and horsehair upholstery.

American Empire furniture (or late classical revival) was a form of neoclassicism and was generally made between 1815-1830, immediately after Napoleon’s French Empire and during the War of Greek Independence. America had a pro-French attitude at the time, not only because of France’s support during the American Revolution, but because of continued tensions between America and Britain, following the War of 1812. A French cabinetmaker, Charles Honoré Lannuier, introduced the French Empire style to New York, and it grew more popular than competing British styles in the 1820s and 1830s. The style was also introduced and maintained by the renowned Scottish craftsman Duncan Phyfe, one of America’s most prominent cabinetmakers, after he emigrated.

The American Empire style is known for prominent Greek and Roman motifs, a heavy visual weight to communicate strength and stability, rich veneers and exotic woods, and ornamentation of a classical style. Rosemary Krill in her book Early American Decorative Arts states that “[E]mpire furniture fills space in a compelling manner. Individual structural members appear large in comparison with the more delicate components of federal furniture.” Both society and furniture making were transitioning at the time away from labor-intensive craftsmanship towards more efficiencies of scale and mass production, with furniture made as much by apprentices as master craftsmen.

*Tall armchair, Bowne House collection; Photo credit: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams*

Mayor Walter Bowne’s suite of furniture also includes a matching tall armchair made of mahogany, described as his black upholstered office chair, and a matching small horsehair armchair made of mahogany, described as Mayor Bowne's small office chair. A similar chair is reportedly in the White House. Mahogany was an exotic wood common to this period. Furniture makers and carvers found the dense grain of mahogany conducive to their best work, and the grain pattern, enhanced with appropriate finishes, added to the object’s beauty. According to the late Dean F. Failey, former curator of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (as well as Americana expert at Christie’s and frequent consultant on Antiques Roadshow), mahogany was the favored furniture wood used during the eighteenth century; however, “it was not commonly used in Long Island furniture until after the Revolution.” It was both imported and expensive.

Bowne additionally owned a round center table made of mahogany with carved feet and an elaborately carved tripod base, with acanthus leaf decoration. Acanthus leaves have long been associated with enduring life, as far back as Grecian times. Accession records describe this piece as Empire, 1820-1840 or ca. 1830; the top has been restored and is not original to the base. Walter Bowne’s great-grandson wrote on a sticker found underneath the table that it came from 33 Beekman Street, Bowne’s apparent mayoral residence. This location was about 2 blocks southeast of City Hall and about 3 blocks north west of Duncan Phyfe’s workshop at 35 Fulton Street, which was within a few blocks of the South Street Seaport. (Gracie Mansion was not yet used as the mayoral residence.) Although it has some similarities to a Duncan Phyfe piece, this attribution has not been confirmed by experts and we have not established a connection as of yet.

The Bowne House also has in its collection a tea set and a demitasse coffee pot set with Walter Bowne’s initials. The coffee set is noted as Limoges, a hard-paste porcelain produced by factories in around the city of Limoges, France beginning in the 18th century. These items are also an indication of his status and wealth. Other objects in the collection related to Mayor Bowne are his bible, a handwritten “Commonplace book,” and a red leather wallet engraved with gold lettering, “Walter Bowne, Mayor of the City of New York, 1831.”

Finally, Walter Bowne also had a two-piece, 7-foot-high mahogany secretary-bookcase of Chippendale style in his office. The top case has two doors and three shelves and two pull out candle rests with brass knobs and a drop-leaf front. (Note, that the candle rests no longer pull out.) The top structure is enclosed by panel doors, with a molded and carved break-scroll cornice. The bottom has four long graduated drawers with original brass round knobs and bracket feet, and a sloping drop-leaf with interior drawers and pigeon-holes. This was described in a 1946 appraisal as late 18th-century American, of Chippendale design and made of mahogany. The secretary is described as having ogee bracket feet, used exclusively on case furniture, and Chippendale-style flattened urn brasses with bail pulls. Ogee bracket feet are named for the convex curves employed, which give the appearance of ornate scalloped edges. The 1946 appraisal also described the secretary as from Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

The name “Chippendale” refers to London cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale and his influential pattern book, The Gentleman & Cabinetmaker’s Director, first published in 1754. Rosemary Krill in her book Early American Decorative Arts states as follows:

A profusion of ornament often appears to be the most dramatic design element of Chippendale-style furniture. Additionally, distinctive lines and material, especially mahogany, characterize the style in eighteenth-century North America. When you see mahogany furniture with a combination of curved and straight structural lines and possibly an abundance of carved ornament, think of the Chippendale or rococo style.

A card found inside the secretary-bookcase stated as follows:

SECRETARY- Queen Anne – Chippendale- MAHOGANY
It has ogee bracket feet both front and rear. There are four graduated doors that are lipped. The desk section has four banks of two drawers, serpentine front. The door has fan carvings in reverse block. There are two candle stands. The top is a scroll pediment with flame finial in center and sunflower terminals to scroll. The scroll pediment is typically Philadelphia. The usual New York piece is flat top with straight pitch pediment. The hardware here seems to be original and probably of English import. Ca. 1775- 1790 or later.

The Bowne House secretary-bookcase is described as having Queen Anne elements, likely the sculptural curved lines of the scroll pediment, similar to the curved but more massive lines of the sofa and tall armchair also in the office suite of furniture. It should be noted, however, that in Figure 7-6 of her book Early American Decorative Arts, Krill shows a mahogany and tulip Chippendale-style four drawer desk-and-bookcase with a scroll pediment made by a New York cabinetmaker Samuel Prince, rather than a Philadelphia one, but with rare glass drawers and other distinctions.

Krill states that an acquisition like this secretary was a major investment for an owner in the late eighteenth century. In giving this piece a prominent place in a home or office, the owner, usually of a wealthy and prominent family, displayed his status as an educated reader and owner of books. Knowledge and ownership of books denoted good breeding. It was thought that knowledge and ownership of books denoted a keen intellect and a fine education. It should be noted that this was also a time of private subscription library associations before there were public libraries. Indeed, the Bowne House archives reflect that other Bowne and Parsons family members had shares in New York City’s first lending library.

The Bowne House is fortunate to have this suite of Mayor Bowne’s office furniture preserved and currently on display in the House. You can enjoy this furniture and other pieces spanning three centuries of Bowne House residence when you visit the House!

References

Butler, Joseph T. , Field Guide to American Antique Furniture: A Unique Visual System for Identifying the Style of Virtually Any Piece of American Antique Furniture. United States: Macmillan, 1986. 35-53; 59-61.

Downs, Joseph, American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale periods, MacMillan Co., 1950. See comparative reference to a Pennsylvania walnut desk and bookcase, attributed to John Bachman (1746-1829) of Lancaster County, who was Swiss born and long miscalled Jacob Bachman. He was influenced by the Philadelphia Chippendale style but employed it with originality, as seen in the large-scale sunflowers which end the scrolls of the pediment, in the tall proportions of the twisted flame finials.

Failey, Dean F., Long Island Is My Nation, The Decorative Arts & Craftsmen 1640-1830. (Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1998). 197.

Guide to the Records of the Early Mayors, 1827-1897, Collection No. 0002, 1990, rev. 2015 and 2017. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/records/pdf/mayoral-collections/early-mayors-records-1826-1897.pdf.

Haswell, Charles Hanes, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian Living at the Time (1816-1860). New York: Harper & brothers, 1896. Hathi Trust, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000844069/Cite.

Historic Structures Report: Broadway Flushing Historic District, (PDF), National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, March 18, 2006. https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/06000373.pdf. 303.

Kadinsky, Gregory, “Bowne Pond, Queens,” Hidden Waters blog, November 11, 2016, https://hiddenwatersblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/11/bownepd/. (Accessed April 15, 2022).

Krill, Rosemary, Early America in Decorative Arts, 1620-1860: A Handbook for Interpreters, Revised and Enhanced (AltaMira Press, a division of Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2010). 61-75; 89-103.

Podcast, “Eliza Southgate Bowne: In Her Own Words, Episode 2, Eliza Southgate Bowne’s Notes on Marriage,” Bowne House from Home, https://www.bownehouse.org/elizabowne.

Podcast, “Mayor Walter Bowne and the Cholera Outbreak of 1832,” Bowne House from Home, https://www.bownehouse.org/walterbowne.

Vincent, Nicholas C. “American Furniture, 1730–1790: Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chip/hd_chip.htm (December 2009)

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