Period Highlight: The Janviers of Delaware

This architectural study shows the artist’s childhood house (at the left of the image) in present-day Odessa, Delaware. Francis’s father, John Janvier (1749–1801), owned the home, as well as his cabinetmaking shop (on the right), where he made some of Delaware’s finest furniture of the 1700s. Although it is possible that he trained as a furniture-maker under his father, Francis is known as a portrait- and coach-painter, as well as a poet.

MR. JOHN JANVIER’S APPOQUINIMINK (DELAWARE)

ATTRIBUTED TO FRANCIS DE HAES JANVIER
(1774–1824)
1798
INK WASH ON PAPER
GIFT OF MARIANA JANVIER BROWN; 1992.22

George Washington Janvier was the fifth son of cabinetmaker John Janvier (1749–1801), and although no furniture bearing his signature is known to exist, it is possible that George, like his brothers who signed their furniture, trained in his father’s Odessa, Delaware, cabinetmaking shop. George later became a Presbyterian missionary in Daretown, New Jersey.

STILL LIFE WITH FRUIT

ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE WASHINGTON
JANVIER (1784–1865)
CA. 1805 OR 1820S–30S
WATERCOLOR AND THEOREM PAINTS ON PAPER
GIFT OF MARIANA JANVIER BROWN; 1992.23

John Janvier’s trade label is inside the waist of this clock. It indicates that Janvier made this clock shortly after his Philadelphia apprenticeship, when he established a cabinetmaking business at the top of the Chesapeake Bay. This label dates the clock as the earliest known example of Delaware’s soon-to-be most famous furniture-maker. John Janvier settled a few years later in Cantwell’s Bridge, now Odessa, Delaware, where he enjoyed an illustrious career while training the next two generations of Delaware’s finest cabinetmakers.

TALL CLOCK

MOVEMENT: BENJAMIN CHANDLEE (1723–1791)
CASE: JOHN JANVIER (1749–1801)
HEAD OF ELK (ELKTON), MARYLAND, CA. 1770
BRASS WORKS; MAHOGANY, TULIP POPLAR, PINE
MUSEUM PURCHASE; 2009.9

This clock is a fine example of the decorative details and construction techniques of the Janviers’ Rococo style in Delaware. These include scalloped carving within the waist door and base panel. Thomas Janvier, nephew of John Janvier (1749–1801), recorded designs for a similar tall clock and other furniture forms in his account book for the years 1794 to 1796, which is currently in the collection of the Delaware State Archives.

TALL CLOCK

MOVEMENT: DUNCAN BEARD (WORKING 1765–1797) AND CHRISTOPHER WEAVER (WORKING 1787–1815)
1792
CASE: THOMAS JANVIER (1772–1852)
BRASS WORKS; MAHOGANY, YELLOW PINE,
TULIP POPLAR
GIFT OF SEWELL C. BIGGS; 1996.5

John Janvier advertised that he made chairs, however, this is the only known chair that can confidently lay claim to be his work. According to a copy of a 1795 receipt, the Hardcastle family of Castle Hall plantation, north of Goldsboro, Maryland, purchased twelve chairs from John Janvier. Five of those chairs still exist, including this piece in particular, while several tables and mirrors survived as well. While the location of the original receipt is currently unknown, it was copied and described by several descendants of the Hardcastle family.

SIDE CHAIR

JOHN JANVIER (1749–1801)
CANTWELL’S BRIDGE (ODESSA), DELAWARE,
1795
MAHOGANY
GIFT OF LAIRD HARDCASTLE SIMONS JR.;
2011.11.1

The signature “John Janvier, Delaware Cabinetmaker” appears on the underside of this chest of drawers. It is a local variation of a furniture form popularly constructed throughout the Mid-Atlantic since the 1750s. The senior John Janvier died in 1801, and his namesake took over his cabinetmaking shop in Cantwell’s Bridge, now Odessa, Delaware, that same year.

CHEST OF DRAWERS

JOHN JANVIER (1749–1801) OR JOHN JANVIER JR. (1777–1850)
CANTWELL’S BRIDGE (ODESSA), DELAWARE,
1790–1810
CHERRY, TULIP POPLAR
SEWELL C. BIGGS BEQUEST; 2004.161

Peregrine Janvier probably apprenticed with his father, John Janvier (1749–1801), before moving to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1811. He made this chest for the Wilson Warner house of Odessa, Delaware. This history has been prominently recorded by an inscription scratched into the underside of the third drawer from the top:

MADE August 1804
By Peregrine Janvier
Appoquinimink
For W. David Wilson

CHEST OF DRAWERS

PEREGRINE JANVIER (1781–1865)
CANTWELL’S BRIDGE (ODESSA), DELAWARE, 1804
MAHOGANY, TULIP POPLAR
MUSEUM PURCHASE; 2012.1

This chest of drawers bears the signature, “Made by John Macdonough Cantwell’s Bridge/1807”. The chest has several similarities with signed examples by John Janvier (1777–1850). These details include a top that overhangs the backboard by more than an inch, full tulip-poplar dust boards, and drawer construction. It is very likely that Macdonough apprenticed with Janvier during this chest’s construction.

CHEST OF DRAWERS

JOHN MACDONOUGH (1789–?)
CANTWELL’S BRIDGE (ODESSA), DELAWARE,
1807
MAHOGANY, MAHOGANY VENEER, TULIP
POPLAR, ATLANTIC WHITE CEDAR
GIFT OF SEWELL C. BIGGS; 1992.82

This work is a rare example of painting by Francis De Haes Janvier, who was the second son of the notable Delaware cabinet maker, John Janvier. Francis was trained as a cabinetmaker, but made more of a name for himself as portrait and coach painter. This work is most likely a study done from a European engraving. Its basis on a European work offers an interesting example of the exchanges that occurred between European and American artists through the easily transportable media of engravings and prints.

FOR FURTHER THINKING: The engraving this painting is based on was popular enough that it made its way to audiences in the United States. What do you think made it so popular?

STORM AT SEA

FRANCIS DE HAES JANVIER (1774-1824)
1789
WATERCOLOR ON PAPE
GIFT OF MARIANA JANVIER BROWN