By Livy Scott, Decorative Arts Trust’s Peggy N. Gerry Curatorial Fellow
2024 was a year of serendipitous discovery for a set of 18th-century chairs connected to the Colonel John Ashley House. For decades The Trustees possessed only three of the four historically significant and aesthetically intriguing chairs. However, that all changed when I began researching the incomplete set’s history.
Confirmed to have once been owned by the prominent Ashley family, these rare chairs are believed to have originated in Western Massachusetts. Their distinctive bow-crested top rails, fluted ears, and sturdy construction suggest the work of a skilled rural craftsman—someone trying to mimic the popular sophisticated designs with a somewhat conservative, regional touch.
Little did I know when my research as the Decorative Arts Trust’s Peggy N. Gerry Curatorial Fellow began, I would solve a 43-year-old mystery and reunite all four of these treasures for the first time in nearly two centuries.
Reacquiring a Piece of History
The Colonel John Ashley House in Sheffield, MA.
Four years after The Trustees acquired the Ashley House in 1972, Gelston Hardy—a descendant of Colonel John Ashley—donated two of the original Queen Anne dining chairs back to the historic home. The remaining two were owned by another Ashley descendant, but only one was returned in 1981.
The fourth (and the ancestral set’s final) chair was gifted to a local antique dealer, Harry Weiss, and then lost to time. Tracking down this missing chair required curatorial detective work, which pieced together the object’s origins and traced its journey across time into our present moment.
Retracing the chair’s steps, I reached out to David Weiss—the son of Harry Weiss—who operates David M. Weiss Antiques in New Marlborough, MA. David didn’t know where the chair had gone, but he had a hunch about which antique dealer might.
He reached out to Nathan Liverant & Son Antiques in Colchester, CT, and learned that the dealer sold the chair in the 1990s but acquired it again in 2023. Thanks to a generous donation, The Trustees were able to purchase the missing chair, reuniting the set for the first time since 1827. A missing link in the Ashley family’s history was finally restored.
Investigating the Origins
My research has recently confirmed the family’s lore that the chairs were made in Springfield for the dowery of Mary Ballantine. At the time she was the wife-to-be of Gen. John Ashley, son of Col. John Ashley for whom the Sheffield house is named.
Mary was the daughter of the distinguished Reverend John Ballantine of Westfield. The Reverend’s journal—which survives in the collection of the Westfield Athenaeum—confirmed the origin of the chairs.
On October 11, 1769, he journaled that he traveled to Springfield to dine and “settle” with Reuben Bliss from whom the Reverand purchased 13 chairs and two tables for £15. The following week, Gen. John Ashley married Mary Ballantine, and then they returned to Sheffield with a set of these chairs in tow.
The revelation that these chairs were made by Reuben Bliss—a prominent Springfield craftsman—adds another layer of historical significance. While Bliss is best known for his wall and ceiling paneling that graces a namesake period room at the Brooklyn Museum, little is known about the furniture he crafted. Attributing these chairs to him deepens the understanding of Connecticut River Valley furniture history.
Uncovering a Stitched Past
Seat covers, wool and canvas, 1760-1769, Mary Ballantine Ashley, Westfield, Massachusetts. Photo by David Edgecomb.
In April 2024, during a routine cleaning of the collection with Trustees Director of Historical Collections Mark Wilson and Trustees Collections Manager Anna Thompson, I stumbled upon something unexpected: two of the original flame-stitch seat covers that had been misplaced since the late 1970s.
Mary Ballantine Ashley embroidered these seat covers in anticipation of her marriage. She has long been recognized for her embroidery skills thanks to the survival of her crewelwork bed hangings. The Trustees steward one curtain of this set, while Historic Deerfield houses five other pieces.
This exciting rediscovery has now sparked a new project to reproduce the seat covers. A volunteer has begun embroidering reproductions of the delicate originals, ensuring that all four chairs will closely match how they appeared upon first arriving in Sheffield in 1769.
This coming summer, the four chairs—now reunited and restored—will be on display for the first time in the Colonel John Ashley House. This moment marks the culmination of a year of research, serendipitous discoveries, and, most importantly, the restoration of an invaluable piece of regional history. It’s a reunion that has been long awaited, and it’s one that promises to offer a deeper understanding of the past.
