Jonathan Gostelowe Explained

Jonathan Gostelowe (1744 or 1745, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  - 1795, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an 18th-century American cabinetmaker, best remembered for his Philadelphia Chippendale-style furniture.[1]

Biography

He was the eldest of the four children of George Gostelow (1701-1758), a Swedish-American farmer, and his English-born wife Lydia, who lived in the Passyunk section of what is now South Philadelphia.[2] There is no documentation of where the son learned his trade, although, based on stylistic similarities, it is conjectured that he apprenticed under cabinetmaker George Claypoole, Sr.[3] For much of his career, Gostelowe operated a shop on Church Alley between Second and Third Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[4]

He married Mary Duffield at Christ Church, Philadelphia on June 16, 1768. She died on May 13, 1770, at age 26.

He served in the 4th Artillery Regiment of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, attaining the rank of major.[5] He was paid for supplying drums to the army, possibly items he made himself. In August 1778, he completed an inventory of all arms and materiel held by the Continental Army in southeastern Pennsylvania. This inventory included illustrations of thirteen standards (regimental flags), which may have represented each of the thirteen Pennsylvania Militia regiments.[6] Design of these flags is attributed to John Henderson.[7] One "Gostelowe List" standard survives in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.[8]

Painter (and fellow veteran) Charles Willson Peale organized the Grand Federal Procession, an elaborate parade on July 4, 1788, celebrating ratification of the United States Constitution by ten of the former Thirteen Colonies (surpassing the required three-quarters majority). Gostelowe helped to recruit its 5,000 participants, and rode on the float sponsored by his guild, "The Gentlemen Cabinet and Chair Makers of Philadelphia."[9]

He was a contemporary of Philadelphia cabinetmakers Thomas Affleck, Benjamin Randolph and William Savery. Thomas Jones (fl. 1773-1802), of London, served a four-year apprenticeship under Gostelowe beginning in October 1773, and may have kept the shop going during Gostelowe's military service.[10]

He attended Christ Church, Philadelphia, and created some of its fixtures. He became a vestryman in 1792.

He married Elizabeth Towers on April 19, 1789.[11] As a wedding gift, he made her a serpentine chest of drawers and matching dressing table mirror incorporating their initials and the year "1789." The chest of drawers and mirror are now in the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection at Yale University Art Gallery. Gostelowe and his former-apprentice, Thomas Jones, are closely associated with the serpentine chest of drawers form, which was relatively rare in America.[12]

In 1790 he moved his shop to his wife's property at 66-68 High (now Market) Street, where he worked until his retirement in 1793.[13]

Gostelowe died on February 5, 1795, and was buried in Christ Church Burial Ground.[14] In 1798 his widow married Congressman Matthew Locke of North Carolina.[15]

Examples of his work

References

Notes and References

  1. http://www.americanainteriors.com/catalog/KindelSerpentineChest.html Modern replica of Gostelowe chest of drawers
  2. http://records.ancestry.com/George_Gostelowe_records.ashx?pid=66039490 George Gostelowe
  3. Andrew Brunk, "The Claypoole Family Joiners of Philadelphia: Their Legacy and the Context of Their Work," American Furniture (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 2002), pp. 166-69.http://www.chipstone.org/publications/2002AF/Brunk/2002Brunkindex.html
  4. Bjerkoe, p. 115.
  5. "Philadelphia City Muster Rolls, Philadelphia Artillery, 1783-1790," Pennsylvania Archives 3:6.http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/philadelphia/military/1783phil08.txt
  6. http://www.11thpa.org/unit_flag.html Official Flag of the 11th Pennsylvania Regiment
  7. http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=record_ID:siris_arc_214700 John Henderson Papers, Smithsonian Institution.
  8. A 3-flag set of standards from a Virginia regiment and a standard from Connecticut were captured by British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, and survive. The Connecticut standard resembles one illustrated in the "Gostelowe List."http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-06-15-rare-flags_x.htm
  9. Charles Willson Peale, "Account of the Grand Federal Procession in Philadelphia," The American Museum, volume 4, (Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1788), page 62.https://books.google.com/books?id=7_xGAAAAcAAJ&dq=jonathan+gostelow+cabinetmaker&pg=PA62
  10. John J. Snyder, Philadelphia Furniture and Its Makers (New York: Main Street Universe Books, 1924), p. 48.
  11. https://archive.today/20130616065935/http://www.christchurchphila.org/Historic-Christ-Church/Collections-Genealogy/Genealogy/Genealogy-Search/Record-Detail/56/lastname--Gostelowe/recordid--24897/ Marriage records
  12. Deborah Anne Federhen, "The Serpentine-Front Chests of Drawers of Jonathan Gostelowe and Thomas Jones," The Magazine Antiques (May 1988), pp. 1174-83.
  13. Bjerkoe, p. 115.
  14. https://archive.today/20130616065907/http://www.christchurchphila.org/Historic-Christ-Church/Collections-Genealogy/Genealogy/Genealogy-Search/Record-Detail/56/lastname--Gostelowe/recordid--36682/ Burial records
  15. https://archive.today/20130616065922/http://www.christchurchphila.org/Historic-Christ-Church/Collections-Genealogy/Genealogy/Genealogy-Search/Record-Detail/56/lastname--Locke/recordid--25754/ Marriage records
  16. http://www.theodorecohen.com/09AmerBaptismalFont.shtml St. Paul's baptismal font
  17. http://www.chipstone.org/publications/2008AF/Evans/bigwin/09Ebw.html Gostelowe-attributed chest of drawers
  18. http://www.chipstone.org/publications/2002AF/Brunk/bigwin/30bw.html Gostelowe chest of drawers
  19. http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/41633.html?mulR=5019|1 Gostelowe-attributed mirror
  20. http://www.philadelphiaantiquesweek.com/2012/04/30/chairman-cabinetmaker-jonathan-gostelowe/ "Jonathan Gostelowe,"
  21. http://christchurchphila.pastperfect-online.com/36023cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=8F8C5097-8D09-4373-8EC3-422924792403;type=101 Communion table
  22. http://christchurchphila.pastperfect-online.com/36023cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=BDD85CB2-6521-476F-B370-664521752152;type=101 Baptismal Font
  23. https://archive.today/20130616065929/http://ecatalogue.art.yale.edu/detail.htm?objectId=38655 Wedding chest of drawers
  24. https://archive.today/20130616065935/http://ecatalogue.art.yale.edu/detail.htm?objectId=38657 Dressing table mirror
  25. David L. Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 358-362, cat. no. 207.

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