Make an offer... Price is negotiable.  Serious offers and inquiries only!

***100% of the proceeds of this sale will end homelessness for a 
U.S. Army Veteran!***

For sale is a Nathaniel Bowditch owned 19th Century (possibly 18th Century) New England Chippendale Ladder-Back Style Armchair.  This is a truly rare piece of American history!  Mr. Bowditch is known for his work in maritime navigation, and author of "The American Practical Navigator," as well as his work in strengthening financial institutions in the U.S. at the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company.   But many don't know that he was a highly sought-after mathematician courted by Thomas Jefferson and Harvard University.  There was ongoing correspondence between Mr. Bowditch and Thomas Jefferson, as well as with James Madison.  See the attached photos of historically archived letters between Bowditch and our Founding Fathers (these letters are for reference only, and not included in the sale of this chair).  

While this chair can be purchased by anyone, and it would be a great treasure for anyone's private collection; I am hoping that this item will ultimately end up in a museum where it can be historically preserved and placed on display so it can be shared with the world.  But anyone can purchase. This chair is my most prized antique from years of collecting.  I purchased the chair on May 13th, 2021.  I have not done anything to the chair (no cleaning, polishing, or any repairs) since it's been in my possession.  The only indication of its authenticity is the brass plate secured to the bottom of the chair approximately 80 years ago by Mr. Bowditch's great-granddaughter, Rosamond Pierce Barbour in 1939.  

I've sent photos to the Peabody Essex Museum (who has many of Mr. Bowditch's possessions), and while they could not provide specific information about the chair (or give any sort of appraisal, since they are considered an "interested party" by the IRS), they did say that the chair does look correct for a New England made chair from that time period.

Approximate Dimensions: 40" H x 23" W x 19" D


About Nathaniel Bowditch:

Nathaniel Bowditch, (born March 26, 1773, Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.—died March 16, 1838, Boston, Massachusetts), self-educated American mathematician and astronomer, author of the best American book on navigation of his time and translator from the French of Pierre-Simon Laplace’s Celestial Mechanics.

Bowditch’s formal education ended when he was 10 years old and family circumstances forced him to work, first for two years in his father’s cooperage shop and then as a clerk for various local shops. Between 1795 and 1799 Bowditch made four lengthy sea voyages, and in 1802 he was put in command of a merchant vessel. Throughout that period he pursued his interest in mathematics. After investigating the accuracy of The Practical Navigator, a work by the Englishman J.H. Moore, he produced a revised edition in 1799. His additions became so numerous that in 1802 he published The New American Practical Navigator, based on Moore’s book, which was adopted by the U.S. Department of the Navy and went through some 60 editions.

Bowditch also wrote many scientific papers, one of which, on the motion of a pendulum swinging simultaneously about two axes at right angles (to illustrate the apparent motion of the Earth as viewed from the Moon), described the so-called Bowditch curves (better known as the Lissajous figures, after the man who later studied them in detail).

Bowditch provided a masterful translation of the first four volumes of Laplace’s monumental work on the gravitation of heavenly bodies, Traité de mécanique céleste (1799–1827). To help with the difficulty of the mathematics, Bowditch provided an extensive commentary that more than doubled the size of the original. The resulting work, Celestial Mechanics, was published in four volumes in 1829–39 to widespread international acclaim. Bowditch wrote several notes on the fifth and final volume but died before he was able to complete the translation.

Bowditch refused professorships at several universities. He was president (1804–23) of the Essex Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Salem and worked as an actuary (1823–38) for the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company of Boston. In

 recognition of his achievements, he was admitted as an honorary member to several foreign academies, including the Royal Society. From 1829 until his death, he was president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.



*The chair is listed as freight shipping at a flat-rate, but I will personally deliver the item to the buyer within the 48 contiguous states within the United States.  I will require a signature upon delivery and will also document the official transfer of ownership to you.