A Herter Brothers Parcel Ebonized and Rosewood Inlaid Walnut Chimneypiece

Circa 1872

Height 46 x width 87 1/2 inches.

Property from a Private Collection

Provenance:

Executed for the downstairs parlor in the tower of Thurlow Lodge, Menlo Park, California

Estate of Mrs. Mary Kellogg Hopkins (1863-1941), Menlo Park and San Francisco

Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, Sherwood Hall, 5 October 1942, Lot 432

Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, Sale 4637V, Lot 1589

Note:

Mary Frances Hopkins (née Sherwood) (1818-1891) was known as a connoisseur of grand architecture and as one of the wealthiest women in America during her lifetime. Her architectural passions were likely ignited by the construction of an estate in Nob Hill, San Francisco with her first husband, Mark Hopkins Jr., a wealthy railroad magnate who died in 1878—two years prior to the completion of the estate.

Upon her husband's death, Mary Hopkins was lauded "America's Richest Widow," having received the largest inheritable fortune ever in the world at the time. She devoted herself to finishing the construction and decoration of the Nob Hill estate while simultaneously amassing an impressive portfolio of property elsewhere, including a townhouse in New York, a castle in France, a French chateau-style mansion in Great Barrington, Massachusetts named Kellogg Terrace (known today as Searles Castle after her second husband Edward Francis Searles), and Sherwood Hall of Menlo Park, California.

Formerly known as Thurlow Lodge, Mary Hopkins purchased Sherwood Hall in 1883 as a wedding gift for her adopted son Timothy Noland Hopkins (1839-1936). Thurlow Lodge was initially built by former California governor, U.S. Representative and Senator Milton Slocum Latham in 1872. Latham moved to New York City in 1879 to serve as president of the New York Mining and Stock Exchange. He later lost much of his fortune in a stock market crash and died in 1882.

Both Thurlow Lodge and Mary Hopkins' Nob Hill estate were furnished by the San Francisco outlet Herter Brothers (1864-1906), a New York based firm established by German immigrants Christian and Gustave Herter. The firm specialized in comprehensive interior design and furniture manufacturing for their Gilded Age clients, including William Vanderbilt and President Ulysses S. Grant (for the White House).

Following the death of Timothy Hopkins' wife Mary Kellogg Hopkins in 1941, Butterfield & Butterfield conducted an auction of Sherwood Hall's contents, including the present lot.