Ashland estate, historian at odds over period furniture

History, they say, is written by the victors. But in a dispute over the historical significance of some furniture at the Henry Clay estate Ashland, history will go to the highest bidder.

Ann Hagan-Michel, director at Ashland, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the period furniture, which includes a couch and some chairs, is being sold this weekend because it has no direct connection to Henry Clay or the Clay family, and proceeds from the sale will go into a fund for purchasing actual Clay items in the future.

But William Scott Jr., a Lexington architectural historian, argues that Ashland officials are making a tragic mistake. He maintains that the furniture - scheduled to be auctioned off at a New Orleans gallery on Sunday - actually was purchased in the 1850s by Henry Clay’s son, James Brown Clay, and placed in the Clay mansion, which James Brown Clay was rebuilding at the time.

About the only thing both sides agree on is that the pieces up for sale were made by John Henry Belter, a famous New York furniture-maker who catered to wealthy clients in the mid-1800s. Belter furniture is sought after by collectors. But if the pieces really were owned by James B. Clay, Scott says, they could be worth up to $40,000.

James Clay’s ownership makes the furniture highly valuable and too important to leave Kentucky, Scott contended.

“I could not be more alarmed and disappointed to learn that the current administration at Ashland is selling off furnishings original to the house,” Scott said in an e-mail to the newspaper.

Hagan-Michel and Ashland curator Eric Brooks contend, however, that Scott has his facts wrong.

Brooks said Ashland has records showing that the furniture never belonged to James Brown Clay and was owned by William Cassius Goodloe, another prominent Lexington resident of the 1800s. The pieces were donated to Ashland in the 1950s, long after it became a public museum, and are not original to the mansion, Brooks said.

Scott “is factually misinformed,” Brooks said. “We have good documentation that explains exactly how the pieces came to be in the Goodloe family and how they got here. It has nothing whatsoever to do with James Clay.”

Scott, who has 25 years’ experience as an architectural historian, said he’s written letters about the issue to several officials, including Mayor Jim Newberry.

According to Scott’s account, James Brown Clay acquired Ashland after his father died in 1852 and began rebuilding and refurnishing the mansion, ordering several pieces of furniture from John Henry Belter. Scott says he found records of the purchases at the Library of Congress in the early 1980s, including descriptions of the furniture and a bill of sale from Belter. The descriptions exactly match the furniture scheduled for sale on Sunday, Scott contends.

Scott believes the furniture stayed at Ashland until James Brown Clay’s death in 1861, then was sold and found its way into the hands of William Cassius Goodloe.

The Belter furniture in question has been at Ashland for decades, and until a little more than a year ago was displayed in the mansion’s “red parlor,” according to Hagan-Michel. Then, the room was redecorated as a study and filled with other donated furniture, much of it known to have been used by Henry Clay, she said.

Another point both sides agree on: Goodloe’s daughter married into the Clay family, and her grandchildren donated the furniture to Ashland in the 1950s.

“It’s a miracle that it ended up back there,” Scott said.

It might make a nice story, but it’s wrong, Hagan-Michel said.

“I really feel like when it comes to the Clay family - we probably have the most-up-to-date, accurate information available,” she said.

Hagan-Michel said she offered to show Scott her own documentation of the furniture, but he declined to examine it.

Scott says he doesn’t want to see the furniture leave Kentucky and might try to buy it himself when it goes on sale Sunday.

Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com