Lot Essay
Combining high-style design with regional preferences, this desk-and-bookcase and related examples illustrate the complex interaction between urban and rural style centers in eighteenth-century New England. The scrolled pediment, panelled doors flanked by pilasters, blocked lower case and blocked and scrolled bracket feet all derive from Boston craftmanship. Yet the treatment of the pilasters varies considerably from the typical plain surfaces or fluted carving seen on classical architecture. Instead, the bold vine carving represents a motif favored in rural areas along the Connecticut River valley. Various interpretations of the meandering vine are found on other furniture, doorways and gravestones of the region (see William N. Hosley, "Regional Furniture/Regional Life," American Furniture (Hanover, NH, 1995), pp.18-21). Loosely based upon corkscrew finials, the twist-carved and ball finials are also vernacular versions of Boston style. In addition, the construction of the desk illustrates both urban and rural methods; the beaded drawer sides and dovetail configuration are in the Boston manner, yet the joining of the drawer bottoms and use of cherrywood are indicative of Connecticut River Valley work. As the family histories of this desk and its related examples are rooted in the Connecticut River Valley, the maker or makers were undoubtedly based in the same area, but trained in, or trained under a cabinetmaker from, Boston.
Known examples with similar vine-carved pilasters include six other desk-and-bookcases, six high chests and a chest-on-chest (see below). Besides the features mentioned above, other hallmarks of this group include short stop-fluted elements at the base of the pilasters and, in the desk-and-bookcases, identical foot construction, similar interior arrangements in both cases and related turnings applied to the document drawers. Minor variations in design and execution reveal the work of a cohesive school of several makers closely related by training. The desk offered here is the only example to survive with its gilded finials, both on the bookcase and on the turnings on the document drawers. For another example with finials of identical design, see Sotheby's New York, 19-21 January, 1996, lot 1633. Also, with six, as opposed to four, stopped-flutes in the pilaster base, this desk is linked to one that sold at Sotheby's New York in 1982 and to another illustrated in Nutting, p.697 (see below).
According to Philip Zea, Curator and Deputy Director of Historic Deerfield, the school involved one or two master craftsmen in the Springfield area and their apprentices who perpetuated the style in the same area as well as possibly further down the Connecticut River. A pembroke table discovered by Zea provides the strongest evidence for connecting a particular maker with the school. Its whereabouts now unknown, the table was found amongst the belongings of direct descendents of Eliakim Smith (1735-1775), a cabinetmaker who worked in both Springfield and Hadley, Massachusetts. Though lacking the vine carving, the table's fluted legs are terminated by the distinctive stop-fluted element found on the base of the pilasters on the larger group (for an illustration of the table, see Roger A. Schrenk, "Eliakim Smith and Mid-Eighteenth Century Vine Carved High Chests," summer fellowship paper (Historic Deerfield, Inc., 1994), fig.3). Born in Suffield, Connecticut, Smith was working as a cabinetmaker in Hadley as early as 1757, the earliest date in his account book, now lost, as transcribed by the antiquarian-historian, Sylvester Judd. Smith was successful in his trade, catering to the local elite and consistently ranking among the upper third of his community in tax records. Judd's selective transcription only includes Hadley-based clients and Smith may well have supplied customers further afield. He served as a captain in the beginnings of the Revolutionary War and died in an army camp in Watertown, Massachusetts. His estate, valued at over L900, included a large quantity and variety of cabinetmaker's tools. He married Mehitable Smith in 1760 and, after her death, Jerusha Kellogg. Interestingly, Mehitable's gravestone survives and is decorated with vertical meandering vines (for more details on Smith, see Schrenk, passim.; the gravestone is illustrated in Hosley, p.21 and Schrenk, fig.7).
According to Zea, Smith was in all likelihood one of the master craftsmen who developed the techniques and designs of this school of cabinetmaking, which were perpetuated by his apprentices later working in the larger area. As yet, there is no indication that Smith trained in Boston. The evidence for the movement of craftsmen and dissemination of style is further complicated by information derived from two related examples. A desk now in the collection of the Hartford Steam and Boiler Insurance Company features a central plinth embellished with fluting and an overlapping applied rosette that bears a strong resemblance to the Benjamin Burnam/Samuel Loomis school of Colchester, Connecticut. An additional link to Connecticut's New London County is found in a bureau-table in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society (fig. 2). Though the table lacks vine carving, it features the molding profiles and drawer construction of the group. The maker of the table joined the top to a second sub-top, a method frequently used by Rhode Island makers who influenced the work of eastern Connecticut (Robert F. Trent, "A New American Bureau-Table," Maine Antique Digest, October 1986, p.36C). Thus, the school which produced the vine-carved pilasters involved the participation of cabinetmakers very familiar with eastern Connecticut work. Descending in the Russell family of Middletown, Connecticut, the desk offered here provides a geographic link between the upper Connecticut River and eastern Connecticut that may explain the evidence of both New London County and Hampshire County cabinetwork in a single school.
The current owners, if known, and references to the related vine-carved examples are as follows: a desk-and-bookcase sold at Sotheby's New York, 19-21 January 1996, lot 1633; a desk-and-bookcase at the Longmeadow Historical Society; a desk-and-bookcase owned by the Hartford Steam and Boiler Insurance Company and illustrated in The Great River: Art and Society of the Connecticut Valley (Hartford, 1985), cat.106; a desk-and-bookcase sold at Sotheby's New York, 23 October, 1982, lot 87; a desk-and-bookcase illustrated in Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, vol. 2 (New York, 1928), no.697; a desk-and-bookcase that sold at Pook & Pook, Ludwig's Corners, PA, October 13-14, 1995 and now in a private collection; a high chest at Historic Deerfield, Inc. (fig. 3); a high chest illustrated by Good & Hutchinson in Antiques (April 1979), p.660; a high chest illustrated in "Similar Connecticut Highboys," Antiques (December 1937), p.288; a high chest advertised by Bernard and S. Dean Levy, Inc., Antiques (April 1975), p.561; an unpublished high chest in a private collection; a high chest in the collection of the Ohio State Museum and illustrated in Schrenk, fig.15; a chest-on-chest illustrated in Nutting, vol. 1, no.313.
Known examples with similar vine-carved pilasters include six other desk-and-bookcases, six high chests and a chest-on-chest (see below). Besides the features mentioned above, other hallmarks of this group include short stop-fluted elements at the base of the pilasters and, in the desk-and-bookcases, identical foot construction, similar interior arrangements in both cases and related turnings applied to the document drawers. Minor variations in design and execution reveal the work of a cohesive school of several makers closely related by training. The desk offered here is the only example to survive with its gilded finials, both on the bookcase and on the turnings on the document drawers. For another example with finials of identical design, see Sotheby's New York, 19-21 January, 1996, lot 1633. Also, with six, as opposed to four, stopped-flutes in the pilaster base, this desk is linked to one that sold at Sotheby's New York in 1982 and to another illustrated in Nutting, p.697 (see below).
According to Philip Zea, Curator and Deputy Director of Historic Deerfield, the school involved one or two master craftsmen in the Springfield area and their apprentices who perpetuated the style in the same area as well as possibly further down the Connecticut River. A pembroke table discovered by Zea provides the strongest evidence for connecting a particular maker with the school. Its whereabouts now unknown, the table was found amongst the belongings of direct descendents of Eliakim Smith (1735-1775), a cabinetmaker who worked in both Springfield and Hadley, Massachusetts. Though lacking the vine carving, the table's fluted legs are terminated by the distinctive stop-fluted element found on the base of the pilasters on the larger group (for an illustration of the table, see Roger A. Schrenk, "Eliakim Smith and Mid-Eighteenth Century Vine Carved High Chests," summer fellowship paper (Historic Deerfield, Inc., 1994), fig.3). Born in Suffield, Connecticut, Smith was working as a cabinetmaker in Hadley as early as 1757, the earliest date in his account book, now lost, as transcribed by the antiquarian-historian, Sylvester Judd. Smith was successful in his trade, catering to the local elite and consistently ranking among the upper third of his community in tax records. Judd's selective transcription only includes Hadley-based clients and Smith may well have supplied customers further afield. He served as a captain in the beginnings of the Revolutionary War and died in an army camp in Watertown, Massachusetts. His estate, valued at over L900, included a large quantity and variety of cabinetmaker's tools. He married Mehitable Smith in 1760 and, after her death, Jerusha Kellogg. Interestingly, Mehitable's gravestone survives and is decorated with vertical meandering vines (for more details on Smith, see Schrenk, passim.; the gravestone is illustrated in Hosley, p.21 and Schrenk, fig.7).
According to Zea, Smith was in all likelihood one of the master craftsmen who developed the techniques and designs of this school of cabinetmaking, which were perpetuated by his apprentices later working in the larger area. As yet, there is no indication that Smith trained in Boston. The evidence for the movement of craftsmen and dissemination of style is further complicated by information derived from two related examples. A desk now in the collection of the Hartford Steam and Boiler Insurance Company features a central plinth embellished with fluting and an overlapping applied rosette that bears a strong resemblance to the Benjamin Burnam/Samuel Loomis school of Colchester, Connecticut. An additional link to Connecticut's New London County is found in a bureau-table in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society (fig. 2). Though the table lacks vine carving, it features the molding profiles and drawer construction of the group. The maker of the table joined the top to a second sub-top, a method frequently used by Rhode Island makers who influenced the work of eastern Connecticut (Robert F. Trent, "A New American Bureau-Table," Maine Antique Digest, October 1986, p.36C). Thus, the school which produced the vine-carved pilasters involved the participation of cabinetmakers very familiar with eastern Connecticut work. Descending in the Russell family of Middletown, Connecticut, the desk offered here provides a geographic link between the upper Connecticut River and eastern Connecticut that may explain the evidence of both New London County and Hampshire County cabinetwork in a single school.
The current owners, if known, and references to the related vine-carved examples are as follows: a desk-and-bookcase sold at Sotheby's New York, 19-21 January 1996, lot 1633; a desk-and-bookcase at the Longmeadow Historical Society; a desk-and-bookcase owned by the Hartford Steam and Boiler Insurance Company and illustrated in The Great River: Art and Society of the Connecticut Valley (Hartford, 1985), cat.106; a desk-and-bookcase sold at Sotheby's New York, 23 October, 1982, lot 87; a desk-and-bookcase illustrated in Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, vol. 2 (New York, 1928), no.697; a desk-and-bookcase that sold at Pook & Pook, Ludwig's Corners, PA, October 13-14, 1995 and now in a private collection; a high chest at Historic Deerfield, Inc. (fig. 3); a high chest illustrated by Good & Hutchinson in Antiques (April 1979), p.660; a high chest illustrated in "Similar Connecticut Highboys," Antiques (December 1937), p.288; a high chest advertised by Bernard and S. Dean Levy, Inc., Antiques (April 1975), p.561; an unpublished high chest in a private collection; a high chest in the collection of the Ohio State Museum and illustrated in Schrenk, fig.15; a chest-on-chest illustrated in Nutting, vol. 1, no.313.