A CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY HIGH CHEST-OF-DRAWERS

PHILADELPHIA, 1760-1780

Details

A CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY HIGH CHEST-OF-DRAWERS
Philadelphia, 1760-1780
In two sections: the upper section with flat molded cornice above a rectangular case fitted with three cockbeaded short drawers over two cockbeaded short drawers above three graduated and cockbeaded long drawers, flanked on either side by fluted quarter-columns; the lower section with mid-molding over a rectangular case fitted with one long cockbeaded drawer above a central shell and tendril-carved drawer flanked by two cockbeaded short drawers, the whole flanked by inset fluted quarter-columns over a shaped and shell-carved skirt, on cabriole legs with shell-carved knees and ball-and-claw feet, lacking pediment
77in. high, 45in. wide, 23in. deep

Provenance

Mrs. Esther Morton Smith, Philadelphia

Literature

William MacPherson Hornor, Jr., Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (Washington, D.C., 1935, rpt. 1977), pl. 122.

Lot Essay

This high chest belongs to a small group of carved furniture from Philadelphia associated with the anonymous woodworker known as the Garvan Carver. Characteristic of this shop is the carving of the shell drawer with a ruffled shell with undulating and lifting lobes surrounded by thick, widely spreading serpentine tendrils. A close comparison to the carving exhibited here can be made with the carving on a dressing table in The Mabel Brady Garvan Collection (illustrated in Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, 1988), p.226) and a high chest at the Winterthur Museum (illustrated in Downs, American Furniture: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (New York, 1952), pl.197).