Lot Essay
The balanced, high-relief C-scroll applied tympanum, distinctly carved shell drawer and serpentine skirt of this high chest link it to an important group of carved case forms made in Philadelphia between 1760 and 1780. Other examples from this group comprise some of the most important masterpieces of Philadelphia's rococo production. Included in this group are the Potts Family high chest from the Karolik Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Hollingsworth high chests and dressing tables, one matched pair in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the second high chest, sold in these Rooms, 23 May 1985, lot 202, now in the collection of Chipstone; the Stevenson-Phillips high chest from the Dietrich American Foundation; the Van Pelt high chest at Winterthur; the Moulder high chest Lawrence Family Matching high chest and Dressing Table at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and finally, a dressing table at Bayou Bend. While variously attributed to different cabinetmaking shops, most often that of Thomas Affleck, consistent similarities within the larger array of carving suggests the same artisan on all the shell-carved drawers working with a variety of other carvers on other decorative elements of these forms.
The objects comprising this group form a visual survey of the evolution of specific carving motifs prevalent in the years of enveloping the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
The most closely related form to the high chest offered here is the Potts Family High chest from the Karolik Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, also illustrated here. Related in overall conception and case arrangement, the tympanum of this high chest has raised roundels flanking the central plinth and appears taller than the Potts Family example, with the central opening alternating C-scroll motif slightly shorter on the Potts high chest. Nonetheless, the most prominent embellishment virtually identical. Likewise, centering the lower section of each high chest is an equally consistent shell-carved drawer. With its attentuated height, pierced ribs, undercut outer lobes and scrolling, interlacing attendant tendrils, the shells of each drawer of both high chests are also punctuated by an interior carved rosette whose outstretched petals taper and twist at their ends. Beyond these similarities, the two high chests are not identical. With its cross-hatched and flaming petalled rosettes, exuberantly C-scroll and cabochon-carved undulating skirt and intricately carved knees related to the Van Pelt and Moulder examples, the Potts Family high chest may be a later manifestation of the same design ideas expressed on the form offered here.
Within the chronology of this particular group of embellishments, where the Potts Family high chest may be a later example of the same design idea, the Hollingsworth high chests and Matching Dressing Tables may be an earlier example (see Sewell et al, Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia, 1976), pp. 140-141, fig.109). Employing the same high arched broken swan's-neck pediment, similarly carved rosettes, raised roundels flanking the central plinth, as well as an aesthetically related cartouche, either Affleck or Hollingsworth rejected an embellished scrollboard in favor of matching shell-carved draers in upper and lower case similar in conception and execution to the shell-carved drawer seen here. Although the central scallop shell of the skirt is similar on both high chests, the skirt of the Hollingsworth examples is an earlier articulation of the Philadelphia style. In these stylistic details, Malcolm Vaughn also relates this high chest to the Hollingsworth high chests in his article on the Garvan Collection (see Vaughn, "American Chippendale Furniture in Mrs. Garvan's Collection," Antiques, January 1956, pp. 64-67.
Also related to the high chest shown here, and possibly contemporary to the Hollingsworth high chests, is the Stevenson-Phillips high chest, illustrated and discussed in Rollins, "Furniture in the Collection of the Dietrich American Foundation," Antiques, May 1984, pp.1100-1119, pl. XVI, figs. 16, 16A. Where the applied carving of the tympanum is a substantively different design from the open acanthus scroll of this and the Potts examples, the Stevenson-Phillips high chest also centers at its base the same attentuated, pierced and undercut shell flanked by interlacing tendrils. In addition, although the line of the Stevenson-Phillips tympanum lacks raised roundels, the line of its skirt echoes that of this example, though without carved fillet or volutes. The Stevenson-Phillips high chest may also be an important connection between this high chest and the Van Pelt high chest at Winterthur. Both the Van Pelt high chest and this example share similarly executed rosettes. Where this high chest and the Stevenson-Phillips typanum carving designs differ, the Stevenson-Phillips example evokes the delicate garlanded and alternating C-scroll embellishment of the Van Pelt high chest. Both tympanums are applied to a clean, scrollboards lacking roundels at either side of the plinth. While the applique designs of these two examples is related, the knee carving of the Van Pelt high chest is more related to the Potts high chest than any other of the group. Despite their differing skirt details, the common bond of all three examples is the same central shell and tendril-carved drawer of the lower section. That each of these high chests retains this feature demonstrates both change over time within the aesthetic of a given form (the skirt and its related carving), yet the retention over time of a traditional motif (the shell-carved drawer).
This duality is seen again in case forms from this group that are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Late Colonial Period: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles (New York, 1985), pp.253-258, figs. 165, 166, 167. With its scrolling applique carving at the tympanum, as well as other carved embellishments, the Moulder high chest has already been related to both the Potts high chest and the Van Pelt high chest (Heckscher, p.254, fig. 165). These same features, the similar drawer arrangement, carved rosettes, lower shell-drawer and carving of the pendant acanthus leaves at the knees, also relate the Moulder high chest to this example as well. Similarly conceived but more elaborately articulated, the Lawrence Family Matching high chest and dressing table is most closely related to the Van Pelt high chest in its tympanum embellishment, but it is also related to the Potts high chest in the central motif of its skirt carving and in its carved rosettes (figs. 166, 167).
An additional related dressing table with similarly carved shell-drawer and knee leafage is illustrated and discussed in Warren, Bayou Bend: American Furniture, Paintings and Silver from the Bayou Bend Collection (Houston, 1975), p.61, fig. 118. The carved skirt of this dressing table is related to both the Potts and Lawrence Family examples.
The carving produced as an expression of rococo Philadelphia in the later third of the 18th century has come to be seen as one of the most masterful and indigenously American art forms of the colonial period. Informed by the light, foliate and complex aesthetic of the engraver's art, as seen in print and on silver, the mastercarvers of this city created an aesthetic whose progrssion resulted in increasingly delicate, unfolding, sculptural forms, successive examples of which seem to advance beyond the accomplishment of their predecessors (Miller, "Philadelphia Carving," Cadwalder Symposium, 14 October 1996). In addition to the magnificent case forms, associated with Philadelphia, related carving masterpieces appear in architectural and cast materials as well. To this end, a cast-iron six plate stove dated 1772 and identified by the names "Mark Bird/Hopewell Furnace" (see Heckscher & Bowman, American Rococo, 1750-1775 (New York, 1992), pp. 223-224, fig. 160), is embellished with garlanded flowers and serpentine foliate-carved quarter-round edges, much in the style of the Van Pelt and Lawrence high chests, and may accordingly provide a further relative to the high chest illustrated here.
The objects comprising this group form a visual survey of the evolution of specific carving motifs prevalent in the years of enveloping the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
The most closely related form to the high chest offered here is the Potts Family High chest from the Karolik Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, also illustrated here. Related in overall conception and case arrangement, the tympanum of this high chest has raised roundels flanking the central plinth and appears taller than the Potts Family example, with the central opening alternating C-scroll motif slightly shorter on the Potts high chest. Nonetheless, the most prominent embellishment virtually identical. Likewise, centering the lower section of each high chest is an equally consistent shell-carved drawer. With its attentuated height, pierced ribs, undercut outer lobes and scrolling, interlacing attendant tendrils, the shells of each drawer of both high chests are also punctuated by an interior carved rosette whose outstretched petals taper and twist at their ends. Beyond these similarities, the two high chests are not identical. With its cross-hatched and flaming petalled rosettes, exuberantly C-scroll and cabochon-carved undulating skirt and intricately carved knees related to the Van Pelt and Moulder examples, the Potts Family high chest may be a later manifestation of the same design ideas expressed on the form offered here.
Within the chronology of this particular group of embellishments, where the Potts Family high chest may be a later example of the same design idea, the Hollingsworth high chests and Matching Dressing Tables may be an earlier example (see Sewell et al, Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia, 1976), pp. 140-141, fig.109). Employing the same high arched broken swan's-neck pediment, similarly carved rosettes, raised roundels flanking the central plinth, as well as an aesthetically related cartouche, either Affleck or Hollingsworth rejected an embellished scrollboard in favor of matching shell-carved draers in upper and lower case similar in conception and execution to the shell-carved drawer seen here. Although the central scallop shell of the skirt is similar on both high chests, the skirt of the Hollingsworth examples is an earlier articulation of the Philadelphia style. In these stylistic details, Malcolm Vaughn also relates this high chest to the Hollingsworth high chests in his article on the Garvan Collection (see Vaughn, "American Chippendale Furniture in Mrs. Garvan's Collection," Antiques, January 1956, pp. 64-67.
Also related to the high chest shown here, and possibly contemporary to the Hollingsworth high chests, is the Stevenson-Phillips high chest, illustrated and discussed in Rollins, "Furniture in the Collection of the Dietrich American Foundation," Antiques, May 1984, pp.1100-1119, pl. XVI, figs. 16, 16A. Where the applied carving of the tympanum is a substantively different design from the open acanthus scroll of this and the Potts examples, the Stevenson-Phillips high chest also centers at its base the same attentuated, pierced and undercut shell flanked by interlacing tendrils. In addition, although the line of the Stevenson-Phillips tympanum lacks raised roundels, the line of its skirt echoes that of this example, though without carved fillet or volutes. The Stevenson-Phillips high chest may also be an important connection between this high chest and the Van Pelt high chest at Winterthur. Both the Van Pelt high chest and this example share similarly executed rosettes. Where this high chest and the Stevenson-Phillips typanum carving designs differ, the Stevenson-Phillips example evokes the delicate garlanded and alternating C-scroll embellishment of the Van Pelt high chest. Both tympanums are applied to a clean, scrollboards lacking roundels at either side of the plinth. While the applique designs of these two examples is related, the knee carving of the Van Pelt high chest is more related to the Potts high chest than any other of the group. Despite their differing skirt details, the common bond of all three examples is the same central shell and tendril-carved drawer of the lower section. That each of these high chests retains this feature demonstrates both change over time within the aesthetic of a given form (the skirt and its related carving), yet the retention over time of a traditional motif (the shell-carved drawer).
This duality is seen again in case forms from this group that are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Late Colonial Period: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles (New York, 1985), pp.253-258, figs. 165, 166, 167. With its scrolling applique carving at the tympanum, as well as other carved embellishments, the Moulder high chest has already been related to both the Potts high chest and the Van Pelt high chest (Heckscher, p.254, fig. 165). These same features, the similar drawer arrangement, carved rosettes, lower shell-drawer and carving of the pendant acanthus leaves at the knees, also relate the Moulder high chest to this example as well. Similarly conceived but more elaborately articulated, the Lawrence Family Matching high chest and dressing table is most closely related to the Van Pelt high chest in its tympanum embellishment, but it is also related to the Potts high chest in the central motif of its skirt carving and in its carved rosettes (figs. 166, 167).
An additional related dressing table with similarly carved shell-drawer and knee leafage is illustrated and discussed in Warren, Bayou Bend: American Furniture, Paintings and Silver from the Bayou Bend Collection (Houston, 1975), p.61, fig. 118. The carved skirt of this dressing table is related to both the Potts and Lawrence Family examples.
The carving produced as an expression of rococo Philadelphia in the later third of the 18th century has come to be seen as one of the most masterful and indigenously American art forms of the colonial period. Informed by the light, foliate and complex aesthetic of the engraver's art, as seen in print and on silver, the mastercarvers of this city created an aesthetic whose progrssion resulted in increasingly delicate, unfolding, sculptural forms, successive examples of which seem to advance beyond the accomplishment of their predecessors (Miller, "Philadelphia Carving," Cadwalder Symposium, 14 October 1996). In addition to the magnificent case forms, associated with Philadelphia, related carving masterpieces appear in architectural and cast materials as well. To this end, a cast-iron six plate stove dated 1772 and identified by the names "Mark Bird/Hopewell Furnace" (see Heckscher & Bowman, American Rococo, 1750-1775 (New York, 1992), pp. 223-224, fig. 160), is embellished with garlanded flowers and serpentine foliate-carved quarter-round edges, much in the style of the Van Pelt and Lawrence high chests, and may accordingly provide a further relative to the high chest illustrated here.