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Lot Essay
This dynamic chest of drawers, with its broad proportions and canted corners bears the tiny label of William King (1754-after 1806) of Salem and is one of three surviving pieces that bear his name. The others are an oval-top mahogany candlestand with pad feet branded "W. King" on the underside of the urn pedestal (figs. 1, 2), sold Sotheby's New York, November 18-20, 1976, lot 960 and is illustrated in Israel Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection (New York), vol. II, no. 744, and a demilune card table with fluted straight legs and bearing what appears to be a label identical to that on the Blair Collection chest-of-drawers, sold at Skinner, Inc., Bolton, August 12, 2000, lot 131. A chest-of-drawers in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem features similarly canted corners and a gadrooned base and is attributed to King (Decorative Arts Photographic Collection (DAPC), Winterthur Museum (no. 65.4151).
Born on February 24, 1754, William King married Rebecca Phippen, the daughter of Salem Deacon Nathaniel Phippen, and first advertised on July 21, 1789 in the Salem Mercury. From surviving accounts, he appears to have been quite a character. Soon after 1789, he stole a horse and buggy with the intention of deserting his family but was apprehended in New Haven. In 1793, he abandoned his family. The diary of the Reverend William Bentley, dated July 3, 1796, notes: News from Philadelphia that William King belonging to a good family in this Town after having dragged his family from Town to Town, left a note that he was going to drown himself and disappeared. It is supposed that he means to ramble unencumbered. The family are to return to Salem. King reappeared again in Hanover, New Hampshire when he advertised in 1806. He is not known to have returned to Salem and his production of work while there can be accurately restricted to the period before 1795 (Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America (Garden City, NY, 1957), p. 138).
As the owner of one of the few surviving labeled King pieces, Mrs. Blair was petitioned several times by scholars and dealers who inquired after the chest. On September 17, 1928, William Stuart Walcott, Jr. wrote to her, thanking her for three photographs she sent him and remarking on the circular designs on King's label and the close similarity to a Savery label he had seen. A second letter, written by William MacPherson Hornor on November 12, 1930, sought permission to use photographs of this chest in a "forthcoming account regarding American bureaus of exception and merit." Finally, on February 10, 1934, Paul Burroughs requested the use of a photograph of the chest and its label, as well as permission to illustrate her lighthouse clock (see lot 569); Burroughs mentions King in his article "Two Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture," The American Collector (September 1937), pp. 4-11, but does not illustrate this chest (Blair Collection Papers).
Born on February 24, 1754, William King married Rebecca Phippen, the daughter of Salem Deacon Nathaniel Phippen, and first advertised on July 21, 1789 in the Salem Mercury. From surviving accounts, he appears to have been quite a character. Soon after 1789, he stole a horse and buggy with the intention of deserting his family but was apprehended in New Haven. In 1793, he abandoned his family. The diary of the Reverend William Bentley, dated July 3, 1796, notes: News from Philadelphia that William King belonging to a good family in this Town after having dragged his family from Town to Town, left a note that he was going to drown himself and disappeared. It is supposed that he means to ramble unencumbered. The family are to return to Salem. King reappeared again in Hanover, New Hampshire when he advertised in 1806. He is not known to have returned to Salem and his production of work while there can be accurately restricted to the period before 1795 (Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America (Garden City, NY, 1957), p. 138).
As the owner of one of the few surviving labeled King pieces, Mrs. Blair was petitioned several times by scholars and dealers who inquired after the chest. On September 17, 1928, William Stuart Walcott, Jr. wrote to her, thanking her for three photographs she sent him and remarking on the circular designs on King's label and the close similarity to a Savery label he had seen. A second letter, written by William MacPherson Hornor on November 12, 1930, sought permission to use photographs of this chest in a "forthcoming account regarding American bureaus of exception and merit." Finally, on February 10, 1934, Paul Burroughs requested the use of a photograph of the chest and its label, as well as permission to illustrate her lighthouse clock (see lot 569); Burroughs mentions King in his article "Two Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture," The American Collector (September 1937), pp. 4-11, but does not illustrate this chest (Blair Collection Papers).