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Lot Essay
Displaying superlative craftsmanship, an old surface and its maker, carver and first owner identified, this dressing table stands as both an aesthetic masterpiece and a historically important survival of Philadelphia furniture. The table, with identical carved designs, is the mate to a high chest that descended from Samuel Wallis (c.1730-1798) along with a bill of sale dated February 18, 1770 from the cabinetmaker William Wayne (figs. 1, 3). Referring to the high chest in fig. 3 and the en suite dressing table offered here, the first and most expensive listing in the itemized bill is "a Case of Mahogany Drawers & table" priced at L25 (T. Kenneth Wood, "The Highboy of Samuel Wallis," The Magazine Antiques (September 1927), p. 212).
Besides a slant-front desk, which was also part of the Wallis commission, the high chest and this dressing table are the only documented evidence of the practices used by Wayne for case pieces. Some notable features seen in this table, which may assist in the attribution of other examples, include the presence of single bottom boards beneath each short drawer, which are nailed from above into rabbets in the skirt board, vertical drawer dividers with a diagonal taper in back, and the distinctive double-ogee shaping to the cusped corners. This latter feature is an especially refined detail and appears on another dressing table with carving attributed to Bernard and Jugiez (Leigh Keno Inc., advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (January 1993), p. 18); the slant-front desk, along with the bill of sale in fig. 1, was offered at auction in 1995, see Wood, p. 214, fig. 3 and "Documented Desk at Wilson Brothers," Maine Antique Digest (November 1995), p. 9A; a high chest attributed to Wayne sold in these Rooms, January 18-19, 2001, lot 66). As indicated by tax records, William Wayne was a successful cabinetmaker who worked in Philadelphia from the mid-1750s until at least the mid-1780s. In 1754, he married Sarah Gillingham, the daughter and cousin of fellow Philadelphia cabinetmakers John and James Gillingham and he first appears on the tax lists two years later, when he was identified as a joiner in the Mulberry Ward district. He went into business with Robert Moore, a partnership which was dissolved in 1769, just prior to the Wallis commission. He last appears in the documentary record in 1786, when he paid L150 occupational tax and most likely died before 1794, when his name is not included in the city directory (Wood, p. 214; Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America (New York, 1957), pp. 104, 229; William MacPherson Hornor, Jr., Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (1935), pp. 321, 326).
The carving on the dressing table is particularly accomplished and, with the surface virtually untouched, its original depth and detailing remain clearly evident. Based upon the techniques seen in their documented architectural work, Luke Beckerdite has attributed the carving on the Samuel Wallis high chest to the partnership of Nicholas Bernard and Martin Jugiez. Hallmarks of their handiwork include the presence of long, deep veining and paired gouge cuts on the acanthus-leaf carving and the use of a four-point punch to decorate the ground and convex lobes, all of which are seen on the knees and drawer of this dressing table (see Luke Beckerdite, "Philadelphia carving shops, Part II: Bernard and Jugiez," The Magazine Antiques (September 1985), pp. 498-513, especially pp. 508-510, fig. 20). Further details of the shell carving indicate that it was executed by Jugiez. The presence of the well-defined leaves within the shell and the free-flowing tendrils illustrate the assured hand of Jugiez and are closely related to the shell carving on a high chest recently ascribed to Jugiez alone (Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller, "A Table's Tale: Craft, Art, and Opportunity in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia," American Furniture 2004, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, WI: The Chipstone Foundation, 2004), pp. 22-23, figs. 38, 39). Though the applied tendrils on the shell drawer are missing, shadows indicate their placement and follow the pattern seen on the Wallis high chest, albeit in a slightly more compressed format to fit the smaller drawer. Another dressing table with shell carving by Jugiez displays a very similar design and, along with the high chest, provides evidence for the original appearance of the applied tendrils (fig. 2; Beckerdite, p. 507, figs. 19, 19b).
His origins unknown, Jugiez was an immigrant craftsman who arrived in Philadelphia prior to 1762, when his partnership with Bernard was first advertised. Though Bernard was a skillful carver (see lot 528), he soon ceded all carving responsibilities to his partner and instead focused on their business operations. The recent scholarship of Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller has differentiated the work of the two carvers and described Bernard as a "professional carver," whereas Jugiez was "conceptually a sculptor" (Beckerdite and Miller, p. 24). Their partnership lasted approximately twenty years and had dissolved by 1783, when both ran separate businesses. During this time, their clients included some of Philadelphia's most illustrious citizens, including Benjamin Chew, Samuel Powel III and John Cadwalader and, in addition to William Wayne, they are known to have provided carved ornament for cabinetmakers Benjamin Randolph and Thomas Affleck.
Born in Maryland, Samuel Wallis established his business career in Philadelphia and engaged in land speculation, a pursuit he followed with particular zeal and ambition. In 1769, he purchased large tracts of lands totaling over 7,000 acres in the Muncy Valley in central Pennsylvania's Lycoming County. The same year, he built a stone house, "Muncy Farms," which still stands today. On March 1, 1770, less than two weeks after the date on Wayne's bill, he married Lydia Hollingsworth (1743-1812), who like Wallis hailed from a wealthy Quaker family in Maryland. Although he maintained a residence on Arch Street in Philadelphia, it appears that the couple resided for the most part at their frontier home. Upon his death in 1798, Wallis left an overextended estate embroiled in debt; his widow was forced to sell both properties and move in with her daughter, Cassandra (Wallis) Smith (b. 1776) in Milton, Pennsylvania where she died in 1812 (John F. Meginness, ed., "Samuel Wallis, The Land King," History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania (1892), available online at: https://www.usgennet.org/usa/pa/county/lycoming/history/Chapter-04.html) . According to T. Kenneth Wood, the high chest was inherited by the male branch of the family and was among the items brought back to Muncy in about 1832, when the family re-settled in the town. Sold to Mrs. Blair by Charles Woolsey Lyon in 1923, the table and its whereabouts were unknown to Wood at the time of his 1927 article and it is likely that the two items had long been divided between different branches of Wallis family descendants (Wood, p. 213).
Besides a slant-front desk, which was also part of the Wallis commission, the high chest and this dressing table are the only documented evidence of the practices used by Wayne for case pieces. Some notable features seen in this table, which may assist in the attribution of other examples, include the presence of single bottom boards beneath each short drawer, which are nailed from above into rabbets in the skirt board, vertical drawer dividers with a diagonal taper in back, and the distinctive double-ogee shaping to the cusped corners. This latter feature is an especially refined detail and appears on another dressing table with carving attributed to Bernard and Jugiez (Leigh Keno Inc., advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (January 1993), p. 18); the slant-front desk, along with the bill of sale in fig. 1, was offered at auction in 1995, see Wood, p. 214, fig. 3 and "Documented Desk at Wilson Brothers," Maine Antique Digest (November 1995), p. 9A; a high chest attributed to Wayne sold in these Rooms, January 18-19, 2001, lot 66). As indicated by tax records, William Wayne was a successful cabinetmaker who worked in Philadelphia from the mid-1750s until at least the mid-1780s. In 1754, he married Sarah Gillingham, the daughter and cousin of fellow Philadelphia cabinetmakers John and James Gillingham and he first appears on the tax lists two years later, when he was identified as a joiner in the Mulberry Ward district. He went into business with Robert Moore, a partnership which was dissolved in 1769, just prior to the Wallis commission. He last appears in the documentary record in 1786, when he paid L150 occupational tax and most likely died before 1794, when his name is not included in the city directory (Wood, p. 214; Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America (New York, 1957), pp. 104, 229; William MacPherson Hornor, Jr., Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (1935), pp. 321, 326).
The carving on the dressing table is particularly accomplished and, with the surface virtually untouched, its original depth and detailing remain clearly evident. Based upon the techniques seen in their documented architectural work, Luke Beckerdite has attributed the carving on the Samuel Wallis high chest to the partnership of Nicholas Bernard and Martin Jugiez. Hallmarks of their handiwork include the presence of long, deep veining and paired gouge cuts on the acanthus-leaf carving and the use of a four-point punch to decorate the ground and convex lobes, all of which are seen on the knees and drawer of this dressing table (see Luke Beckerdite, "Philadelphia carving shops, Part II: Bernard and Jugiez," The Magazine Antiques (September 1985), pp. 498-513, especially pp. 508-510, fig. 20). Further details of the shell carving indicate that it was executed by Jugiez. The presence of the well-defined leaves within the shell and the free-flowing tendrils illustrate the assured hand of Jugiez and are closely related to the shell carving on a high chest recently ascribed to Jugiez alone (Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller, "A Table's Tale: Craft, Art, and Opportunity in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia," American Furniture 2004, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, WI: The Chipstone Foundation, 2004), pp. 22-23, figs. 38, 39). Though the applied tendrils on the shell drawer are missing, shadows indicate their placement and follow the pattern seen on the Wallis high chest, albeit in a slightly more compressed format to fit the smaller drawer. Another dressing table with shell carving by Jugiez displays a very similar design and, along with the high chest, provides evidence for the original appearance of the applied tendrils (fig. 2; Beckerdite, p. 507, figs. 19, 19b).
His origins unknown, Jugiez was an immigrant craftsman who arrived in Philadelphia prior to 1762, when his partnership with Bernard was first advertised. Though Bernard was a skillful carver (see lot 528), he soon ceded all carving responsibilities to his partner and instead focused on their business operations. The recent scholarship of Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller has differentiated the work of the two carvers and described Bernard as a "professional carver," whereas Jugiez was "conceptually a sculptor" (Beckerdite and Miller, p. 24). Their partnership lasted approximately twenty years and had dissolved by 1783, when both ran separate businesses. During this time, their clients included some of Philadelphia's most illustrious citizens, including Benjamin Chew, Samuel Powel III and John Cadwalader and, in addition to William Wayne, they are known to have provided carved ornament for cabinetmakers Benjamin Randolph and Thomas Affleck.
Born in Maryland, Samuel Wallis established his business career in Philadelphia and engaged in land speculation, a pursuit he followed with particular zeal and ambition. In 1769, he purchased large tracts of lands totaling over 7,000 acres in the Muncy Valley in central Pennsylvania's Lycoming County. The same year, he built a stone house, "Muncy Farms," which still stands today. On March 1, 1770, less than two weeks after the date on Wayne's bill, he married Lydia Hollingsworth (1743-1812), who like Wallis hailed from a wealthy Quaker family in Maryland. Although he maintained a residence on Arch Street in Philadelphia, it appears that the couple resided for the most part at their frontier home. Upon his death in 1798, Wallis left an overextended estate embroiled in debt; his widow was forced to sell both properties and move in with her daughter, Cassandra (Wallis) Smith (b. 1776) in Milton, Pennsylvania where she died in 1812 (John F. Meginness, ed., "Samuel Wallis, The Land King," History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania (1892), available online at: https://www.usgennet.org/usa/pa/county/lycoming/history/Chapter-04.html) . According to T. Kenneth Wood, the high chest was inherited by the male branch of the family and was among the items brought back to Muncy in about 1832, when the family re-settled in the town. Sold to Mrs. Blair by Charles Woolsey Lyon in 1923, the table and its whereabouts were unknown to Wood at the time of his 1927 article and it is likely that the two items had long been divided between different branches of Wallis family descendants (Wood, p. 213).