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Lot Essay
Displaying restrained yet exceptionally executed carved ornamentation, this high chest-of-drawers represents the avant-garde artistry of one of Philadelphia's finest carvers working in the 1740s. The precision seen in the recessed shells and the bold rosettes with leaf-carved under trim indicate the skill of the maker, who may have been one of the earlier arrivals during the influx of immigrant craftsmen to Philadelphia in the mid-eighteenth century. The use of walnut, configuration of the drawers, and lack of carving on the knee returns and tympanum are features that reveal an early date of production in the Chippendale style. Most unusual is the incised decoration heading each of the upper fluted corners (fig.2) which bears a stippled ground executed with the same four-punch tool used on the recessed shells (fig.1) and appears to be a unique example of this kind of decoration. High chests and dressing tables with fluted chamfered corners as opposed to quarter columns are often associated with Maryland craftsmanship. However, recent studies have uncovered examples with firm Philaldelphia histories and argued Philadelphia origins for those displaying carving of high quality (see Oswaldo R. Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone (London, 1984), p. 36 and Charles F. Hummel, American Chippendale Furniture (New York, 1976), pp. 86 and 117).
The chest's distinctive recessed shells, with stop-fluted lobes and flanked by restrained clusters of leaves, relate this chest to at least two dressing tables, one of which descended in the Stevenson, Phillips and Easby families of Philadelphia and also features fluted chamfered corners (W. M. Hornor, Jr., Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (Washington D.C., 1935), pl. 142 and Winterthur Library: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, nos. 74.535 and 91.542). The basic design of the shell continued to be employed by Philadelphia carvers as the Chippendale style evolved. Similar shells are found on high chests and dressing tables that bear later features such as applied carving on the tympani, elaborate tendrils flanking the shells, and more complex drawer configuration; examples include a high chest in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and illustrated in Hornor, pl. 121, Winterthur Library: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, nos. 64.122, 71.659, 86.1361 and 66.2351 and Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., 25 October 1969, lot 147.
The chest's distinctive recessed shells, with stop-fluted lobes and flanked by restrained clusters of leaves, relate this chest to at least two dressing tables, one of which descended in the Stevenson, Phillips and Easby families of Philadelphia and also features fluted chamfered corners (W. M. Hornor, Jr., Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (Washington D.C., 1935), pl. 142 and Winterthur Library: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, nos. 74.535 and 91.542). The basic design of the shell continued to be employed by Philadelphia carvers as the Chippendale style evolved. Similar shells are found on high chests and dressing tables that bear later features such as applied carving on the tympani, elaborate tendrils flanking the shells, and more complex drawer configuration; examples include a high chest in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and illustrated in Hornor, pl. 121, Winterthur Library: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, nos. 64.122, 71.659, 86.1361 and 66.2351 and Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., 25 October 1969, lot 147.