Lot Essay
In its form and decoration, the bureau-table illustrated here is an unusual example of one of the most high-style and regionally specific forms of eighteenth century America. Associated principally and in its grandest manifestations with Newport, Rhode Island, and the related cabinetmaking traditions of the Goddards and Townsends, differing variations of this form appear in Connecticut and Massachusetts. With its concave-blocked and incised lower central drawer, the bureau-table illustrated here bears some relation to its Massachusetts counterparts. An almost identical Newport four-shell bureau-table with concave-blocked and incised lower central drawer is illustrated in Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, 1984), p.32, fig. 1.15.
Specific decorative elements of the bureau-table illustrated here suggest and early date of manufacture and may relate the table to a specific shop. In both the smaller number of flanking shell lobes (eight, versus the standard eleven), the undeveloped volute-carving embellishing the feet and open shell centers, the bureau-table illustrated here is related to several earlier Newport forms. These include a dressing table ilustrated and discussed in Moses, p.41, fig. 1.25; two slant-front desks, Moses, figs. 4.1 and 4.2; and two highchests, Moses, figs. 3.102 and 3.103. In this same manner, it is also related to a block-front bureau-table Sold in these Rooms thought to have been made by John Townsend (The Callahan Collection, January 22, 1994, lot 538).
The chest of drawers illustrated here bears further decorative relation to the previously sited example in its unusual shell arrangement. Where the larger record of Newport block-and-shell furniture is typified by a complex arrangement of even-numbered lobed shells flanking an odd-numbered lobed shell, such as 12-11-12, the example illustrated here has two eight-lobed shells flanking a twelve lobed shell, thus creating bolder, more flaring protrusions at either side. Likewise, the use of a twelve-lobed shell also creates the illusion of a smaller central motif, and thus enhances the recession of the inner section of this table. Similarly, the Callahan bureau-table uses three ten-lobed shells across its front. Another example incorporating this unusual consistent even-number of lobes is the nine-shell Gladding Family Chest-on-Chest, each shell with ten-lobes, presently in the collection at Winterthur (Moses, p. 35, fig.1.18).
Specific decorative elements of the bureau-table illustrated here suggest and early date of manufacture and may relate the table to a specific shop. In both the smaller number of flanking shell lobes (eight, versus the standard eleven), the undeveloped volute-carving embellishing the feet and open shell centers, the bureau-table illustrated here is related to several earlier Newport forms. These include a dressing table ilustrated and discussed in Moses, p.41, fig. 1.25; two slant-front desks, Moses, figs. 4.1 and 4.2; and two highchests, Moses, figs. 3.102 and 3.103. In this same manner, it is also related to a block-front bureau-table Sold in these Rooms thought to have been made by John Townsend (The Callahan Collection, January 22, 1994, lot 538).
The chest of drawers illustrated here bears further decorative relation to the previously sited example in its unusual shell arrangement. Where the larger record of Newport block-and-shell furniture is typified by a complex arrangement of even-numbered lobed shells flanking an odd-numbered lobed shell, such as 12-11-12, the example illustrated here has two eight-lobed shells flanking a twelve lobed shell, thus creating bolder, more flaring protrusions at either side. Likewise, the use of a twelve-lobed shell also creates the illusion of a smaller central motif, and thus enhances the recession of the inner section of this table. Similarly, the Callahan bureau-table uses three ten-lobed shells across its front. Another example incorporating this unusual consistent even-number of lobes is the nine-shell Gladding Family Chest-on-Chest, each shell with ten-lobes, presently in the collection at Winterthur (Moses, p. 35, fig.1.18).