拍品專文
With its broad facade, simple gadrooned apron and molded beaded legs, this marble top slab table represents Rococo simplicity as influenced by the Chinese aesthetic. While forms such as this existed in Philadelphia as early as the second quarter of the 18th century (see Christie's, Important American Furniture, October 24, 1992, lot 420), their greater popularity was not until the middle of the century. Based in design on Chippendale's "Sideboard Table,: No. LVI in his Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Director (London, 1754), the proportions of the table illustrated here are more diminutive than the five foot wide, two foot six inch deep and two foot, eight inch high form Chippendale recommended for his English patrons. This difference in proportion also demonstrates the freedom with which craftsmen and patrons interpreted fashionable patterns.
John Penn, for whom this table was made, was Deputy Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania upon his arrival to that colony in 1763. Given his marriage to Ann Allen in 1766, it is presumably this date at which the slab table was acquired. Penn and his family occupied four homes in Philadelphia and are known to have had two large sales of their furnishings and household goods, including one in May of 1788 prior to his departure to England for four years. A listing of furnishings and textiles fron this sale in the "Back Parlour" a reference to a "sideboard table," along with "1 mahogany night table, serving stand and case with bottles..." (see Kimball, p. 378). While this reference may seem scant, not only would a table of this style have been appropriate for a back room in 1788, but, it is the only item in the house which does refer to a pier table -like form. Designed without drawers and with either a marble, scagliola or mosiac slab top, "sideboard tables" were intended for placement against an eating room wall where silver, holloware, wine or cutlery boxes could be displayed.
Attributed to master craftsman Thomas Affleck (1740-1795) by William Macpherson Hornor, Jr., this table is related to several other important icons of the Philadelphia rococo tradition. In addition to a mahogany topped sideboard table of comparable design and decoration, also attributed to Affleck, in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (DAPC acc. no. 65.82), it is also related to a boldly gadrooned card table in the collection of the Winterthur Museum, illustrated in Hummel, A Winterthur Guide to American Chippendale Furniture: Middle Atlantic and Southern Colonies, (Winterthur, 1976), p. 42, fig. 33. The table illustrated here is recorded in the Winterthur Library: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, acc. no. 66.1074.
John Penn, for whom this table was made, was Deputy Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania upon his arrival to that colony in 1763. Given his marriage to Ann Allen in 1766, it is presumably this date at which the slab table was acquired. Penn and his family occupied four homes in Philadelphia and are known to have had two large sales of their furnishings and household goods, including one in May of 1788 prior to his departure to England for four years. A listing of furnishings and textiles fron this sale in the "Back Parlour" a reference to a "sideboard table," along with "1 mahogany night table, serving stand and case with bottles..." (see Kimball, p. 378). While this reference may seem scant, not only would a table of this style have been appropriate for a back room in 1788, but, it is the only item in the house which does refer to a pier table -like form. Designed without drawers and with either a marble, scagliola or mosiac slab top, "sideboard tables" were intended for placement against an eating room wall where silver, holloware, wine or cutlery boxes could be displayed.
Attributed to master craftsman Thomas Affleck (1740-1795) by William Macpherson Hornor, Jr., this table is related to several other important icons of the Philadelphia rococo tradition. In addition to a mahogany topped sideboard table of comparable design and decoration, also attributed to Affleck, in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (DAPC acc. no. 65.82), it is also related to a boldly gadrooned card table in the collection of the Winterthur Museum, illustrated in Hummel, A Winterthur Guide to American Chippendale Furniture: Middle Atlantic and Southern Colonies, (Winterthur, 1976), p. 42, fig. 33. The table illustrated here is recorded in the Winterthur Library: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, acc. no. 66.1074.