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Lot Essay
The commodes offered here are believed to have been made for the 1816 wedding of William Christopher Rhinelander (1790-1878) and Mary Rogers. William Christopher Rhinelander was the great-grandson of Huguenot Philip Jacob Rhinelander who emigrated from France and settled in New Rochelle, New York, to escape religious persecution after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The Rhinelander family eventually moved to New York City where they acquired large amounts of property, including the area between 86th and 93rd Streets and Third Avenue and the East River, and numerous holdings in the southern tip of Manhattan (America's Successful Men of Affairs: An Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography, vol. 1, p. 538). They further augmented the family's wealth by importing and refining sugar and dealing in crockery, glassware, and cutlery.
William Christopher Rhinelander, who lived at 14 North Washington Square (Prominent Families of New York, 1897, p. 474), served as an officer in the War of 1812 and was recorded as regiment quartermaster sergeant and then as second lieutenant in 1814 shortly before he was discharged from the military. During his service, he helped defend New York harbor at the West Battery and Castle Clinton. He re-enlisted in the summer of 1815 and was promoted through the ranks of first lieutenant and quartermaster of the First Brigade, New York Company before he resigned in 1822. Rhinelander was also a member of the Corps and Society, as his name appears in the 1848 muster rolls. He was appointed quartermaster sergeant of the Corps in 1878, just a few months prior to his death. Throughout his life, he also served as a trustee of the family estate (Roster of Original Members of the Veteran Corps of Artillery Constituting the Military Society of the War of 1812: 1790-1890).
The commodes descended to his daughter, Mary Rhinelander Stewart (c. 1821-1893), and in turn to her son, William Rhinelander Stewart (1852-1929). William Rhinelander Stewart graduated from Columbia College Law School in 1873, and after practicing law for a number of years, he devoted himself to managing the family estate. Following in his grandfather's footsteps of military service, he enlisted with Company K of the Seventh Regiment in 1873. Stewart was also very civic-minded and participated in many charities. He became a member of the State Board of Charities in 1882 and was elected as its president in 1894. He also served as chairman on the boards of the Committee on Reformatories and the Committee on Schools for the Deaf and as president of the Twenty-fifth National Conference of Charities and Corrections. Perhaps one of Stewart's most concrete and visible contributions to the city of New York is the arch at Fifth Avenue and Washington Square commemorating the centennial of George Washington's inauguration. The arch began as Stewart's idea, and he saw it through to its fruition (Prominent Families of New York, 1897, p. 525). The commodes remained in the family for another generation under the ownership of Stewart's son, William Stewart Rhinelander, Jr., and his wife, Janet Newbold Stewart, donated them to the Smithsonian Institution.
Among the Rhinelander's real estate in Manhattan was the block enclosed by Washington, West, Jay, and Harrison Streets, and the Rhinelander rent rolls for 1824 and 1825-26 record "Turnbull and Phyfe" as paying $350 for property here (Rhinelander Papers, New York Historical Society). Phyfe refers to cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe's youngest son, Michael Phyfe (c. 1798-1840), who was also a cabinetmaker, and Turnbull is John Turnbull, Michael Phyfe's business partner. Together, Turnbull and Phyfe leased 31 or 33 Harrison Street for their mahogany and lumber business and could have supplied Duncan Phyfe's shop (McClelland, Duncan Phyfe and the English Regency: 1795-1830 (New York, 1939); Michael Kevin Brown, "Duncan Phyfe," master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1978). By 1837 Michael and his brother joined forces with their father, and the shop was renamed Duncan Phyfe and Sons for a brief three years until Michael's untimely death.
Further strenghtened by this established connection between patron and cabinetmaker, the attribution to Phyfe's shop is also based upon similarities to other forms attributed to Phyfe. The interior of the desk features the same layout, wood use and shaped valances seen in a roll-top desk-and-bookcase attributed to Phyfe and illustrated in Tracy, 19th-Century America (New York, 1970), cat. 20.
William Christopher Rhinelander, who lived at 14 North Washington Square (Prominent Families of New York, 1897, p. 474), served as an officer in the War of 1812 and was recorded as regiment quartermaster sergeant and then as second lieutenant in 1814 shortly before he was discharged from the military. During his service, he helped defend New York harbor at the West Battery and Castle Clinton. He re-enlisted in the summer of 1815 and was promoted through the ranks of first lieutenant and quartermaster of the First Brigade, New York Company before he resigned in 1822. Rhinelander was also a member of the Corps and Society, as his name appears in the 1848 muster rolls. He was appointed quartermaster sergeant of the Corps in 1878, just a few months prior to his death. Throughout his life, he also served as a trustee of the family estate (Roster of Original Members of the Veteran Corps of Artillery Constituting the Military Society of the War of 1812: 1790-1890).
The commodes descended to his daughter, Mary Rhinelander Stewart (c. 1821-1893), and in turn to her son, William Rhinelander Stewart (1852-1929). William Rhinelander Stewart graduated from Columbia College Law School in 1873, and after practicing law for a number of years, he devoted himself to managing the family estate. Following in his grandfather's footsteps of military service, he enlisted with Company K of the Seventh Regiment in 1873. Stewart was also very civic-minded and participated in many charities. He became a member of the State Board of Charities in 1882 and was elected as its president in 1894. He also served as chairman on the boards of the Committee on Reformatories and the Committee on Schools for the Deaf and as president of the Twenty-fifth National Conference of Charities and Corrections. Perhaps one of Stewart's most concrete and visible contributions to the city of New York is the arch at Fifth Avenue and Washington Square commemorating the centennial of George Washington's inauguration. The arch began as Stewart's idea, and he saw it through to its fruition (Prominent Families of New York, 1897, p. 525). The commodes remained in the family for another generation under the ownership of Stewart's son, William Stewart Rhinelander, Jr., and his wife, Janet Newbold Stewart, donated them to the Smithsonian Institution.
Among the Rhinelander's real estate in Manhattan was the block enclosed by Washington, West, Jay, and Harrison Streets, and the Rhinelander rent rolls for 1824 and 1825-26 record "Turnbull and Phyfe" as paying $350 for property here (Rhinelander Papers, New York Historical Society). Phyfe refers to cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe's youngest son, Michael Phyfe (c. 1798-1840), who was also a cabinetmaker, and Turnbull is John Turnbull, Michael Phyfe's business partner. Together, Turnbull and Phyfe leased 31 or 33 Harrison Street for their mahogany and lumber business and could have supplied Duncan Phyfe's shop (McClelland, Duncan Phyfe and the English Regency: 1795-1830 (New York, 1939); Michael Kevin Brown, "Duncan Phyfe," master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1978). By 1837 Michael and his brother joined forces with their father, and the shop was renamed Duncan Phyfe and Sons for a brief three years until Michael's untimely death.
Further strenghtened by this established connection between patron and cabinetmaker, the attribution to Phyfe's shop is also based upon similarities to other forms attributed to Phyfe. The interior of the desk features the same layout, wood use and shaped valances seen in a roll-top desk-and-bookcase attributed to Phyfe and illustrated in Tracy, 19th-Century America (New York, 1970), cat. 20.