POSSIBLY THE WORKSHOP OF DUNCAN PHYFE (1768-1854), NEW YORK, CIRCA 1820

Epitomizing the Greek revival style and bearing its original gilt-stencilled decoration, this Grecian couch is a rare survival of New York's classical era. In form and ornament, the couch references the Ancient cultures of Greece and Rome, displaying a form and motifs inspired by archeological discoveries of the late eighteenth century. Popularized by published designs, the classical style flourished in America with the fashionable centers of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore each producing distinct interpretations of the style in gilt-stencilled designs. As this couch illustrates, surviving stencilling on New York furniture tends to be opulent and intricate and contrasts with the more stylized versions produced in Philadelphia and Baltimore. This couch is closely related to a couch attributed to the shop of Duncan Phyfe (1768-1854), one of New York's most renowned cabinetmakers, and now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Of the same form and length, the couches also display almost identical stencilling with that on the arms appearing to come from the same pattern. Such similarities in the construction and ornament suggest the couches were made in the same shop (see Fales, American Painted Furniture 1660-1880 (New York, 1972), cat. 260, p. 161).