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Lot Essay
On the ancient sideboard which used to stand in the father's house...were displayed the presents given by friends and children.
--1881 newspaper account of Mary Ann Butler and Elijah Buck's 50th wedding anniversary
With a strong family history, exquisite workmanship and attribution to William Lloyd, this sideboard stands as an important survival of New England Federal furniture. The 1881 newspaper account quoted above lends credence to the family history, which states that the sideboard was first owned by Nathaniel Butler, the father of Mary Ann Butler. The newspaper account reveals that the sideboard was inherited by Mary Ann and was still in her house in the late 19th century. While his life dates and place of birth are unknown, Nathaniel Butler married Cynthia Taft of Uxbridge, Massachusetts in 1798. By the next year, the couple had moved to Utica, New York where Nathaniel Butler is recorded as the town's first watchmaker. Until the family's move to Mexico, New York in 1815, Nathaniel Butler was successful and owned a large tract of land with a two-story wooden house. The region was hard hit by the War of 1812 and Butler was one of many that faced financial difficulties. Almost identical to another sideboard dated 1811 (see below), Butler probably commissioned the sideboard prior to his move and before the effects of the War (M. M. Bagg, The Pioneers of Utica (Utica, NY: Curtiss & Childs, 1877), pp. 94-95).
The attribution to William Lloyd is based upon a virtually identical example dated 1811 and bearing the cabinetmaker's label, which includes an engraving of a sideboard of similar form to that offered here. Both sideboards feature the same overall design, inlaid kylix panel, line inlaid decoration, inlaid astragal panels on the stiles and inlaid sawtooth banded cuffs suggesting both the work of the same cabinetmaker and inlay supplier (for the labelled sideboard, see Sotheby's New York, 10 October 1998, lot 390; Sack, American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection, vol. VII (1983), p. 1087; Sack advertisement, Antiques (December 1934).
Producing a variety of forms in the federal style, William Lloyd (1779-1845), Springfield's most well-documented and prolific cabinetmaker of the early nineteenth-century, established his own business by 1802 and was listed as a cabinetmaker in the city's directories up until his death in 1845.
Made circa 1811, the sideboard offered here demonstrates Lloyd's work at the height of his career. One of his labels states that his shop produced "all kinds of Cherry and Mahogany Work" and the use of the latter in this sideboard indicates that it was one of his more expensive items. Characteristic of Lloyd's work is the kylix inlay on the top drawer seen both in the sideboard offered here and the labelled example mentioned above. Similar kylix reserves adorn a labelled card table in the Connecticut Valley Historical Society, two attributed card tables and an attributed sideboard (see Colglazier, Springfield Furniture 1700-1850 (Springfield, 1990), pp. 26; Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol. II, p. 356, vol. IV, p. 894 and vol. VI, p. 1483). Another attributed sideboard features the same inlaid interlocking chains extending the length of the legs (Sack, American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection, vol. I (1957), p. 252).
Signed or labelled examples of Lloyd's work include a sideboard formerly in the collection of Nina Fletcher Little, a tall-case clock in the collection of Historic Deerfield, Inc., a pembroke table in the collection of Old Sturbridge Village and several forms in the collection of the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum. For the most comprehensive studies of Lloyd's work, see Colglazier, pp.20-32, 54-55 and Zea, "William Lloyd and the Workmanship of Change," Rural New England Furniture: People, Place and Production (Boston, 1998).
--1881 newspaper account of Mary Ann Butler and Elijah Buck's 50th wedding anniversary
With a strong family history, exquisite workmanship and attribution to William Lloyd, this sideboard stands as an important survival of New England Federal furniture. The 1881 newspaper account quoted above lends credence to the family history, which states that the sideboard was first owned by Nathaniel Butler, the father of Mary Ann Butler. The newspaper account reveals that the sideboard was inherited by Mary Ann and was still in her house in the late 19th century. While his life dates and place of birth are unknown, Nathaniel Butler married Cynthia Taft of Uxbridge, Massachusetts in 1798. By the next year, the couple had moved to Utica, New York where Nathaniel Butler is recorded as the town's first watchmaker. Until the family's move to Mexico, New York in 1815, Nathaniel Butler was successful and owned a large tract of land with a two-story wooden house. The region was hard hit by the War of 1812 and Butler was one of many that faced financial difficulties. Almost identical to another sideboard dated 1811 (see below), Butler probably commissioned the sideboard prior to his move and before the effects of the War (M. M. Bagg, The Pioneers of Utica (Utica, NY: Curtiss & Childs, 1877), pp. 94-95).
The attribution to William Lloyd is based upon a virtually identical example dated 1811 and bearing the cabinetmaker's label, which includes an engraving of a sideboard of similar form to that offered here. Both sideboards feature the same overall design, inlaid kylix panel, line inlaid decoration, inlaid astragal panels on the stiles and inlaid sawtooth banded cuffs suggesting both the work of the same cabinetmaker and inlay supplier (for the labelled sideboard, see Sotheby's New York, 10 October 1998, lot 390; Sack, American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection, vol. VII (1983), p. 1087; Sack advertisement, Antiques (December 1934).
Producing a variety of forms in the federal style, William Lloyd (1779-1845), Springfield's most well-documented and prolific cabinetmaker of the early nineteenth-century, established his own business by 1802 and was listed as a cabinetmaker in the city's directories up until his death in 1845.
Made circa 1811, the sideboard offered here demonstrates Lloyd's work at the height of his career. One of his labels states that his shop produced "all kinds of Cherry and Mahogany Work" and the use of the latter in this sideboard indicates that it was one of his more expensive items. Characteristic of Lloyd's work is the kylix inlay on the top drawer seen both in the sideboard offered here and the labelled example mentioned above. Similar kylix reserves adorn a labelled card table in the Connecticut Valley Historical Society, two attributed card tables and an attributed sideboard (see Colglazier, Springfield Furniture 1700-1850 (Springfield, 1990), pp. 26; Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol. II, p. 356, vol. IV, p. 894 and vol. VI, p. 1483). Another attributed sideboard features the same inlaid interlocking chains extending the length of the legs (Sack, American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection, vol. I (1957), p. 252).
Signed or labelled examples of Lloyd's work include a sideboard formerly in the collection of Nina Fletcher Little, a tall-case clock in the collection of Historic Deerfield, Inc., a pembroke table in the collection of Old Sturbridge Village and several forms in the collection of the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum. For the most comprehensive studies of Lloyd's work, see Colglazier, pp.20-32, 54-55 and Zea, "William Lloyd and the Workmanship of Change," Rural New England Furniture: People, Place and Production (Boston, 1998).