拍品专文
This stand relates to a small group of furniture which recent scholarship has re-ascribed to central Massachusetts. Case and tripod-based forms from this group are characterised by elaborate urn and flowering-vine inlay, as well as, where applicable, extraordinary and unusual abstracted biomorphic carving, such as on the stand seen here, dated 1800, and on a similar stand in the Garvan Collection dated one year later. This group includes two chests of drawers, a chair, and a polescreen, all presently in private collections, and all of whose histories of ownership trace their origin to Hardwick and Holland, both Hamden County, Massacusetts, as well as several examples in museum collections.
While this group has traditionally been considered as coming from one source, a single unknown shop in either Connecticut or Rhode Island, other anaylses of individual objects suggest the possibility of a second cabinetmaking shop turning out strikingly similar inlaid case furniture in the American Federal aesthetic. Charles Venable's examination of a chest of drawers in the Bybee Collection, long accepted as a member of this group of furniture, refers to its structural composition being entirely different from a desk and bookcase at Winterthur, one of the first accepted examples of case furniture comprising the urn and flowering-vine group.2
Several forms are related to the stand illustrated here. These include an almost identical tilt-top stand with molded volute feet and dated 1801 in the collection of the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection at Yale University, illustrated and discussed in Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses (New Haven, 1992), cover and p.239, fig.126; a polescreen, presently in a private collection and illustrated in Shortt, "New Additions to a Group of Federal Furniture," Antiques (December 1991), pp.960-965, plate IV, p.963; a desk and bookcase at Winterthur with striped inlay at the drawers similar to that on the table edge seen here, illustrated and discussed in Montgomery American Furniture: The Federal Period (New York, 1966), p.221, no.177; a second desk and bookcase formerly in the Barbour Collection illustrated and discussed in Ginsburg, "The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Furniture in the Connecticut Historical Society," Antiques (May 1974), pp.1092-1111, and now in the collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum; a third desk and bookcase advertised by Israel Sack, Inc. in Antiques (October 1966), inside front cover; and the fourth desk and bookcase from the collection of Phillip Flayderman. In addition to these case forms are several chests of drawers, one advertised by John Walton Antiques (May 1988), p.940, a second in the Bybee Collection, illustrated and discussed in Venable, American Furniture in the Bybee Collection (Austin, 1989), p.81, no.37; and two in private collections.
1 William H. Short, "New Additions to a Group of Federal Furniture," Antiques (December 1991), pp.960-965.
2 Charles L. Venable, American Furniture in the Bybee Collection (Austin, 1989) p.81.
While this group has traditionally been considered as coming from one source, a single unknown shop in either Connecticut or Rhode Island, other anaylses of individual objects suggest the possibility of a second cabinetmaking shop turning out strikingly similar inlaid case furniture in the American Federal aesthetic. Charles Venable's examination of a chest of drawers in the Bybee Collection, long accepted as a member of this group of furniture, refers to its structural composition being entirely different from a desk and bookcase at Winterthur, one of the first accepted examples of case furniture comprising the urn and flowering-vine group.2
Several forms are related to the stand illustrated here. These include an almost identical tilt-top stand with molded volute feet and dated 1801 in the collection of the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection at Yale University, illustrated and discussed in Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses (New Haven, 1992), cover and p.239, fig.126; a polescreen, presently in a private collection and illustrated in Shortt, "New Additions to a Group of Federal Furniture," Antiques (December 1991), pp.960-965, plate IV, p.963; a desk and bookcase at Winterthur with striped inlay at the drawers similar to that on the table edge seen here, illustrated and discussed in Montgomery American Furniture: The Federal Period (New York, 1966), p.221, no.177; a second desk and bookcase formerly in the Barbour Collection illustrated and discussed in Ginsburg, "The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Furniture in the Connecticut Historical Society," Antiques (May 1974), pp.1092-1111, and now in the collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum; a third desk and bookcase advertised by Israel Sack, Inc. in Antiques (October 1966), inside front cover; and the fourth desk and bookcase from the collection of Phillip Flayderman. In addition to these case forms are several chests of drawers, one advertised by John Walton Antiques (May 1988), p.940, a second in the Bybee Collection, illustrated and discussed in Venable, American Furniture in the Bybee Collection (Austin, 1989), p.81, no.37; and two in private collections.
1 William H. Short, "New Additions to a Group of Federal Furniture," Antiques (December 1991), pp.960-965.
2 Charles L. Venable, American Furniture in the Bybee Collection (Austin, 1989) p.81.