Lot Essay
This armoire descended in the family of Luman Reed with a history of manufacture by Duncan Phyfe. Three other armoires by Phyfe are known. He made a pair for James Lefferts Brinckerhoff in 1816 and another descended in the family of his daughter, Eliza Phyfe Vail (see Sloane, "A Duncan Phyfe Bill And The Furniture It Documents," in Antiques, 131, no. 5 (May, 1987): 1106-1113, fig. 3; Brown, "Duncan Phyfe" (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1978), p. 35).
Phyfe's personal signed copy of the 1810 New York Revised Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair Work included an entry for "A French Press" with "two flat paneled doors, with two panels in each" from which he would have been aware of the form (Winterthur Museum Printed Book and Periodical Collection). Phyfe may also have received copies of La Mésangère's 1813 issue of Meubles et Objets de Gout in which plate 368 was a design for a "Secretaire" very similar to this example with overhanging cornice, frieze, columns with gilt capitals and bases on square plinths, and with paneled doors.
Phyfe is often associated with furniture made in the Neoclassical style. Later in his career, however, he produced furniture which was based upon direct French influences. Phyfe was apparently responding to the greater acceptance of French furniture designs among his patrons; in addition, he was competing against (and after 1819 taking the place of) his main competitor, the French emigré ebenisté, Charles-Honore Lannuier.
The original stamped oval hardware with oak leaf pattern on the interior drawer retains its original lemon yellow patina. Hardware manufacturers obtained this tone not by gilding, but by emersing the hardware in an acid bath; the chemical reaction that resulted produced the golden yellow tone (see Enninger, "With the Richest Ornament Just Imported From France" (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1993), pp. 39, 112).
Phyfe's personal signed copy of the 1810 New York Revised Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair Work included an entry for "A French Press" with "two flat paneled doors, with two panels in each" from which he would have been aware of the form (Winterthur Museum Printed Book and Periodical Collection). Phyfe may also have received copies of La Mésangère's 1813 issue of Meubles et Objets de Gout in which plate 368 was a design for a "Secretaire" very similar to this example with overhanging cornice, frieze, columns with gilt capitals and bases on square plinths, and with paneled doors.
Phyfe is often associated with furniture made in the Neoclassical style. Later in his career, however, he produced furniture which was based upon direct French influences. Phyfe was apparently responding to the greater acceptance of French furniture designs among his patrons; in addition, he was competing against (and after 1819 taking the place of) his main competitor, the French emigré ebenisté, Charles-Honore Lannuier.
The original stamped oval hardware with oak leaf pattern on the interior drawer retains its original lemon yellow patina. Hardware manufacturers obtained this tone not by gilding, but by emersing the hardware in an acid bath; the chemical reaction that resulted produced the golden yellow tone (see Enninger, "With the Richest Ornament Just Imported From France" (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1993), pp. 39, 112).