拍品專文
The back of this pier table is inscribed in chalk with the name Ceasar Rodney. The presumed owner of this table, Ceasar Augustus Rodney (1772-1824) of Delaware, was the nephew of statesman and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Ceasar Rodney (1728-1784), who took great interest in the education and promotion of Rodney as a youth. Ceasar A. Rodney was also a man of distinction, being admitted to be bar in 1793, he was later a member of the Delaware House of Representatives, the attorney-general under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and a member of Congress. Rodney, his wife Susan Hunn, and their fifteen children lived in Wilmington at their estate of "Cool Spring." (Dictionary of American Biography, (New York 1935), pp. 81-83). Whether Rodney purchased this pier table on a visit to New York or it was a product of the export trade, in which a number of New York craftsmen such as Lannuier were actively involved, Rodney's travels and social stature would have alerted him to the newest fashions and enabled him to purchase such a fine example.
The elegant, slender proportions of this pier table distinguish it from many of its peers, most of which are broader and heavier in appearance. The design of this table is nearly identical to two pier tables labeled by Charles Honore Lannuier: the first table, also with paw feet, is illustrated in Antiques (June 1933), fig. 9, pp. 224-226, from the collection of Ginsburg & Levy, Inc.; the second Lannuier table is in the collection of the White House and is illustrated in Pearce, "American Furniture in the White House," Antiques (May 1962), p. 516.
The fine ormolu mounts that adorn the frieze and the stamped brass capitals and bases on this table were probably imported from France. If Lannuier indeed made this table, then as his 1803 introductory advertisement indicates, he had both a ready supply of mounts as well as connections abroad: "Honore Lannuier, cabinetmaker, just arrived from France...has brought gilt and brass frames, borders of ornaments..." (-----,1803). Lannuier and his contemporaries also used mounts that were imported from England and Germany. The majority of hardware and decorative mounts used by American craftsmen were actually imported from English firms in London, Bristol and Birmingham. Although innovative in their own right, English manufacturers also looked to French designs for inspiration, sometimes copying them outright. The term "ormolu," which literally means "ground gold," was derived from the French "or moulu" introduced in the 1770s by the entrepreneur and brass founder Matthew Boulton of Birmingham. Boulton coined the French-derived word to describe gilt mounts as a means to compete against French imports. See Enninger, "With the Richest Ornaments Just Imported from France," (University of Delaware, Master's Thesis, 1993), pp. 29-77.
The elegant, slender proportions of this pier table distinguish it from many of its peers, most of which are broader and heavier in appearance. The design of this table is nearly identical to two pier tables labeled by Charles Honore Lannuier: the first table, also with paw feet, is illustrated in Antiques (June 1933), fig. 9, pp. 224-226, from the collection of Ginsburg & Levy, Inc.; the second Lannuier table is in the collection of the White House and is illustrated in Pearce, "American Furniture in the White House," Antiques (May 1962), p. 516.
The fine ormolu mounts that adorn the frieze and the stamped brass capitals and bases on this table were probably imported from France. If Lannuier indeed made this table, then as his 1803 introductory advertisement indicates, he had both a ready supply of mounts as well as connections abroad: "Honore Lannuier, cabinetmaker, just arrived from France...has brought gilt and brass frames, borders of ornaments..." (-----,1803). Lannuier and his contemporaries also used mounts that were imported from England and Germany. The majority of hardware and decorative mounts used by American craftsmen were actually imported from English firms in London, Bristol and Birmingham. Although innovative in their own right, English manufacturers also looked to French designs for inspiration, sometimes copying them outright. The term "ormolu," which literally means "ground gold," was derived from the French "or moulu" introduced in the 1770s by the entrepreneur and brass founder Matthew Boulton of Birmingham. Boulton coined the French-derived word to describe gilt mounts as a means to compete against French imports. See Enninger, "With the Richest Ornaments Just Imported from France," (University of Delaware, Master's Thesis, 1993), pp. 29-77.