拍品專文
Based on Greek and Roman prototypes, window seats came into fashion in America at the turn of the ninteenth century as architecture incorporated niches for the placement of seating furniture; window seats were also placed in pairs adjacent to doorways or even in the middle of rooms (Cooper, Classical Taste in America (New York, 1993), p. 121; In Praise of America (New York, 1980), pp. 290-291).
Window seats with croissillion, or "Grecian Cross," scroll-backs and curule bases were likely produced in New York by the first decade of the nineteenth century. The Grecian cross back was first published in the 1802 London Cabinetmakers' and Carvers' Book of Prices and in January 1809, Rudolph Ackermann's The Repository of Arts illustrated a window seat with a single curule base (plate 1); it would have been a logical step to combine the two designs into one form. The 1810 New York Revised Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair-Work noted that to build a "Window Stool", "Each end [was] to start as a chair...the lion's paws extra." With the revival in the popularity of caned seating, instructions and labor costs were also included for "Liping or rabbiting for cane" and for "Boring the seat for cane." From this evidence, we can deduce that the above settee was made shortly thereafter if not before 1810.
Duncan Phyfe is often associated with the production of double-curule base seating furniture. This is due to the existence of several documented double-curule base sofas with a provenance of manufactue by Phyfe (A sofa made for Thomas Cornell Pearsall is illustrated in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, A Bicentennial Treasury (New York, 1976), fig. 40; A sofa made for Nathanial Primeis illstrated in Tracy, American Furniture and Decorative Arts at Boscobel (New York, 1981), fig. 10. In addition, a sketch attributed to Phyfe that is associated with a bill dated 1816 between Phyfe and the Philadelphia banker, Charles N. Bancker, illustrates a scroll-back chair with crisillion banisters with central tablet, and frontal curule legs with a central medallion and lion's paw feet. Phyfe could easily have transferred this drawing of a chair into a design for window seat (see, Montgomery, American Furniture (New York, 1966), fig. 72a).
A pair of smaller window seats with a single, rather than double curule base are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Cooper, In Praise of America (New York, 1980), fig. 292). Window seats were also available with turned legs, waterleaf carved legs and sabre or "claw" legs (see Montgomery, American Furniture (New York, 1966), fig. 69; Bishop, The American Chair (New York, 1972), fig. 349; Flanigan, American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection (New York, 1987), fig. 56).
Window seats with croissillion, or "Grecian Cross," scroll-backs and curule bases were likely produced in New York by the first decade of the nineteenth century. The Grecian cross back was first published in the 1802 London Cabinetmakers' and Carvers' Book of Prices and in January 1809, Rudolph Ackermann's The Repository of Arts illustrated a window seat with a single curule base (plate 1); it would have been a logical step to combine the two designs into one form. The 1810 New York Revised Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair-Work noted that to build a "Window Stool", "Each end [was] to start as a chair...the lion's paws extra." With the revival in the popularity of caned seating, instructions and labor costs were also included for "Liping or rabbiting for cane" and for "Boring the seat for cane." From this evidence, we can deduce that the above settee was made shortly thereafter if not before 1810.
Duncan Phyfe is often associated with the production of double-curule base seating furniture. This is due to the existence of several documented double-curule base sofas with a provenance of manufactue by Phyfe (A sofa made for Thomas Cornell Pearsall is illustrated in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, A Bicentennial Treasury (New York, 1976), fig. 40; A sofa made for Nathanial Primeis illstrated in Tracy, American Furniture and Decorative Arts at Boscobel (New York, 1981), fig. 10. In addition, a sketch attributed to Phyfe that is associated with a bill dated 1816 between Phyfe and the Philadelphia banker, Charles N. Bancker, illustrates a scroll-back chair with crisillion banisters with central tablet, and frontal curule legs with a central medallion and lion's paw feet. Phyfe could easily have transferred this drawing of a chair into a design for window seat (see, Montgomery, American Furniture (New York, 1966), fig. 72a).
A pair of smaller window seats with a single, rather than double curule base are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Cooper, In Praise of America (New York, 1980), fig. 292). Window seats were also available with turned legs, waterleaf carved legs and sabre or "claw" legs (see Montgomery, American Furniture (New York, 1966), fig. 69; Bishop, The American Chair (New York, 1972), fig. 349; Flanigan, American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection (New York, 1987), fig. 56).