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Lot Essay
Among the Baltimore cabinetmakers to employ the use of decorative motifs inspired by Ancient Grecian, Roman and Egyptian design elements was Edward Priestley (1778-1837), whose work has recently been identified by Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley.
Kirtley's scholarship, which is based on inventories and receipts from the prominent Lloyd family of Talbot County, Maryland, reveals that both Edward Lloyd V and his son Edward Lloyd VI regularly purchased furniture from Priestley's shop in the first third of the 19th century. A primary decorative motif present on several of Priestley's furniture, including the sideboard table offered here, is the carved "mummy" head supports. Kirtley suggests the inspiration for Priestley's mummy heads was taken from illustrations of Bacchus on plates 37 and 38 in Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (London, 1807), and she employs these dramatically carved mummy heads as the benchmark attributing factor for Priestley.
The sideboard table offered here is most closely comparable to a marble top pier table Edward Lloyd VI purchased from Priestly in 1827. Both pieces feature legs with nearly identical carved mummy heads above reeded legs on turned moldings and bulbous feet. The back legs of both pieces exhibit reeding above a band in place of the mummy heads. Another similar sideboard table sold Christie's New York (June 2, 1983, lot 194).
Kirtley's scholarship, which is based on inventories and receipts from the prominent Lloyd family of Talbot County, Maryland, reveals that both Edward Lloyd V and his son Edward Lloyd VI regularly purchased furniture from Priestley's shop in the first third of the 19th century. A primary decorative motif present on several of Priestley's furniture, including the sideboard table offered here, is the carved "mummy" head supports. Kirtley suggests the inspiration for Priestley's mummy heads was taken from illustrations of Bacchus on plates 37 and 38 in Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (London, 1807), and she employs these dramatically carved mummy heads as the benchmark attributing factor for Priestley.
The sideboard table offered here is most closely comparable to a marble top pier table Edward Lloyd VI purchased from Priestly in 1827. Both pieces feature legs with nearly identical carved mummy heads above reeded legs on turned moldings and bulbous feet. The back legs of both pieces exhibit reeding above a band in place of the mummy heads. Another similar sideboard table sold Christie's New York (June 2, 1983, lot 194).