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Lot Essay
Grand in scale and superbly crafted, this pier table is an exceedingly rare survival of the form of this size. With similar proportions, identical designs and construction methods, one other example was made in the same shop, possibly for the same patron. As referenced in William Macpherson Hornor, Jr.'s Blue Book, Philadelphia Furniture, this table was owned by Mr. and Mrs. George W. Norris in 1935 and was described by Hornor as "almost the mate" to the table then owned by Effingham B. Morris (fig. 1). According to Hornor, the Morris table descended in the Pemberton and Morris families; Mrs. Norris, née Sarah Fox, and Effingham Morris had genealogical ties to brothers Israel (1715-1779) and James (1723-1809) Pemberton. She was the great-great granddaughter of Israel and, Effingham's great-great uncle, Anthony Morris (1766-1860), married Mary Smith Pemberton (b. 1770), James' daughter. The two tables are not a pair, as the Morris example is six inches shorter, has a higher rail, larger rosettes and lacks drawer locks, yet the similarity in their wood grain indicates they were made from continuous boards (Alan Miller, report, 1987, Nusrala Collection files). They may have been made as part of the same commission to fit different spaces within a house. Another possibility, as the twentieth-century owners descended from two brothers, is that they were made at about the same time for separate, but closely allied, patrons.
With finely executed veneering and accomplished carving, the table was made in one of Philadelphia's more sophisticated cabinet shops. Hornor stated that the Morris table was made by Thomas Affleck, and while this attribution cannot be verified, the workmanship suggests the practices of a cabinetmaker of similar caliber. Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a table of comparable size with gadrooning, but lacking the serpentine shaping and molding on the legs, is believed to have been made by Affleck for Levi Hollingsworth (Winterthur Library, Decorative Arts Photographic Collection (DAPC), no. 65.82).
With finely executed veneering and accomplished carving, the table was made in one of Philadelphia's more sophisticated cabinet shops. Hornor stated that the Morris table was made by Thomas Affleck, and while this attribution cannot be verified, the workmanship suggests the practices of a cabinetmaker of similar caliber. Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a table of comparable size with gadrooning, but lacking the serpentine shaping and molding on the legs, is believed to have been made by Affleck for Levi Hollingsworth (Winterthur Library, Decorative Arts Photographic Collection (DAPC), no. 65.82).