拍品專文
The contrasting birch and mahogany veneers arranged in neat, linear patterns, embellished with brightly-finished brass hardware is characteristic of the finest neoclassical case forms made in Portsmouth during the Federal era.
Brass hardware, imported by American merchants from English brass foundries supplied the bulk of hardware utilized by American craftsmen. Stamped "HJ" on the back of the bail handles, the hardware on this stand is the work of the Birmingham, England brass workers Thomas Hands and William Jenkins. Working from 1791 to 1803, Hands and Jenkins are listed together in Birmingham city directories as "manufacturers of commode handles, cloak pins, picture frames, looking glasses &c'" (Donald L. Fennimore, "Brass Hardware on American Furniture Part II: Stamped hardware, 1750-1850," Antiques (July 1991), p. 89). Similar stamped brass hardware appears on a number of Portsmouth forms made by several different makers; a chest of drawers in a private collection, illustrated in Jobe, ed., Portsmouth Furniture: Master Works from the New Hampshire Sea Coast (Hanover, 1993), p. 112, no. 10; another chest of drawers attributed to Joseph Clark at the Currier Gallery of Art illustrated in Jobe, p. 119, no. 13; a dressing table in a private collection is illustrated in Jobe, p. 147, no. 23; a secretary attributed to Langley Boardman in the Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities is illustrated in Jobe, p. 171, no. 31.
Brass hardware, imported by American merchants from English brass foundries supplied the bulk of hardware utilized by American craftsmen. Stamped "HJ" on the back of the bail handles, the hardware on this stand is the work of the Birmingham, England brass workers Thomas Hands and William Jenkins. Working from 1791 to 1803, Hands and Jenkins are listed together in Birmingham city directories as "manufacturers of commode handles, cloak pins, picture frames, looking glasses &c'" (Donald L. Fennimore, "Brass Hardware on American Furniture Part II: Stamped hardware, 1750-1850," Antiques (July 1991), p. 89). Similar stamped brass hardware appears on a number of Portsmouth forms made by several different makers; a chest of drawers in a private collection, illustrated in Jobe, ed., Portsmouth Furniture: Master Works from the New Hampshire Sea Coast (Hanover, 1993), p. 112, no. 10; another chest of drawers attributed to Joseph Clark at the Currier Gallery of Art illustrated in Jobe, p. 119, no. 13; a dressing table in a private collection is illustrated in Jobe, p. 147, no. 23; a secretary attributed to Langley Boardman in the Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities is illustrated in Jobe, p. 171, no. 31.