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Lot Essay
Grand in scale and refined in detail, this chest-on-chest illustrates the superior craftsmanship of an unidentified cabinetmaking shop operating in Philadelphia during the latter half of the eighteenth century. The pitch-pediment design, based on Classical sources, was a hallmark of the sixteenth-century Renaissance architecture of Andrea Palladio. Revived in Europe in the eighteenth century, the device was used in Philadelphia for interior doorways and monumental casepieces, like this chest-on-chest, from the 1730s through the Revolutionary War era. The geometric structure is embellished by superbly executed carved details, such as the basket cartouche and blind fretwork and the original brasses add gilded splendor to the overall form. Furthermore, the piece survives with an old surface probably dating from the late nineteenth century.
Construction details demonstrate that the maker was a master of his craft. This chest as well as the example illustrated in fig. 1 share most features, including a number of idiosyncratic techniques that illustrate the work of the same shop. The cornice moldings are identically assembled from five different members, two primary sections forming the complex profile and three secondary sections that are triangular and rectangular in shape. Rather than made with a single, weight-bearing vertical glueblock, each foot is composed of stacked blocks with the grain horizontally aligned to the bracket facings. Allowing the feet and brackets to "expand and contract in unison," this practice has been described as a superior method of construction that while creating more work for the maker, provided for "greater structural integrity" (Ronald L. Hurst and Jonathan Prown, Southern Furniture 1680-1830 (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1977), p. 363). Its use in America was rare and besides this Philadelphia shop, appears in the work of John Shaw of Annapolis, Maryland and of British-influenced shops in Norfolk and Williamsburg, Virginia (Hurst and Prown, p. 366, fn. 5). Both chests were also fitted with similar floating blocks (now missing) placed through the bottom of the upper case at the rear corners to help keep the upper case in place. And, the secondary wood usage is identical: The top of yellow pine, the sub-top, full dustboards and drawer sides and backs of poplar and the top of the lower case and drawer bottoms of white cedar.
Imported from England, the leafy fire-gilt brasses are elegant rococo embellishments that may also provide a clue to the chest's first owner. At the time the chest was published in Hornor in 1935, it had descended to Edward Wanton Smith, Sr. (1875-1940), presumably from one of his Philadelphia-area great-grandparents, members of the Fisher, Wharton and Smith families. Of these, Samuel Rowland Fisher (1745-1834) stands as a likely candidate as he is known to have owned a Birmingham trade catalogue featuring almost identical brasses (for a related design from another trade catalogue, see fig. 2). Fisher was a partner in his father's mercantile firm, Joshua Fisher & Sons and from the 1760s to the 1780s made numerous business trips to Europe seeking goods for import. A common custom of the time, Fisher may have personally supplied these brasses to the cabinetmaker as partial payment for the chest. He is thought to have acquired his catalogue during his travels to the English midlands from 1783 to 1789, which suggests that the chest was made during this decade. His copy of the trade catalogue was acquired by Winterthur directly from Sarah Ann Greene Smith (b. 1906), Edward Wanton Smith, Sr.'s daughter, providing precedent for Fisher's belongings descending along this line. Furthermore, a sofa from this period is thought to have been made for Samuel Rowland Fisher and it too, passed down to Edward Wanton Smith, Sr.'s family (Clement E. Conger and A. W. Rollins, Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State (New York, 1991), cat. 69, p. 154).
The Fishers were prominent Quakers and Samuel Rowland and his brothers Miers and Thomas, were among those exiled to Virginia in 1777 for their pacifism after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. One of their fellow exiles was cabinetmaker Thomas Affleck, who is known to have made furniture for Thomas Fisher. And, along with William Wayne, Thomas Tufft and George Claypoole, Affleck stands as one of those whose shop may have produced this chest. Samuel Rowland Fisher married Hannah Rodman (1764-1819) of Newport, one of several Philadelphia-Newport Quaker alliances in this family. Their daughter, Deborah (1795-1888) inherited her father's Spruce Street house. She married William Wharton (1790-1856) and their daughter, Esther Fisher (Wharton) Smith (1836-1916) was the mother of Edward Wanton Smith, Sr., the chest's owner in the early twentieth century. For other significant furniture forms that descended in this family, see Christie's New York, January 21, 2005, p. 320. For more on the Fisher family, see Anna Wharton Smith, Genealogy of the Fisher family, 1682 to 1896 (Philadelphia, 1896).
Christie's would like to thank Tara Gleason Chicirda, Associate Curator of Furniture, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for her observations regarding the construction of the chest-on-chest illustrated in fig. 1.
Construction details demonstrate that the maker was a master of his craft. This chest as well as the example illustrated in fig. 1 share most features, including a number of idiosyncratic techniques that illustrate the work of the same shop. The cornice moldings are identically assembled from five different members, two primary sections forming the complex profile and three secondary sections that are triangular and rectangular in shape. Rather than made with a single, weight-bearing vertical glueblock, each foot is composed of stacked blocks with the grain horizontally aligned to the bracket facings. Allowing the feet and brackets to "expand and contract in unison," this practice has been described as a superior method of construction that while creating more work for the maker, provided for "greater structural integrity" (Ronald L. Hurst and Jonathan Prown, Southern Furniture 1680-1830 (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1977), p. 363). Its use in America was rare and besides this Philadelphia shop, appears in the work of John Shaw of Annapolis, Maryland and of British-influenced shops in Norfolk and Williamsburg, Virginia (Hurst and Prown, p. 366, fn. 5). Both chests were also fitted with similar floating blocks (now missing) placed through the bottom of the upper case at the rear corners to help keep the upper case in place. And, the secondary wood usage is identical: The top of yellow pine, the sub-top, full dustboards and drawer sides and backs of poplar and the top of the lower case and drawer bottoms of white cedar.
Imported from England, the leafy fire-gilt brasses are elegant rococo embellishments that may also provide a clue to the chest's first owner. At the time the chest was published in Hornor in 1935, it had descended to Edward Wanton Smith, Sr. (1875-1940), presumably from one of his Philadelphia-area great-grandparents, members of the Fisher, Wharton and Smith families. Of these, Samuel Rowland Fisher (1745-1834) stands as a likely candidate as he is known to have owned a Birmingham trade catalogue featuring almost identical brasses (for a related design from another trade catalogue, see fig. 2). Fisher was a partner in his father's mercantile firm, Joshua Fisher & Sons and from the 1760s to the 1780s made numerous business trips to Europe seeking goods for import. A common custom of the time, Fisher may have personally supplied these brasses to the cabinetmaker as partial payment for the chest. He is thought to have acquired his catalogue during his travels to the English midlands from 1783 to 1789, which suggests that the chest was made during this decade. His copy of the trade catalogue was acquired by Winterthur directly from Sarah Ann Greene Smith (b. 1906), Edward Wanton Smith, Sr.'s daughter, providing precedent for Fisher's belongings descending along this line. Furthermore, a sofa from this period is thought to have been made for Samuel Rowland Fisher and it too, passed down to Edward Wanton Smith, Sr.'s family (Clement E. Conger and A. W. Rollins, Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State (New York, 1991), cat. 69, p. 154).
The Fishers were prominent Quakers and Samuel Rowland and his brothers Miers and Thomas, were among those exiled to Virginia in 1777 for their pacifism after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. One of their fellow exiles was cabinetmaker Thomas Affleck, who is known to have made furniture for Thomas Fisher. And, along with William Wayne, Thomas Tufft and George Claypoole, Affleck stands as one of those whose shop may have produced this chest. Samuel Rowland Fisher married Hannah Rodman (1764-1819) of Newport, one of several Philadelphia-Newport Quaker alliances in this family. Their daughter, Deborah (1795-1888) inherited her father's Spruce Street house. She married William Wharton (1790-1856) and their daughter, Esther Fisher (Wharton) Smith (1836-1916) was the mother of Edward Wanton Smith, Sr., the chest's owner in the early twentieth century. For other significant furniture forms that descended in this family, see Christie's New York, January 21, 2005, p. 320. For more on the Fisher family, see Anna Wharton Smith, Genealogy of the Fisher family, 1682 to 1896 (Philadelphia, 1896).
Christie's would like to thank Tara Gleason Chicirda, Associate Curator of Furniture, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for her observations regarding the construction of the chest-on-chest illustrated in fig. 1.