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Lot Essay
This exceedingly rare desk-and-bookcase is one of a small group of the most elaborately constructed examples of case furniture made in Philadelphia during the 1720s and 1730s. Reflections of wealth, sophistication and taste, these ornate, ogee-pedimented desks were ambitiously and expensively constructed. They could incorporate an array of costly design features, including shaped and beveled mirrored glass in the tympanum and upper doors, interrupted arches and elaborately formed interiors with block-and-shell carved drawers.
This desk relates closely to a finely crafted group of three well known examples of the form. The most distinctive feature shared by these pieces is the arched ogee head, a design element inspired by the English furniture fashions of the 1710s and 1720s. The first and most ornate example was originally owned by colonial statesman James Logan (1674-1751) who is said to have commissioned the piece from joiner Stephen Armitt (1705-1751) during the construction of Stenton, Logan's Georgian country estate in what is now Germantown, Pennsylvania. The other two examples do not share the attribution to Armitt but are thought to have been made by Joseph Claypoole (1677-1744), a joiner who was apprenticed to Philadelphia master craftsman Charles Plumley (1673-1708) before going into business for himself around 1708. This group of exquisitely crafted case furniture represents the pinnacle of colonial craftsmanship in Philadelphia in the early eighteenth century. For further discussion of these related examples, see Jack L. Lindsey, Wordly Goods: The Arts of Early Pennsylvania 1680-1758 (Philadelphia, 1999), p. 165, fig. 195; Andrew Brunk, "The Claypoole Family Joiners of Philadelphia: Their Legacy and the Context of Their Work," American Furniture 2002, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2002), pp. 159-160, fig. 12; William MacPherson Hornor, Jr., Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (Washington D.C., 1935), p. 3).
This desk relates closely to a finely crafted group of three well known examples of the form. The most distinctive feature shared by these pieces is the arched ogee head, a design element inspired by the English furniture fashions of the 1710s and 1720s. The first and most ornate example was originally owned by colonial statesman James Logan (1674-1751) who is said to have commissioned the piece from joiner Stephen Armitt (1705-1751) during the construction of Stenton, Logan's Georgian country estate in what is now Germantown, Pennsylvania. The other two examples do not share the attribution to Armitt but are thought to have been made by Joseph Claypoole (1677-1744), a joiner who was apprenticed to Philadelphia master craftsman Charles Plumley (1673-1708) before going into business for himself around 1708. This group of exquisitely crafted case furniture represents the pinnacle of colonial craftsmanship in Philadelphia in the early eighteenth century. For further discussion of these related examples, see Jack L. Lindsey, Wordly Goods: The Arts of Early Pennsylvania 1680-1758 (Philadelphia, 1999), p. 165, fig. 195; Andrew Brunk, "The Claypoole Family Joiners of Philadelphia: Their Legacy and the Context of Their Work," American Furniture 2002, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2002), pp. 159-160, fig. 12; William MacPherson Hornor, Jr., Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (Washington D.C., 1935), p. 3).