PHILADELPHIA, 1770-1780

With its dramatically shaped double-peaked crest above rolling outscrolled arms and deeply raking rear legs, this sofa is a rare survival of Philadelphia’s most sophisticated Chippendale style. The present lot also features straight stretchers and square front Marlborough legs,additional hallmarks of Philadelphia design (for a detailed discussion on Philadelphia sofas with Marlborough legs, see Christie’s, New York, 23 January 2015, lot 170). The double-peaked crest was a further refinement of the form’s more common arched crest and only approximately a dozen related sofas are known, including examples in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Winterthur Museum and Cliveden House in Philadelphia, the home of Benjamin Chew, as well as those sold, Christie's, New York, 18 October 1986, lot 510; Sotheby's, New York, 30 January 1994, lot 1036; and Christie's, New York, 21 June 1995, lot 231, which had previously been in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. George Maurice Morris of the Lindens, Washington, D.C.