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Lot Essay
Profusely decorated with floral escutcheons, French feet and a whimsical bird within a diamond cartouche, this swell-front cherrywood chest-of-drawers appears to be the work of an as-yet-unidentified craftsman familiar with the shops of both Brimfield, Massachusetts native Nathan Lombard (1777-1847) and George Stedman (b. 1795), who worked first in Norwich, Vermont, before moving to New York in 1822. Both made case pieces with this unusual façade, which was likely influenced by the bombé form favored in Boston earlier in the century, and the lot offered here may reveal an important link between the two shops.
In overall design and decorative elements, the present lot bears many similarities to the group of approximately forty pieces first identified by Brock Jobe and Clark Pearce as the product of the successful shop of Nathan Lombard. Born in Brimfield, Massachusetts, Lombard was likely in business on his own by the age of twenty-one. In 1802 he married Delight Allen (1777-1869) and by the following year the couple had moved to nearby Sutton, a fast-growing town located forty miles west of Boston along the main thoroughfare between Worcester and Providence. His business appears to have succeeded early on as in 1805 he advertised for a journeyman who ‘understands all branches of the business well enough to do Mahogany work of the best kind’ (Broke Jobe and Clarke Pearce, “Sophistication in Rural Massachusetts: The Inlaid Cherry Furniture of Nathan Lombard,” American Furniture 1998, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 1998), pp. 168-170). Most of the pieces attributed to his shop are beautifully inlaid with a number of decorative motifs, including eagles, urns issuing interlaced vines, and diamond cartouches surrounding swirling oval paterae (fig. 2) and also feature banding outlining every door, drawer and even the feet; this extensive treatment is found on other attributed examples, including a desk-and-bookcase at Winterthur Museum. The present lot features variations of these embellishments, including floral-inlaid escutcheons and feet, as well as an inlaid-diamond top, inside of which is an oval, which the cabinetmaker decided in this case to decorate with a scratched bird. Similar to the banding employed by Lombard, this chest-of-drawers features scratched boarders outlining the façade of the case, top and feet. Further to these ornamental similarities, a strip of cherry is applied to the back edge of the case top, which is found on many of Lombard’s pieces (Jobe and Pearce, pp. 171, 181, fig. 32).
Details of the cabinetmaker whose ‘bizarre conception’ (fig. 1) was first published in 1966 were shrouded in mystery for twenty years until it was discovered that George Stedman, according to a notice that appeared in the Vermont Republican in 1816, was of Chester, Vermont and had recently taken over the shop of Sampson Warner (Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period (New York, 1966), p. 189, cat. no. 147; David Hewett, “G. Stedman – The Elusive Vermont Cabinetmaker,” Maine Antique Digest (March 1986), pp. 1-2D). Like the present lot, the four swell-front chest-of-drawers attributed to Stedman have French feet rather than the distinctive bracket feet often employed by Lombard (this chest was originally part of this group, which would have brought the total to five; for more on this group, see Kenneth Joel Zogry, The Best the Country Affords: Vermont Furniture 1765-1850 (Lunenburg, Vermont, 1995), p. 119, cat. no. 69). The construction of this chest bears some similarities to that found on the signed example at Winterthur, including a solid bottom, glue blocks adhered to the back of the interior case, chamfered drawer bottoms with the grain running side to side and rear feet with inset cross braces and inner glue blocks. However, significant differences, including the thickness of the drawer linings, lack of strip along back edge of the case top and the lack of saw kerf overruns on the back of the drawer fronts, prevent a firm attribution to Stedman.
In overall design and decorative elements, the present lot bears many similarities to the group of approximately forty pieces first identified by Brock Jobe and Clark Pearce as the product of the successful shop of Nathan Lombard. Born in Brimfield, Massachusetts, Lombard was likely in business on his own by the age of twenty-one. In 1802 he married Delight Allen (1777-1869) and by the following year the couple had moved to nearby Sutton, a fast-growing town located forty miles west of Boston along the main thoroughfare between Worcester and Providence. His business appears to have succeeded early on as in 1805 he advertised for a journeyman who ‘understands all branches of the business well enough to do Mahogany work of the best kind’ (Broke Jobe and Clarke Pearce, “Sophistication in Rural Massachusetts: The Inlaid Cherry Furniture of Nathan Lombard,” American Furniture 1998, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 1998), pp. 168-170). Most of the pieces attributed to his shop are beautifully inlaid with a number of decorative motifs, including eagles, urns issuing interlaced vines, and diamond cartouches surrounding swirling oval paterae (fig. 2) and also feature banding outlining every door, drawer and even the feet; this extensive treatment is found on other attributed examples, including a desk-and-bookcase at Winterthur Museum. The present lot features variations of these embellishments, including floral-inlaid escutcheons and feet, as well as an inlaid-diamond top, inside of which is an oval, which the cabinetmaker decided in this case to decorate with a scratched bird. Similar to the banding employed by Lombard, this chest-of-drawers features scratched boarders outlining the façade of the case, top and feet. Further to these ornamental similarities, a strip of cherry is applied to the back edge of the case top, which is found on many of Lombard’s pieces (Jobe and Pearce, pp. 171, 181, fig. 32).
Details of the cabinetmaker whose ‘bizarre conception’ (fig. 1) was first published in 1966 were shrouded in mystery for twenty years until it was discovered that George Stedman, according to a notice that appeared in the Vermont Republican in 1816, was of Chester, Vermont and had recently taken over the shop of Sampson Warner (Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period (New York, 1966), p. 189, cat. no. 147; David Hewett, “G. Stedman – The Elusive Vermont Cabinetmaker,” Maine Antique Digest (March 1986), pp. 1-2D). Like the present lot, the four swell-front chest-of-drawers attributed to Stedman have French feet rather than the distinctive bracket feet often employed by Lombard (this chest was originally part of this group, which would have brought the total to five; for more on this group, see Kenneth Joel Zogry, The Best the Country Affords: Vermont Furniture 1765-1850 (Lunenburg, Vermont, 1995), p. 119, cat. no. 69). The construction of this chest bears some similarities to that found on the signed example at Winterthur, including a solid bottom, glue blocks adhered to the back of the interior case, chamfered drawer bottoms with the grain running side to side and rear feet with inset cross braces and inner glue blocks. However, significant differences, including the thickness of the drawer linings, lack of strip along back edge of the case top and the lack of saw kerf overruns on the back of the drawer fronts, prevent a firm attribution to Stedman.