.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This fine and rare dressing table exhibits a combination of Philadelphia Rococo and German Baroque aesthetics. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, artisans had contact with Philadelphia fashions due to its close proximity, and there was a large German-Swiss population. The furniture produced was large-scale and heavy with stylized carved ornament on a stippled ground. This decorative feature is found on the knees, skirt and drawer of the dressing table offered here.
The applied carving on this dressing table's skirt and drawer is rare to this school but frequently found on Philadelphia forms. Usually carved from the solid, the distinctive elaborate vine carving is just one of the defining characteristics of the unique hybrid school that emerged in Lancaster. Five other examples of Lancaster County case pieces with applied carving are known: A walnut desk-and-bookcase sold at Freeman Fine Arts, in Philadelphia, 20 October 1990, lot 1067; a cherry and applewood chest-on-chest advertised in Antiques (May 1965), p. 495; two walnut clock cases housing movements by the Eberman Family clockmakers of Lancaster illustrated in Wood and Kramer, Clockmakers of Lancaster County and their Clocks 1750-1780- with a Study of Lancaster County Clock Cases by John J. Snyder, Jr. (New York, 1977), figs. 2-4 and 2-13, p. 42; and an unpublished walnut clock housing a movement by Thomas B. Burrowes of Strasburg, Lancaster County. The aforementioned pieces are all in private collections. For similar carving that is not applied see the drawer of the high chest in Conger, Treasures of State (New York, 1991), p. 193.
For a comparable dressing table see Scott, "Lancaster and other Pennsylvania furniture," Antiques (May 1979), p. 990, another sold in these Rooms, 23 May 1980, lot 1165, and one is illustrated in Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1985), p. 262.
The applied carving on this dressing table's skirt and drawer is rare to this school but frequently found on Philadelphia forms. Usually carved from the solid, the distinctive elaborate vine carving is just one of the defining characteristics of the unique hybrid school that emerged in Lancaster. Five other examples of Lancaster County case pieces with applied carving are known: A walnut desk-and-bookcase sold at Freeman Fine Arts, in Philadelphia, 20 October 1990, lot 1067; a cherry and applewood chest-on-chest advertised in Antiques (May 1965), p. 495; two walnut clock cases housing movements by the Eberman Family clockmakers of Lancaster illustrated in Wood and Kramer, Clockmakers of Lancaster County and their Clocks 1750-1780- with a Study of Lancaster County Clock Cases by John J. Snyder, Jr. (New York, 1977), figs. 2-4 and 2-13, p. 42; and an unpublished walnut clock housing a movement by Thomas B. Burrowes of Strasburg, Lancaster County. The aforementioned pieces are all in private collections. For similar carving that is not applied see the drawer of the high chest in Conger, Treasures of State (New York, 1991), p. 193.
For a comparable dressing table see Scott, "Lancaster and other Pennsylvania furniture," Antiques (May 1979), p. 990, another sold in these Rooms, 23 May 1980, lot 1165, and one is illustrated in Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1985), p. 262.