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拍品專文
Displaying a mastery of curvilinear design, these chairs are outstanding examples of the conceptual and technological advances in Philadelphia chair making during the early to mid-eighteenth century. As indicated by numbering on the seat frames, the chairs were part of a larger set with two others known, both of which are at Winterthur Museum (fig. 1). With spooning stiles and splats, compass seats and cabriole legs, the chairs exemplify the Philadelphia aesthetic of the mid-eighteenth century, one that, as recently argued by Alan Miller, was largely introduced to the region in the late 1730s by immigrant craftsmen from Ireland (Alan Miller, “Flux in Design and Method in Early Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia Furniture,” American Furniture 2014, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2014), passim.). While the trifid feet and arched crest are akin to some of the earlier examples of these new style chairs, the pattern of the chairs’ splats appears identical to that on a set of chairs made for Captain Samuel Morris in 1759, indicating that some of the early features continued to be made after 1750 (Miller, p. 73, fig. 60).
The trifid feet display a distinctive design, one that may suggest the hand of a particular carver or the practices of a single cabinet shop. Each foot comprises a raised central panel with a squared top flanked by recessed panels; each recessed panel has pronounced ogee shaping at the base (with the protruding convex section placed along the inner edge) that gradually tapers to a single, scooped terminus lying slightly above the top of the central panel. Feet of the same design adorn furniture attributed to the cabinet shop of Henry Cliffton (d. 1771) and Thomas Carteret and it is possible that workmen in their employ were responsible for surviving examples of this interpretation of trifid-foot design. These other forms include a slab-top table (figs. 2) and a dressing table formerly in the Robb Collection, both of which have side rails that follow the same pattern of those on a high chest signed by Cliffton and Carteret in the collections of Colonial Williamsburg. Other carved details on the chairs offered here support an attribution to craftsmen working in this cabinet shop. The volutes on the crest and knee returns of these chairs and those on the Robb dressing table are particularly elaborate with internal spirals completing two full rotations. Furthermore, the shells on the crests and knees are distinctive with their tall “ears” embellished with vertically rather than diagonally oriented incised lines and a similar example adorns the Benjamin Marshall high chest, which is also attributed to the Cliffton-Carteret shop (for the Robb dressing table, see Luke Beckerdite, “An Identity Crisis: Philadelphia and Baltimore Furniture Styles of the Mid Eighteenth Century,” Shaping a National Culture: The Philadelphia Experience, 1750-1800, Catherine Hutchins, ed. (Winterthur, 1994), p. 259, fig. 16); for the Cliffton-Carteret signed high chest, see Eleanore P. Gadsden, “When Good Cabinetmakers Made Bad Furniture: The Career and Work of David Evans,” American Furniture 2001, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2001), pp. 65-87; for the Benjamin Marshall high chest, see lot 168, fig. 3 in this sale and Christie’s, New York, 19 May 2005, lot 109; for a set of chairs with similar feet and volutes, possibly from the Cliffton-Carteret shop, see Christie’s, New York, 24 January 2014, lot 132).
Carvers associated with the Cliffton-Carteret shop include Samuel Harding (d. 1758), his probable protégé, Nicholas Bernard (d. 1789) and a craftsman known as the “de Young high chest carver.” In his discussion of the Robb dressing table, Beckerdite notes that its shell-carved drawer relates to the architectural carving Harding executed for the Philadelphia State House (now Independence Hall) and the signed Cliffton-Carteret high chest is just one of several case pieces ascribed to the shop with carving by Bernard. Finally, as illustrated by lot 168 in this sale, other forms attributed to the shop bear embellishments by a third hand, the de Young carver. However, it is the more elaborate, complex ornament such as the shell carving on drawers that has been the basis for the attributions to these master carvers. Less intricate elements, such as the shells and trifid feet seen on these chairs, have not been attributed to specific individuals. Such details may have been the work of unidentified carvers working under these masters and it is one of these craftsmen that may have been responsible for the ornament on the chairs offered here and the other related forms from the Cliffton-Carteret shop.
The trifid feet display a distinctive design, one that may suggest the hand of a particular carver or the practices of a single cabinet shop. Each foot comprises a raised central panel with a squared top flanked by recessed panels; each recessed panel has pronounced ogee shaping at the base (with the protruding convex section placed along the inner edge) that gradually tapers to a single, scooped terminus lying slightly above the top of the central panel. Feet of the same design adorn furniture attributed to the cabinet shop of Henry Cliffton (d. 1771) and Thomas Carteret and it is possible that workmen in their employ were responsible for surviving examples of this interpretation of trifid-foot design. These other forms include a slab-top table (figs. 2) and a dressing table formerly in the Robb Collection, both of which have side rails that follow the same pattern of those on a high chest signed by Cliffton and Carteret in the collections of Colonial Williamsburg. Other carved details on the chairs offered here support an attribution to craftsmen working in this cabinet shop. The volutes on the crest and knee returns of these chairs and those on the Robb dressing table are particularly elaborate with internal spirals completing two full rotations. Furthermore, the shells on the crests and knees are distinctive with their tall “ears” embellished with vertically rather than diagonally oriented incised lines and a similar example adorns the Benjamin Marshall high chest, which is also attributed to the Cliffton-Carteret shop (for the Robb dressing table, see Luke Beckerdite, “An Identity Crisis: Philadelphia and Baltimore Furniture Styles of the Mid Eighteenth Century,” Shaping a National Culture: The Philadelphia Experience, 1750-1800, Catherine Hutchins, ed. (Winterthur, 1994), p. 259, fig. 16); for the Cliffton-Carteret signed high chest, see Eleanore P. Gadsden, “When Good Cabinetmakers Made Bad Furniture: The Career and Work of David Evans,” American Furniture 2001, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2001), pp. 65-87; for the Benjamin Marshall high chest, see lot 168, fig. 3 in this sale and Christie’s, New York, 19 May 2005, lot 109; for a set of chairs with similar feet and volutes, possibly from the Cliffton-Carteret shop, see Christie’s, New York, 24 January 2014, lot 132).
Carvers associated with the Cliffton-Carteret shop include Samuel Harding (d. 1758), his probable protégé, Nicholas Bernard (d. 1789) and a craftsman known as the “de Young high chest carver.” In his discussion of the Robb dressing table, Beckerdite notes that its shell-carved drawer relates to the architectural carving Harding executed for the Philadelphia State House (now Independence Hall) and the signed Cliffton-Carteret high chest is just one of several case pieces ascribed to the shop with carving by Bernard. Finally, as illustrated by lot 168 in this sale, other forms attributed to the shop bear embellishments by a third hand, the de Young carver. However, it is the more elaborate, complex ornament such as the shell carving on drawers that has been the basis for the attributions to these master carvers. Less intricate elements, such as the shells and trifid feet seen on these chairs, have not been attributed to specific individuals. Such details may have been the work of unidentified carvers working under these masters and it is one of these craftsmen that may have been responsible for the ornament on the chairs offered here and the other related forms from the Cliffton-Carteret shop.