Some Carved Wooden Busts
and Sculpture
on 18th Century American Furniture.
This entry does not pretend to be in anyway definitive - it is a series of notes and images prepared on an ad hoc basis. Hopefully it will receive proper editing in due course.
For an excellent survey of American Mid 18th Century Culture:
It is a very useful introduction to mid 18th century American carvers see -
American Rococo, 1750-1775: Elegance in Ornament
By Morrison H. Heckscher, Leslie Greene Bowman.
1992.
Catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum.
Currently available on line with google books.
______________________
For a list of Boston Furniture Craftsmen.
for Boston Furniture and carving see also -
_____________________________
Joseph Addison.
Philadelphia
Mahogany
Height 8.5 inches
After a plaster bust by John Cheere (see below).
Private Collection
Illustration from American Rococo... Heckscher et al. 1992.
______________________
The Kirkleatham bust of Addison by John Cheere.
Height approx. 22 inches.
York Museum
____________________________
John Locke and Milton.
Mahogany
Illustrations above from American Rococo, 1750-1775: Elegance in Ornament
Approx. Half Life Size at West Wycombre Park,
Supplied by John Cheere.
______________________________
A Masonic Chair.
by
with a bust of Matthew Prior.
From - Journal of Early Southern Decorative arts
November 1976, Vol II, no II.
Pub. by [Winston-Salem] Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts
____________________________________
The Potts Family Desk and Bookcase. Philadelphia.
Sotheby's New York
January 2013.
Lot 512 Sotheby's, New York, 26 Jan 2013.
IMPORTANT AMERICANA:
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DR.
LARRY MCCALLISTER.
Provenance:
Acquired from a member of the Potts Family and originally
thought to have come from their family residence, Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania;
Joe Kindig, Jr., York, Pennsylvania, March 26, 1936;
Sotheby's New York, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lammot Du
Pont Copeland, January 19, 2002, Sale 7757, lot 262.
LITERATURE
Morrison H. Heckscher, "Living with Antiques: Mount Cuba in Delaware," The Magazine
Antiques, May 1987, pl. V, p. 1081.
"Living with Antiques:
The Delaware Home of Mr. and Mrs. Lammot Copeland," The Magazine
Antiques, October 1952, p. 293.
Robert C. Smith, "Finial Busts on Eighteenth-Century
Philadelphia Furniture," The Magazine Antiques, December 1971, fig. 8, p.
903.
This desk-and-bookcase is a masterpiece of Philadelphia
Chippendale case furniture, surviving with its original portrait bust of the
English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704), a popular figure in Philadelphia
whose works dominated a "parcel of books'' sent out from London in 1700 by
order of William Penn. His popularity continued in the period just before the
Revolution because it was believed that, if he were alive, he would have
sympathized with the American grievances against the British government (Robert
C. Smith, "Finial Busts on Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia
Furniture," The Magazine Antiques, December 1971, p. 903).
The portrait
bust is one of fewer than a dozen known on Philadelphia furniture.
Characterised by a long, narrow head, appropriately-scaled eyes, and a long
commanding nose, this portrait bust appears to be by the same hand as the bust
of John Milton on a desk-and-bookcase illustrated as fig. 10 in Smith's
article.
This desk-and-bookcase was made for the Potts family of
Pottstown, Pennsylvania and was believed to have been among the furnishings at
the family home, Pottsgrove.
Morrison Heckscher notes in "Living with
Antiques: Mount Cuba in Delaware," in The Magazine Antiques (May 1987),
that this desk was made by the same craftsman who created the Fisher family
chest-on-chest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Heckscher, American
Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985, no. 147, p. 226-8).
Other
case pieces by this unidentified craftsman include a similar desk-and-bookcase
with a bust of John Locke illustrated in William M. Hornor, Blue Book
Philadelphia Furniture, 1977, pl. 171, a chest-on-chest once owned by Stephen
Girard, another with a history of descent from Vincent Loockerman (d. 1785) of
Dover, Delaware, a desk-and-bookcase made for Joseph Wharton illustrated in pl.
201 of Hornor, and a high chest at Bayou Bend also made for Jospeh Wharton (see
David Warren et. al., American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend
Collection, 1998, F143).
Heckscher has hypothesized that the craftsmen of these
exceptional case pieces may be the cabinetmaker Thomas Affleck and the carver
James Reynolds, two men known to have worked together in 1772 for William
Logan, who originally commissioned the Fisher family chest-on-chest.
Text and Images courtesy Sotheby's New York.
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.512.html/2013/so-mccallister-n08959
__________________________
The " Pompadour" Chest of Drawers.
Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Philadelphia.
233
x 113.3 x 62.5 cms.
They say c. 1762 - 65.
With George S Palmer until purchased 1918.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Characteristically, these makers took motifs from London
pattern books and rearranged them to suit local tastes. Thus, the scroll
pediment with finial bust and cornice moldings were taken directly from illustrations
in Thomas Chippendale's famous "Gentlemen and Cabinet Maker's
Director" (1762), the serpent-and-swan motif in the central bottom drawer
from Thomas Johnson's " New Book of Ornaments" (1762).
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/4282
High chest, unidentified cabinetmaker with carving attributed
to Martin Jugiez, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1765-1775. Mahogany with yellow
poplar, white cedar, yellow pine and brass. H. 96-3/4, W. 46-1/2, D. 25-3/4 in.
Philadelphia Museum of Art; gift of Mrs. Henry V. Greenough, 1957. Courtesy of
the Philadelphia Museum of Art.This photograph, ca. 1924, shows the chest in
the condition it was first exhibited. The fox's head, paw, and the leaves on
the finials had been previously restored. The foliate scrolls, fret, and
sections of the lower front rail appliqué are missing.
Information and photograph from:
Design for a mirror illustrated on pl. 21 of Thomas
Johnson's One Hundred and Fifty New Designs (London 1761), adapted by Martin Jugiez
for the appliqué on the carved drawer. Jugiez made use of other plates in
Johnson for the designs of the cartouche, finials, and flowering vine-carved
quarter columns.
__________________________
Photograph from Pinterest.
Courtesy Pook and Pook Inc, Auctioneers
Downington. PA.
Height 98.5"
___________________________
1782
Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
Part of the ornament may be from the shop of Boston carvers
John and Simeon Skillin (Skillings). The bows, leaves, and flowers on the
finial urns (fig. 16) are very similar to those on the chamfered corners of
another chest-on-chest that originally belonged to Derby. The latter chest is
attributed to Dorchester cabinetmaker Stephen Badlam and the Skillins based on
workmanship and on their respective bills to Derby for £19, “exclusive of the
carving,” and £6.15.0 for “Carv’d work done for a chest of draws pr. bill given
in.
Information and photographs from
American Furniture
____________________________
Stephen Badlam and John and Simeon Skillin
Boston.
Maker Cabinetmaker: Stephen Badlam, American, 1751–1815
Carver: John Skillin, American, 1746–1800
Carver: Simeon Skillin, Jr., American, 1757–1806
Chest-on-Chest
1791
Mahogany; front of drawer in architrave, mahogany; other
drawer fronts, mahogany veneer on chestnut; eastern white pine; bottom
dustboard in lower case, red pine.
101 1/8 x 51 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. (256.9 x 130.8 x 60.3 cm)
other (Upper case): 42 13/16 x 19 3/4 in.(108.7 x 50.2 cm) other (Lower case):
46 x 23 3/4 in.(116.8 x 60.3 cm)
Mabel Brady Garvan Collection.
1930.2003
Following the Revolution, some citizens sought domestic
objects that would express in the most elaborate ways America’s pride in having
achieved independence.
Shipping magnate Elias Hasket Derby (1739–1799), a
prominent citizen of Salem, Massachusetts, could well afford to do so. In
commissioning this massive piece from Stephen Badlam, a war veteran from a town
south of Boston, Derby took the unusual step of engaging leading Boston
sculptors to carve figures for the pediment of the case.
Rising to the
challenge set by their patron, John Skillin and his brother Simeon created a
scheme of three females in fashionable Neoclassical dress and distinctive
accessories imbued with allegorical meaning. The figure on the left, holding an
olive wreath and a palm frond, personifies Peace. On the right is Plenty,
clasping a cornucopia. The central figure wears the gilt-sun brooch and laurel
wreath associated with Virtue, while the Phrygian cap on a liberty pole is an
attribute of Liberty. Through this combination of attributes, she represents
America.
Family tradition has it that Derby and his wife, Elizabeth
Crowninshield Derby, gave this piece as a wedding present to their daughter
Anstis, who married Benjamin Pickman, Jr., of Salem in 1789.
Made in Dorchester Lower Mills, Massachusetts and made in Boston, Massachusetts
Yale University Art Gallery collection.
Text and photographs above lifted from:
https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/39266
_________________________________
Plate 78, from the first Edition of Chippendale's
The Gentleman's and Cabinet Makers Director, 1754.
__________________
Desk and bookcase
Philadelphia.
Attributed to Benjamin Randolph.
From the Collection of George and Linda Kaufman.
National Gallery of Art.
By the 1750s Philadelphia was the largest colonial city,
having more than 25,000 religious and ethnically diverse residents. In the forefront of sophistication and keenly aware of
London fashions, its wealthiest citizens desired more elaborately ornamented objects than those made in other colonial
centres. Native-born as well as London-trained artisans were in
demand as rich merchants and entrepreneurs sought the latest style. This magnificent Philadelphia desk and bookcase,made between 1755 and 1765, is one of the rarest examples of Chippendale American furniture and exemplifies the rococo
taste. The monumental upper bookcase has a frieze of triglyphs and rosettes surmounted by a finely carved pitch-pediment that
echoes pre-revolutionary architecture as illustrated in
contemporaneous design books.
The abundance and quality of the carving
attest to its creator’s talent as well as to the status that it
must have conferred on its owner. Centred in the pitch-pediment is a
carved styles / coastal urban centers / types of furniture mahogany bust believed to represent the
well-known English historian Catharine Macaulay. A prominent political activist in London who supported Englishman John Wilkes, Macaulay was an early proponent of liberty for the American colonists. By the mid -1760s, she was portrayed in numerous English paintings, prints, ceramics, and sculptures, some of
which were fashioned as affordable images available to a wide
segment of the public.
Carved busts of males are found on a small
number of richly ornamented Philadelphia case pieces, but this
image of a female English political activist is especially unusual.
Text and photographs above lifted from:
https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/exhibitions/pdfs/kaufman.pdf
see -
http://www.chipstone.org/article.php/568/American-Furniture-2007/Benjamin-Randolph-Revisited
Cover to American Furniture, 1994 Edition .
Edited by Luke Beckerdite.
Available on line at:
http://www.chipstone.org/publications.php/1/American-Furniture
Trade Card of Benjamin Randolph with Desk / bookcase,
as illustrated in Chippendale's Director.
______________________________
John Welch (1711 - 1789).
Carver.
Boston, Mass.
One of the most important identifiable carvers of
pre-Revolutionary Boston was John Welch. Born in 1711, Welch is famed for
carving the “Sacred Codfish” for the Hall of Representatives in the Boston
State House in 1736. In 1733 he purchased a lot of land forty by eighty feet in
Green Lane, or in Green Street, presumably in anticipation of his marriage to
the granddaughter of the prosperous carver George Robinson. The association
with the Robinson family was an important one for Welch. He may have served an
apprenticeship under Robinson. The unfortunate death of Welch’s young wife in
1736 left Welch with a substantial portion of the Robinson estate. In 1738 and
1743 Welch increased his holdings in the Green Street area. He made his home on
Green Lane, but from 1733 until 1758 he kept a shop on the town dock, a good
location for a man who was probably primarily a ship carver.
In 1758 Isaac Dupee, a ship carver, petitioned to have the
use of the “Town’s shop that John Welch occupied.” In the same year Welch
advertised the sale of many household possessions because he proposed “to go to
England in a short time.” He did travel to England, presumably on business, but
returned to Boston about 1760.
The 1789 inventory of Welch’s estate indicates that he was
involved in the sale of imported looking glasses. A list of shop goods includes
a gilt framed glass, a mahogany framed glass, and four looking glass frames as
well as carving tools and “5 ps Carved Work.”
The inventory of his personal
property lists “A Marble slab and frame” and “2 Busts,” an intriguing reference
when one recalls the popularity of carved busts as ornaments for casepieces in
Boston in the 1770s and 1780s.
Welch was a very prosperous carver in pre - Revolutionary
Boston. The list of his household furniture before the 1758 trip to England
included: “Large and Small Sconces, Looking Glasses, Chimney and Dressing
Glasses, a very handsome japanned Chest of Drawers and Bureau, a Marble topped
table supported by Carved Eagles.”
Numerous real estate transactions
established Welch as a shrewd businessman. In May, 1774, for example, John
Welch bought a lot adjoining his own in Green Lane from John Singleton Copley
for £153 and resold it a few weeks later for £253. He also had property in the
Bowdoin Square - Sudbury Street area and in 1780 he paid the large tax of £50,
more than double the sum paid by any other Boston carver.
Most of the other men designated as carvers in public
records seem, like Welch, to have been primarily ship carvers. Joshua Bowles
and Thomas Luckis had been keeping shop together along the wharf when their
inventory was destroyed by the great fire of 1760. They were also engaged in
other aspects of the shipping trade for in addition to the “3 Carved heads and
carving tools,” they lost two boat masts, fifteen cod and mackerel lines, and
three barrels of flour. A bill from Bowles and Luckis to John Hancock further
identifies these carvers as ship carvers. Mr. Hancock was charged £28 for a woman’s
head “7 foot long” and £13 more for brackets, a trail board, and two scrolls.
By 1780, Joshua Bowles and Thomas Luckis were working separately. At that time
Bowles appears to have been slightly more successful, but by Luckis’ death in
1808 he had improved his financial situation and had a house and land on Scotts
Court worth $3000.
Text above from:
______________________________
The Carved Wooden Bust of Shakespeare.
__________________________________
Joseph Barry and Sons.
132, South Second Street.
Philadelphia.
Trade Card / Label.
c.104/5
Interesting for the depiction of two statues Justice and ?
Image lifted from:
http://www.chipstone.org/article.php/570/American-Furniture-2007/From-Apprentice-to-Master:-The-Life-and-Career-of-Philadelphia-Cabinetmaker-George-G.-Wright
