Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000
American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts
Auction: April 30, 2019 11:00:00 AM EDT
circa 1830 Of grand proportions, the top surface and base with gadrooned edges, two graduated pillars and pilasters with acanthus carved bases flanking three storage doors, all below two drawers, the pierced backsplash with intricately carved grapevine which is possibly unique.
H: 64 in. W: 90 1/2 in. D: 31 in.Provenance: The Schwebel Company, Chicago, Illinois.
Advertised in The Magazine Antiques (May, 1998).
The present sideboard relates to several Philadelphia examples that share similar design features. Three examples found in the Art Institute of Chicago (acc. 1974.8), Saint Louis Art Museum, and most recently offered at Neal Auctions Company, New Orleans, Lot 0412 (February 20, 2016), all have side doors in the form of trapezoidal towers resting on acanthus bases with paw feet, evoking Egyptian temples. The towers, surmounted by cornices, flank a storage drawer above two doors which are divided by gadrooned edges (see Boor, Philadelphia Empire Furniture (2006), pages 410-411). The present work, while having three storage doors, and pillars and pilasters versus engaged towers, does share the presence of gadrooned edges. Additionally, the sideboard sold at Neal Auctions features a backsplash with pierced grapevine brackets which relates most closely to the present work.
Sketch 13 from Anthony Quervelle's sketchbook illustrates the design for a "basile end sideboard" that has graduated columns to either end, like the present sideboard (Boor, page 106). Two extant sideboards follow Quervelle's sketch in overall composition-one in the Missouri Governor's Mansion and the other in the collection of Andrew Jackson's home The Hermitage. Jackson's sideboard, attributed to Anthony Quervelle, compares to the present example in its round pillars to either end with the foliage-carved bases, and a pierced backsplash with grape motif (Boor, page 405). The present sideboard's backsplash appears to be unique, however, in its intricacy and scale.