Classical Carved Mahogany Sideboard with Busts of Female Figures Wearing Turbans

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Classical Carved Mahogany Sideboard with Busts of Female Figures Wearing Turbans

About the Item

Baltimore or Philadelphia, 1815-1825. The broken-front wooden top with a shallow back splash on three sides above a conforming case with three cock-beaded drawers with cut-glass knobs, each drawer flanked by paneled dies, the case with torus molding along the bottom edge, raised on six heavily reeded legs with acanthus-carved capitals, the four front legs surmounted with carved female busts with turban and feather headdress. The heads face in at a quarter angle such that the pair at each end face each other. The legs end in egg-shaped feet. Recent scholarship attributes most, if not all, of the furniture having Egyptian/ Moorish/ Turkish-style “mummy heads” or herms to either Joseph Barry of Philadelphia or Edward Priestley (1778-1834), William Camp (fl. 1801-1822) or John Needles (fl. 1810-1852) of Baltimore. Three closely related serving tables or sideboards, two of these with closely related reeded legs and egg-form feet, are attributed to Edward Priestley. Indeed, this hunt board form is exclusively associated with Baltimore. Yet, the distinctive carving of the herms relates only to those on a signed tall-case clock in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art which is attributed, by them, to Joseph B. Barry (1759/60-.1838, active in Philadelphia 1794-1837). These herms are dramatically different from the bearded men typically associated with the Baltimore School, which all face directly forward or 90 degrees to the side. None of the known Baltimore herms are female and only the signed clock by Barry has women facing at a slight angle. The carving of the faces, turbans and feathers is identical to those on the clock, albeit, on a different scale. Unlike many of the other American examples of furniture with carved heads as decoration, it is not clear if the inspiration for this piece is Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Turkish (Ottoman), Indian or some amalgamation in the mind of the carver. It is clear, however, that he was inspired by the general fascination with ancient and exotic civilizations that had become a cultural phenomenon across the western world by the third quarter of the 18th century. The excavations at Herculaneum, Pompeii and other archeological sites in Southern Italy, and a growing body of scholarship about ancient Egypt, Athens and Rome influenced art, architecture, design and fashion for a hundred years thereafter. But while scholars may have drawn sharp distinctions between the relative merits of the artistic legacies of these civilizations, designers interpreted freely from many sources and applied their own fanciful imaginations. Thus, the distinctive herms on this sideboard could have been inspired by the latest classical Parisian or London fashions in headdress such as those illustrated in Henry Moses’ charming volume A Series of Twenty-Nine Designs of Modern Costume (London, 1823). Inspiration may also have come from a contemporary painting or sculpture relating to the struggle for Greek independence that brought the Greeks, Ottomans and Egyptians together, beginning in 1821, in a sustained and brutal engagement that held the attention of Western society (as well as effecting the headdress of fashionable ladies), or some more archeological work of art. There were certainly many precedents and potential sources of inspiration. The most obvious and certainly the foundation of the concept of this form is the portico of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens. This seminal work of architecture dating to the age of Pericles was first published by Le Roy in Ruines des Plus Beaux Monuments de la Grèce of 1758. It is likely that this volume inspired the plate 176 of a table supported by female figures in Thomas Chippendale’s third edition of The Gentlemen’s Director published in 1762. In 1789, James Stuart and Nicholas Revett’s second volume of Antiquities of Athens illustrated the Erechtheion and re-focused the world on the beauty of Greek architecture. This volume was owned by the Library Company of Philadelphia shortly after its publication. Students of Roman architecture, meanwhile, began to produce a flood of influential publications. Sir William Chambers (1723-1796) showed female herms flanking a mantelpiece in his Treatise on Civil Architecture (London, 1759) and Giovanni Battista Piranesi illustrated multiple examples of Greek and Egyptian-inspired herms in his 1769 volume Diverse Maniere d’Adornare I Cammini. Robert and James Adam’s "The Works in Architecture" show a bridge (vol. 1) and mirror glass and commode table (vol. 3, pl. IX), executed for Syon House in 1762 that use female caryatids and herms. It is of special interest that Adam’s Neoclassical mirror above the table has the herms in naturalistic poses with heads cocked and facing at quarter angles like the present example, and his commode table is also closely related having a screen of four turned and heavily reeded legs. Adam’s third volume of The Works was published posthumously in 1822 and seems the most likely source of inspiration for this Buffet. French fashion and design may also have played a part. From the time of the Renaissance there had been an Egyptian influence in Continental design which stemmed from the intense interest of the Romans, themselves, in ancient Egyptian civilization. Thus, as the interest in Roman design spread in the 1760s, Egyptian motifs came with it. This explains Egyptian motif in Louis XVI furniture, particularly herms on commodes and chairs, Dugourc’s 1786 design for an Egyptian room at El Escorial outside Madrid and Marie-Antoinette’s cabinet de retait at Fontainebleau decorated between 1785 and 1787. Charles Cameron’s 1786 Egyptian Vestibule at Catherine the Great’s Pavlosk Palace in St. Petersburg is also the product of Le goût égypte. Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt in 1798 only served to awaken, augment and spread an existing theme in French and Continental decorative arts. As a result, carved and gilt bronze Egyptian-style herms are ubiquitous in Empire Furniture. If this sideboard or any American herm-carved furniture can be said to have French influence, this is surely its root. 19th century Furniture designers in both France and England were quick to apply Greek and Egyptian caryatids and herms to modern furniture and interiors. Percier and Fontaine show many examples in their Recueil de décorations intérieures (Paris 1801-1812), including plates 23, 24, 28 and 49. Plate 28, of a secretary bookcase in the Egyptian taste, is of particular interest because in addition to lion-head herms and seated female figures, it has small heads at the top of the pillars flanking the gazed doors of the upper bookcase and is closely related to the treatment of the Barry tall-case clock. An illustration of a secretary bookcase from Thomas Sheraton’s 1806 Encyclopedia that also shows herms at the top of pillars flaking the upper bookcase section has been sited as the possible inspiration for herms on the Barry clock and it may well be but the previously mentioned Percier & Fontaine design seems much closer to the Barry treatment and it is likely that Sheraton’s version too was inspired by the Percier design. Sheraton shows female herms on a “Horse Dressing Glass” in plate 52 of the Dictionary, quite similar to those he would later use on designs in his Encyclopedia yet these seem unconnected to the naturalistic style of the present carved busts. If Sheraton’s work was influential at all in this particular case, it is more likely that a lady wearing a feathered headdress illustrated in plate 41 (“Sister’s Cylinder Bookcase”), in his Cabinet Dictionary (London, 1803), is the source as it is a closer match to Barry’s turbaned ladies than any illustrated on furniture models. In 1807, Thomas Hope’s seminal Household Furniture (pl. XIII), shows two tables, the first with female herms for a “boudoir or repository of Egyptian, Hindoo [sic.] and other curiosities” and the second, clearly based on the Erechtheion model and closely related to the present table with four female caryatids that is described as for “…a room dedicated to Aurora. Females, emblematic of the four horæ or parts of the day….” Hope’s pl. XL, No. 4 illustrates a closely related “Dressing Table” “copied from the Institute at Bologna” with female herms clothed in drapery similar to the present carving. Household Furniture was also available in Philadelphia at the Library Company by 1813 and carved and paint decorated figures identical to this Hope drawing, made for pedestal bases, now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, attest to its use there. George Smith’s Household Furniture published in 1808 is rife with the use of herms and caryatids on wardrobes, commodes, bookcases, library tables and sideboards. Sideboard plates 92, 93, 94 and 95 were clearly influential in the work of Barry and Priestly and plate 92, particularly, having turned and heavily reeded legs with acanthus carved capitals is very closely related to the present table’s and to those on a French sideboard signed by Barry and dated 1813, published in antiques. By the late 1820’s the craze for herms and caryatids was over; Smith using the device in only one design in his 1828 Guide and Peter and Michael Angelo Nicholson eschewing it completely in their 1826 Practical Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer and Complete Decorator. Edward Priestley (1778-1837), was born in Annapolis, Maryland and arrived in Baltimore about 1790 where, it is likely, he apprenticed until he set up shop at 79 Water Street with Samuel Minskey in 1801. In 1806 they moved to Baltimore Street but the partnership dissolved a year later, Priestley staying alone to 4 Baltimore Street where he would remain until his death in 1837. Priestley's cabinetmaking business met with success and grew. Many of Maryland's leading families were his clients. He also invested in lumber, real estate, railroad stock, nail manufacturing, and wharf and ship construction; diversification that is the hallmark of a successful cabinetmaker. Joseph B. Barry, born in Dublin and trained in London, first appears in Philadelphia directories in 1794 in partnership with cabinetmaker Alexander Calder at 75 Dock Street and by 1797 was on his own at 148 South Street. In 1809 Barry built and occupied a two-story brick building at 134 South Second Street where he remained until 1825; his most productive years. He is known to have visited England in 1811 where he acquired furniture and decorations and would have been directly exposed to Regency style. From 1810 to 1822 he took his son, Joseph Junior as a partner. By 1830 he had relocated to 129 Walnut Street where he remained until retiring a year before his death in 1838. In his final two years from 1835 to 1837 he was in partnership with Lewis Krickbaum when they produced a bold marble-top mahogany sideboard with a screen of four carved female herms with fanciful headdress very much in the style of George Smith’s “Design for a Sideboard” in plate 94. The faces of the herms on this sideboard and those on the present example, carved at least a decade apart, are quite different yet there is something about the thin-lipped, constricted mouth that is remarkably similar and suggests the same hand. This piece bears the stencil of “Barry & Krickbaum/ Cabinetmakers/ 129 Walnut Street” and is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Joseph Barry is considered by experts to be the greatest cabinetmaker of the classical period in Philadelphia. Provenance: Estate of Dr. Roger G. (1916-1995) and Nancy N. Gerry, Roslyn, New York. The Gerry’s were passionate collectors and committed preservationists amassing important collections of Japanese ceramics and American furniture. Their interest in collecting antiques began towards the end of WWII when Dr. Gerry was stationed with the Navy in Philadelphia. The historical surroundings, important museums and fine antiques shops motivated their interest in American furniture of the early 19th century and it is believed that this sideboard was among their earliest acquisitions from that period circa 1945 and has remained in their estate until acquired by us.

Similar to:
Edward Priestley (Cabinetmaker)
Dimensions:
Height: 45 in (114.3 cm)Width: 73.5 in (186.69 cm)Depth: 25.5 in (64.77 cm)
Style:
American Classical (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Mahogany,Carved
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
1820-1829
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1820
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. CONDITION: Excellent; There are various small old veneer replacements on the façade of the case and a chip at the back proper left edge of the top. The cut glass and brass drawer pulls are period replacements.
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
Seller: SB-1042911stDibs: LU135622385632

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