AFA Autumn 2018

Autumn 110 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Swell-front desk and bookcase, attributed to Nathan Lumbard, Sturbridge or Sutton, 1800–1810. Cherry, mahogany banding, light- and dark-wood inlay, white pine, yellow poplar. H. 1021⁄16, 895⁄16 (excluding pediment), W. 46¾, D. 32 in. Private collection. Photo by Laszlo Bodo. As a talented cabinetmaker located far from an urban furniture center, Nathan Lumbard enjoyed a degree of freedom that would not have been possible in the competitive environment of Boston. His fertile imagination and relative artistic freedom allowed him to experiment with different forms and decorative schemes. This swell-front desk and bookcase is a case in point. Here Lumbard adapts the concept of swelled French commodes and the bombé forms of Boston and Salem to form a lower case with straight sides, swelled front, and French feet. Apparently without precedent, its dramatically swelled facade, concave quarter columns, and bold inlaid oval paterae set this piece apart as a singular and impressive achievement. The attribution to Lumbard is warranted through the many elements in common with the following desk and bookcase from 1798–1802. Both share the same molding profiles, an almost identical geometric arrangement of the bookcase compartments and desk interiors, and a removable cornice grooved for reticulated pediments (on this example, the pediment is replaced). Lumbard’s swell-front innovation provided a precedent for other makers who constructed similar forms a decade later, one being documented to George Stedman of Norwich, Vermont, sometime between 1816 and 1822.