AFA Summer 2018

2018 Antiques & Fine Art 115 the carving is made as two separate units and then applied, it is possible that the cabinetmaker accidentally switched them. Although there is evidence to suggest that Kessler was both a joiner and a carver, making it plausible that he both built and carved the Muhlenberg chest-on-chest, it is possible that he was not accustomed to building major case pieces and may have been limited to working from memory of other examples. Despite its quirks, the chest-on-chest makes a powerful statement about the Muhlenberg family’s success in colonial Pennsylvania. Lisa Minardi is the executive director of the Speaker’s House and director of collections and exhibitions for the Historical Society of Trappe. She is the author of Pastors & Patriots: The Muhlenberg Family of Pennsylvania . All of these new discoveries and other family heirlooms are on view at the Henry Muhlenberg House in Trappe (www.historictrappe.org/ henry-melchior-muhlenberg-house). W ith advance reservations, you can also tour the Speaker’s House (www.speakershouse.org) an d Augustus Lutheran Church, built in 1743 and a National Historic Landmark. Contact info@historictrappe.org to schedule an appointment. Located in the scenic Perkiomen Valley of northern Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Trappe just celebrated its 300th anniversary. Its mile-long Main Street is lined with nearly 70 colonial and Victorian-era buildings. 1. Mary and George Brooke had two children: Edward and George II. Frederick’s portrait descended to Edward, and subsequently to his son George Brooke III and then to his widow, Virginia Muhlenberg Steininger (a descendant in her own right), who made the donation. 2. Henrietta Meier Oakley and John Christopher Schwab, Muhlenberg Album (N.p., 1910). Monroe H. Fabian, Joseph Wright: American Artist, 1756–1793 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1985), 130. With thanks to Ellen Miles and Brandon Brame Fortune of the National Portrait Gallery for locating Fabian’s notes. 3. Betty Blake’s Newport house and collection was the focus of an article by Gayle Hargreaves, “A Passion for Art and Life,” Antiques & Fine Art (Summer/Autumn 2007). 4. The Collection of Roy and Ruth Nutt: Highly Important American Silver , Sotheby’s, New York, January 24, 2015, lot 520. 5. Inventory of Matthias Richards, taken September 24, 1830, Reading, Pennsylvania. Berks County Register of Wills. 6. Benjamin A. Hewitt, Patricia E. Kane, and Gerald W. R. Ward, The Work of Many Hands: Card Tables in Federal America, 1790–1820 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1982), 188. 7. In 1763, Muhlenberg paid Kessler £10.2.6 for a set of chairs; eight are known to survive—all of which are presently on view at the Henry Muhlenberg House. Made of mahogany, the chairs have typical Philadelphia construction details and carving, but with larger volutes and other subtle differences that help distinguish Kessler’s work. See Lisa Minardi, “Philadelphia, Furniture, and the Pennsylvania Germans: A Reevaluation,” American Furniture , ed. Luke Beckerdite (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 2013), 230-41. Fig. 5a: Detail of shell carving on the chest-on- chest illustrated in figure 5. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.