AFA Summer 2019

Summer 98 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com The grand mahogany desk and bookcase in figure 1 breaks the rules of regionalism. The lower desk section has blockfront drawers, a treatment that occurred in fine furniture made in New England and New York and some isolated communities throughout the South but not Philadelphia. 1 Details of this example relate most closely to eastern Massachusetts. The blocked drawer fronts are cut from the solid, rather than laminated as occasionally occurred, and contoured inside. The recessed center of the base molding attaches to the bottom of the case with a giant dovetail, evident in many case pieces made in the Boston area (Fig. 2). 2 Design of the pediment, however, is distinctly Philadelphia in use of lobes that project into the round voids flanking the central plinth. These lobes often carried passages of foliate carving applied to the tympanum (or scrollboard). In contrast, New England furniture exhibits round voids without lobes. 3 Also, carved “leaf grass” and “egg-and-tongue” moldings decorate the top and bottom of the pediment scrolls and the borders of the door panels. A few case pieces with this particularly ornate treatment were made in Boston and New York, but examples made in Philadelphia more closely represent the rhythms and details of this bookcase section. 4 Conflicting regional characteristics led some furniture historians to question the authenticity prior to the deaccessioning of this desk and bookcase. The “curious combination” suggested a marriage, although physical examination yielded no supportive evidence. About 1975, Barry Greenlaw and other examiners noted the same woods in the upper and lower cases as well as the undisturbed fit Fig. 4: Blockfront chest of four drawers, Philadelphia, 1760–1790. Mahogany with Atlantic white cedar, tulip poplar, and white pine. H. 31½, W. 33¾, D. 20⅞ in. Courtesy, Yale University Art Gallery (1930.2149).