Charleston Loan Exhibition

61 Sideboard Charleston, SC, ca. 1790/1800 Mahogany and mahogany veneer with ash (drawer supports), tulip poplar (drawer bottoms) and white pine secondary woods H. 45½ x W. 66¾ x D. 31 inches Lent by The Rivers Collection, Charleston, SC Transportation supported by Margaret R. Smith and Park B. Smith Jr. This is one of only four documented Charleston examples of a “stage-top” or double-tier sideboard. With fine proportions and exceptional veneers, this sideboard represents the work of Charleston’s Scottish school of craftsmen and the direct transfer of style from across the Atlantic. Scottish immigrants noted for their strong mercantile ties throughout the West Indies and abroad, comprised a significant portion of Charleston’s overall eighteenth- century population; however, in the early-nineteenth century the city experienced a new influx of skilled artisans, mainly from the Scottish Lowlands. These craftsmen were well versed in the latest London designs and brought with them knowledge of the neoclassical style. This double-tier sideboard is a distinctly Scottish interpretation that was transplanted to the Carolinas. The tier does not have a functional use beyond a place to display an array of silverplate—a visual sign of wealth. An indication of what these “stage-top” sideboards may have been called in Charleston can be found in a bill to Dr. Thomas in the amount of One of a pair of card tables , Charleston, SC, ca. 1810. Mahogany with mahogany veneer, satinwood inlay, white pine and ash secondary woods. H. 29 x W. 36 x D. 17½ (closed) inches; H. 29 x W. 36 x D. 35 (open) inches. Historic Charleston Foundation, Charleston, SC, 75.6.1-2. Transportation supported by Margaret R. Smith and Park B. Smith Jr. £21 for a “Double top Sideboard table” from the Scottish cabinetmaking firm of McIntosh & Foulds.” 1 One of a pair of card tables (right) in Historic Charleston Foundation’s collection are attributed to the same workshop as this rare sideboard. BSC 1. Bradford L. Rauschenberg and John Bivins, Jr., The Furniture of Charleston, Vol. II (Winston-Salem, NC: The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 2003), 619.