Fully Developed Rococo

Characteristics:

• Rail: Two series of scrolls flanking a central flourish, all highly carved

• Drawer Configuration: One drawer over three drawers, with central carved drawer longer and a little lower than the side drawers

• Top: Squared and ogee

• Case: Fluted quarter column

• Legs: Cabriole

• Feet: Ball and claw

Known makers: Thomas Affleck (1740—1795), William Savery (1721—1787)

Best examples:

• Winterthur 1958.0592; 1957.0506

• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston B.69.78

• W.M. Hornor, Blue Book, pls. 124, 150, 165, frontispiece

• Clement E. Conger with Mary K. Itsell (ed. Alexandra W. Rollins), Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State, 1991, cat. 57

• American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection, vol. 8, P3430

• Levy Galleries, New York, inv. no. 3397

• Sotheby’s, New York, January 26, 2013, lot 419

• Sotheby’s, New York, January 20—22, 2016, lot 70

High Chest
Unknown Maker

Philadelphia, 1765-75
Mahogany, cedar, and tulip poplar
254.635 x 117 x 59.055 inches
1957.0506, Gift of Henry Francis du Pont
Courtesy of Winterthur Museum, Photo by Gavin Ashworth

Characteristics:

• Rail: Two series of gentle scrolls made up of carved Cs flanking a central flourish

  Drawer Configuration: One drawer over three drawers, with central carved drawer squarish and a little lower than the side drawers

• Top: Ogee

• Case: Fluted quarter columns

• Legs: Cabriole

• Feet: Ball and claw

Known makers: George Pickering (d. 1784)

Best examples:

• DAPC 98.277

• RISD Museum 04.023

High Chest
George Pickering (d. 1784)

Philadelphia, c. 1775
Mahogany
100 x 46 x 22 1/2 inches
Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection
1998.0227

Characteristics:

• Rail: Single scroll flanking a central flourish, all highly carved; evolution of David Evans type (Scroll category)

• Drawer Configuration: One over three drawers, with central drawer a little lower than the sides

• Top: Squared ogee

• Case: Fluted quarter column

• Legs: Cabriole

• Feet: Ball and claw

Known makers: Joseph Delaveau (b. France, d. Philadelphia, 1820)

Best examples:

• PMA 1914-215 (deaccessioned)

• Winterthur 1957.0505; 1958.2249; 1959.3395; 1958.2250

• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 39.162; 39.545; 39.150

• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, B.58.147

• Yale University Art Gallery 1930.2001; 1930.2193; 1930.2000

• Metropolitan Museum of Art 18.110.7; 18.110.6; 18.110.4; 2016.797.7; 32.93

• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 33-163 a,b

• Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, vol. 1, nos. 423, 427, 429, 434, 435, 439

• W.M. Hornor, Blue Book, pls. 44, 121, 125, 141, 145, 168, 233

• American Antiques from the Collection of Israel Sack, vol. 8, 2100, P5541

• Clement E. Conger with Mary K. Itsell (ed. Alexandra W. Rollins), Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State, 1991, cat. 66

• Doyle, New York, April 5, 2017, lot 244

Characteristics:

• Rail: Knee block continual with the rail, which is a single scroll with cusps flanking a central flourish, all highly carved

  • Uninterrupted line that forms a slope from the inside curve of the cabriole leg to the knee blocks and onto the underside of the front rail, creating one long sweep

• Drawer Configuration: One over three drawers, with a central drawer a little lower than the sides

• Top: Squared

• Case: Fluted quarter column

• Legs: Cabriole

• Feet: Ball and claw

Known makers: Thomas Tufft (1740—1788) with James Gillingham (1736—1781)

Best examples:

• PMA 1955-87-1 and 1991-54-1 (high chest and dressing table); 1987-27-1

• Colonial Williamsburg 1977-224

• W.M. Hornor, Blue Book, pls. 160, 162

• Christie’s, New York, May 28, 1987, lot 201 (high chest and dressing table)

• Magazine Antiques, June 1987, 1127, illus.

• Sotheby’s, New York, January 17—20, 2019, lot 1434

Dressing Table
Thomas Tufft (1740-1788)

Philadelphia, 1773
Mahogany, yellow poplar, yellow pine, white cedar
32 5/8 x 33 1/4 x 20 1/8 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Gift of Edgar Wright Baird, Jr., in memory of his mother, Mrs. Edgar W. Baird, 1955-87-1

High Chest
Thomas Tufft (1740-1788)

Philadelphia, 1773
Mahogany, tulip poplar, yellow pine, white cedar
8 feet 1 1/2 inches × 45 1/2 inches × 25 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Purchased with funds contributed by the Barra Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. John J. F. Sherrerd, Mr. and Mrs. E. Newbold Smith, and Mrs. Henry W. Breyer, Sr.; with the bequests (by exchange) of John M. Scott and Belle D. Thompson; and with the gifts (by exchange) of Mr. and Mrs. Julius Zieget, R. Wistar Harvey, and J. Stogdell Stokes, 1991-54-1

Card Table
Attributed to Thomas Tufft (1740-1788)

Philadelphia, 1760-75
Mahogany, oak, pine, Atlantic white cedar
Closed: 29 × 34 1/4 × 17 3/8 inches
Open: 29 × 34 1/4 × 33 1/2 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Gift of Frances Drinker Banes Rentschler, 1982-27-1