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FIGURE 1
Vaulting Ambition
Philadelphia Gothic Revival Furniture and Other Decorative Arts 1830-1860 This essay and exhibition are dedicated to Peter L.L. Strickland.
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Howe and David B. Warren mounted a major exhibition and catalog, “The Gothic Revival Style in America, 1830-1870,” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1976. In addition, nineteenth-century Philadelphia furniture history experienced a flowering. Notable scholars like David A. Hanks, Elizabeth Page Talbott, Robert C. Smith, Jane B. Davies, Donald L. Fennimore, Kenneth L. Ames, and Peter L. L.
he Gothic style dominated the architecture of
gained momentum, an equally strong impulse to apply
Strickland published important articles that established the existing canon for furni-
Europe between 1100 and about 1500 A. D. It was,
Gothic motifs to furniture and other media overcame
ture makers and documented objects. Beginning in the 1970s and continuing into the
basically, an architectural
academic scruples. A desire
1980s, a series of academic theses and dissertations by Elizabeth Page Talbott,
style, wherein the slender
for Gothic surroundings
Deborah Ducoff-Barone, and Charles Venable opened up the broader perspective of
masonry of the walls and
was reinforced by the
the city’s nineteenth-century production and the artisans who made the furniture.
the vaults was embellished
Romantic Movement,
with lancet windows,
which saw in the remote
moldings, paneling, tracery,
Middle Ages a deep
furniture, including the famous bedstead and seating furniture at “Andalusia,”
ribs, leafage, crockets,
wellspring of fantasy. As
Nicholas Biddle’s estate north of the city on the Delaware River, and a magnificent
and pinnacles. Largely
a cultural center during
bedroom suite made in 1844 under the supervision of Crawford Riddell and formerly
forgotten dur ing the
the nineteenth centur y,
at the plantation, “Rosedown,” in St. Francisville, Louisiana (Figure 1). As this
Renaissance, the Gothic
P hiladelphia natur al l y
exhibition will demonstrate, a great number of new examples have appeared over the
began to be revived during
participated in the Gothic
last twenty years which display strong regional characteristics and which are distinct
the mid-eighteenth century.
taste. The objects seen here
from New York City production. Why furniture historians lost interest during the
Scholarly
are evidence for this.
1980s and 1990s in the city’s Gothic Revival furniture dating after the late classicism
interest
in
A
ll these studies brought to light a small body of Philadelphia Gothic Revival
of Anthony Quervelle and before the Reform Gothic of Frank Furness and Daniel
early architecture brought
T
FIGURE 1
his is not the first study
Pabst is not entirely clear. Philadelphia supported great architects who designed town
structure and ornament to a high level. The rarity of
of Philadelphia’s Gothic Revival furniture and other
houses, churches, and other structures in Center City and suburban villas in
surviving Gothic furniture was commonly acknowledged,
decorative arts. The heyday of American Gothic
Germantown and on the eastern shore of the Delaware as far north as the Delaware
but as the literary and architectural study of Gothic
Revival studies was the 1970s and 1980s. Katherine S.
Water Gap. Among these architects were William Thornton, Benjamin Henry
knowledge of Gothic
The Rosedown suite of Gothic Revival furniture purchased from Crawford Riddell’s warehouse in 1844, in the room built for it at Rosedown, where it remained until 2002. The bedstead is now at the Dallas Museum, and the dressing bureau is at the Minneapolis Institute. Two chairs from the set of six are at Bayou Bend, Houston. The rest of the bedroom set is divided among private collections. Traditionally this set was made for presidential candidate Henry Clay, but no proof has been found to substantiate the story.
The 2005 Loan Exhibit is generously underwritten by
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FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3
Attributed to Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820). “Sedgeley.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1800. Watercolor on paper. OH: 11" OW: 14" Private Collection. This is a newly discovered second version of a study for a house designed by Latrobe for William Crammond (1754?-1843) of Philadelphia. The previously published version, which was the basis of a Birch print, is owned by the Fairmount Park Commission. The house was situated on the banks of the Schuykill River, above the Water Works and near the location of the modern rowing clubs. Sedgeley is widely regarded to have been the first completed Gothic Revival domestic building in this country.
The villa “Riverside” in Burlington, New Jersey, designed in 1837 by John Notman for Bishop George Washington Doane. This photograph and the view in Figure 4 were taken by Jonathan L. Fairbanks in 1960, shortly before the building was demolished.
Latrobe, William Strickland, John Haviland, Thomas U. Walter, John Notman,
for Bishop George Washington Doane (1799-1859) in Burlington, New Jersey,
Samuel Sloan, Napoleon LeBrun, and John McArthur, Jr. (Figure 2).
during a short period in the late 1830s and early 1840s when Ecclesiological church architecture and the Anglo-Catholic liturgy were controversial among conservative Episcopalians. Bishop Doane was an early follower of the Oxford Movement and also had ties with the Cambridge Camden Society. He and his allies in New Jersey did little to smooth over the turmoil created by their innovations, including such blatantly High Church poetry as this quote from the poem “Evensong at Burlington”: Bright beams the moon o’er Delaware As twilight fades away,
FIGURE 4 The Gothic library at Riverside. In addition to the paneling, the library had magnificent plaster ceilings with ribs. The overmantel is preserved at the Burlington Historical Society.
And lends the wave more beauty far Than it had known by day; On the sweet shore, the flakes of light Stream down in silvery shower, And kiss the cross on Riverside, And crown our lady’s tower.
FIGURE 2
J
ohn Notman (1810-1865) was especially prominent as one of the earliest
practitioners of the Ecclesiological Gothic style in the United States. He built the Italianate villa, “Riverside,” (Figures 3 and 4) and the Chapel of the Holy Innocents
This sort of poetry, with its boilerplate “Gothick” imagery and daring references to venerating the cross and to the cult of the Virgin Mary, were provocative to a broad range of Americans, as was Bishop Doane’s flamboyant personality and lifestyle. His villa on the Delaware River included a magnificent Gothic Revival library. Unfortunately, it was demolished in 1961, despite the best efforts of Jonathan L. Fairbanks and others to save it. More significant than Doane’s villa, however, was the transplantation of mature Gothic Revival architecture to the Philadelphia area and its gradual acceptance by a wider audience of religious groups and persons of an artistic and literary persuasion. Many Americans still harbored lingering suspicion of anything European, especially an architectural style associated with the Roman Catholic faith. Only powerful Romantic literary efforts, like the novels of Sir Walter Scott, made such things palatable.
FIGURE 3
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FIGURE 4
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FIGURE 5
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 6
Chair Design from Plate 2004 of J. C. Loudon, An Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture (London, 1835). Loudon cribbed extensively from English and French design literature for his illustrations, but some appear to be his own ideas. This hall chair has octagonal legs and a tracery back with foliate finials. This and other Loudon plates influenced A. J. Davis’s furniture for “Lyndhurst” in Tarrytown, New York, and they may have been used by the maker of the settee shown in Figure 25.
FIGURE 6 Chair Designs from Figures 304-309 of Webster and Parkes, An Encyclopaedia of Domestic Economy (New York, 1848). These authors militated against Gothic furniture in cottages, but they illustrated some oddball Jacobean designs that were just as elaborate as the Gothic designs they complained about.
often routed out by manipulating the panel on a bed under a fixed overhead router. It seems unlikely that a movable overhead router with a cove-shaped bit would have been passed over work on a fixed bed at this early date. Demonstrating that routers of any kind were used on Philadelphia furniture of the 1830-1860 period is difficult from examination of the objects alone, because the work was cleaned up with hand-held tools and abrasives after initial shaping. Also, most blind panels and some open tracery panels have cusps ornamented with points, trefoils, or flowers that protrude beyond the cove molding. The
S
everal other factors impinge on the discussion of Gothic Revival furniture.
fine points of wood required to carve
A sustained interest in technological advances in nineteenth-century furniture
these ornaments might be marred by
production and design has revealed that little of the best furniture was made using
routers, which cannot be readily run
machinery, other than at the level of stock preparation and sawing sheets of veneer.
in or out of the work.
Mechanizing high-quality joinery or cabinetwork and carved embellishment is not cost-effective when producing small numbers of custom objects, because the labor
G
iven the prevalence of
savings are offset by the time required to produce jigs and other regulating devices.
sunk work in furniture in the
However, certain motifs of Gothic Revival furniture lent themselves to being
Gothic Revival style, such
roughed out with mechanized routers, notably the cove moldings of “sunk work,”
technological factors are not
that is, blind panels with cusps, and of openwork tracery. In theory, sunk work
merely of antiquarian interest.
was, as the name implies, carved from the solid, but in practice the raised portions
Many commentators criticized
of sunk work panels often were cut out and applied over a veneered substrate.
the Gothic Re vival st y le
The centers of the applied panels were cut out on a band saw or with a
bec ause the c ar ving was
hand-held coping saw. The inside edges of the centers were carved with
considered too expensive. John
cove moldings that could be executed with hand-held gouges, but were
Claudius Loudon (1783-1843)
Dressing Bureau. Probably Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1840-1860. Mahogany, mahogany veneer, and white marble, with tulip poplar and white pine. OH: 94 1/2" OW: 43 1/2" OD: 22" Private Collection. This dressing bureau in full-blown Biedermeier taste has a history of ownership in Savannah. The design is composed of a waisted chest of two side-by-side drawers over three full-width drawers, surmounted by two mirrored towers and a swinging glass. The bureau embodies the Prussian aesthetic of a façade with bilaterallysymmetrical, book-sawn veneer uniting the entire object. The chest of drawers has lozenge- and festoon-shaped recessed panels that are more developed than those on any other Philadelphia case piece. Islamic arches in the towers are combined with Baroque scrolls and pinnacles, while the glass frame displays fleshy lobes. The multiplicity of motifs and styles, while unfamiliar to most modern Americans, were widespread among German cabinetmakers in Philadelphia and even influenced cabinetmakers in the Pennsylvania German hinterlands.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 5
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FIGURE 8
FIGURE 9
Stool (one of four). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1810-1825. Tulip poplar and ash, with white paint and gilding. OH: 14" OW: 18" OD: 18" Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Miss Mary Calwell. This stool is one of four made for Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Shippen Burd, who were married in 1810. The stools were used with a gold and white Philadelphia Louis XVI parlor suite upholstered in French tapestry. The present upholstery of the stool reflects a photograph of the furniture taken about 1900.
Table Design from Augustus W. N. Pugin, Gothick Furniture in the Style of the Fifteenth Century (London, 1835). This is one of Pugin’s earliest efforts to incorporate roof trusses in table bases. He may have examined the same kinds of Parisian trestle tables that influenced the Philadelphia maker of the Phil-Ellena table in Figures 11 and 12. This design definitely influenced A. J. Davis’s design for the library table at Lyndhurst.
wrote in his 1833 An Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture:
A
nother point of interest regarding Philadelphia Gothic Revival furniture is the
large number of French and German artisans working in the Philadelphia furniture
The Designs for Gothic Furniture which we shall submit are few; because such designs are, in general, more expensive to execute than those for modern [that
industry in the 1830-1860 period (Figure 7). The assumption has been that these artisans and entrepreneurs were swiftly assimilated into Anglo-American design
is, late Classical] furniture; partly for the greater quantity of work in them, but chiefly because modern workmen are unaccustomed to this kind of workmanship. Thomas Webster and Frances Byerley Parkes, co-authors in the 1830s of An Encyclopaedia of Domestic Economy, were even more vehement in their condemnation of the Gothic style: We omit chairs in the Gothic style, as they are never used, except the house itself be in the same style; and we may observe that this style is, in general, very ill adapted for domestic furniture, and except it be designed by artists of great taste, and who are very well acquainted with Gothic architecture, and what little remains of ancient furniture, attempts at imitation are generally very miserable, besides being extremely expensive. These critiques by writers of domestic economy manuals seem forced (Figures 5 and 6). The authors may have disliked the style for other reasons, perhaps because it retained connotations of aristocratic snobbery or extravagance. Nor was Gothic carving any harder to execute than Classical foliage, once the patterns became established in the cabinetmaking repertoire. It was not uncommon for architects to provide extremely detailed, full-scale working drawings
FIGURE 9
traditions, but this idea, aside from being chauvinistic and intellectually slack, is not borne out by various kinds of evidence. For example, the taste for objects veneered in pale native woods was praised in reviews of furniture displays at the Franklin Institute as “patriotic.” However, this aspect of design stemmed from the French bois claire
of carving for contractors to follow. FIGURE 8
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FIGURE 10
FIGURE 11
Music Cabinet. Philadelphia or New York City, 1840-1850. Rosewood and rosewood veneer, with mahogany, pine, and tulip poplar. OH: 58 1/2" OW: 26 1/4" OD: 16 3/8" Private Collection. A small number of Philadelphia and New York dressing tables feature large upper cases mounted on an inswept base and column, much like that of a card table or small dining table. This unusual music cabinet belonged to Lawrence Johnson (18011860), who lived on Pine Street. The base, Doric column, and case are veneered in rosewood. The doors of the case have glass panes and wooden inserts covered with pleated magenta silk, both of which are held in place by grain-painted mahogany panels. On the interior are tall, scrolled slots for music books. The sunk work panels with astragal moldings and scalloping recall the best French work from New York, as does magenta, a color named after Napoleon III’s military victory at Magenta in Italy.
Double Parlor at PhilEllena, from a suite of photographs taken in the 1890s, before the villa was demolished. PhilEllena was an immense Greek Revival house built on Germantown Avenue in Germantown in 1844 by George W. Carpenter. The owner was so proud of his house that he published a pamphlet about the building and its interiors, A Brief Description of Phil-Ellena, the Country Seat of George W. Carpenter at Germantown, Philadelphia County, Penn. Some competent drawings of the building by Carpenter suggest that he was an amateur architect of sorts. The pamphlet specifically mentions two center tables, one of which is visible in the center of the room, with its original Egyptian marble top. This pair of tables were elaborate
(pale or light-colored veneer) taste of the Empire period, which persisted into the 1850s and influenced Biedermeier taste in Central Europe and the Baltic. One must, it is true, give due recognition to the sustained popularity in Philadelphia of Classical, Egyptian, and Gothic designs published by the English designer George Smith (1782-1869) in 1808, 1812, and 1826, as well as the works of the French designers Charles Percier (1764-1838), Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853), and Pierre de la Mésangère (1761-1831). Nevertheless, one must also recognize that French and German design periodicals of the 1830-1860 period contain Gothic Revival designs that are lively and historically accurate, perhaps as a result of the Ecclesiological movement in England, perhaps not. Increasingly, the scholarly literature of nineteenth-century interior design stresses FIGURE 11
interaction among English, French, and German sources, and artisans born and trained
Lejambre, and the Germans Adolphus Hoehling, David
on the Continent kept abreast of the latest
and George Klauder, Michael Deginter, Daniel Pabst, and
stylistic advances after moving to Philadelphia.
Gottlieb Vollmer. This exhibition presents some new
Some of the Continental artisan/entrepreneurs who became
design and construction information
owners of large cabinetmaking firms were the Frenchmen
about objects displaying extensive
Anthony G. Quervelle, Michel Bouvier, and Alphonse
Continental influence.
even by New York standards, and they reflect a trestle format current in both England and France.
FIGURE 12 Possibly by Crawford Riddell. Center Table. Probably Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about 1844. Rosewood and rosewood veneer, with pine and tulip poplar. OH: 31 1/2" OW: 48 1/2" OD: 25" Private Collection. Photo: courtesy of Sotheby’s. The design features two ends with clustercolumn arcades. The ends are connected by an arched stretcher that is bifurcated at each end. The frieze has corner turrets with pendants. While some scholars believe that the Phil-Ellena tables were made in New York, no reason exists to think that Riddell’s subcontractors could not have produced them.
FIGURE 10A
S
Detail of the interior of the music cabinet in Figure 10, showing the slots for music books.
till another question concerns
the degree to which standards formulated in architectural criticism are appropriate for furniture history,
FIGURE 10
even though it is clear that some Philadelphia architects designed
FIGURE 10A
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FIGURE 12
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FIGURE 13
FIGURE 14
The library at Phil-Ellena, taken in the 1890s. The bookcases and chairs in the library almost certainly date from 1844. The bookcases remain in the hands of descendants, and one chair from the library is in a private collection in Maine.
Attributed to Crawford Riddell. Joined Side Chair. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1835-1845. Rosewood and rosewood veneer, with ash and tulip poplar.OH:36"OW:17 1/2" poplar. OH: 36" OW: 17 1/2" OD: 22 1/2" SH: 15 1/4" Private Collection. Only four sets of this type of chair are known. The seat plan is trapeziodal, but the front and rear seat rails are elliptic or curved. The crest rail is bowed, which made necessary elaborate shaping of the upper rear posts to make the transition to the seat rails. The pierced crest is made of two pieces mitered at the center. While it is not obvious, the entire frame is veneered in rosewood on ash, save for the solid rosewood front legs.
furniture. In discussions of American furniture, the history of Gothic Revival archi-
Gothic structure. The second phase is the
tecture has been redacted for use in a decorative arts topic. According to this model,
Regency Gothic of 1800-1830, including
the first phase of the Gothic Revival, the Rococo Gothic, encompasses English furni-
designs by George Smith, Richard Bridgens,
ture made for Horace Walpole’s villa, “Strawberry Hill,” and a similar villa, “Lee
and Augustus Charles Pugin (1762-1832).
Priory,” that was designed by James Wyatt, as well as the Gothic detailing seen in fur-
This furniture, too, is dismissed as Classical
niture by Thomas Chippendale, Ince and Mayhew, and John Linnell. This phase is
forms overlaid with Gothic ornament
deemed to be frivolous and decorative in intent, without any genuine appreciation of
(Figure 8). The third phase is the Reform Gothic, thought to date from Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin’s first severe or “structural” designs of 1835 until about 1880, although it does not begin in the
FIGURE 14
United States until after the Civil War. In other words, Reform Gothic is thought of as
FIGURE 15
reformed because Pugin rejected the decorative design practice of his father’s gen er a t i o n a n d i n t ro d u c ed a c c u r a t e interpretations based on period furniture and on historical Gothic structures (Figure 9).
B
ut there is more to it than that. Pugin’s
importance resides not so much in historical accuracy, but in his assertions regarding the relative priority of structure and ornament. This complex topic can be summarized with two quotations, one from Pugin’s father and one from Pugin himself.
FIGURE 13
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In 1828, Augustus Char les P ugin
FIGURE 15
Attributed to Crawford Riddell. Joined Side Chair. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1835-1845. Rosewood and rosewood veneer, with ash and tulip poplar. OH: 36 1/2" OW: 17 5/8" OD: 22 1/8" SH: 15 1/8" Private Collection. This is the only known example of a variant of the chairs from Rosedown and Phil-Ellena. A coopered or stave-built crest is sawn to a curve and veneered on the front, rear, and top edge. The pierced work suggests arches. While such extravagant veneering on seating was uncommon in England or America, it was fashionable in France and central Europe. Cheaper variants of the elaborately veneered model have flat crests and veneer confined to the front face of the crest.
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FIGURE 16
FIGURE 18
The Charles Wurts family villa built in 1858 in Belvidere, New Jersey, photographed about 1870. The Wurts villa was built on a high bluff overlooking the Delaware River on the Pequest Creek and was surrounded by ornamental gardens and outbuildings. The builder died soon after the house was completed, and his widow sold the villa after one of her sons died there of tuberculosis. The interior features plain Gothic mantels, molded plaster cornices and center medallions, and a plain staircase to one side of the central hall.
Attributed to Adolphus Hoehling. Gaming Table. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about 1858. Walnut, walnut crotch veneer, rosewood veneer, and bird’s-eye maple veneer, with pine and tulip poplar. OH: 28" OW: 23 1/4" OD: 17 1/2" Private Collection. The design fuses a Louis XV tea table with Gothic sunk work panels in the frieze. The carved ornament on the legs and panels is supplemented with bead moldings and a checkerboard on the top.
FIGURE 18A FIGURE 19
FIGURE 16
FIGURE 17 The Wurts family on the porch of the Belvidere villa. The view depicts the widow Mary Vauxem Wurts; her son Charles S. Wurts II and his wife Mary Stewart Woods and baby Mary Vanuxem Wurts; and other children Henrietta Wurts, Mary Wurts, and Louisa Wurts. Several servants were also included. Later generations of the family lived in Center City and the Main Line. Some of the furniture owned by this family was displayed in the Wurts Museum on Spruce Street between 1976 and 1988.
FIGURE 17
Detail of a drawer in the Hoehling gaming table. Each end of the frieze of the table conceals a pop-out drawer for playing pieces. The drawers are powered by hand-beaten leaf springs and are released by push buttons under the ends. The drawer interiors are painted chrome yellow to simulate the satinwood drawer linings of the best Paris and New York furniture.
FIGURE 19
FIGURE 18
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étagère, but it also reflects the eighteenthcentury French bonheur du jour, a desk intended for women to conduct their correspondence. The étagère provided display space for small art objects, many of which were associated with visits to spas and the grand tour of Europe. The top of the table is covered with leather, while the three drawers are fitted for pens, paper, and ink bottles. The overall feeling is Mannerist or Jacobean, despite the Gothic carving on the drawer fronts and the crest.
FIGURE 18A
FIGURE 20
Attributed to Adolphus Hoehling. TableÉtagère. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about 1858. Walnut, with pine and tulip poplar. OH: 62 7/8" OW: 42 1/2" OD: 24 3/8" Private Collection. The term for this furniture form is found in the 1843 probate inventory of the decorator Alphonse Lejambre, which included eleven tableétagères valued at a respectable $17.00 each. The form is a fusion of a writing table and an
FIGURE 20 Attributed to Adolphus Hoehling. Bookcase. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 18451860. Mahogany and mahogany veneer, with pine and tulip poplar. OH: 80" OW: 43 1/4" OD: 14" Private Collection. The interior is fitted with four shelves veneered on their front edges and with eight numbered shelf supports installed in notched bracket strips. Despite its relatively small size, the bookcase is deep enough to hold volumes up to twelve inches deep. The doors have no evidence of textile linings. The carved crest is much like that of the table-étagère and suggests that Hoehling executed the carving himself. The applied tracery and ripple moldings on the doors are identical to lost ornaments on the Wurts sideboard. The trilobate feet are a common Philadelphia type.
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FIGURE 21
FIGURE 22
Attributed to Klauder & Deginter. Joined Side Chair. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1845-1860. Walnut and walnut veneer, with ash. OH: 37 3/8" OW: 15 3/8" OD: 18" SH: 15" Private Collection. Klauder & Deginter’s Gothic chairs are a curious mix of stylistic impulses. The outer contour of the back, with spiky crockets and ogee pendants, might be seen as a pinnacle, but the rounded contour might also suggest an Islamic archway. The in-fill of Baroque, Rococo, and vermicelli elements has no immediate precedent, although it superficially resembles an English Chippendale chair at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The scalloped seat plan is Rococo but is interrupted by additional curious carving. The zoomorphic front legs have distinct hocks, and one set of this design has carved goat’s feet. The double-curved rear legs are rarely seen before 1860. Altogether this design must be viewed as a bit heavy and weird, a quality it shares with Klauder & Deginter’s Rococo furniture at Loudoun.
Joined Side Chair (one of a pair). Probably Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1845-1860. Mahogany and mahogany veneer, with ash and tulip poplar. OH: 33 1/4" OW: 17 3/8" OD: 19" SH: 15 1/2" Private Collection. This pattern of chair back has tearshaped piercings and scallops resembling a Sandwich glass pattern today known as “hairpin.” The design, which appears to be French in inspiration, cleverly combines shield, rounded, and pointed arches within one outline. The Gothic aspect is suggested by carving, rather than by a high back. The entire back is spliced onto the rear legs, a construction rarely seen in America but popular in Philadelphia. The base, which is Louis XVI in style, is altered by having flared legs relieved with sunk work panels. The front seat rail and tops of the legs have additional panels. While a set of these chairs has been attributed to New York City, the raised molding around the back and the front seat rail looks like similar moldings on Crawford Riddell’s chairs, and this pair of chairs was found in Chestnut Hill.
This piece of furniture, in which the modern form is preserved, is embellished according to the style of the thirteenth century; or rather, the parts are adapted from Gothic tracery executed at that period, so as to combine the peculiar features of Gothic art with the form that is now considered to afford the best accommodation for its purpose. Note that the elder Pugin did not state that the design constituted a Classical form overlaid with Gothic ornament. That interpretation of Regency Gothic has been repeated so often that it is accepted as a truism. In fact, no such thing as “Classical” furniture was made from 1790 to 1840, save for a restricted category of chairs, couches, and tables. Nineteenth-century designers were aware that few furniture forms in use in the 1820s were archeologically-correct revivals of Egyptian, Greek, or Roman prototypes. The artist Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) and the ébeniste Georges Jacob (1739-1814) had exhausted the possibilities of an archeological approach in Paris in the 1780s, as had Roman designers in the 1500s. Designers of the 1820s also knew that the few surviving pieces of Gothic furniture FIGURE 21
or period depictions of furniture in illuminated manuscripts were too limited in scope or too “ecclesiastical” for use
published an anthology of his designs previously published in The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics, edited by the publisher Rudolph Ackerman (1764-1834). Regarding an impressive design for a camelback sofa carved all over with sunk work panels and tracery, the elder Pugin stated:
in modern decoration. The elder Pugin’s flexible approach was not based on ignorance of or disdain for Gothic prototypes. He had built his career by publishing comprehensive fieldwork on French, Belgian, and English Gothic architecture. That was when his son, who was a child prodigy, learned the fundamentals of Gothic architecture and interior design. FIGURE 22
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FIGURE 23A
A
ugustus Welby Northmore Pugin
(1812-1852) began his career in his father’s studio, designing furniture and other fixtures in much the same vein as his father. In the years after his father’s death, Pugin converted to Roman Catholicism and asserted the primacy of Gothic architecture as “Christian” and the only appropriate style for all buildings. His new attitude towards structure and
ornament sounds very much like positivist notions later current among French architects and critics like Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879). In his 1841 polemic, The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture, Pugin set forth what is now widely regarded as the first clarion call for Modernism:
FIGURE 24
The two great rules for design are these: 1st, that there should be no features about a building which are not necessary for convenience, construction, or propriety; 2nd, that all ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of the building. The claim that Pugin hereby announced the existence of a Reform Gothic aesthetic requires qualification. Pugin led
FIGURE 23
FIGURE 24
Square Sofa. Probably Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 18451860. Mahogany and mahogany veneer, with pine and tulip poplar. OH: 39" OW: 85" OD: 26 3/4" SH: 15" Private Collection. The Gothic niches seen in the arms and crest rail of this sofa are found on many Philadelphia case pieces and sofas of the 18301860 era, notably, on a group of furniture made by the Philadelphia firm of Barry & Krickbaum in 1837 for Andrew Jackson’s house, “The Hermitage.” Such heavy, square sofas, with extensive exposed woodwork, were made to come apart into a base, a seat, two arms, and a back, for upholstery and for shipping purposes. The seats are a heavy frame with planked bottom, intended for springs. The design originated with Turkish lounges popular in Paris in the 1820s, and one pair of overtly Turkish ottomans with low arms by this maker is known. The sunk work panels with elaborate scalloping extend the Turkish theme. Square sofas of this design exist in some numbers, and one has a traditional history in the Bouvier family.
Open Armchair or Voltaire. Philadelphia or Baltimore, 1855-1870. Walnut, with tulip poplar. OH: 48 3/4" OW: 24 3/4" OD: 31 1/2" SH: 13 7/8" Private Collection. A high-backed, upholstered, open armchair of a type commonly referred to by French and English designers as a “Voltaire” has pierced, circular ornaments derived from the scrolled heads of medieval choir stalls. In fact, a design for a virtually identical armchair was published in John Gibbs’s Designs for Gothic Ornaments & Furniture, After the Ancient Manner (London, 1853). The four klismos legs are worked with cove moldings on their outer edges and buttressed with angular braces derived from roof trusses. The original deep tufted upholstery foundation on the back suggests a domestic use for the chair. Numerous variants on this general type have been found in Philadelphia and Baltimore, although the carving of this example seems consistent with Philadelphia practice.
FIGURE 23A Detail of the sofa in Figure 23, showing the Gothic niche in one arm.
an entire generation of architects in rediscovering the FIGURE 23
106
essential compositional strategies and technics of English
107
FIGURE 25
Gothic architecture, but his furniture designs do not all adhere to the
with being trapped in unpleasant circumstances.) Pugin’s furniture for international
hard-line tenet cited above. His post-1835 “structural” designs for
exhibitions, the Houses of Parliament, or wealthy clients is grandiose and heavily
tables and some chairs are based on combinations of straight and
ornamented. Clearly Pugin’s factor of “propriety” covered a host of options, not
curved members abstracted from roof trusses. Ornament is restricted to
simply the stripped-down objects that appeal to modern architectural critics. One
minor carving and chamfering. Still, one could argue that these designs
could assert that, for all Pugin’s violent and often sophomoric
were austere because they were intended for use in schools, rectories,
rhetoric, the severe designs are still decorative in intent–
monasteries, and convents. (It is no coincidence that generations of
compositions wherein a major structural element is reduced to
Englishmen who attended “public schools” associated the Gothic style
the status of a motif. Over-engineering, in short, is merely another form of expressionism.
P
ugin’s undoubted importance in
England is paralleled by the priority assigned to Alexander Jackson Davis (1803-1892) in the United States. Davis was a major exponent of Gothic Revival architecture and of creative spatial applications in rural houses, and his abundant surviving furniture at “Lyndhurst” in Tarrytown, New York, and from other houses has always received considerable attention. Indeed, Davis has overshadowed all other American designers of Gothic Revival furniture, and his prominence may, in part, account for the neglect of
Settee (one of a pair). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 18451860. Cherry, with tulip poplar. OH: 58 1/2" OW: 81": OD: 26" Private Collection. This settee is perhaps the most spectacular Gothic Revival seating known from Philadelphia. It belongs to a recognized group by an unknown cabinetmaker that includes a pair of oak hall armchairs and window benches at Andalusia, as well as four walnut hall side chairs divided between the Smithsonian Institution and a private collection. The pair of settees to which this example belongs was found in a fraternal organization in New Orleans. The construction is extremely heavy. The octagonal legs, which recall Alexander Jackson Davis’s work, are connected by rails with sunk work panels and angular braces. The tall rear upholstery panels are separated by spires with floral heads. The extraordinary pediments with crockets and finials may have been inspired by specific English architectural sources. The complexity and scale of these settees do not mean that they could not have been used in a domestic setting. These are probably after a design by one of Philadelphia’s great architects.
Philadelphia’s furniture. A dispassionate consideration of his designs might FIGURE 25
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109
FIGURE 26 Library Table. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1845-1860. Walnut and walnut veneer, with pine and tulip poplar. OH: 29" OW: 48" OD: 36" Private Collection. Library tables were a principal feature of Gothic Revival libraries. The removable top panel was covered in wool baize or leather, to provide a soft surface on which to open books with fine bindings. This extraordinary example with term legs, large carved brackets, and clipped corners was found in Germantown. Drawers are hidden in the frieze at each end. The sunk work panels have walnut crotch veneer.
FIGURE 27 Liquor Cabinet. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1845-1860. Rosewood and rosewood veneer, with pine and tulip poplar. OH: 39" OW: 36" OD: 16 1/2" Private Collection. This characteristic Philadelphia furniture form combines Classical, Gothic, Egyptian, and Mannerist ornament in one object. The flat strapwork of the base is derived from the designs of Sebastiano Serlio, especially the use of large S-scrolls as an architectural device. The tapered pylon panel on the door, based on a sideboard design published by the English designer George Smith in 1826, is Egyptian in style, as is the boatshaped panel beneath the door. Gothic
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FIGURE 29
ornament is confined to applied frets flanking the pylon and to sunk work panels on the frieze. Such cabinets were widely exported to the South, where they are now called mint julep or ham cabinets. This example was used in a villa on Sullivan’s Island in Charleston, South Carolina.
make note of the extraordinary extent to which he borrowed from the existing architectural and design literature, which he mastered by reading through thousands of volumes in the library of Ithiel Towne. Of course, alongside Davis’s work is the parallel tradition of Louis-Philippe rosewood furniture made in New York City by prominent Francophile or French cabinetmakers like Charles Baudoine and
FIGURE 28
Alexandre Roux (Figures 10 and 10A). This furniture, above all, has enjoyed the
Washstand. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1845-1860. Oak and quarter-sawn oak veneer, with pine and tulip poplar. OH: 38 3/8" OW: 32 1/2" OD: 18" Private Collection. Most American Gothic Revival furniture made of oak is English in style. This washstand is deceptively simple but probably was part of an expensive bedroom suite. Unlike most post-1865, Reform Gothic furniture, this object is completely veneered with quarter-sawn oak on tulip poplar. The cluster columns have carved floral capitals. The marble top with brackets and a shelf is Classical in style. Oak of any kind was usually a special order from a lumber yard, because cabinet-grade oak was not kept in stock. Quarter-sawn oak veneer required rotating the log in the veneer saw, another custom order.
FIGURE 26
FIGURE 29
Wardrobe. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 18451860. Mahogany and mahogany veneer, with pine and tulip poplar. OH: 86 1/2" OW: 74" OD: 28" Private Collection. Other than bookcases, wardrobes were the most monumental Gothic Revival furniture form. This spectacular example makes use of extensive, varied sunk work panels with crotch mahogany veneer. The large cove cornice is Egyptian in inspiration. The doors include wide pilasters and are hinged at the outer edges. The interior has shelves on one side and hanging pegs on the other.
FIGURE 27
FIGURE 28
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FIGURE 30
FIGURE 32
FIGURE 32A
William Sanderson advertisement, from the 1857 Philadelphia city directory. This ad shows the full stylistic and price range of Sanderson’s production, from mid-range Windsors and upholstered furniture, to somewhat less expensive cane seating. The more popular Rococo Revival chair is placed in the foreground, while the somewhat old-fashioned Gothic Revival chair was placed in the back. A signed settee and several different chairs that are signed by Sanderson prove that the ad is an accurate depiction of his work.
Signed by William Sanderson & Sons. Cane Settee. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1845-1860. Maple and ash. OH: 34" OW: 71 3/4" OD: 22" SH: 17 1/2" Private Collection. This settee was found in central Virginia. It is, in effect, four chairs fused together. The arms are made with a straight top and arcaded undersurfaces and are supported by two small columns and one big one apiece. The end legs are canted to suggest bent toes. Such cane- or rush-seated settees, like their Windsor counterparts, often were used with stitched hair mattresses covered in fashionable chintzes or wools. Another settee of this design descended in the Chew family and was used at their suburban villa, “Vainor,” in Radnor.
Detail of the Sanderson signature under the seat rail of the settee in Figure 32.
FIGURE 31 Attributed to William Sanderson & Sons. Cane Side Chair. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1845-1860. Walnut and walnut crotch veneer, with maple. OH: 34 3/8" OW: 19 1/2" OD: 19 3/8" SH: 17 1/4" Private Collection. This is a better grade of the production model, made of walnut and walnut crotch veneer, with thicker seat rails and bent toes. A plainer model was made of maple and ash, with thinner seat rails, straight turned legs, and modest dry-brushed graining and varnishing to suggest rosewood. A pair of the plainer chairs descended in the Wurts family with the furniture in Figures 18 and 19.
FIGURE 30
highest prestige among advanced collectors, partly because of its exquisite workmanship, partly because it is loaded with carved ornament.
T
he current prestige as designers enjoyed by Pugin and Davis underscores the need
FIGURE 33
to understand that the design imperatives of furniture and architecture differ in fundamental ways. This might seem obvious, were it not for
FIGURE 33 Signed by William Sanderson & Sons. Cane side chair (one of four). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 18451860. Walnut and walnut crotch veneer. OH: 32 5/8" OW: 19" OD: 17 1/2" SH: 17" Private Collection. This model of the Gothic cane chair incorporates a curved crest and an additional arch and column in the back. Because the crest is curved in plan, the makers had to shave the front and rear surfaces of the rear posts to achieve the transition from the crest to the seat. The seat is a Rococo type, and the front legs are canted at a steep angle, to suggest cabriole legs. These are the most elaborate known Sanderson turnings.
the tendency among American decorative arts curators to assume that furniture designed by architects is better than that FIGURE 32
designed by cabinetmakers. Further, while the critical literature emphasizes that the three successive styles of Gothic Revival furniture – Rococo Gothic, Regency Gothic, and Reform Gothic – were three discrete episodes, they were not. They FIGURE 32A
functioned as a looped continuum, wherein cabinetmakers, upholsterers, and architects continually referred back to older sources.
FIGURE 31
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FIGURE 34 Cane Side Chair (one of a pair). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1845-1860. Walnut, walnut crotch veneer, and ash. OH: 34 5/8" OW: 17 3/8" OD: 19 1/2" SH: 17" Private Collection. This “Fisher-type” chair combines several styles. The curved, veneered crest is a Jacobean pitch pediment. The curved seat is Rococo in plan, but is swept in the side profile like a Greek klismos chair. Unlike most cane chairs, the back has applied ornament in the form of beadwork half-columns and applied plinths and turned finials. It is of some interest that the crest is mortised between the posts, rather than set atop them. The scroll front legs are Classical in feeling. The four arches and three columns in the back relate directly to the design of the Wyck chair in Figure 36.
FIGURE 34
FIGURE 35
entertain certain critical assertions regarding the superiority of Gothic
H
ow all these long-term developments played out in
Philadelphia was never completely determined by economics
Re v iv a l d e s ig n s s tre s s in g st r a i gh t
or lingering stylistic traits of the Federal and Empire
components over curved ones, or deplore
periods. As this essay suggests, Philadelphia shared a great
the interaction of revivals of late
many traits with New York, including a large pool of
Classical, Rococo, Mannerist, Baroque,
capable immigrant artisans, but the overall lower economic
Gothic, Islamic, Egyptian, Asiatic, and
potential of the region, and the inherent conservatism of
other manners that unfolded between
the leading families, impacted what was popular here .
1790 and 1860. Each of these styles could and did give rise to florid developments, but each made a contribution to the
C
rawford Riddell is best known for the famous Rosedown
suite of furniture, which is documented in a bill from
Many of the standard motifs of the
simplified, structural taste that is thought
Riddell’s Journeyman Cabinetmaker’s Furniture Warehouse
1830-1860 era reached their mature
to have contributed to modernism.
(Figure 1). Riddell first began working in 1835 and died in
formulations during the supposedly
1849. He ran the Journeyman Warehouse from 1837 to
frivolous Rococo period, including chairs
1844, but obviously he did not make all the furniture sold
with rose window backs; octagonal pillar
there. In the case of the famous Rosedown suite, he must
legs; sunken panels articulating straight
have commissioned the various parts of the suite from a
parts; tracery articulating pierced or
number of shops. Certainly the objects display marked
curved parts; and crests ornamented with gables, crockets, and finials. Furthermore, eclectic mixes of various styles, whether in the form of decorative ensembles of objects in different styles or of individual objects composed of elements from different styles, also dates back to the eighteenth century. Eclecticism is not, in other words, evidence for Victorian cultural or esthetic disarray. Nor need one 114
FIGURE 35
FIGURE 36
FIGURE 37
F. Gutekunst. “Thomas Rodman Fisher,” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about 1850. Photograph. Reproduced in Anna Wharton Smith, Genealogy of the Fisher Family (Philadelphia: Privately Printed, 1896), opposite Page 132. Thomas Fisher (18031861) was a descendant of James Logan and lived in the villa, “Wakefield,” on the grounds of “Stenton” in Germantown. Many of his sister’s descendants lived in the villa, “Belfield,” in Germantown, and there is little question that the chair in the photograph was owned in the family. While the chair in Figure 34 has no history of ownership, it may be from the Fisher set.
FIGURE 36 Cane Side Chair (one of eleven). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1845-1860. Curly maple and bird’seye maple veneer. OH: 34 1/4" OW: 17 1/2" OD: 18 1/2" SH: 18" Wyck Association, Germantown. This set of eleven chairs and a matching settee descended in the Haines family of the villa, “Wyck,” in
Germantown. They have backs much like that of the Fisher-type chair, but have thicker, trapezoidal seats and plain turned legs. The Haines set relies on curly maple primary wood and bird’s-eye maple veneer for decoration. The overall feeling is much more heavy and Classical. The arms of the matching settee are like those of the Sanderson settee in Figure 32.
FIGURE 37 Joined Side Chair with Cane Seat (one of six). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1845-1860. Walnut and walnut veneer. OH: 36 1/2" OW: 17” OD: 20" SH: 16 1/2" Wyck Association, Germantown. These chairs also descended in the Haines family of Wyck. They are extraordinary among all Philadelphia cane seating in having fully joined frames combined with cane seats. From the seat up, the chair is a fully-articulated Gothic design, with three arches, two trefoil spandrels, and solid ribs. The curved crest makes the transition to the seat rails with chamfering on both the front and rear surfaces of the posts. The seat rail has a simple sunk work panel. The legs are Louis XVI tapered forms with sunk work panels, a combination reminiscent of the chair in Figure 22. The Wyck collections include several sets of stitched hair seat cushions with brown striped linen covers and red tape binding that were used with both sets of cane chairs.
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FIGURE 38 Miniature Bedstead. Probably France, 18401860. Cast iron. OH: 8 3/4" OW: 8 3/4" OL: 15 3/8" Private Collection. Thermometer. England, 1828-1840. Bronze, brass, glass, and mercury. Inscribed “Published by B. Day December 20th, 1828” with added retailer’s tag “J. W. Queen Phila.” OH: 12 1/4" OW: 5 5/8" OD: 2 3/4" Private Collection. Pin Cushion. Prussia, 1825-1850. Bronze, pasteboard, cotton, silk velvet. OH: 5 1/4" OW: 3" OD: 3" Private Collection. Miniature Armchair and Side Chair. Germany, 1860-1890. Basswood. OHS: 4 7/8" and 4 5/8" Private Collection. Miniature or dollhouse objects were popular imports. The cast iron bedstead is probably French. It is finely executed and riveted together. American youth-sized cast iron bedsteads of a similar design were produced by the firm of Noyes & Hutton in Troy, New York. Some cast iron stoves and boot scrapers are documented as the work of Philadelphia foundries. The thermometer is an English frame with a Philadelphia engraved brass thermometer inserted in it. Other Gothic Revival objects made by the Day bronze foundry in England include watch holders, candlesticks, table-top screens, perfume bottle holders, and fireplace
FIGURE 39
important Gothic Revival objects, notably two center tables, a set of bookcases, and a set of side chairs identical to the chairs in the Rosedown suite. The center tables demonstrate that the Parisian taste was not unknown in Philadelphia. As two of the most heavily-decorated Gothic Revival monuments to survive, the Phil-Ellena center tables assume a paramount position in the profile of the city’s furniture history (Figure 12).
O
f equally great importance for the history of Philadelphia furniture are the chairs
visible in the 1890s photograph of the Phil-Ellena library and several variants related to them (Figures 13-14). These veneered chair designs are unmistakable evidence for European influence on Philadelphia workmanship. In both Parisian and central
FIGURE 38
Made by the Meissen Factory. Cup and Saucer. Saxony, Germany, 18301850. Porcelain with gilding. Marked with underglaze blue crossed swords. OH: 2 1/2" Private Collection. This was among the most refined of European molded ceramic Gothic Revival objects. The high relief pattern combines aspects of rose windows and hairpin designs. This pattern may have been inspired by similar refined porcelain made in Paris. It is unclear if this cup and saucer was sold as part of a tea set or as an individual cabinet specimen.
European work, all-veneered seating was typical of production at mid-century. The stave-built, veneered crest of the second variant illustrated here (Figure 15) is overtly
variation and can not be regarded as a suite, as such, except that they were purchased together. The suite included a tools. The pin cushion in the form of a chair is Prussian. This is not a child’s toy or a saleman’s sample, but was intended for use by women who were sewing. This same model was also produced in cast iron. The miniature wooden armchair and side chair are typical of doll furniture produced in southern Germany. Their stenciled design conforms to one of the most common chair types in France and America, and their proportions are accurate.
Biedermeier in inspiration, and this suggests that these chairs and the Phil-Ellena center tables were made by French or German artisans employed by Riddell.
bedstead, an armoire, two washstands, a dressing bureau, a cheval glass, a writing table, and six chairs. The extraordinary degree of carving displayed by this furniture does not mean that it rivaled the best Parisian-style Gothic from New York, but certainly it was the most extravagant Gothic Revival furniture known from Philadelphia.
A
A
commission dating about 1858 for a group of furniture
for the Wurts family Gothic Revival villa in Belvidere, New Jersey (Figures 16 and 17), documents the work of a littleknown German cabinetmaker on Pine Street, Adolphus Hoehling (1807-1892). The group of furniture consists of a gaming table (Figures 18 and 18A), a table-étagère (Figure
nother major commission for which Riddell was
partially responsible was the furnishing of the immense Greek Revival villa, “Phil-Ellena,” in Germantown, built about 1842 to 1844 (Figure 11). Photographs of the
19), and a small sideboard or locker (not illustrated). This furniture is attributed to Hoehling on the basis of an
interiors taken before the 1890s illustrate a number of FIGURE 39
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117
FIGURE 40
FIGURE 41
Villeroy & Boch. Candlestick. Germany, 1850-1870. Earthenware. Embossed underneath with a shield reading “156 VB.” OH: 10" Private Collection. The firm of Villeroy & Boch was known for refined earthenware in a warm gray glaze, highlighted with silver gilding. This variant on the Gothic candlestick incorporates an open lantern with a molded figure of a standing king inside. Some tracery panels on the base are also pierced.
Water Pitcher. Staffordshire, England, 1842-1870. Glazed Stoneware. OH: 11" Private Collection. Stoneware water pitchers or jugs were a popular novelty item and were produced by many English potteries. The “Apostles” design was patented by Charles Meigh of Hanley in 1842 but was swiftly pirated by many firms. The octagonal form includes niches with medieval figures, and Meigh also made a variant with empty niches, for those who found the figures too “Roman Catholic.” Other patterns incorporated Gothic detailing with hunting scenes or knights jousting. Apostle jugs were available in many sizes, and some were provided with pewter lids in the German manner. Several American potteries made earthenware copies of Apostle jugs by casting patterns directly from English prototypes.
inscription on the underside of the marble top of the sideboard, directing that it
at Loudoun. Numerous sets of these chairs survive, and they represent a curious fusion
be delivered to Hoehling’s business address. The only other object that can be
of Germanic design with elements drawn from the English architectural literature
documented as Hoehling’s work is a utilitarian bookcase made by him to hold the
(Figures 21). Other seating forms with more tenuous Philadelphia connections
many volumes of Philadelphian Sidney George Fisher’s diary, now at the Historical
display strong French influence (Figures 22-24). Among the more spectacular
Society of Pennsylvania. A double bookcase that appears to be by Hoehling descended
Philadelphia seating types is one of a pair of upholstered high-backed settees with
in the Ingersoll family of Philadelphia, and several smaller bookcases in the same
extensive carving and high crests with crockets and floral finials (Figure 25).
style recently appeared on the antiques market (Figure 20). Finally, a small work table with sarcophagus top, remarkably similar to the Wurts gaming table, is in a Massachusetts collection.
T
ables and case pieces associated with Philadelphia represent fusions of the heavy,
architectural English taste and the fussy Parisian taste, with the odd Beidermeier specimen (Figures 26-29). The liquor cabinet with pylon door is one of the most
H
oehling’s designs are appropriate to a rural villa. Most of his furniture is veneered
with walnut, and while the objects do have some carving, they are not really
common conjunctions of English and Germanic design in Philadelphia. Such liquor cabinets were widely exported to the South.
appropriate for a townhouse. Also, Hoehling may have enjoyed a following among Philadelphia’s conservative elite, but he ran a small shop on Pine Street, not an elite decorating business like those of Klauder & Deginter, Alphonse Lejambre, or Gottlieb Vollmer. Hoehling’s furniture is, therefore, a great deal more restrained and perhaps a bit provincial in character.
FIGURE 41A
V
Detail of the water pitcher in Figure 41, showing one of the niches with a Church Father.
arious other seating forms attributed to Philadelphia illustrate aspects of English,
French, and Biedermeier influence. One of the most important is a group of chairs associated with the cabinetmaking firm of Klauder & Deginter. This firm is best known for having provided comprehensive furnishings for Gustavus George Logan’s villa, “Restalrig Hall,” in Germantown in 1854 and 1855, most of which is in a heavy, Germanic Rococo manner. Eventually most of this furniture came to “Loudoun,” a renovated Federal villa in Germantown that now belongs to the City of Philadelphia and is administered by the Fairmount Park FIGURE 40
Commission. Surviving bills for the furniture from Klauder & Deginter
FIGURE 41
FIGURE 41A
include “one goth[ic] Chair,” thought to be a side chair still preserved 118
119
FIGURE 42
FIGURE 44
Ink Bottle. United States, 1860-1890. Cobalt blue glass. Inscribed “CARTER’S 10 G-101.” OH: 9" Private Collection. For several generations of school children, these master ink bottles were the most familiar Gothic Revival object. Made in great numbers, these cobalt blue ink bottles relied on a simple but effective hexagonal body with two lancets and a quatrefoil with spandrels on each facet. This Gothic or Cathedral pattern was also used on large window glass pickle jars that were advertising novelties in saloons.
Jewelry Box. Probably France, 1830-1860. Bronze and silk velvet. OH: 3" OW: 7" OD: 4" Private Collection. This bronze casket imitates medieval chests bound in iron. Obviously, this casket, with a secret latch mechanism and velvet lining, was intended for jewelry. The strapwork with acorn terminals and finely etched and chased backgrounds are fussy and suggest a French origin.
A
lthough modern collectors usually do not assign
not direct copies of period artifacts. Those included here are characteristic of what
cane seating any sort of monetary or artistic value,
circulates on the antiques market today.
Philadelphia cane seating in the Gothic style made
A
some original contributions to American design (Figures 30-37). This was unusual within the greater
lthough this small
exhibition only scratches
cohort of American cane seating, most of which was
the surface of the Gothic
stereotyped. Certain models derived from American
Revival in Philadelphia, it
fancy chairs and Windsors, as well as European high-
introduces many important
style sources, were manufactured in large numbers, and
objects never exhibited or
manufacturers in many urban centers copied chairs from
published before. It is noteworthy that only two objects were borrowed from one
FIGURE 43
other regions. The modern negative image suffered by
institutional collection, while all the rest are from private collections. It is also worth
Water Pitcher. France, 1830-1850. Glass. OH: 8" Private Collection. This pitcher utilizes an overlay technique wherein engravers cut through the white layer to expose the colorless layer underneath. Here the cutting is in the form of a Gothic arcade with trefoil spandrels. While this technique was popular for lamp fonts in this country, it is doubtful if this pitcher was made here.
factory chairs, emphasized by the low prestige of cane
FIGURE 44
FIGURE 45
FIGURE 42
remembering that these new discoveries are largely the result of fieldwork at the
chairs associated with cheap painted “cottage” bedroom suites, actually was not reflect-
lowest levels of the antiques market. While the major auction houses specializing in
ed in period usage. The better cane chairs retained something of the prestige associ-
nineteenth-century material emphasize the
ated with expensive fancy chairs of the Federal peri-
Rococo Revival style, that abundant material
od, and cane seating supplemented upholstered fur-
perhaps lacks the intellectual intrigue of
niture in parlors, to say nothing of the French
the various Gothic styles. The fact is, that
Second Empire phenomenon of gilt ballroom
combinations of styles in many media gave
seating with cane or rush seats.
rise to extraordinary creativity at this time. Now, at least, Philadelphians can identify
I
n addition to domestic furniture, other objects
numerous Gothic Revival design strains to
used in daily life were designed in the Gothic taste
cherish as part of the city’s heritage, and much
(Figures 38-46). Gothic motifs are prevalent in the
more such furniture and other decorative arts
mediums of ceramics, glass, metals, papers, and
can be sought in the future.
Embossed and gilt cover of Mrs. L. C. Tuthill, History of Architecture, from the Earliest Times (Philadelphia, 1848). Mrs. Tuthill’s book was the first book on architecture published in the United States written by a woman. The stamped and gilt boards depict a vignette of a rural Gothic cottage surrounded by Baroque scrolls and vines. Mrs. Tuthill illustrated and discussed a number of rural villas by prominent American architects, although she found immense Gothic villas like Lyndhurst to be vulgar.
FIGURE 45
textiles. Many smaller items were imported from Europe, and, as with furniture, these objects were
— Robert F. Trent and Harry Mack Truax II
FIGURE 43
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FIGURE 46 Pair of Candlesticks. Prussia, 1825-1840. Cast iron and bronze. OH: 11 1/2" Private Collection. The Prussian cast iron industry brought the fabrication of flaskcasting to new levels of finesse in the 1820s. These candlesticks were miniature versions of the cast iron Kreuzberg Monument in Berlin, designed by the Prussian state architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1817 and completed in 1821. The monument is a Gothic spire with twelve niches holding allegorical statues, each of which commemorates soldiers who died in the twelve battles which drove Napoleon out of Germany from 1813 to 1815. These candlesticks may be an unrecorded design by Schinkel and incorporate bronze miniatures of the allegorical statues, combined with Mannerist scroll feet and flared candle nozzles. The sticks undoubtedly were ebonized as an expression of mourning.
Acknowledgements LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION Robert F. Trent and Harry Mack Truax II Walter Joseph Stewart Stiles T. Colwill III Judith Hollander Richard Cote and Bruce Young Robert Curtis Chinnici and Jeffrey Adams Wyck Association, Germantown LOAN EXHIBIT COMMITTEE Joan Johnson, Chairman Robert F. Trent, Curator Harry Mack Truax II, Curator Cathy Baldwin Barry Barlow Albert Orr Stephen Ruszkowski TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE Barry Barlow Cathy Baldwin John Seiffert Murray Douglas PHOTOGRAPHY Laszlo Bodo
FIGURE 46
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