Day 270 - Federal-period furniture







November 13, 2021

After having asserted my lack of interest in furniture, I'm abashed when I enter gallery 733 and immediately see three pieces I like quite a lot and find interesting for one reason or another. The first is a very large "French sideboard" (perhaps 6 feet long, 40 inches high, and 20 inches deep)  made by Charles-Honore Lannuier i (the same person responsible for that dreadful bed!) in New York City between 1812 and 1819.  I read that the piece is closely related to French Empire designs; hence, its name. What I especially like about the sideboard is that other decorative elements -- the brass fittings and lion's paw feet -- are subordinate to the grain of the mahogany and mahogany veneer, whose beauty really shines through.  A man near me who's also looking at the piece asks, "How'd you like to have that in your home?" I say I'd love to have the room for it! But I suppose the sideboard's massiveness is partly the point  - it enabled its owner to boast that he had the wealth  to purchase an outsized piece and a large home in which to display it properly. I could do without the lamp and the silver and crystal objects that the curators have placed on the sideboard, but I suppose the display of a multitude of such items was also a marker of their owner's financial success.

The second object, a "cellaret," is interesting for a very different reason: It shows how much Americans of the early 19th century liked their wine and liquor, since cases like this were designed to hold alcohol bottles. The placard describes the cellaret as "an essential piece of furniture in fashionable dining rooms" of the period. It often fit into a central opening in the sideboard and could be rolled on wheels right up to the dining room table. This example, made of mahogany and mahogany veneer  between 1810 and 1820, measures about 28 inches wide, 24 inches high, and 20 inches deep. That's room enough to hold a lot of wine and spirits!

The third piece I like is a circular mahogany table, about 36 inches in diameter,  whose top is inlaid with  brightly colored marbles. The table was made around 1830 in Philadelphia by Anthony Querville; the marble top was probably made in Europe and reminds me of the pietra dura table tops I love so much. It's gratifying to think that the American who purchased this table nearly two hundred years ago shared my taste for pietra dura.

There is also one piece in the room that I detest, a mahogany secretary-bookcase made in New York City between 1825 and 1835. I find it pompous, ungraceful, over-ornamented.... But at one time, someone surely liked it, and showed it off with pride.  

Gallery 734 is roped off, presumably a Covid precaution to avoid overcrowding.

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