Physical Qualities
Mahogany, mahogany veneers; white pine and tulip poplar secondary woods, 63 1/4 x 98 1/2 x 24 3/4 in. (160.7 x 250.2 x 62.9 cm.)
Credit Line
Purchase with exchange funds from Gift from the Estate of Margaret Anna Abell; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Wilmer Brown; Gift of Jill and M. Austin Fine; Bequest of Ethel Epstein Jacobs; Gift of William M. Miller and Norville E. Miller II; Bequest of Leonce Rabillon; Bequest of Philip B. Perlman; and Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Louis E. Schecter
Object Number
1989.26
Standing on winged animal paw feet, this austere Philadelphia sideboard bears the label of two English-born cabinetmakers. Not surprisingly, the piece derives from an influential British pattern book, Thomas Hope’s Interior Household Furniture and Decoration (London, 1807). The sideboard’s architectural nature is enhanced by free standing columns with fully carved composite capitals flanking the upper cabinets. Fitted tambour doors (flexible shutters composed of closely set wood strips attached to cloth) carry the most delicate of brass knobs. The cabinets are crowned by acroteria bearing a honeysuckle motif – an ancient decorative device used by both Greeks and Romans to embellish rooflines and pediments. They stand like twin towers, linked only by a blade-thin horizontal board of rich mahogany.
Wendy A. Cooper, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, CLASSICAL TASTE IN AMERICA 1800-1840, pp. 56-57, no. 33, ill. p. 56; circulated to the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Berlin, Carswell Rush. "A Shadow of Magnitude": The Furniture of Thomas Cook and Richard Parkin. American Furniture 2013. Edited by Luke Beckerdite. Lebanon, New Hampshire: Chipstone Foundation, 2013. p. 156-195, ill. 163-164.
Inscribed: The paper label of Cook and Parkin is attached to the backboard of the lower left pedestal end.
On View at the BMA
