Images(4)

Sideboard

Date1790-1810

OriginAmerica, Maryland, Baltimore

MediumMahogany, yellow pine, white pine, tulip poplar, holly and other lightwood inlays.

DimensionsOH: 38 1/2"; OW: 78 1/8"; OD: 26 1/2"

Credit LineBequest of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Hennage

Object number1990-302

DescriptionAppearance: Rectangular sideboard with flat, overhanging top and straight back and sides, serpentine front with canted front corners; top surface has crossbanding around edge outlined with lightwood stringing; more lightwood stringing around top and bottom edges of side, front, and canted corners of top; sideboard front divided into three sections (center wider than sides) by four unequally spaced legs with each section separated by the upward extension of the legs; end sections consist of a single, deep drawer on either side, both with veneered panels of figured mahogany surrounded by a crossbanded oval outlined with light and darkwood stringing around a center oval brass pull with bail handle, inset brass escutcheons at top center of each drawer and applied cockbeading around exterior edge; middle section of sideboard has long central drawer over arched skirt; veneered drawerfront of two figured mahogany ovals surrounded by crossbanding outlined with light and darkwood stringing, oval stamped brasses with bail pulls in center of each oval and inset escutcheon in top center of drawer inside diamond shaped veneered panel, applied cockbeading around exterior edge of drawer; arched skirt also with crossbanding outlined on either side with lightwood stringing and applied cockbeading along arched bottom edge; six legs, four at front and two at rear, all square in section and tapering from top to bottom; four front legs are inlaid in the following manner on the front side: upper leg inlaid with large husk-like oval floral patera overtop inlaid panel with hollow top and rounded bottom; double line of lightwood stringing splits upper and lower leg at base of casefront and runs length of bottom edge of case between pairs of legs on either side of center section; lower leg inlaid with chain of five graduated bellflowers inside veneered “V-topped” panel picked out in lightwood stringing; cuff of thick band of lightwood stringing on all six legs at ankle; both sides of case with lightwood stringing in rectangle with incurved corners and continuing band of double line of lightwood stringing along bottom edge of case.

Construction: The solid mahogany top, separated from the carcass by thin shims, is attached with screws set in wells on the inside of the backboard and through the top front rail. The backboard and solid mahogany case sides are tenoned into the legs. The four front legs are double-tenoned into the top front rail. Three top medial rails, one positioned at the center of each drawer opening, are tenoned into the backboard and dovetailed into the top front rail. The drawer blade (beneath the center drawer) and the two bottom front rails (beneath the side drawers) are double-tenoned into the front legs. Two full-height interior case partitions are tenoned into the backboard and the center front legs. Two supports for the center drawer are tenoned into the backboard and the drawer rail; those for the side drawers are tenoned into the backboard and the bottom front rails. The front apron is glued to the drawer blade and the center front legs and is supported by a series of large quarter-round glue blocks. Guides for the side drawers are glued to the tops of the drawer supports and set between the backboard and the front legs.

The dovetailed drawers have sawn, horizontally laminated fronts shaped on both faces. Their bottoms are beveled and set into grooves along the front and sides and reinforced with long glue blocks set at intervals and mitered at the rear corners. The rear edges are flush-nailed.

Materials: Mahogany top, sides, legs, drawer front veneers, top edge veneers, top front rail edge veneers, drawer blade veneers, bottom front rail edge veneers, front apron veneers, and some inlays; yellow pine backboard, interior case partitions, drawer front laminations, drawer supports, guides for side drawers, drawer blade core, and apron glue blocks; white pine apron core; oak front top rail, medial top rails, bottom front rails, and some top board shims; tulip poplar drawer sides, drawer backs, drawer bottoms, and some top board shims; holly and other lightwood inlays.

Label TextOne of the many new, highly specialized furniture forms introduced during the neoclassical era was the sideboard, a descendant of the earlier sideboard table but with the added advantage of drawers and compartments for the storage of "plate," flatware, table linen, and other dining equipment. In 1794, little more than a decade after the form first appeared, English furniture designer George Hepplewhite noted that the "great utility of this piece of furniture has procured it a very general reception; and the conveniencies it affords render a dining-room incomplete without a sideboard."

This sideboard was made in Baltimore, Maryland, one the country's most active participants in the neoclassical furniture trade. Typical of Baltimore work, the piece differs from other urban American sideboards in several respects. Its proportions are slightly shorter and wider than the norm, and thus parallel many British models. The case contains only three storage compartments--two deep side drawers and a shallow center one. There are no end cupboards, and the arch beneath the center drawer, which usually is fitted with a two-door opening, has been left vacant, a pattern common in Britain but rarely employed in America outside Maryland.

The level of ornamentation is also typical of Baltimore work. Despite the uncomplicated form of the case, the surface is covered with an impressive array of highly figured, contrasting veneers and complex inlays. The drawer fronts feature oval panels of dark mahogany enframed by two-part string inlays and lightwood cross-banding, while each front leg bears a full complement of shaded Baltimore-style bellflowers on a ground of cross-banded mahogany. Most arresting of all are the pictorial inlays at the tops of the front legs. Depicting exotic, tulip like flowers with striped and pointed petals, the same inlaid design appears on other pieces of Baltimore furniture but is otherwise unknown in America, suggesting that one of that city's several professional inlay makers produced it.

Early national Baltimore was unusually cosmopolitan. Relatively young yet commercially successful, the city was growing dramatically. The large, sophisticated cabinetmaking community was drawn not only from other urban centers on the American coast but from Great Britain and continental Europe. These factors help to explain the singular nature of this sideboard and many other examples of neoclassical Baltimore furniture.
InscribedThere is an early, possibly first-period, illegible chalk inscription on the left interior case partition. Various modern pencil and black crayon inscriptions relate to drawer locations.
MarkingsThe legs, backboard, and side panels are marked with chisel-cut Roman numerals for the cabinetmaker's use in assembling the carcass.
ProvenanceDescended in the Twaddell-Davis family of Philadelphia.
The sideboard was acquired by the donors from antiques dealers Ginsburg & Levy of New York in 1966.

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