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Lot 45
A Rare and Important Inlaid Mahogany Marble-top Sideboard, attributed to John and Thomas Seymour, Boston, Massachusetts, c. 1798-1810.
9 May 2023, 10:00 EDT
Skinner Marlborough, MassachusettsSold for US$83,535 inc. premium
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Christopher Fox
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Paul O'Hara
Sale Coordinator & Cataloguer
A Rare and Important Inlaid Mahogany Marble-top Sideboard,
attributed to John and Thomas Seymour, Boston, Massachusetts, c. 1798-1810.
The shaped gallery terminating in carved shallow volutes, framing a veined white marble top, above case with cross-banded, checkered, and dart-inlaid top edge, containing two half drawers with Casuarina veneered and inlaid fronts bordered by stringing and cross-banding over two reeded tambour doors inlaid with high-contrast mahogany and tiger maple, all framed by three vertical panels intricately inlaid with reeded pilasters wrapped with garlands, the bottom edge inlaid with tiger maple checker and dart banding, over four ring-turned and reeded legs terminating in bulb feet on casters.
Robert D. Mussey, Jr., in his seminal work on Seymour furniture, offers the following observations:
"The quality of workmanship on the faux-reeded pilaster inlays is stunning, representing the single finest example of inlay work on any known piece of Boston Federal furniture, and at least equal to the best inlay work executed in Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia. The sand shading of the faux-fluted columns, classical capitals, and plinths and the serpentine, diagonal, mark garlands of the column are delicate and sensitive, resulting in an extraordinary appearance of three-dimensionality. The sideboard facade is perhaps the supreme example of the Seymours' transformation of planar surfaces with iridescent veneers and sand-shaded inlays to create a vivid, almost three-dimensional appearance."
127cm wide, 68cm deep, 116cm high (50 1/4in wide, 27 5/8in deep, 46 1/2 in high)
The shaped gallery terminating in carved shallow volutes, framing a veined white marble top, above case with cross-banded, checkered, and dart-inlaid top edge, containing two half drawers with Casuarina veneered and inlaid fronts bordered by stringing and cross-banding over two reeded tambour doors inlaid with high-contrast mahogany and tiger maple, all framed by three vertical panels intricately inlaid with reeded pilasters wrapped with garlands, the bottom edge inlaid with tiger maple checker and dart banding, over four ring-turned and reeded legs terminating in bulb feet on casters.
Robert D. Mussey, Jr., in his seminal work on Seymour furniture, offers the following observations:
"The quality of workmanship on the faux-reeded pilaster inlays is stunning, representing the single finest example of inlay work on any known piece of Boston Federal furniture, and at least equal to the best inlay work executed in Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia. The sand shading of the faux-fluted columns, classical capitals, and plinths and the serpentine, diagonal, mark garlands of the column are delicate and sensitive, resulting in an extraordinary appearance of three-dimensionality. The sideboard facade is perhaps the supreme example of the Seymours' transformation of planar surfaces with iridescent veneers and sand-shaded inlays to create a vivid, almost three-dimensional appearance."
127cm wide, 68cm deep, 116cm high (50 1/4in wide, 27 5/8in deep, 46 1/2 in high)
Footnotes
Provenance
Commissioned (possibly) by Elias Hasket Derby (1739-1799)
to his son John Derby (1767-1831)
(although Robert Mussey thinks it more likely that the son John Derby was the original owner)
to his daughter Mary Jane Derby (1807-1892)
to her son Robert Swain Peabody (1845-1917)
to his daughter Katharine Putnam Peabody (1877-1955)
to her daughter Cora Weld Peabody (1917-2008)
and thereafter to one of her descendants.
Literature
Published in Robert D. Mussey, Jr., The Furniture Masterworks of John and Thomas Seymour (Salem: Peabody Essex Museum, 2003), cat. no. 36.
Exhibitions
Luxury and Innovation: Furniture Masterworks by John and Thomas Seymour, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, 2003-2004; and in The Cabinetmaker and the Carver: Boston Furniture from Private Collections at the Massachusetts Historical Society in 2013-2014.