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An Important Queen Anne Carved Mahogany Concertina-Action Turret-top Games Table, the carving attributed to John Welch, Boston, Massachusetts circa 1750
Description
- height 28 1/2 in.; width 35 3/4 in.; depth 17 1/2 in.
- 72.4 cm; 90.8 cm; 44.5 cm
Provenance
Literature
Keno, Leigh, Joan Barzilay Freund, and Alan Miller. "The Very Pink of the Mode: Boston Georgian Chairs, Their Export, and Their Influence," ed. Luke Beckerdite, American Furniture, (Hanover, NH: The Chipstone Foundation, 1996), fig. 13, p. 277
The Magazine Antiques (April 1970): 446-7. John Walton advertisement
Miller, Alan. "Roman Gusto in New England: An Eighteenth-Century Boston Furniture Designer and His Shop," ed. Luke Beckerdite, American Furniture, (Hanover, NH and London: The Chipstone Foundation, 1993), p. 195, fig. 51
Condition
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
One of the most important and sophisticated Boston games tables to survive today, this elegant table reflects the preference in Boston for furniture in the English taste with a dynamic form and sculptural surfaces. Following English practice, it is designed to extend by concertina (accordion) action, which is uncommon in American tables. It is fitted with a drawer for the storage of gaming pieces and displays opulent turret front corners and exceptional carving on the skirt pendant, knees and claw feet. It is among the most elaborate of its type known and appears to retain its original carved skirt pendant, which is a masterpiece of Boston carving.
This table possibly stems from a Boston cabinet shop that consistently produced extremely fine cabinet work rooted in urban British construction practice, with accomplished carving, use of high quality materials, and complex designs assimilating the influence of late-seventeenth-century Baroque style and Palladian classicism. The extensive group of furniture now identified from this shop -- which flourished from 1735 to 1755 -- reflects the collaborative efforts of several highly skilled artisans contracted by the shop and collectively represents the pinnacle of cabinetwork from eighteenth-century Boston.1
The present games table has been attributed to this shop on the basis of common structural relationships with other pieces identified from the shop.2 It displays front legs that deviate from standard cabriole construction, resulting in small feet with toes configured within the square side dimensions rather than extending to the diagonal extremes of the stock. The frame is constructed with the lower rail dovetailed to white pine corner blocks that appear to be butt- or bridle-joined to the side rails. Because of this unusual construction practice, the tops of the legs protrude outside the frame and rely on the turrets and top for support. The drawer is constructed like the blocked interior drawers of several desks from this shop and the front rail beads are worked from the solid like the prospect door fasciae of nearly every desk-and-bookcase identified from this shop.
The masterful carving on this table is attributed to the Boston carver, John Welch (1711-1789), who was born in Boston in 1711 and may have apprenticed to the Boston carver George Robinson (1680-1737) before beginning work as a journeyman by 1732.3 By 1733, he was in business at a shop on the Boston wharf executing ship and furniture carving in addition to architectural carving for the courthouse (the present Massachusetts State House) when it was rebuilt after a fire in December of 1747. He collaborated with John Singleton Copley during the 1770s and of the 32 extant Rococo style frames on Copley portraits, twenty-five can be documented or attributed to Welch. He continued to work after the Revolution and served as a Captain in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery and a pew holder at King's Chapel. He owned a house on Green Lane, near Paul Revere's house, which was large enough to quarter 14 British soldiers after the French and Indian War. He died in Boston on February 9, 1789 and was buried in the church cemetery, leaving an estate valued at 58 pounds 9 shillings.4
The attribution to Welch for the carving of this table is based upon shared details with his carving for the State House and mature furniture carving of the late 1740s and 1750s. He was contracted by the shop for the carving on this table and possibly followed drawings provided by the designer/master of the shop. The delicate convex strapwork on this table's knee blocks relates to Welch carving found on the feet of a desk-and-bookcase made by this shop between 1743 and 1748 for John Allen (1671-1760), a Boston goldsmith.5 The skirt pendant and leaves on the knees closely relate to those on the feet and spandrels of a tall-case clock made by this shop around 1750 for the wealthy Boston merchant Col. Henry Bromfield.6 The claw feet are typical of those produced by Welch during the 1740s and early 1750s. Similar feet are found on a card table with carving attributed to Welch that descended in the Dalton family of Boston.7 That table is currently in a private collection. A table of the same identical pattern as the Dalton family table with carving attributed to Welch is also offered in this sale.
A pier table in the Karolik Collection possibly made by this shop displays a remarkably similar center leg carved by Welch with a human mask perhaps inspired by the Palladian designs of William Kent and Batty Langley. That table and this one are the only extant tables that have been identified to date as the collaborative effort of this shop and carver.
Two other turret-top games tables and a desk-on-frame with very similar knee carving and cabriole leg profiles are likely the product of the same carver and shop. These include one at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with animalistic-carved knees and four pad feet, one with foliate- and bellflower-carved knees, front claw feet and rear pad feet formerly owned by Leigh Keno Inc., and a desk at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, carved with a human mask. Perhaps the finest achievement of this shop and carver -- a desk-and-bookcase made for the Boston merchant Gilbert Deblois (1725-1791) -- was sold at Sotheby's, Important Americana, January 19-21, 2007, sale 8278, lot 294.
Other less elaborate Boston turret-top games tables of related form are known. One with a closely related design has a history in Plymouth, Massachusetts.8 Retaining its original finish and glue blocks, that table exhibits an identical leg profile and returns as the present table as well as claw-and-ball feet. It may have been originally owned by Mercy Otis Warren, who owned and worked the needlework top of a similar games table now at the Pilgrim Society.9 A related leg profile is found on a games table at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as well as on a group of Boston turret tea tables, represented in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Bayou Bend, Winterthur Museum, and Historic Deerfield.10 Two games tables of this type sold at Sotheby's, Important Americana from the Collection of Diane and Norman Bernstein, The Lindens, Washington, D.C., January 22, 2006, sale 8160, lots 8 and 30.
1 See Alan Miller, "Roman Gusto in New England: An Eighteenth-Century Boston Furniture Designer and His Shop," ed. Luke Beckerdite, American Furniture, (Hanover, NH and London: The Chipstone Foundation, 1993), pp. 160-200.
2 Ibid, pp. 193-5.
3 Luke Beckerdite, "Carving Practices in Eighteenth-Century Boston," in Old-Time New England: New England Furniture, 1987, p. 142.
4 Beckerdite, p. 159.
5 See Miller, fig. 15, p. 172, and fig. 19, p. 174.
6 See ibid, figs. 27-30, pp. 180-1.
7 See Leigh Keno, Joan Barzilay Freund, and Alan Miller, "The Very Pink of the Mode: Boston Georgian Chairs, Their Export, and Their Influence," ed. Luke Beckerdite, American Furniture, (Hanover, NH: The Chipstone Foundation, 1996), figs. 11-2, p. 276.
8 See Israel Sack, Inc., American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol. 8 (Washington, D.C.: Highland House Publisher Inc., 1986), pp. 2260-1, P5773.
9 See Jonathan Fairbanks, et al, Paul Revere's Boston: 1735-1818, Boston, 1975, no. 95, p. 83.
10 See Richard Randall, American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1965, no. 79, p. 113.