- 548
Important Federal Red and Polychrome Paint Decorated Poplar Slant Front Desk, Mahantango or Schwaben Creek Valley, Northumberland and Schuylkill Counties, Pennsylvania, circa 1830
Estimate
300,000 - 500,000 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- Slant-Front Desk
- paint on pine
- 43 3/4 by 37 7/8 by 20 1/4 in.
Appears to retain its original stamped brass hardware. Feet are original based on surface analysis.
Provenance
Joe Kindig III, York, Pennsylvania
Exhibited
“American Folk Painters of Three Centuries," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1980
"Decorated Furniture of the Mahantongo Valley," Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 1987
"Surface Attraction: Painted Furniture from the American Folk Art Museum," New York, American Folk Art Museum, September 20, 2005-March 26, 2005
"Decorated Furniture of the Mahantongo Valley," Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 1987
"Surface Attraction: Painted Furniture from the American Folk Art Museum," New York, American Folk Art Museum, September 20, 2005-March 26, 2005
Literature
Robert Bishop, Folk Painters of America, New York: EP Dutton, 1979, p. 138
Henry M .Reed, Decorated Furniture of the Mahantongo Valley, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Center Gallery, Bucknell University, 1987, p. 43
Henry M .Reed, "Finding the Fabulous Furniture of the Mahantongo Valley," Pennsylvania Heritage 21, no. 4 (fall 1995): 21
Schaffner, Cynthia VA. and Susan Klein. American Painted Furniture, 1790-1880, New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1997, p. 143, fig. 6.17
Frederick S. Weiser and Mary Hammond Sullivan, "Decorated Furniture of the Schwaben Creek Valley," in Ebbes fer Alle-Ebber, Ebbes fer Dich (Something for Everyone, Something for You), Breinigsville, PA: Pennsylvania German Society, 1980, p. 342
American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 182, fig. 153
Henry M .Reed, Decorated Furniture of the Mahantongo Valley, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Center Gallery, Bucknell University, 1987, p. 43
Henry M .Reed, "Finding the Fabulous Furniture of the Mahantongo Valley," Pennsylvania Heritage 21, no. 4 (fall 1995): 21
Schaffner, Cynthia VA. and Susan Klein. American Painted Furniture, 1790-1880, New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1997, p. 143, fig. 6.17
Frederick S. Weiser and Mary Hammond Sullivan, "Decorated Furniture of the Schwaben Creek Valley," in Ebbes fer Alle-Ebber, Ebbes fer Dich (Something for Everyone, Something for You), Breinigsville, PA: Pennsylvania German Society, 1980, p. 342
American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 182, fig. 153
Condition
No apparent inpaint when obvserved under blacklight
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.
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
The desk is one of only three known examples within the larger surviving group of painted furniture produced in the Mahantango Valley region during the second quarter of the 19th century. Its vibrantly colored, figural motifs of carefully rendered angels, birds, urns, and flowers, together with compass-drawn stars and fans, are thought to have been inspired by the printed and decorated Taufscheine (baptismal certificates), Haussegen (house blessings), and other religious and secular illuminated texts popular among the Lutheran and German Reformed groups who established and cultivated the valley.
The painted decoration on the desk is unlike the larger group of known examples in that it was laid down on the bare wood surface of the case, rather than applied over a ground layer of surface color. The fall-front panel concealing its interior writing surface and the graduated drawer fronts of its lower case are framed by two-color painted line stringing and inset corner-fan motifs. The facing female figures decorating the fall lid, as well as the birds, prancing deer, urns, and compass stars decorating this element and the lower drawer fronts, are carefully rendered in brightly contrasting opaque pigments. Similar figural motifs are found in the contemporaneous printed and decorated Taufscheine of printer Heinrich Ebner, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and J. Baumann, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, among others.
Lines of stamp-printed rosettes in alternating yellow and blue visually frame the various other decorative motifs and serve to further unify the upper and lower sections of the case. Providing additional ornament are imported stamped-brass drawer pulls and key escutcheons, which are also seen on other case pieces made in the valley. Typical in pattern and design to those produced by English manufacturers in Birmingham, these brasses were imported, sold, and in use in Philadelphia and other urban centers and were often purchased through dry-goods merchants by the numerous traditional cabinetmakers working in the more rural folk communities throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. -J.L.L.
The painted decoration on the desk is unlike the larger group of known examples in that it was laid down on the bare wood surface of the case, rather than applied over a ground layer of surface color. The fall-front panel concealing its interior writing surface and the graduated drawer fronts of its lower case are framed by two-color painted line stringing and inset corner-fan motifs. The facing female figures decorating the fall lid, as well as the birds, prancing deer, urns, and compass stars decorating this element and the lower drawer fronts, are carefully rendered in brightly contrasting opaque pigments. Similar figural motifs are found in the contemporaneous printed and decorated Taufscheine of printer Heinrich Ebner, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and J. Baumann, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, among others.
Lines of stamp-printed rosettes in alternating yellow and blue visually frame the various other decorative motifs and serve to further unify the upper and lower sections of the case. Providing additional ornament are imported stamped-brass drawer pulls and key escutcheons, which are also seen on other case pieces made in the valley. Typical in pattern and design to those produced by English manufacturers in Birmingham, these brasses were imported, sold, and in use in Philadelphia and other urban centers and were often purchased through dry-goods merchants by the numerous traditional cabinetmakers working in the more rural folk communities throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. -J.L.L.