Very Rare Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany Bonnet-Top Spice Chest, Pennsylvania, circa 1765

Lacking finials, cartouche and two interior drawers.  Minor replacements to carved leaf tips on tympanum. Two interior drawers are 19th century replacements.

The Burgess family of Baltimore, Maryland and Cape Cod, Massachusetts;
Hyman Grossman, Boston, Massachusetts;
John Walton Inc., New York, 1963;
The Collection of Lansdell K. Christie, Muttontown, Long Island;
Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., The Lansdell K. Christie Collection of Notable American Furniture, October 21, 1972, sale 3422, lot 35;
The Collection of Col. Edgar W. and Mrs. Bernice Chrysler Garbisch;
Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., Important American Furniture and Related Decorative Arts from the Estate of Bernice Chrysler Garbisch at Pokety Farms, Cambridge, Maryland, May 24, 1980, sale H-2, lot 1057;
Israel Sack Inc., New York, 1980.

West Chester, Pennsylvania, "The Pennsylvania Spice Box," Chester County Historical Society, 22 March 1986 - 23, August 1986, no. 53;
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, 20 September 1986 - 30 November 1986.

John Walton advertisement in The Magazine Antiques (January 1963): 6-7;
Lita Solis-Cohen, "Garbisch Sale at Pokety," Maine Antiques Digest, (July 1980): 16-A;
Helen-Louise Seggerman, "Garbisch Estate Soars", Antique Monthly (July 1980): 21A;
Hope-Ridings Miller, "Garbisch Estate Contains Great Collections," Antique Monthly (May 1980): 12C;
Heidi Berry, "Garbisch Pieces Have Interesting Stories to Tell," Antique Monthly (July 1980): 8A;
Heidi Berry, "The Last Party at Pokety," Antiques and The Arts Weekly (June 6, 1980): 70;
Israel Sack Inc., American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, Volume 7, New York, 1983, p. 1783;
Nancy Bolger, "The Pennsylvania Spice Box," New York Pennsylvania Collector (May 1986): 15;
Jane Clancy, "Spice and Everything Nice," Colonial Homes Magazine (February 1988): 32.

Please refer to department for condition notes.
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.

"This diminutive mahogany Chippendale highboy with embellishments similar to its famous full-size counterparts is one of the greatest pieces of American 18th-century furniture as well as one of the rarest items to have come into our possession. It is in unrestored condition except for the finials and cartouche. We know of no other example in any museum or collection," said John S. Walton after he acquired the presently- offered spice chest in 1963. After purchasing the same spice chest seventeen years later, an elated Albert Sack of Israel Sack Inc. remarked "We always dreamed of owning this.” Sack's ownership was, of course, client-related; the chest was purchased for the account of Stanley Sax, who would later comment: "With imagination, dedication and integrity American craftsmanship created this masterpiece."

The presently-offered spice chest engendered this response from these American furniture connoisseurs for the following reasons. First, the swan's-neck pediment terminating in carved floral rosettes, pierced cartouche, urn-and-flame finials, foliate- and shell- carved embellished tympanum, shaped and scroll-carved skirt centering a pendant shell, acanthus-carved cabriole legs, and claw-and-ball feet of this miniature high chest indicate that it was the product of a highly sophisticated eighteenth century Philadelphia cabinetmaking workshop. Next, despite the small scale, the maker of this finely proportioned chest followed almost every detail of construction and design found on the best full-sized Philadelphia high chests of the Rococo period. Finally, the presently-offered example is the only spice chest in existence today in the form of a miniature Chippendale style scroll-top high chest. For these reasons, this exceptional and exceedingly rare spice chest is considered to be a supreme example of American eighteenth century furniture design.

When this extraordinary spice chest was sold by John Walton to Lansdell Christie in 1963, it retained an old and possibly original finish with some losses to the tympanum carving, as evidenced by the detail photographs in John Walton's advertisement in the January 1963 issue of Antiques }\1agazine. Comparisons of the 1963 photographs of the spice chest with those in the 1972 Sotheby's Parke-Bernet, Inc. catalogue for the sale of the collection of Lansdell Christie make it evident that after purchase of the spice chest from John Walton, Lansdell Christie added the missing leaf tips and refinished the surface.  "Spice" chests or "nests of drawers" appeared in the seventeenth century as repositories for expensive imported spices from the East and the West Indies. Cinnamon from Ceylon, pepper from Sumatra, and cloves and nutmeg from the Spice Islands were difficult and costly to acquire. Consequently, these valuable and precious delicacies were safeguarded in locked cabinets made particularly for this purpose and came to be known as spice chests. Frequently made of high quality woods and decorated with finely carved or inlaid decoration, these luxury items were fixtures in only the most prosperous and fashionable colonial homes.

Spice chests were in use in the colonies as early as 1682, when Robert Turner listed a "spice box" among the belongings in his "great house." In 1686, a "boxefor contaening spice" was listed in the inventory of James Claypoole's Philadelphia house (Stockwell, David H., "The Spice Cabinets of Pennsylvania and New Jersey," The Magazine Antiques (October 1939): 174). In )e Parlour" of the South Front Street house of Anthony Morris, built in Philadelphia in 1687 and rebuilt in 1700, was a "Spice box & Looking glass." In 1720, the "Brewor," Joseph Tayor, owned a "Spice Box on a Frame." During that same year, Martha Waite possessed "Earthen ware on the Spice box." In I 730, there was "One Spice Draws In the Large Chamber" of John Bartram's house in Kingsessing. And in 1745, Peter Evans, the RegisterGeneral of Wills in Philadelphia, owned a "Spice Box of Ebony with Drawers" (Hornor, William M., Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture, Reprint, Washington, D.C., 1977, p. 70). Although this form is generally referred to as a "spice" chest, small chests of this type were often used in the eighteenth century to secure valuables rather than spices. The "Spice Box Sundreys therein" mentioned in the 1750 inventory of Jacob Hibberd, yeoman of Darby township, contained "To 2 links of Gold Sleeve Buttons 2 links of Silver ditto & 2 Silver studds; To a pair of Silver shoe Clasps 1 pr Brass ditto; To 1 Pin Cussion with a Silver belt and Chain; To a Silver Scisars Chain and thimble of ditto; To Silver Snuff Box and one Black ditto; To 2 Large Silver spoons 6 Silver Tea spoons and one pair of Silver Tongs; To Sundrey Small things (Schiffer, Margaret Berwind, Furniture and Its Makers of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Exton, Pennsylvania, 1978, p. 266). The "spice box" listed in the inventory of John Boss of Chester County, Pennsylvania stored "two combs and a pair of spectecles" (Griffith, p. 14). Another Chester County inventory of 1761 recorded "a spis box" that contained "glas & pokt books" (Ibid). Most extant spice boxes appear in the form of a rectangular case of drawers mounted on ball, straight bracket, or ogee bracket feet. Other examples, such as the presently-offered spice chest, resemble a miniature high chest of drawers with turned or cabriole legs. Often designed in the prevailing William and Mary, Queen Anne, Chippendale and Federal styles popular at the time, these spice chests have drawer arrangements that follow two general patterns: variations of graduated drawers (as seen in the presently-offered example) or a symmetrical configuration of drawers around one square drawer (Griffith, p. 17). The pediment of the presently-offered spice chest relates to the scrolled pediments seen on a small group of Pennsylvania spice boxes. Two cherry examples attributed to the same unidentified Philadelphia workshop are illustrated in Lee Ellen Griffith, The Pennsylvania Spice Box, no. 3, and David Hunt Stockwell, "The Spice Cabinets of Pennsylvania and New Jersey," p. 175, respectively. An open scrolled top spice box made of walnut was advertised by John Walton in The Magazine Antiques (March 1983): 452. A fourth example is in the collection of Bayou Bend (see Warren, David B., Bayou Bend: American Furniture, Paintings, and Silver from the Bayou Bend Collection, Houston, 1975, p. 37). Another spice box with a scrolled pediment is in a private collection.

Other spice chests in the form of a Queen Anne style miniature high chest of drawers are in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Heckscher, Morrison H., American Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Late Colonial Period: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles, New York, 1985, no. 162); Winterthur (see Downs, Joseph, American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, New York, 1952, no. 200, 20 I, and Schiffer, Herbert F. and Peter B., Miniature Antique Furniture, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, 1972, no. 142); Chipstone Foundation (see Rodriguez Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone, Madison, Wisconsin, 1984, no. 33); the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State (see Conger, Clement E., Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the US. Department of State, New York, 1991, no. 6); The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (see Griffith, Lee Ellen, The Pennsylvania Spice Box, no. 47); the Chester County Historical Society (Ibid, no. 51, 55); and private collections (Ibid, nos. 48, 49, 52, 54).

For additional information on spice chests see Griffith, Lee Ellen, The Pennsylvania Spice Box, West Chester, Pennsylvania: Chester County Historical Society, 1986, and Stockwell, David Hunt, "The Spice Cabinets of Pennsylvania and New Jersey," The Magazine Antiques (October 1939): 75-77.