An Exceptional Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany Dressing Table, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Circa 1765

Retains paper label inscribed Dressing table belonged / to the Power family. Bought of Mrs Hall.

This dressing table was possibly originally owned by Nicholas Power (1742-1808) who married Rebecca Corey (1747-1825) in 1766.  Nicholas Power stands as the most likely individual in the Power family to have owned such a grand example of eighteenth-century Philadelphia made furniture. He was a first cousin of the four Brown brothers, Nicholas, John, Joseph and Moses, who through their joint ventures as Nicholas Brown & Co., dominated Providence's mercantile life during the period. After his employment in Nicholas Brown & Co., he became a successful merchant and ropemaker. Power died leaving a sizable estate, which required over twenty years of administration.  The dressing table was subsequently owned by an as of yet unknown probable relative Mrs. Hall, from whom Hope Brown Ives (1839-1909) likely purchased it when furnishing her new home.  It descended to her grandson Colonel Robert H.I. Goddard (1837-1916) who married Rebekah Burnet Grosbeck (d. 1914); thence to their son R. H. Ives Goddard (1880 - 1959) who married Margaret Hazard (1885 - 1969); he brought it back to the Thomas Poynton Ives House (built by his great grandparents) when he inherited it in 1910/1911.  The dressing table then descended to his grandchildren, the present owners.

The Magazine Antiques (November 1936): no. 5, p. 204 as the property of Mr. and Mrs. R.H. Ives Goddard.

Secondary wood is Poplar; there is a 91/2 x 1/4 inch to top of proper left small drawer lip and with a 3/4 x 1 inch patch and with a 2 x 3/8 inch patch to bottom proper right corner; proper right small drawer with a 1 3/4 x 3/4 patch to proper left bottom corner; sections of carving to central drawer replaced - please refer to department for photos of replaced sections; proper right front legs knee returns replaced; proper left front leg's front knee return replaced; drawer bottoms re-nailed; back splash added to back of top, now removed; later corner poplar glue blocks added to skirt and leg squares; the case is sun-bleached; hardware replaced except for central keyhole escutcheon which appears to be original; proper front left corner edge of top with a 3-inch patch to the rope-twist molded edge.
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.

With its guilloche-carved molding of the top, flowerhead-and-vine carved quarter columns, C-scroll carved sides centering an acanthus flourish, acanthus carved knees, Gothic-carved drawer, and acanthus-carved skirt, this dressing table stands as one of the most elaborate and richly carved Rococo style dressing tables that survives from Colonial Philadelphia.

Rather than a shell surrounded by acanthus leafage found on the drawers of most dressing tables of the period, this one exhibits the extremely rare detail of unusual applied carving of Gothic arches below a framework of trailing foliage, a design likely taken from a fashionable English pattern book. Only three other Philadelphia case pieces are known with Gothic carving of this type. A dressing table illustrated by William M. Hornor in Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture as the property of Dr. and Mrs. John B. Carson was sold at Sotheby’s, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter M. Jeffords, October 28-9, 2004, sale 8016, lot 366. It was sold together with the high chest of drawers made en suite. Another dressing table with a Gothic drawer was sold at Sotheby’s, Important American Furniture, Folk Art and Folk Paintings, October 25, 1992, sale 6350, lot 355 and a third known example is illustrated in Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America, (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1913), p. 113, fig. 112

This dressing table is one of three extant examples of its form with profuse and lavish carving of the top molding, quarter columns, and sides. One at the Minneapolis Institute of Art displays carving attributed to the Garvan Carver (see Minneapolis Institute of Arts: Handbook of the Collection, edited by Kathleen McLean,   (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2007), p. 251). Another and its en suite high chest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art have a history in the Lawrence family of Philadelphia (see Morrison Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, no. 167, p. 257). 

Closely related carving is found on the quarter columns and skirt of two high chest bases attributed to John Pollard (1740-1787), the highly accomplished Philadelphia carver. One is in the collection of the State Department and illustrated in Clement Conger and Alexandra Rollins, Treasures of State, New York, 1991, no. 66, pp. 150-1. The other also with similarly carved case sides is in a private collection and illustrated in William Hornor, Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture, 1935 pl. 150 as the property of Mrs. William Winder Laird. The latter retains its original ornate cast brass pulls of a pattern that likely mirrors the original hardware of this dressing table. The ornate keyhole escutcheon on the top drawer of this dressing table may be a surviving original escutcheon.

A dressing table in the Hennage Collection though less elaborate is similar in the treatment of the quarter columns and the carving on the legs (see Elizabeth Stillinger, American Antiques: The Hennage Collection, Williamsburg, p. 45).