The Important Holme Family Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany with Clouded Limestone Top Pier Table, Carving attributed to Nicholas Bernard (1732-1789), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Circa 1755

John Holme III (d. 1775) and his wife, Jane or their son Thomas (d, 1826) and his wife Rebecca;

To their son, George Washington Holme (d. 1864):

To his sons, Furman D. Holme (d. 1892) and Reverend Dr. John Stanfold Holme (d. 1884);

To Furman D. Holme after his half-brother’s death;

To his wife, Adeline Holme (d. 1905);

To her son, Jonathan L. B. Holme;

To his daughter, Agnes Holme (d. 1989);

To her nephew, Gordon Holme (d. 1994);

To his sister, Barbara Holme Conroe;

Sotheby's, New York, Important Americana, October 10, 2002, sale 7825, lot 281.

Richly embellished with meticulously carved ornament, this pier table is attributed to the hand of Nicholas Bernard (1732-1789) of Philadelphia. The carving is representative of his mature working style which has been described by Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller as Bernard working intuitively, efficiently and quickly with well-integrated designs and techniques.¹ A closely related shell-and-acanthus facade is found on a sideboard table at Winterthur Museum with carving attributed to Nicholas Bernard.² Similar carving is found on several case pieces attributed to Bernard.³ As a group, the carving on these pieces represents his most sculptural work.

According to family tradition, this pier table was originally owned by the Holme family of Philadelphia at Box Grove Plantation, their home located on the south bank of Pennypacker Creek in the Lower Dublin area (now Holmesburg) of Northeast Philadelphia. John Holme Sr., the patriach of the family and an Irish Quaker, came to Pennsylvania from England in 1687 and established himself as a mill wright in Lower Dublin. Five years earlier, his uncle, Thomas Holme (1624-1695), emigrated to Pennsylvania as William Penn’s Surveyor General.

In 1720, John Holme Jr., a miller and yeoman, and his wife Martha (Jacquis) purchased 240 acres of land that would be later known as Box Grove Plantation. This pier table was likely purchased in the in the 1760s by John and Martha’s son, John III, and his wife Jane for the main house at Box Grove Plantation, which John had built after inheriting the property from his parents. Jane owned a house at 2^nd and Vine streets in Philadelphia and would have had access to furniture makers there. An alternative theory is that the table was brought to Box Grove Plantation by John and Jane’s son, Thomas Holme, a Captain in the Revolutionary War, and his wife Rebecca. After John III died in 1775, Box Grove Plantation was bequeathed to Thomas and his brother John. Thomas later purchased John’s share and lived at the plantation until his death in 1826.

Thomas’s son, George Washington “G. W.” Holme, inherited the plantation upon the death of his father. When he died in 1864, a household inventory lists a marble top table in the parlor. Furman D. Holme, G. W.’s son, took over management of the plantation and shared its profits with his half-brother, Reverend Dr. John Stanfold Holme of New York City. The table is listed in a second household inventory that may have been taken when Furman died in 1892. Before 1900, the mansion at Box Grove Plantation was divided into two separate (though joined) houses. Furman’s widow, Adeline, lived in one side until her death in 1905. Her son, Jonathan L. B. Holme of East Orange, N.J. inherited Box Grove Plantation (which he later sold in 1923) and the table from her estate. He and his wife, Jean, moved to South Orange, N. J. in 1929. After they died, their daughter Agnes Holme inherited the table. She lived in New Jersey and later moved to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. At her death, her estate was divided between her niece, Barbara Holme Conroe and nephew, Gordon Holme, the next owner of the table. When Gordon died in 1994, the table was bequeathed to Barbara, who sold it in these rooms in 2002. 

¹ Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller, “A Table’s Tale: Craft, Art, and Opportunity in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia,” American Furniture 2004, edited by Luke Beckerdite, p. 16.

² Ibid, fig. 29, p. 16.

³ Ibid, fig. 25, p. 15 and figs. 30-31, p. 17-8.