Beschreibung:

Federal Carved Mahogany and Bird's-eye Maple Veneer Dressing Chest with Mirror, attributed to Thomas Seymour probably with John Seymour Boston, c. 1805-10, original brasses, refinished, (minor restoration), ht. 73 1/2, case wd. 35, case dp. 19 7/8 in. Provenance: The estate of Virginia Couper Johnson, New York City. The English immigrants John Seymour and his son Thomas were the leading innovators in Boston for introduction of new stylish forms to Boston beginning with their arrival in 1793. Their innovations included the tambour-door secretary, probably sofa tables, and dressing chests with mirrors like the present example. Based on French prototypes, dressing chests were first made in the town beginning about the time Thomas Seymour opened his large Boston Furniture Warehouse in 1804. Never satisfied with making one version of any form, Thomas Seymour constantly experimented with both basic form and with all the variations of surface ornament so that rarely are two pieces identical unless made originally as a set. Of the many variations of dressing tables with mirrors by the Seymours, none exceeds this one in its elegance and grace, its brilliance of inlay, its condensation and abstraction into a pure recognizably American form. One other virtually identical example is known. In the opinion of the author, they are two of the great masterpieces made in Federal era America. Their perfection of proportion is unsurpassed. Their design takes two large rectangular masses - the mirror frame and lower case - and subtly unites them with elegant scrolling mirror brackets, simply shaped crest rails, knee brackets and molded square feet. They represent the best craftsmanship of the maturing period of Thomas Seymour's career and mark him as an ambitious and talented craftsman. Though John Seymour probably collaborated, he was probably seventy or more when this was made and gradually retired from active work in the next few years. In the 1790s, the Seymours were copying English and French practices by employing the strong color contrast of mahogany combined with light-wood veneers, usually satinwood. One example labeled by them dates from about 1794-1800 employs all satinwood veneers for both desk interior and exterior surfaces. By the time of this dressing chest, they had changed to using native light-wood veneers, bird's-eye and curly maple. Curly figured maple is used here as the principal veneer in the frame of the mirror. It is embellished further by having a light-wood string of "dart" pattern let into a central stripe of sand-scorched veneer for dramatic contrast. A similar dart pattern string is let into edges of the top. They frequently used this pattern, which was probably imported as a stock item from England. Veneer work is precise throughout and perfectly executed. They used their favorite device by framing the bird's-eye maple panels on drawer fronts with dark wood cross crossbanding, then framing these central panels with runs of blackwood-whitewood stringing. The white string is always adjacent to the dark wood crossbanding, the whitewood string is always next to the lightwood veneer panel. On the lower drawer here, the Seymours used crossbanding surrounds of the Australian wood "she-oak", also called Botany Bay oak in the period though it is in an entirely different family (Casuarina) of plants than oak (Quercus). On the related dressing chest, crossbandings are mahogany, a minor difference. Both upper and lower drawers here have precise, thin cockbead moldings applied to all edges. The simply shaped mahogany knee brackets are inlaid with curving panels of mahogany veneer. Both brackets are missing their upper end scrolls which would have mirrored the surviving lower scroll ends. On the related dressing chest, these inlaid curving veneer panels are ebonized to a black color. The delicate legs are tapered on all four sides, a more costly practice than shaving two sides as is often found on other craftsmen's work, but mor