Beschreibung:

Important Chippendale Brass-Inlaid Walnut SchrankUpper Saucon Township, Northampton County, PennsylvaniaDated 1791 Inlaid with brass beneath cornice 17 PETER MORI 91.Height 85 in. by Width 66 3/4 in. by Depth 22 1/2 in.ProvenanceAsher J. Odenwelder, Jr., Easton, Pennsylvania; Vernon Gunnion Antiques, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.LiteratureAsher J. Odenwelder, Jr., “The Collector’s Art A and Z,” Home Craft Course, Vol. 26, (Plymouth Meeting, PA: Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, 1948), p. 2; “Living with Antiques: The Pennsylvania Home of Asher J. Odenwelder, Jr.,” The Magazine Antiques (April 1947): 249; Wendy A. Cooper and Lisa Minardi, Paint, Pattern & People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725-1850, (Winterthur, DE: The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc, 2011), pp. 52-3, fig. 1.83; Lisa Minardi, “From Millbach to Mahantongo: Fraktur and Furniture of the Pennsylvania Germans,” American Furniture 2011, ed. Luke Beckerdite, (Milwaukee, WI: Chipstone Foundation, 2011), footnoted no. 60.ExhibitedWinterthur, Delaware, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Paint, Pattern & People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725-1850, April 2011-January 2012.Catalogue noteThis impressive schrank is an extremely rare survival of Pennsylvania German furniture with brass inlay. Inscribed below cornice in brass “17 PETER MORI 91,” it was originally made for Peter Mori (Mohry) (d. 1828) of Upper Saucon Township, Northampton (now Lehigh) County in 1791. He was a prosperous yeoman, farmer, and may have also been a blacksmith as indicated by his 1821 will and 1828 estate inventory. He and his wife, Catharina, were members of the Lutheran and Reformed congregation in Upper Saucon. In 1791, they served as godparents, or baptismal sponsors, of Peter Buchecker, whose surviving birth and baptismal certificate records their involvement. This schrank likely corresponds to the “cobard” valued at $10 in Peter Mori’s 1828 estate inventory. In his will dated 1821, he bequeathed “one large Cupboard” and numerous other furnishings to his wife and directed that these items be given to their son, John, at her death.1 The history of the schrank is unknown until 1947, when is appears illustrated in The Magazine Antiques as in the collection of Asher J. Odenwelder of Easton, Northampton County. While utilized by German craftsmen in Europe, brass inlaid decoration was rarely used in America. Aside from the date and name of the original owner, this schrank displays an eight-point star of brass centered in the frieze and brass foliage and a geometric floral design cut from cast sheet brass between the doors. Two other pieces of Pennsylvania German furniture with brass inlay are known. A tall-case clock with a movement by George Hoff Sr. has the date 1768 inlaid in brass in the tympanum and brass stringing around the door.2 A hanging cupboard dated 1766 with applied brass motifs is also extant.3 1 Wendy Cooper and Lisa Minardi, Paint, Pattern & People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725-1850 (Winterthur, DE: The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 2011): p. 53. The birth and baptismal certificate is illustrated in fig. 1.84. 2 Frank L. Hohmann III, Timeless: Masterpiece American Brass Dials Clocks (New York: Hohmann Holdings LLC, 2009) pp. 228-9. 3 Cooper and Minardi, note 205, p. 205.