Illus. 25.—High Chest of Drawers, about 1765.
The furniture made in and around Philadelphia was much more elaborately carved and richly ornamented than that of cabinet-makers further north, and the finest tables, high-boys, and low-boys that are found were probably made there. They have large handles, like letter F, in Illustration [11], and finely carved applied scrolls.
The richest and most elaborate style attained in such pieces of furniture is shown in the high chest in Illustration [25], which is one of the finest high chests known. The proportions are perfect, and the carving is all well executed. This chest was at one time in the Pendleton collection, and is now owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., of Millbrook, New York.
Illus. 26.—Dressing-table and
Looking-glass, about 1770.
Such a chest as this was in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mind when he wrote: “After all, the moderns have invented nothing better in chamber furniture than those chests which stand on four slender legs, and send an absolute tower of mahogany to the ceiling, the whole terminating in a fantastically carved summit.”
The dressing-table and looking-glass in Illustration [26] are also owned by Mr. Flagler. The looking-glass is described upon page [385]. The dressing-table is a beautiful and dainty piece of furniture of the same high standard as the chest last described. The carving upon the cabriole legs is unusually elaborate and well done. It will be noticed that the lower edge of these pieces is no longer finished in the simple manner of the earlier high-boys and low-boys, but is cut in curves, which vary with each piece of furniture.
In Illustration [365] upon page [378] is a low-boy of walnut, owned by the writer, of unusually graceful proportions, the carved legs being extremely slender. The shell upon this low-boy is carved in the frame below the middle drawer instead of upon it, as is usual.