Illus. 74.—Chippendale Side-table, 1765.
A Chippendale side-table is shown in Illustration [74], which was evidently made in England, from Chippendale’s designs, if not by Chippendale himself. It is very long and has had to sustain a great weight in the heavy marble top, but it is in splendid condition, perhaps because it is so heavy that it is seldom moved. It has passed through many vicissitudes,—war, fire and earthquake,—in Charleston, South Carolina, since it was brought there by the ancestor of its present owner, George W. Holmes, Esq., of Charleston.
These long side-tables were designed not only by Chippendale, but by the other cabinet-makers and designers of the day, Ince and Mayhew, and Manwaring; but the tables of these less noted men usually are made after the prevailing Chinese style, with applied fretwork and legs which are pierced, thus depriving them of the strength necessary in so large a piece. Chippendale made these also, but in this table the cabinet-maker chose a design which looks and is strong. The carving is in scrolls done in the solid wood, and is French in design. The bracket at the top of the leg is made in a scroll, which extends entirely around the table.
The earliest mention of a sideboard, the description of which implies a form of construction similar to that of the later sideboard, is in 1746, when an advertisement in a London newspaper speaks of “a Large marble Sideboard Table with Lavatory and Bottle Cistern.” Chippendale’s designs, published in 1753 and 1760, contain nothing answering to this description, and both he and other cabinet-makers of that period give drawings of side-tables only, without even a drawer beneath. Such a sideboard as this advertisement of 1746 mentions, may have given the idea from which, forty years later, was developed the sideboard of mahogany, often inlaid, with slender legs and curved front, which is shown in the majority of antique shops as “Chippendale,” while the heavy veneered sideboard, with claw feet and compartments extending nearly to the floor, made after 1800, goes under the name of “Colonial.” One name is as incorrect as the other. Thomas Shearer, an English cabinet-maker, designed the first of the slender-legged sideboards, and they appear in his drawings published in 1788. Hepplewhite’s book, published in 1789, gave similar drawings, as did Sheraton’s in 1791, and these three cabinet-makers designed the sideboards which were so fashionable from 1789 to 1805. The majority which are found in this country were probably made here, but one is shown in Illustration [75], which has a most romantic history of travel and adventure. It is in the half-circle shape which was Shearer’s favorite design, and was probably of English make, although it was brought from France to America.
In 1792 the ship Sally, consigned to Colonel Swan, sailed from France, laden with rich furniture, tapestries, robes, everything gathered together in Paris which might have belonged to a royal lady.
Illus. 75.—Shearer Sideboard and Knife-box, 1792.