Philadelphia Empire Furniture – Bold, Brash, & Beautiful
2007 Loan Exhibit

“In the Grecian works of art, every attention was evidently given to produce a flowing and correct outline; and so to arrange the parts in masses, that the whole should appear clear and distinct; their compositions being neither overloaded nor deficient, but each part relieving another: and it is this happy relief, this rejection of little parts, that gives to their works so chaste and pleasing an effect.”¹

From the 18th century urban centers of Northern Europe, a new-founded interest in the architecture of the cultures of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome began as early as 1750. By the late 18th and early 19th Century in both Europe and America, classically inspired architecture was complemented by interior furnishings whose design and ornament strongly borrowed from ancient sources.

Empire, the term often used to describe such classical furniture, takes its name from the empire Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) created when he came to power. Beginning in 1799, Napoleon set about redecorating the French royal palaces that had been destroyed during the revolution of the early 1790s.

After conquering Italy and Egypt, Napoleon brought back archeological wonders from both countries. By using ancient decoration and architecture as a basis for his furniture design, Napoleon hoped to strengthen his image of majesty and grandeur. He hired designers Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre Fontaine (1762-1853) to work on the renovation and redecoration of the palaces.

Inspired by the order, balance, and strong symbolism found in ancient art that also inspired Renaissance art, Percier and Fontaine created a new royal style based on the antique that was both functional and extravagantly beautiful. Their work influenced other designers and craftsmen to create in the Empire style. French patrons — aristocrats and upper and middle classes bourgeoisie, drove the demand for the heavily ornamented furnishings.

As Napoleon's armies spread across Europe, designers in the conquered lands adopted the new style and it grew to become the most fashionable in Europe. The furniture of this period is distinguished by angular shapes, inlaid woods, gilt bronze, lion's paw feet, ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman military symbols, floral and leaf carving, and animal monopodia such as lion's heads, eagles, and swans.

Publications by Percier and Fontaine and other designers such as Pierre de la Mésangere (1761-1831) and Baron Dominique Vivant Denon (1747-1825) promoted the Empire furniture and furnishings that were of ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman forms.

The use of the word Empire to describe this style of furniture refers directly to the power and domination held by the Hellenic and Roman Empires that Napoleon was hoping to imitate. The bold forms and rich surfaces of Empire furniture embodies the regality of Napoleon's perception of his empire and suited the opulent style of furniture and furnishings.

In America, taste for this new fashion of furniture followed closely the dictates initially designed to promote Napoleon's Empire, though often through English designs. English cabinetmakers had elaborated on the French style and concentrated heavily on Greek motifs rather than Roman, and published several influential design books on which American furniture makers based much of their work.

British designers included Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806), Thomas Hope (1769-1831), George Smith (1782-1869), and Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834). Thus, American Empire furniture was modeled after French designs often interpreted by English designers copying their French counterparts.

Between 1800 and 1840, the smooth, delicate neo-classical designs were replaced with the bolder classical forms derived directly from antiquity. As the demand for this heavier interpretation of Classical furniture in America increased in the 1810s, so did the need for talented craftsmen to create this impressive mode of furniture. Recently emigrated, European-trained craftsmen collaborated with American cabinetmakers to create an Empire style uniquely American.

Empire style was embraced in American urban centers such as Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Baltimore, initially inspired by furniture imported from France and England. With the imported furniture as the prototype and design books as a further guide, American cabinetmakers and those who were European-trained eagerly adopted the new fashionable style for their clients. Between 1815 and 1830, there were one thousand cabinetmakers working in Philadelphia. The prominent intellectual and financial status of Philadelphia during the early 19th century attracted highly skilled artisans to the city.

Many scholars consider Philadelphia the birthplace of American classicism because Philadelphia was the commercial and intellectual (as well as governmental) capital of the American colonies in the early years of the new republic.

In the 18th century, Philadelphia had cultivated a reputation as America's most cosmopolitan city and by the early 19th century, the architectural landscape of the city was changing as it adopted strictly classical designs. Buildings such as the Bank of Pennsylvania on South Second Street and the Second Bank of the United States were more impressive and grandiose than the brick buildings that had dominated the cityscape of Philadelphia in the 18th century.

Nineteenth century Philadelphia achieved some of its architectural greatness by building Greek-inspired structures. These buildings stood as symbols of civic and national achievement, one of the intents of classicism, and such architecture created an image of strength, beauty, and security.

Empire furniture complemented Greek Revival architecture in Philadelphia homes and public buildings. The primary material of American Empire furniture is mahogany, at times incorporating light woods as inlay in geometric designs. Highly decorative in form, typical features include well-articulated carving and the use of paint or stencil to appear as metal ornamentation. Philadelphia Empire furniture included decorative carved shells, dolphins, flowers, and acanthus leaves. Highly polished and figured wood veneers, ormolu mounts, and ornate wood carving can be found on several forms of furniture.

Philadelphia makers used wood veneers on the tops of center, pier, and card tables, as well as other forms. Carved lion's paw feet are seen on many types of Empire furniture including tables, sofas, sideboards, and secretaries (except chairs, which often terminated in saber legs). Although the lion's paw motif was a popular foot design, other forms rested on different types of feet such as bulb or “beehived” carved designs.

Brass castors imported from England in the shape of lion's paw are commonly found on American Empire furniture. Ormolu mounts and stenciled and painted decoration in imitation of ormolu mounts were commonly used on French secretaries, known as secretaire à abattant, chairs, sofas, and pier tables. Marble, imported and from local quarries, was used on the tops of pier and center tables. Philadelphia cabinetmakers tended to favor these design elements, which made the furniture coming out of their warehouses distinctive.

A number of Philadelphia cabinet shops produced high quality Empire furniture. Serving a large and prospering urban area, the competitive environment of the Philadelphia cabinetmaking community produced intense creativity. Among the most talented firms were those of Joseph B. Barry (1759- 1838), Michel Bouvier (1792-1874), Henry Connelly (1770-1826), Anthony G. Quervelle (1789-1856), Charles & John Ferris White (in partnership from 1828-1851). Barry trained in Dublin and London and many of the forms of furniture produced in his shop are derived from British design sources. Quervelle and Bouvier were French-born craftsmen who shared a passion for the Napoleonic style of classical furniture so popular in France.

Anthony Gabriel Quervelle was a French émigré cabinetmaker whose Philadelphia masterpieces demonstrate how he excelled in creating distinctive furniture. Quervelle's design sketchbook, now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, illustrates an individual style of furniture not similar to other furniture makers in Philadelphia or elsewhere. Furniture documented to Quervelle's shop often displays one or more of his favorite stylistic elements. A sunburst, or fan design, often features a small, well-carved shell which appears on forms such as sideboards, cellarettes and worktables.

Quervelle often applied boldly carved gadrooning, a series of undulating carved scrolls, to the bottom of the rails of his case furniture. Quervelle also favored a design of carved cornucopias as well as various vase and urn forms. In addition to stenciled decoration, Quervelle used high quality brass mounts.

Sideboards, designed for the dining room to provide storage space for china, silverware, wine bottles, and glasses, were some of the most costly pieces of Empire furniture and featured dramatic veneers, carving and generally, architectural elements. A marble-topped dropped center section surmounted by a mirror that is flanked by carved or plain back elements distinguishes Philadelphia (and later Pittsburgh) sideboards.

The sunburst design with the carved shell is seen on the sideboard in Figure 3, which stylistically is typical of Quervelle's shop. This sideboard design was listed in The Philadelphia Cabinet and Chair Maker's Union Book of Prices For Manufacturing Cabinet Ware (Philadelphia, 1828) as a “Pedestal End Sideboard with a sunk center and glass mirror in back.”

In addition to the sunburst design, carved cornucopias on either side of the back center distinguish the design. The sideboard rests on the type of carved lion's paw feet that were popularly used on Philadelphia Empire furniture. The design balances horizontal and vertical cylindrical surfaces, one of the achievements of Philadelphia furniture of this period.

The worktable in Figure 4 and another one that also descended in the Robert E. Griffith family were originally purchased from Quervelle along with the monumental secretary bookcase at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that earned the silver medal at the annual Franklin Institute competition of 1827.²

A worktable with a cornucopia base is associated with Quervelle's shop based on several of his trademark design motifs, including a concave semi-circular arch design with gadrooned base, which decorates the large front drawer. The front supports consist of opposed cornucopia, while the back support is in the shape of a lyre, a popular motif found on worktables and card tables during the Empire period.

The ends of the cornucopia and the top of the front platform are decorated with disks of concentric circles. This disk motif was often used by Quervelle, and also by French born and trained New York furniture maker Charles Honoré Lannuier (1779-1819). This form is very similar to a sketch of Quervelle's and is often found on his documented works.

Quervelle was also known to produce excellently crafted pier tables, including two made for President Andrew Jackson, presently in the collection of the White House Historical Association. Empire style pier tables (known in France as console tables) developed from early slab tables. Pier tables were placed in front of the pier wall between two windows, often with a large looking glass above them. The looking glass set in between the legs of a pier table suggested that the mirror was continuous, lending an illusion of height to a window wall.

The pier table in Figure 7 contains Quervelle's shop label, reading that it was manufactured at “ Anthony G. Quervelle's Cabinet and Sofa Manufactory, 126 South Second Street, …below Dock Philadelphia”. This was Quervelle's address between 1825 and 1829, identifying the table as being made between these dates. This pier table is decorated with a white vein marble top, gilded brass mounts, acanthus leaf carving, and front lion's paw-scroll supports, all of which were popular motifs used by Quervelle.

Quervelle enjoyed patronage from the citizens of Philadelphia and also exported furniture to other states. Numerous anonymous clients purchased their furniture on the wharves of the great Southern ports. Quervelle's furniture decorated many of the great plantation houses of the Mississippi River. An example of this is the set of furniture, commissioned from Quervelle in August 1835, at Rosedown Plantation in Louisiana that was ordered as a wedding gift.

Quervelle was commissioned to make several pieces, including beds, sofas, a sideboard, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe, a secretary desk, a washstand, and even a hat stand. Quervelle's furniture practically filled the entire estate, which today stands as a State Museum in Louisiana. Quervelle's furniture won many awards from Philadelphia's Franklin Institute and he operated a highly successful establishment until his death in 1856. Quervelle was one of the most talented Philadelphia Empire furniture makers of the period.

The firm of French-trained cabinetmaker Michel Bouvier, who served in Napoleon's army before coming to Philadelphia in 1815, created high quality classical furniture with a strong French flavor. Between 1818 and 1820, Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte retained Bouvier to supply him with furniture for his estate at Point Breeze, along the Delaware River in New Jersey.

Bouvier's furniture for Bonaparte would have been amongst imported French furniture of the highest quality and therefore, would have been closely related to the finest French cabinetry. Besides maintaining a prosperous furniture producing shop, Bouvier bought real estate in Philadelphia and maintained a wholesale marble and mahogany importing business. Bouvier died a very wealthy man and left a considerable legacy of real estate and furniture.

A card table bearing the stencil of Michel Bouvier displays Bouvier's skill in veneering and designing with contrasting wood types. The entire top, pedestal, and platform are veneered with figured maple. Ebonized lion's claw feet support the platform in the well that is revealed under the top when the top swivels. This table was given to Thomas Henry (1809-1883) and Susan Ross Larkin (1811-1881) when they married in Philadelphia in 1830, as recorded on an ink inscription in the card well. The inscription also notes that the table passed through four generations of mothers and daughters.

Cabinetmaker Henry Connelly arrived in Philadelphia from central Pennsylvania and owned and operated a large cabinetmaking shop in Philadelphia until 1824. Connelly's shop at 16th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia opened in 1801 and his list of clients included Stephen Girard, Henry Hollingsworth, and Captain John Carson.

A pair of card tables made by Connelly for Girard incorporates radiating mahogany veneer tops above a lyre base design of carved dolphins and on reeded saber legs capped in brass lion's paws. This distinctive design is indicative of Connelly's skill as a designer and cabinetmaker working in the English interpretation of the French Empire style, as compared to those cabinetmakers working in Philadelphia who were trained in France.

In general, Philadelphia card tables feature more intricate carving of the pedestals and other table elements than those made in New York or Boston. According to cabinetmaking price lists of the period, design features that increased the price of card tables included the use of veneered woods, such as bird's eye maple, extensive carving on the central tablet, pedestal and/or supports and feet, and the use of dolphin and lyre motifs. A bill in Winterthur library's Joseph Down's Manuscript Collection details the purchase by David Newbold of several pieces of furniture from another popular firm, that of Charles and John White.

A large set of furniture, including a sideboard and a sofa, was commissioned from Charles H. White's firm and sent by steamboat to the Newbold family of New Jersey as a wedding gift. Several pieces of furniture from the original set have been kept at the country house of descendants of the Newbold family. During the years 1828 to 1851, Charles White maintained a partnership with his brother, John Ferris White. The White firm produced many fine forms of furniture, including worktables, dining tables, sideboards, and secretaries. A labeled worktable and secretary by the White brothers displays excellent design and carving.

The upper drawer of the worktable contains a writing surface covered in blue felt, below which is a Charles H. and John F. White label affixed with nails to the drawer bottom. The mirror inside suggests the many uses of the work, such as for dressing, sewing, letter writing, reading, and other activities that required light. Exceptional decorative features on the White worktable include original wooden knobs carved to imitate glass and the somewhat unusual gadroon-carved edge of the lift-top.

The vase form of the pedestal is decorated with acanthus leafage that radiates upward and outward. This reverses the usual downward flowing “spouting fountain” foliage effect, which was a decorative feature also used by Quervelle.

Ladies' worktables first appeared in the Federal period and grew in popularity and distinction during the Empire period. Empire worktables were often intricately carved, rectangular in shape and made of mahogany, although bands of rosewood, curly maple or burl ash veneer were not uncommon on fancier tables. A fine worktable distinguished the lady of the house and was often on display in the family parlor, but was also placed in bedrooms and sitting rooms.

While worktables and small writing tables were an important item for women to own, desks were of equal importance to men. Secretary bookcases, fall-front desks (known as secretaire à abattant, or French secretaries), and cylinder desks, were all popular types available from the best Philadelphia cabinetmakers.

The desks, or secretaries, with bookcases had a combined usage - storage for books and records as well as surfaces for reading and writing. The design features included upper and lower columns, carving (often applied) to the uppermost portion of the case, decorated lower doors, intricate glazed designs on the doors, and brass or gilded mounts.

A labeled White secretary, designed without a bookcase, is fitted with a desk drawer and finished with two fielded panels and original glass drawer pulls. The use of bird's eye maple highlighted the interior. Four of the small drawers are labeled with White's stencil. Philadelphia city directories indicate that White was at the address on this label between 1827 and 1831.

The fall-front secretary (or secretaire à abattant) was listed in The Philadelphia Cabinet and Chair Maker's Union Book of Prices For Manufacturing Cabinet Ware (Philadelphia, 1828) as the “French secretary” and was developed in France during the second half of the 18th century.

A secretaire à abattant or “French secretary” with burl maple veneered interior desk drawers in Figure 13 is not labeled but exhibits decorative features associated with furniture documented to Quervelle's shop. Such gilt stenciled decoration that remarkably survived on the fall front was often lost to early refinishes of the varnished wood surfaces. The detail of the moldings above the interior drawer spaces are identical to those on a desk illustrated in Quervelle's sketchbook.

Like many other Philadelphia secretary bookcases, the secretary bookcase in Figure 15 features design elements derived directly from classical Greek architecture. The columns on the upper case have Corinthian capitals, while the columns on the lower case have modified Ionic capitals. Such hierarchy of order is also seen in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, as well as Renaissance architecture.

The mullions on the bookcase doors have pointed arches that correspond to the acanthus-decorated acroterion, or architectural ornament, on the pediment. The overall effect is directly derived from the pediments surmounting Greek temples.

As in classical architecture, animal and human heads, sometimes on monopodia, were often incorporated in the designs of Empire chests of drawers, clocks, and sofas. Irish-born cabinetmaker Joseph B. Barry trained in Dublin and London and worked in Philadelphia from 1794 until 1838. His skill in incorporating carved elements, such as fleur-de-lis, palmetto leaves, horizontal reeding, and animal, female, and male heads, produced distinctive forms. Barry favored using brass medallions, string inlay and marquetry (also known as Boulle-work) inlay.

Furniture associated with Barry's firm derived much inspiration from Thomas Sheraton's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer and General Artist's Encyclopedia, combining English and vernacular design elements. Barry's firm was among the largest in Philadelphia, producing all forms of furniture - from chairs and beds to sideboards and bookcases.

The mahogany tall clock case in Figure 16 is signed by Barry on the inside of the hood and features quarter columns on the waist and four free-standing columns with caryatid capitals on the hood. A carved eagle standing on a foliage-carved plinth divides the broken arch pediment. Carved caryatid (female) and Persian (male) heads are sometimes found on chests of drawers; and eagles on gilded mirrors and sofas. The sofa, made with eagles' heads in Figure 17 was made by a lesserknown cabinetmaker, Joseph D. Robinson, whose working dates are not recorded.

Little is known about Robinson's firm or dates of operation in Philadelphia. On the sofa, both Robinson and upholsterer Frederick Forst signed their names, the word “Philadelphia,” and the date “January 12, 1838” in pencil on the outside back. Forst is listed in the 1835-1836 Philadelphia Directory “Upholsterer 16 Raspberry al.” and in the 1837 and 1843 Directories “Upholsterer, 1 Harmony ct., 16 Raspberry al.”

Empire sofas and couches of various shapes and sizes decorated the drawing rooms and parlors of Philadelphia homes. Sofas had scrolled arms, often called Grecian ends or box ends, with the arms always of identical height. Couches (with uneven arm heights) had direct allusions to Greek furniture. Such upholstered seating provided comfort and lent a distinguished air to the room when guests visited the home. The majority of the cost of sofas was in the upholstery, both the under-upholstery and the primary surface.

The loo table in Figure 18 incorporates numerous decorative elements – gesso, gilt stenciling, marquetry inlay, and veneer. The occasional table has much less adornment and is of unusually diminutive size. Richly carved Empire pedestal tables included center, dining, and card tables. The pedestals that arose from the platform bases became the principal decorative feature for tables of this type, often combining lion's paw feet with acanthus carving.

Used in libraries or in parlors, center and card tables were highly decorative pieces of furniture in early 19th century households and were for specific card games, such as the table for playing loo. The sections of dining table were often used for a variety of activities not limited to dining.

The range of Philadelphia chairs on exhibit demonstrates different stylistic elements that were popular on chairs throughout the Empire period. Philadelphia Empire chairs expounded both French and English designs. Chair types included Klismos or “Grecian,” square-back chairs, cabriole chairs, and fancy painted chairs. Klismos chairs were based on Greek designs and took into account human comfort and practicality.

Designs for Klismos chairs were found in sculptures and paintings. Klismos chairs have saber legs that splay outwards. The tablet backs were often decorated with carving, brass or wood inlay, or painted and gilt decoration. A box-like wooden slip seat frame is often associated with Philadelphia chairs, an upholstery system derived from French sources.

One of a pair of armchairs, shown in Figure 20, is from a large suite of seating furniture that includes at least ten side chairs, the armchair is part of a set commissioned by the prosperous Philadelphia merchant, George Harrison (1762-1845). Directly derived from published English designs, most specifically James Barron's Modern and Elegant Designs of Cabinet & Upholstery Furniture (London, c. 1814), the chairs appear to be unique in the vocabulary of American classical furniture. The impressive suite descended through the family of Joshua Francis Fisher, Harrison's nephew, and in the second part of the 19th and early 20th centuries, was used at Alverthorpe, the Fisher family's farm and country home located in Abington, Pennsylvania.

Empire period furniture forms that were made in Philadelphia include chests of drawers, wardrobes, dressing tables, and bedsteads. Philadelphia chests of drawers were often made with bulbous horizontally ring-turned “beehive” feet or lion's paw feet and included design elements such as full columns, convex and concave surfaces and carvings directly derived from antiquity. A mirror, known as a dressing glass, sometimes surmounted chests of drawers. Wardrobes were generally very large pieces with two doors and were placed opposite beds.

Two types of large size beds were popular during the period: the French, or “lit à la torque,” with a canopy attached to the wall. The “English bedstead” with high posts and a highly carved headboard occasionally had a tester. Both types of beds were designed to be richly upholstered. In the beginning to mid-nineteenth century, decorative items for the home included looking glasses, wine cellarettes, wash basins, pedestal lamps (or torchères) and hat stands.

Looking glasses were a fashionable and functional addition to any room in the house and were placed above fireplace mantelpieces, in hallways and on, or above chests in bedrooms. Boldly turned balusters compose the framing elements of Empire furniture, replacing the minimally carved frames of the Federal period. Cheval looking glasses (large full length mirrors supported by wooden frames) were placed in the center of a room, their backs elaborately upholstered.

In addition to furniture, ceramics, silver, and richly colored paintings added to the rich ambiance of an Empire interior. Artists and artisans in Philadelphia excelled at making all of these decorative wares. The Tucker porcelain manufactory was in operation in Philadelphia between 1826 and 1838, making porcelain that closely imitated fine French and English wares but were often painted with landscapes and people of local interest. The work of Philadelphia silversmiths of this period was admired around the country. Their wares evolved with Empire design features, including lion's paw feet and eagle's heads that were often dramatic.

Portrait painter Thomas Sully (1783-1872) was one of the most highly regarded Philadelphia artists. Sully was born in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England in 1783 and came to America in 1792 with his parents. He was only nine years old when he arrived, and by the age of twelve, he realized that art was his true vocation.

He painted with his brother Laurence, a miniature painter, between 1799 and 1804 in Richmond, Virginia. He then moved to New York and later traveled to London in 1809 to study under Benjamin West. Sully moved permanently to Philadelphia in 1810, at which point he became distinguished as a top portrait painter. Some art critics of the period considered his portraits of women to be his best work, especially his treatment of eyes that were so clear, liquid, and life-like.

Sully painted over two thousand portraits of socialites, politicians and prominent families. His most famous subjects included Queen Victoria, John Quincy Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Rembrandt Peale, James Madison and the Marquis de Lafayette. As well as painting portraits, he also painted historical compositions, the most famous of which is Washington Crossing the Delaware.

Following the death of Gilbert Stuart in 1826, Thomas Sully was the most successful portrait painter in America. Sully died in Philadelphia in 1872 at the age of 89, when he was still actively painting. His work represented America's best examples of the highly romanticized and fluid styles of portrait painting. A pair of portraits of a brother and sister, Margaret and John Savage, exemplify Sully's talent as a painter.

They were the children of William and Jane Cooper (Demetris) Savage of Kingston, Jamaica. The painting of Margaret was begun November 17, 1810 and finished February 5, 1811.³ The painting of her brother, John Savage, depicts the young man who became a prominent shipping merchant in partnership with Joseph Dugan. He was an active director of the Bank of the United States and resided at 11th and Spruce Streets.⁴ The painting was begun June 22, 1824 and finished November 9, 1824.

A pair of portraits of the Reverend Peter Van Pelt and his second wife Abby Ann King Turner descended through the Van Pelt family. The painting of Abby was painted by Sully, but the artist who painted Reverend Peter Van Pelt is unknown. Van Pelt was born in Mount Holly, New Jersey, on September 29, 1798, the second son of the dentist and surgeon Dr. Peter Van Pelt and his wife Elizabeth Drayson Hall Van Pelt. The Van Pelts were descended from Dutch immigrants who had settled in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1680s.

According to family records, Van Pelt graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1818, was ordained a minister in the Episcopal Church, and received his doctorate of divinity from St. John's College in Maryland. He accepted a position of rector of a church in Port Royal on Hilton Head, South Carolina in 1824.

Around 1825, Van Pelt married a woman named Catharine in Beaufort, South Carolina, by whom he had three children. His wife died on December 30, 1828 and was buried on January 2 the following year in St. Paul's churchyard in Philadelphia. Van Pelt married Abby Ann King Turner on April 26, 1832 in St. Stephen's Church, Philadelphia, with the well-known Episcopal Bishop William White (1748-1836) officiating. The couple had four children. Van Pelt died on August 20, 1873 and his wife died on June 5, 1885; they were both buried at Christ Church.

Although the compositions of these two portraits suggest that they were intended as pendants, they were not painted by the same artist. It is believed that Van Pelt's mother commissioned Sully to paint a portrait of his second wife to substitute for a now lost portrait of his first wife when he remarried. The frame of Van Pelt's portrait was typical of a style in the early 1820s, and the gilding had been reconditioned at an early date, probably to match the newer frame on his wife's portrait. The frame style was somewhat dated by 1832, and Sully must have made a special effort to find molding to match the frame on the earlier picture.⁵

The marked decline in the popularity of Empire features in furniture was noted in both Europe and America by 1840. Mechanical advances in furniture production came about when the circular saw and other machinery produced sheets of veneer quickly and cheaply. Designs followed quickly mechanical advances and mass production, when carved embellishment was reduced to more simple lines. The fashionable mode of furniture that followed Empire was differentiated by the lack of carved features. The carved lion's paws, gadrooning, caryatids and Persians, eagles, and other Empire motifs disappeared and were replaced by simple, gradual lines.

Design elements common in the Empire period, such as brass ormolu mounts, gilding, and stenciling on mahogany veneers were also eliminated. Even the talented Quervelle adapted his style to the changing styles of the 1830s, replacing rich carving with plain scrolls.

Industrialization is often blamed for the end of the production of such intricately decorated furniture, but much was also due to the fact that mass-produced furniture was less costly to produce and attracted a broader range of patrons. The expense of hand-made furniture in the Empire style that required extremely skilled craftsmen in veneering work, painting, gilding, upholstering, and the like was simply no longer in demand.

Philadelphia Empire Furniture: Bold, Brash, and Beautiful presents outstanding examples of Philadelphia Empire furniture, though many more remain to be explored in museums and private collections and discovered through dealers and auctions. Philadelphia furniture in the Empire style is distinguished by excellent design and craftsmanship, produced by some of the most talented craftsmen in America during the early nineteenth century.

– John William Boor & Allison Christina Boor

End Notes

1. George Smith, A Collection of Ornamental Designs, after the Manner of the Antique, Compos’ d for the Use of Architects, Ornamental Painters…(London, J. Taylor, 1812), no page. As quoted in Wendy A. Cooper, Classical Taste in America, 1800-1840 (Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art for Abbeville Press, 1993), page 117.
2. A similar Quervelle-labeled worktable that also descended in the Robert E. Griffith family was illustrated and discussed in Robert C. Smith’s article, “The furniture of Anthony Quervelle, Part III: The worktables.” The Magazine Antiques, August 1973, page 263.
3. This portrait is #1551 in the volume The Life and Works of Thomas Sully (Philadelphia, 1921) by Edward Biddle and Mantle Fielding. III: The worktables.” The Magazine Antiques, August 1973, page 263.
4. This portrait was exhibited at the Memorial Exhibition of Portraits on April 9, 1922 at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia (#100 at the Exhibition).
5. All information regarding the paintings of Reverend Peter Van Pelt and Abby Ann King Turner Van Pelt has been supplied by Schwarz Philadelphia.

Acknowledgements

Lenders to the Exhibition

• The Andalusia Foundation
• The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
• Margaret Caldwell
• R. Curt Chinnici
• Mr. and Mrs. Stuart P. Feld
• Girard College
• Ike and Teri Hay
• Barbara Israel Antiques
• Mr. and Mrs. Francis E. Judson
• Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. McFalls
• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Schwarz Gallery
• Charles Swain
• Winterthur Museum

Loan Exhibit Committee

• Joan Johnson, Chairman
• Dr. John William Boor, Co-Curator
• Allison Christina Boor, Co-Curator
• Donald L. Fennimore
• Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley

Photography

• Joseph Andris Photography, Inc.
• Allison Christina Boor
• Scott Chalfant
• Graydon Wood

The 2007 Loan Exhibit is generously underwritten by Driscoll / McKissack