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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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