Dressing table
The "Garvan high chest carver"
(active about 1750–1775)
1760–75
Object PlacePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Medium/TechniqueMahogany, poplar and fir
Dimensions78.74 x 85.72 x 50.8 cm (31 x 33 3/4 x 20 in.)
Credit LineThe M. and M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth-Century American Arts
Accession number39.162
On View
On viewClassificationsFurniture
Collections
This table features several methods of carving--three-dimensional shaping, appliqué, relief, and intaglio. The legs were sculpted in the round with shaving planes and rasps, before the claw-and-ball feet were formed with gouges and other tools. The knees of the legs, the skirt (bottom edge), and the central shell of the lower drawer were embellished with relief carving, in which wood was removed from the background to make the design protrude from the surface. The acanthus leaves surrounding the shell were applied to the surface, using small nails. At the center of the shell is intaglio carving, in which the design is cut into and removed from the wood.
ProvenancePurchased from Joe Kindig for the "The M. & M. Karolik Collection of 18th century American Arts."
1750–75
1660–1700
late 18th or early 19th century
end of the 16th or early 17th century
12th–13th century
about 1820-1825
1825–29
1945
about 1760–70
1760–70
about 1790–1810
1790–1810