An Audacious Turner

Fig. 1. Dressing table. Philadelphia circa 1720. Black walnut, hard pine, Atlantic white cedar, brass, iron. Brassware and turned drops replaced. OH. 29 3/4 inches; OW. 33 3/8 inches; OD. 20 1/8 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Two dressing tables share characteristics of the high chest discussed in the previous article. One, in walnut, has been in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 1925 (fig. 1). A second, in mahogany and red cedar, entered the collection of Chipstone in 2011 (fig.2).

Fig. 2. Dressing table. Philadelphia, circa 1720. Mahogany, red cedar, hard pine, Atlantic white cedar, brass, iron. Original brassware and turned drops. OH. 30; OW. 34; OD.20 1/2 inches. Chipstone. Christie’s photo.

Fig. 3. Three-quarter view of the table in fig. 1.

The arched design of the front rail of the PMA table is identical to the high chest; a filet has been added between the double arches at the center of the front rail of the Chipstone table. Both tables have a pair of arches on their sides.

Fig. 4. Turned legs of the - left-to-right, the high chest from the previous article, the PMA table, the Chipstone table.

The shared design of the distinctive turned leg profile of the chest and two tables is unmistakable (fig. 4). Minor differences appear due to the nature of hand-workmanship, slight variations in prepared stock sizes, difference in height between the chest and table legs, and the time lapse between the commissions.

Fig. 5. At left, leg from the high chest in the previous article, at right, detail of a leg of the table in fig. 1. X-radiograph photography by Joe Mikuliak.

A series of x-radiographs (commonly called x-rays) of two dressing tables and two high chests were made in 1999 in the months proceeding the “Worldly Goods” exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (fig. 5). The results were used to determine condition and allow us to accurately describe details of construction. The legs of the high chest from the previous article and the tables in figs. 1 and 2 are assembled from four separate, turned elements.

Fig. 6. Reproduction of a leg of the table in fig. 1 assembled, left, and partially disassembled, right.

Fig. 7. Reproduction of a leg of the table in fig. 1 fully disassembled showing the four turned elements and a square plate representing the stretcher.

As there were many turned leg objects in the “Worldly Goods" exhibition, I made the components of the most complicated leg constructions in the exhibition, the four component, plus stretcher, legs of the dressing tables in figs. 1 &2 (figs 6 & 7) as an aid when giving tours and demonstrations in the galleries and the conservation studio. Holes bored in the inverted cup, foot, and stretcher accept the turned, round tenons of the upper baluster and long cone components.¹

Fig. 8. Detail of the foot of the reproduction leg in figs. 6 & 7.

The reproduction leg is faithful to the original, turned on a relatively slow spinning lathe and left straight from the turning tools with no additional abrasive sanding, leaving the evidence of the turning tools on the wood surface.

If the turnings of these two tables can be described as “audacious,” what should be said about those stretchers? We’ll have a look at that next.

1. The reproduction leg has been rattling around the closet in the PMA Furniture and Woodwork studio now for 27 years, unless it’s been tossed since I last saw it in 2020.