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114. An American Gothic Carved Walnut Center Table, c. 1845, New York, octagonal variegated marble top, lancet frieze, chamfered stem joined with buttress supports, disc feet, height 29 1/2 in., diameter 35 in. $4000/6000 Exhibited: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1976. Illustrated: Sherrill, “Living with Antiques”, The Magazine Antiques, May 1976, p. 1039; Lebow, “A Gothic Tale”, House and Garden, May 1987, p. 115 196; Howe and Warren, The Gothic Revival Style in America, p. 40; and Dubrow, American Furniture of the 19th Century, p. 64. Note: A center table by Thomas Brooks with a nearly identical frieze and supports to those on this lot furnishes the South Parlor at Roseland, the Henry Bowen home built in 1846 in Woodstock, Connecticut. The sophisticated use of buttress supports as seen here and on the Roseland table is rare amongst American cabinetmakers. A. Welby Pugin published a design for a center table with buttress supports in The True Principals of Pointed or Christian Architecture, 1841, p. 41. Reference: http://www.historicnewengland.org/historic-properties/homes/roseland-cottage/photographic-tour.
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115. An American Gothic Carved Oak Hall Chair, c. 1845, probably Philadelphia, crocketed triple lancet cathedral back, chamfered legs, tracery brackets, with Anderson notation, height 41 in., width 21 in., depth 19 in. $800/1200 Note: This chair belongs to a notable group including a pair of armchairs and benches documented at the Gothic cottage designed by Thomas U. Walter for Nicholas Biddle’s estate, Andalusia. Other examples include a pair of walnut chairs discovered by Stuart Feld and a pair of cherrywood settees found in New Orleans. Reference: Feld. In Pointed Style. fig. 46, p. 93. Trent and Truax, Vaulting Ambition: Philadelphia Gothic Revival Furniture and Other Decorative Arts, fig. 25, pp. 108-109.
116. An American Gothic Carved Walnut Library Armchair, mid-19th c., pierced cathedral crest, padded arms, back and seat in attractive needlepoint upholstery. $3000/5000 Note: The elaborate Gothic crest on this exuberant chair conforms well to the Rococo frame. The remarkable needlework upholstery also unites curvilinear floral and figural forms within a gothic framework.