Duncan Phyfe (or Equivalent) at Darlington House

When furnishing the principal rooms at Darlington House we have aimed to do so in a manner appropriate to their early-nineteenth-century architecture, a style that is today known as Federal or neoclassical.  We have sought out works from the period's leading cabinetmakers based in New York City and Albany, New York, the cities where the original occupants of the house would have shopped when furnishing their stylish and sophisticated rooms in New York's Hudson River Valley.

A photograph of a serving table in our collection
acquired from Bernard & S. Dean Levy in New York City
Image courtesy of same

Although we have examples of furniture that bear the labels of several well-known cabinetmakers of the period, we also have pieces of furniture that—while unlabeled—were sold to us by dealers of the highest reputations as being "from the workshop of Duncan Phyfe or an equally competent workshop."  As many readers of this blog well know, Duncan Phyfe (1768-1854) was one of this country's most elite cabinetmakers of the first half of the nineteenth century, rivaled at the time in New York only by Charles-Honoré Lannuier (1779-1819) and the brothers Michael Allison (1773-1855) and Richard Allison (1780-1825).

A similar serving table attributed to Duncan Phyfe in
Furniture Masterpieces of Duncan Phyfe
by Charles Over Cornelius, 1922

Phyfe's large workshop produced a prodigious output of superlative work that was scattered far and wide in the young nation.  Although Phyfe produced furniture well into the 1840s, he is rightly and best known for the earlier furniture his workshop crafted in a highly restrained, neoclassical style.  It is in those first two decades of the nineteenth century that we concentrate our collecting at Darlington House.

The handsome catalog from
the Metropolitan Museum's current exhibition
"Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York"
Photograph by Boy Fenwick

Only a small fraction of Phyfe's workshop's output was labeled, much to the bedevilment of collectors, dealers, and curators seeking verified attribution of his output.  The current landmark exhibition of Duncan Phyfe's work at The Metropolitan Museum in New York contains examples of furniture that are labeled Duncan Phyfe, documented as having been produced by Duncan Phyfe, and attributed to his workshop.

A mahogany tilt-top stand in our collection
at Darlington House
acquired from Thomas Schwenke, Inc., of
Woodbury, Connecticut
Photograph by Boy Fenwick

Reggie understands that there is a lot of furniture in the market attributed to Duncan Phyfe that has no basis for being so, but he also knows that there is furniture out there where a credible case can be made for such an attribution.  Although he would like to believe that the pieces in his collection that are possibly attributed to Duncan Phyfe were produced in the master cabinetmaker's workshop, he recognizes that some or all of the pieces he owns may well not have been made by Phyfe.

Shop and Warehouse of Duncan Phyfe
168-172 Fulton Street, New York City,unidentified artist, circa 1817-1820
Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Image courtesy of same

What is clear in examining each such piece in Reggie's collection, though, is that if it was not made in Duncan Phyfe's workshop it was made by a cabinetmaker of equivalent or nearly equivalent expertise who was closely following—if not outright copying—forms produced by Phyfe.

A pedestal-end mahogany sideboard, circa 1810,
in the collection of Boscobel Restoration, Inc.,
Garrison-on-Hudson, New York
Image courtesy of same

One of the first pieces of furniture we bought for Darlington House is a mahogany sideboard, circa 1810, that is nearly identical to one in the collection at Boscobel Restoration.  That collection was assembled for the house in the late 1970s by Berry Tracy, who was then Curator-in-Charge of American Decorative Arts in the American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Title page of the 1810 price book, once owned
by Duncan Phyfe, in the collection of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, New York
Image courtesy of same

A photograph of an unattributed but similar sideboard is featured in the catalog for the Met's exhibition.  The same form of sideboard appeared on the cover of the June 1810 Revised Pricebook for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair Work that is on display in the show and that once belonged Duncan Phyfe.  Also, a 1930 photograph of a nearly identical sideboard (current whereabouts unknown), documented as having been supplied by Duncan Phyfe to a Mr. William Bayard, is in the Met's catalogue.

The William Bayard Duncan Phyfe sideboard, 1807,
published in The Antiquarian, March 1930
Image courtesy of The Mteropolitan Museum of Art

Although our sideboard does not bear Duncan Phyfe's label, it—along with the others shown here—is an example of what reputable dealers can credibly be expected to attribute to the workshop of Duncan Phyfe or an equally competent workshop, such as that of Michael Allison, whose workshop produced labeled examples of the sideboard, one of which is in the collection of the New York State Museum, at Albany.

Cover label on the catalogue of the exhibition
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Yale University Press, 2011
Photograph by Boy Fenwick

For those of my readers who appreciate the cabinetwork of Duncan Phyfe, I highly recommend a visit to the current show at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it will run through May 6th.  It then travels to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston for its final stop, where it will run from June 20th through September 11th.