Collections record Beta

Collection Record Detail

Object Name

Sideboard

Object Number

2019-95-1

Description

Federal style sideboard of mahogany with mahogany veneer and inlays of mahogany and other woods; tulip and pine secondary woods. Serpentine front divided into three sections. Left and right sections each have three graduated drawers, deeper on the outside edges and shorter and the drawers curve towards the central section. Each drawer has oval, brass drawer pull with pressed leaf design; a keyhole above the drawer pull; and inlaid fans of alternating light and dark wood in each corner. Central section has a recessed locking two-door cabinet underneath a single long drawer. A single pull is set in the right door, and the central drawer has two drawer pulls. Inlaid decoration on the doors and central drawer is the same as the outside drawers. Six legs, four in front and two in book, tapering towards bottom. Each of the legs has the same inlaid design, featuring a vertical arrangement of graduated, upward-facing bellflowers in light wood and spheres of dark wood on the upper continuation of the leg, and a thin leaf motif and graduated dots in light wood on the leg proper. All inlaid decoration is set within thin, inlaid borders of light wood. Horizontal strips of dark wood inlaid in between upper and lower leg sections, with additional strips of light and dark wood inlaid horizontally just above termination of leg. Each side features a large oval inlay of mahogany burl on the central panel.

Provenance

This sideboard was owned by John Tallmadge, a brother and business partner of Benjamin Tallmadge of Litchfield. John operated a store in nearby Warren, Connecticut. He served as a representative to the General Assembly and as a delegate to the 1818 state constitutional convention. The sideboard descended in family of John Tallmadge to donor.

Comment

Like the sideboard owned by Benjamin Tallmadge, this sideboard does not appear in the surviving account books of Silas Cheney. Both are stylistically similar to the sideboard made for Tapping Reeve, which does appear in Cheney's account book (see 1929-02-14), and are therefore attributed to Cheney. The sideboard was previously loaned to the Historical Society 1969, and appears in the Litchfield County Furniture catalog for the exhibition.