Early American tables and other furniture at Stenton

Magazine Antiques, May, 2004 by Philip D. Zimmerman

(41) Stenton Mansion Committee minutes, March 18 and April 15, 1929 (Stenton collection).

(42) A later bidet, owned and probably made in Baltimore, is illustrated in Gregory R. Weidman, Furniture in Maryland, 1740-1940: The Collection of the Maryland Historical Society (Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, 1984), p. 202, No. 180.

(43) Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet Dictionary (1803; reprint, Praeger, New York, 1970), vol. 1. pp. 49-50.

(44) Ibid., p. 34.

(45) See Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book (London, 1793), "A Cylinder Wash-hand Table" (Pl. 53), "Bidet Dressing-Table" (Appendix, Pl. 7), and "Bed Steps" (Appendix, Pl. 75).

(46) George Hepplewhite, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 3rd ed. (1794; reprint, Dover Publications, New York, 1969), p. 15, Pl. 83.

(47) This is the design of the mirrored doors of the Stenton secretary discussed and illustrated in Zimmerman, "Eighteenth-century Philadelphia case furniture at Stenton," p. 96, Pl. II.

(48) Illustrated ibid., p. 98, Pls. III and IV.

PHILIP D. ZIMMERMAN is a museum and decorative arts consultant and American antique furniture broker in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.