Miller calls this “high country furniture of considerable style,”
… “looking toward Philadelphia”. It’s definitely Anglo, not Germanic, and is a
very rare form. In fact, we weren’t able to find others that were true
Chippendale like this, which almost looks like a secretary. The walnut has a
beautiful aged color, and the feet are nice and chunky. This piece is a true
rarity and for many years, was among the furnishings of Oldwalls the home of
sculptor Chester Beach.

Furniture Examination
Report July 12, 2010

Alan Miller
Antique Furniture
Consultant
Representation at auction, brokering, authentication, research,
and restoration
2315 Township Road
Quakertown, PA 18951
610 346
8938 fax 610 346 7830 / alanmillerantiques@verizon.net
A Pennsylvania or neighboring state rural walnut linen press owned by Stanley
Weiss
Stanley Weiss shipped a walnut rural linen press to my shop for research and
restoration. This is a genuine piece of antique furniture in good condition with
most of its original component parts surviving in a fine state of color,
surface, and finish. Its ornaments, brasses, and hinges were replaced. Most of
one rear foot face was a patch and there were other small loses and minor
damages. It is constructed in the anglo woodworking tradition-no Germanic
construction details are present-looking to Philadelphia for style inspiration.
It was likely made no more than one or two counties away from that city,
although that still leaves four states-Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and
Maryland-as possible origins, what furniture historian John Snyder calls inland
furniture. Urban eighteenth century linen presses are rare and rural examples
from this area can be numbered on one’s fingers. I know of no cognate for this
press with its removable scroll-molded architrave and cornice in the
Philadelphia manner of the 1770’s through 1790’s, scrolled and molded center
tympanum console, raised arch-panel doors, and ogee bracket feet, so I turned to
other furniture forms-particularly clock cases-for clues to its origin and the
design of its missing ornaments. Clock cases are particularly useful because
they are plentiful, ambitious, and easy to place in a locality because of
maker’s signatures. Despite considerable effort, I could not locate a clock case
or other furniture form that had a scrolled molded console that seemed to be by
the maker of this press and also retained its original finials and rosettes so
that we could quote those ornaments for this press. I feel most comfortable with
a regional attribution to southern or central Bucks County or the English
settled areas of what is now Delaware County and Montgomery County,
Pennsylvania. The use of Atlantic white cedar, chamaecyparis thyiodes for the
drawer bottoms limits the western range of origin as this wood was of costal,
costal river, bogs, and river plateau wetland origin. I chose finials and
rosettes associated with a cabinetmaker who apparently began working in central
Bucks County and ranged to eastern Montgomery County before relocating in the
Easton/Northhampton area. Either this maker or his influence later moved to
anglo areas of central Pennsylvania. This finial, with its wide urn and spire,
is not only apparently regionally appropriate for the press but also supplies
necessary horizontality to the pediment with its widely spaced scroll moldings.
This model finial is always accompanied by this rosette, with its turned
button-like center and radiating alternating convex and concave petal-like
elements. Various versions of this simple rosette were used throughout rural
Pennsylvania and surrounding areas.
The original brasses for the drawers of the press were bails and rosettes
with wide post borings. These were replaced with poor quality plates with narrow
post spacing. We did not return the drawer brasses to the original scheme
because the later plate borings and witness for the plates would have been
distractingly visible unless this witness were removed and that process would
have harmed the surface of the drawers to an unacceptable degree. Sacrificing
the old finish just doesn’t seem justifiable. I located original plate brass
that fit the smaller later boring and mostly covered the witness from the later
plates. This brass was in common use in rural Pennsylvania in the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth century-it is the original brass used on painted
blanket chests with original painted nineteenth century dates. We made
plexiglass patterns of the pull plate and escutcheon two per cent oversize to
allow for shrinkage when the sand cast plates cooled. Dave Mitchell did the
foundry work and Philip Ruhl in my shop made the patterns and did finish and
aging work on the plates after casting. Clear witness of the original H-hinges
remained on the press cabinet doors and stiles and we obtained Optimum hinges
from Londonderry that exactly matched the witness of the original hinges’
outlines and screw locations.
I did the research for the ornaments described above, drew the chosen models,
and managed the restoration. Philip Ruhl turned the ornaments, carved the
rosettes, added missing dentals, and did various small repairs. The foot face
and other patching, brass and hinge installation and all color and finish work
were done by Keith Lackman, a remarkable craftsman unsurpassed in accuracy and
subtlety in finish work. Much of the visual success of this restoration is the
result of his effort. This press is a very rare example of high country
furniture of considerable style and I feel it merits the best restoration
available. It was a pleasure to be involved with it.

Alan
Miller
July 12, 2010