Individual Details
(Bet 6 Apr 1733 and 1734 - )
Until its gift to the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, this imposing piece had survived anonymously, never having being reported or illustrated by furniture scholars. It ranks as a virtual icon of Boston furniture of any period and is the first documented piece of bombe' shaped furniture made in America . It is perhaps one of the first examples of Chippendale style furniture made in the colonies, predating Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Director by one year. The desk and bookcase is the earliest piece documented to Benjamin Frothingham, a Charlestown, Massachusetts, master cabinetmaker, who was well-known through his later liberal use of printed labels. It is presently the only known piece of American furniture of any form with molded architectural feet of this pattern. Formerly called 'kettle' shaped by early 20th century antiquarian writers, the bombe' form derived from a shape used commonly for ancient Roman sarcophagi. The form was adopted in the 16th century by Italian craftsmen and in succession by Dutch, French, then English workers, each in characteristic fashion to suit national taste and habit. Boston craftsmen in turn, with their strong history of connections to strictly English design sources, embraced the form as suitable for merchants and citizens of wealth and importance. Judging from the list of Boston owners, display of this costly form must have been almost de rigueur. The style enjoyed popularity well into the 1780s, thirty years after being superseded in England by newer fashions. Frothingham was a man of twenty when he made this piece. His liberal use of engraved labels later in his career has led to voluminous research by furniture historians. But little is known about Dr. Sprague. He and Frothingham were members of the First Church of Charlestown and were also founding members of 'The Ancient Fire Society,'a private fire protection group. Both sustained considerable losses when the British burned Charlestown. Upon his death in 1766, Sprague was owed over L58 by Frothingham's father, a debt later settled by Benjamin, Jr., as estate administrator. The desk and bookcase shares a number of characteristics with high-style blockfront furniture made in Boston in the late 1740's and 1750's. The waist molding surrounding the midsection of the lower case follows common English practice of the day, a holdover from earlier practices of constructing the desk portion in two separate pieces. Though Frothingham borrowed from the standard Boston design vocabulary of the day, his unique use of molded architectural feet displays his innovations in adopting elements of the latest English details. Although the exact model he followed is unknown, another American desk and bookcase, nearly identical in all respects, including molded feet, may have served as inspiration for Frothingham's masterpiece. Author: Robert D. Mussey, Jr.
Events
| Birth | Bet 6 Apr 1733 and 1734 | | | | |
| Marriage | 1762 | Mary Deland | | | |
| Occupation | | Cabinet Maker | | | |
Families