I’m retiring from trying to figure out what cabinet maker made a particular credenza as it is just a mind-bending exercise to do. Cabinet makers didn’t need to make furniture from scratch; they could import components from Europe or purchase them locally and integrate these elements into their pieces. The inlay panels were purchased, the hardware purchased, bronze or Wedgewood plaques were purchased. Now I’m observing that the central decorative panel and decorative trim across these two pieces from different makers seems to be common as well. I’m wondering if the cabinet makers from the 19th century made any aspect of these cabinets themselves.

I’m now sure that there was a Credenza Depot store in New York in the 19th century where you could buy 90% of your cabinet already pre-made in pieces and you just needed to nail it together. I’m starting to think that the Herter Brothers were the only makers of these cabinet forms that didn’t shop there.

I can see it now, William Stymus sends Auguste Pottier to Credenza Depot on a bronze plaque run and Auguste is shuffling his cart through the aisles and runs into Thomas Godey. Thomas is in town from Baltimore visiting his Aunt in New York and thought he’d stop by and get some carved pilasters while he’s there. They exchange pleasantries and notice that they both have the same inlay panels in their shopping carts…. Later, Godey runs into Roux at the register who is getting a price check on the carved deer heads from the endcap….

but I digress…

The second cabinet has an affixed Thomas Godey label solidly linking the maker with the cabinet. The first credenza is a dead ringer for a Pottier & Stymus cabinet in the Herter Brothers book on page 69 except for colors. The documentation linking P&S as the maker is very strong. In the words of the book, “The Pottier & Stymus piece is significant especially because it is one of the few by this firm that is securely documented.”

Obviously there is much that is different between the P&S and Godey cabinets and I’m not presenting them as a match. However, this is the first time that I’ve noticed the identical central panel trim across two well-documented pieces from two makers who aren’t even in the same city. Take the plaques out and you have a 95% match on that panel. I didn’t even mention the pilasters on these two cabinets yet. The same. All four on each. So add that to the list of stock items available at Credenza Depot.

The top cabinet will be sold by Fontaine’s on Saturday and I think they nailed the P&S attribution correctly. You can see more pics and detail here.

If you want to further confuse yourself like I am, you can read this earlier post.

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Doyle New York is listing this unlabeled cabinet as being done in the manner of Herter Brothers, but I think that there is a chance that it was made in Baltimore by Thomas Godey. It reminds me of a labeled Godey cabinet that was sold in 2005 by Neal auction which I think was the cabinet from the High Museum of Art and was included in the book, Art & Enterprise on page 126.

The side panel patterns are identical in design and notice the ebonized trim on the three front panels, with the center one having a curved top trim and overhangs on two sides. If this isn’t by Godey, I think there would be a case for plagiarism.

They are expecting a range of $5,000 to $10,000 and are starting the bidding at $2,500. The labeled Godey cabinet below sold for $51,700.

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If you’re new to Rare Victorian or you just missed the first-ever post, I’ll mention again that this blog was initially created as a real-time journey as I educate myself in the niche of rare Victorian furniture. This blog just recently hit the one year birthday mark and that makes me very happy since I thought for sure I’d never stick to it that long. I tend to collect hobbies and discard them with reckless abandon. Fortunately, blogging and Victorian furniture has stuck.

While putting my education on display for the world to experience along with me, the hope was that I’d find others out there with a similar interest in Victorian and that we could all learn together. Every post I put out there, I hope that someone out there knows more than I and will share with us all by posting a comment or sending me an email, giving me another crumb of wisdom about a particular piece. When I get those crumbs, I pass them along.

If you remember this post a few posts ago, I showed an image of an attributed Alexander Roux credenza to be sold on the 23rd; the credenza is at the top of this post. Michael O’Docharty of Michadi Antiques shared these images below of a signed Pottier & Stymus table that was unfortunately cut down (turned into a coffee table). The intriguing thing is that the porcelain plaques are identical to the credenza above. While the plaques certainly suggest the credenza could be by P&S, a lot of these plaques were produced outside of the cabinetmakers shop and therefore could show up in various makers’ pieces. While not a smoking gun, it is something to suggest further investigation might be warranted. Take a look at the plaques below:

The credenza auction lot description states that the bronze mounts are identical to two documented Roux cabinets, one at the Met and the other at the Munson-Proctor-Williams Institute. I’ve made a collage of the mounts from the three pieces:

The images I had to work with (hopefully they’ll forgive me for borrowing pieces of them for educational use) were not intended to be high detail for purposes such as this, but I feel that the mounts on this credenza (the third) do not match the first two (the signed Roux pieces). The size proportion isn’t the same. That may open the door further for a case for P&S. There are other elements of the three cabinets that point to the two museum pieces possibly being different from the third:

Many times P&S mounts have markings behind them, so the owner (Lise Bohm?) might be able to check that to be sure.

Thanks to Michael for sharing his table pics and the lead.

Note to self: The top center mount on the Roux cabinet at Munson-Proctor-Williams is the same as the unattributed cabinet they also own save for a small decoration added to the top (see pages 104, 107 and the cover of their book).

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