CARVING ATTRIBUTED TO MARTIN JUGIEZ (D. 1819), PHILADELPHIA, CIRCA 1765

Displaying a combination of dramatic wood grain and sculptural carving, this dressing table exhibits the high quality workmanship of Philadelphia's eighteenth-century craftsmen. The carving, executed in high relief with assured fluidity, is attributed to Martin Jugiez, an immigrant carver recently described by Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller as so superior to his contemporaries that he was more of an artist than artisan. Jugiez's origins are unknown, but he arrived in Philadelphia prior to 1762, when he and Nicholas Bernard first advertised their partnership. Bernard, an accomplished carver who had been practicing his trade in the City since the late 1740s, took over the management and marketing of their enterprise, while Jugiez served as the primary carver. Their partnership lasted approximately two decades and had dissolved by 1783, when both advertised separately. Jugiez is credited with some of the most artistic furniture to survive from this era, including a slab-top table with lion's-head carved apron now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Among the cabinetmakers for whom Bernard and Jugiez provided carved ornament were Benjamin Randolph, Thomas Affleck and William Wayne (see Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller, "A Table's Tale: Craft, Art, and Opportunity in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia," American Furniture 2004, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, WI: The Chipstone Foundation, 2004), pp. 2, 19, 23, 24, fig. 1; for more on the Bernard-Jugiez partnership, see Luke Beckerdite, "Philadelphia carving shops, Part II: Bernard and Jugiez," The Magazine Antiques (September 1985), pp. 498-513).

At least five other dressing tables with similar shell-carved drawers are known. These comprise mahogany examples at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig. 1), Pendleton House, a private collection and one offered in the Blair Collection as well as another of walnut, like the Nusrala Collection table, advertised by Charles Woolsey Lyon in 1949. All display a central raised floral element flanked by realistic leafy sprays against a stop-fluted lobed shell and punched ground. Those in the private collection and advertised by Lyon display a virtually identical shaped skirt as that on the Nusrala Collection table with a central straight passage flanked by pendant lobes and scrolls. See Morrison H. Heckscher, American Furniture: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles (New York, 1985), pp. 251-252, cat. 163; Christopher P. Monkhouse and Thomas S. Michie, American Furniture in Pendleton House (Providence, 1986), pp. 79-80, cat. 25; Beckerdite 1985, p. 507, fig. 19; Christie's New York, Property from the Collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair, January 21, 2006, lot 537; Charles Woolsey Lyon, advertisement, The Magazine Antiques (March 1949), p. 153.