A glazed walnut double bookcase Attributed to Frank Furness (American, 1839-1912) and Daniel Pabst (American, b. Germany, 1826-1910), USA, circa 1875-1885

Walnut, glass, brass hardware, of architectonic form and in two parts (a left and right, each with one finished side and one unfinished side, and with unfinished backs), when combined presenting with two doors with arched glazed openings, below a ridged “roof”, punctuated by trefoil-carved finials incised with stylized foliate motifs, all flanked and centered by composite columns with stylized foliate capitals, on engaged plinths, a band of bosses punctuating the circular shafts, concave rosettes above the capitals and below the socle, all on a tall plinth base with sloped front; each cabinet with five movable shelves and ten shelf cleats; key present.

H: 81 1/8 in. W: 41 3/8 in. D: 15 1/2 in. (each, approximately)

Note

The present lot is of a suite of library woodwork and furniture attributed to Furness and Pabst that was likely originally commissioned for a house in Philadelphia and later reinstalled at Fairhill, the residence of Isaac Norris VI, in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania (designed 1896 by Theophilus Parsons Chandler, Jr. and demolished circa 2000). The Norris library mantel surround, overmantel mirror, and ten other bookcases were gifted to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 2003, and transferred to the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2017. A further separate gift of fittings from the Norris library was made to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2021, comprising a desk, two armchairs, a couch, a wall pocket with the same crest as the overmantel mirror, and an eleventh bookcase.

Provenance

Installed at "Fairhill", Isaac Norris VI Residence, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

Property from a Private Philadelphia Area Collection.