Secretaire Cabinet
Designed by George Washington Jack, American (active England), 1855 - 1932. Made by Morris and Company, London, 1861 - 1940.
Geography:
Made in London, England, Europe
Date:
c. 1889Medium:
Mahogany with hardwood inlaysDimensions:
51 1/2 x 55 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches (130.8 x 141 x 69.8 cm)Curatorial Department:
European Decorative Arts and SculptureObject Location:
1986-128-1a,bCredit Line:
Purchased with funds contributed by the Friends of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and with the gift (by exchange) of Julia G. Fahnestock in memory of her husband, William Fahnestock, 1986
Made in London, England, Europe
Date:
c. 1889Medium:
Mahogany with hardwood inlaysDimensions:
51 1/2 x 55 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches (130.8 x 141 x 69.8 cm)Curatorial Department:
European Decorative Arts and SculptureObject Location:
Currently not on view
Accession Number:1986-128-1a,bCredit Line:
Purchased with funds contributed by the Friends of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and with the gift (by exchange) of Julia G. Fahnestock in memory of her husband, William Fahnestock, 1986
Label:
Morris and Company was founded in 1861 to produce furniture that was simple and honest in its material and construction. By 1885, the firm was also producing richly inlaid cabinets such as this example in the fashionable neo-Georgian style.
Morris and Company was founded in 1861 to produce furniture that was simple and honest in its material and construction. By 1885, the firm was also producing richly inlaid cabinets such as this example in the fashionable neo-Georgian style.
Explore the Collections
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the CollectionsIn 1896 this "secretaire cabinet," a desk with drawers and pigeonholes behind two doors and a fall-front writing surface, demonstrates the sophisticated cabinetmaking skills that Morris and Company could offer its most affluent clients. It was praised by contemporaries for the perfection of its decoration: the design, skill, and freedom of its marquetry; the choice of woods; the cutting; and the coloring. Credit was given to its designer, George Jack, an architect and skilled woodcarver who was responsible for most of the outstanding inlaid furniture produced by Morris in the 1880s and 1890s. A student of historic furniture that he used as models for his decorative techniques, Jack applied the richly inlaid scrolls of thistle, oak, and ash foliage (repeated mirror fashion like a Morris textile pattern), cross-banding, and checkered border to an overall conception based on a stately eighteenth-century English cabinet-on-stand. Katherine B. Hiesinger, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 151.
