Sideboard

A design and period adaptation of the base portion of the Mary Ball Washington Highboy. The original William and Mary Style (1690 - 1730) high chest of drawers is an American treasure previously owned by George Washington's mother. It is located at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The sideboard, which is a long serving table with drawers or enclosed cabinets, did not exist during the William and Mary period so I adapted the design of the Washington highboy to my dimensions.

My reproduction has five drawers instead of three as in the original and ten identical cupped-turned legs instead of six. The legs are attached to the case with dowels and the stretchers follow the outline of the skirt. The solid walnut top is covered with flitchmatched walnut crotch veneers, centered and framed by strips of burl walnut. Crotch veneers are also use on the case front and drawers. Dovetail construction. The brasses are hand-engraved and copied from rubbings I took from the originals.

WOODS: Maple (sides, legs and stretchers), walnut, and walnut crotch and burl veneers over secondary woods of southern yellow pine.

DATE: 1986-88
WHERE CONSTRUCTED: BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI.
PHOTOGRAPH: Dirk Bakker.
PROVENANCE: 1989. Woodwork, Gallery of Woodwork, 4:65 winter, 1989.
1992. A WILLIAM AND MARY SIDEBOARD? Designing a hybrid with the Fibonacci Series and the Golden Mean, Woodwork 14:42, March/April 1992. (Also see the Editor's Commentary p. 2. Woodwork, March/April, 1992.