The Colonel Swan-General Knox Sideboard and Brandy Cabinet, late 18th/early 19th c., comprising a George III satinwood inlaid mahogany sideboard with Sheffield mounts, related to a design by Thomas Shearer (pub. 1788), the demilune top inlaid with a concentric sunburst radius, the conforming case with central long drawers flanked by short drawers and cabinets, on six square tapering legs with bellflower inlay, height 36 in., width 78 in., depth 33 1/4 in.; together with a Federal inlaid mahogany brandy cabinet, School of John and Thomas Seymour, Portland, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts, the demilune top fitted with a galleried rolled silverplate tray with sunburst incising, the spreading case with maple banding, string and husk-swag inlay and two doors with silvered escutcheons and hinges, void interior with silvered escutcheons and hinges, on silvered melon feet, height 14 in., width 19 in., depth 9 1/2 in. E80000-120000 Provenance: As illustrated and discussed in Frances Clary Morse, Furniture of the Olden Time, this sideboard was brought to Wiscasset, Maine in 1792 on the Sally, by the ship's owner, Revolutionary War Colonel James Swan (born Scotland 1754, emigrated Boston 1765, died Paris 1830). The Sally cargo included a wealth of French and English furnishings, possibly to furnish an American exile apartment for the French Queen Marie Antoinette. (see Morse, pp. 91-92 and Small, p. 36) Swan's son, James Keadie Swan (1783-1836), married Caroline Knox (b. 1791), daughter of Swan's longtime friend General Henry Knox in 1808, and "three handsome sideboards" were removed to Knox's home in Thomastown, Maine where the couple resided. (see Small, p. 37). One of the Swan-Knox household sideboards was purchased by Hezekiah Prince in 1813, was sold to Charles Coombs in 1838, and was still reported to be in Thomaston in 1937. Another sideboard was purchased by Samuel Fuller and sold to Boston parties. The lot offered here was reported to have been acquired by Maine educator, historian and antiquarian James Phinney Baxter (1831-1921) (Morse, p. 92). Descended in the family of James Baxter, to a private collector. Reference: Frances Clary Morse, Furniture of the Olden Time, 1905, pp. 90-92 pl. 61. Swan's genealogy and mention of the sideboard appears in Dr. Herman Wesley Small, History of Swan's Island, Maine, 1939, pp. 37, 45. The sideboard design: Known as an innovator of campaign and convertible "harlequin" furniture as well as a proponent of the prolific use of exotic satinwood inlays, Thomas Shearer published the first known designs for the sideboard form with drawers and cabinets below an expansive table surface in the Cabinetmaker's London Book of Prices and Designs of Cabinet Work of 1788. The configuration of drawers and cabinet doors below a demilune top seen in lot 397 is similar to that in pl. 5, fig. 1, a "Circular Cellaret (sic) Sideboard" in Shearer's guide. Reference Ralph Fastenridge, ed., Shearer Furniture Designs, 1962, pl. 5-6; Ambrose Heal, London Furniture Makers, 1953, p. 165. The brandy cabinet: The demilune profile of the base of this brandy cabinet, lot 397, conforms to the innermost ring on the concentrically inlaid top of the accompanied George III sideboard. The lower points of the vertical stringing on the brandy cabinet also punctuate the half-point of each inlaid ray on the sideboard's top. The top tray on the brandy cabinet is composed of rolled silverplate to compliment the Sheffield mounts of the sideboard. The brandy cabinet was likely manufactured to accompany the sideboard. While the form of the husk swags on the brandy cabinet echo the bellflower inlay of the sideboard stiles, the exact shape, materials and manner of the inlay differ. The same is true of the stringing on both pieces. It is probable that the brandy cabinet was commissioned by a member of the Swan or Knox families from a noted New England cabinetmaker, possibly the workshop of John and Thomas Seymour of Portland, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. The husk swags mentioned on the brandy cabinet, are nearly identical in shape to those on a tambour desk conserved by the Boston Museum of Fine Art and another desk owned by Buckley Robins of Wilmington, Delaware, (see Stoneman, p. 67, no. 18 and Stoneman supplement p. 10, no. 4). Reference: Illustrated in Frances Clary Morse, Furniture of the Olden Time, 1902, p. 91 pl. 61. Seymour furniture illustrated in Vernon C. Stoneman, John and Thomas Seymour, Cabinetmakers in Boston, p.67 and A Supplement to John and Thomas Seymour, Cabinetmakers in Boston, p. 10; Robert D. Mussey, Jr., The Furniture Masterworks of John and Thomas Seymour.