Cabinet Doors & Fronts · Victorian (Queen Anne, Eastlake)
Daniel Pabst Modern Gothic Sideboard (1868–80)
A walnut and burled-elm sideboard from Daniel Pabst's Philadelphia workshop, carved in the Modern Gothic style associated with architect Frank Furness.
Design characteristics
Daniel Pabst was Philadelphia's leading cabinetmaker of the 1870s and often collaborated with the architect Frank Furness. This sideboard shows their bold Modern Gothic vocabulary: crisp, stylized carving, chamfered edges, a crested top and panels of figured burl set into walnut. The carving is flat and graphic rather than naturalistic, which makes it well suited to machine production today. A three-door base with drawers and a tall shelved back is also a sensible layout for a built-in dining hutch.
Classification
- Category
- Cabinet Doors & Fronts
- Motifs
- Gothic tracery, Incised geometric
- Date
- 1868–80
- Maker or designer
- Daniel Pabst (American, 1826–1910) Philadelphia
- Recorded medium
- Walnut and burled elm
- Dimensions
- 256.5 × 185.4 × 62.2 cm (101 × 73 × 24 1/2 in.)
- Evidence
- Documented historical object
- Source
- Art Institute of Chicago
Architectural context
Carved mantels, layered trim and dark, decorative hardwoods. Britain and the United States · c. 1837–1901.
