Philadelphia Antiques Show 2024

83 THE PH I LADE L PH I A SHOW FIGURE 5: Reed Organ with Writing Table and Sewing and Dressing Box Emilius Nicolai Scherr (1794–1874) Philadelphia, 1836/1837 Mahogany, mahogany veneer, maple, maple veneer, white pine; painted and gilded plaster; ivory, ebony, mother-of-pearl; white metal, brass, silvered glass; leather, wool baize, cut silk velvet, 38 3/8 x 35 5 /8 x 15 5/8 inches Purchased with the Thomas Skelton Harrison Fund and with the gifts (by exchange) of the Titus C.Geesey Collection, Linda M.Girard Barlow, Sarah McLean Williams in memory of Mrs. William L. McLean, Lydia Thompson Morris, Lewine Russell, the Elizabeth Wandell Smith Collection, and Rhoda and Ira Albom, 2010 Furniture Pennsylvania German art has long been an anchor of PMA’s American collections. In 1982, dealers James and Nancy Glazer offered an intricately painted chest over drawers made in 1792 for the young Maria Magdalena Leabelsperger (or Leibensperger; 1772–1844) of Berks and later Lehigh County, where successive waves of German settlers established distinctive artistic traditions. Former curator Beatrice B. Garvan acquired it just in time for the special exhibition the PMA co-organized with Winterthur in 1982. (Figure 4) At opening night in 2010, dealer Kelly Kinzle offered a Philadelphia-made reed organ in the overtly classical style of the 1830s. A Danish-born émigré to Philadelphia, Emilius Nicolai Scherr (1794–1874), made the reed organ-type instrument (which he called a phys-harmonica ), but it is unknown who made the cabinet itself. A reading desk and a sewing and dressing box are housed inside the deep lid. 1 (Figure 5) Kinzle also sold a pair of trick-leg tables to the museum in 2020 through the online show necessitated by the pandemic. (Figure 6) Alexandria, Virginia, dealer Christopher Jones sold the museum two chairs made in Bermuda between 1730 and 1750 using that island’s indigenous red