Sideboard Table Annapolis

The neoclassical style in paintings, architecture, music, and other cultural arts developed in early America alongside the movement’s popularity in England and the rest of Europe. This sideboard attributed to John Shaw highlights neoclassical taste and would have been considered the latest fashion in 1780’s Maryland. At the top of each leg, the table features carved paterae (bas relief ovals)  which are made to look like an ancient punch bowl. In ancient Rome paterae were generally shallow vessels used for drinking, often for ceremonial purposes. The table also contains a generous amount of fluting across the apron and on the two front legs. Fluting, a feature typical of neoclassical furniture, is meant to mimic columns  on buildings in ancient Rome and Greece. Unlike many Shaw pieces, this table contains no inlay detail, just carefully carved designs. The piece may have also had the influence of Shaw’s partner, Archibald Chisholm. The drawer on the side, characteristic of Annapolis pieces, is thought to be a later addition.

The original owner of this piece is Rinaldo Johnson, whose second wife was Anne Eilbeck Mason, daughter of George Mason of Gunston Hall. Gunston Hall was the first place that British-born architect William Buckland worked on in America and Hammond-Harwood House was the last before his untimely death in 1774. Rinaldo and Ann lived on a large plantation in Aquasco, Maryland, in Prince George’s County. The table was later owned by the Forbes family who lived at Villa De Sales, now an alpaca farm. Portraits of Rinaldo Johnson’s parents by Charles Willson Peale are on view upstairs at the Hammond-Harwood House.