FLIGHTS OF FANCY

by Fred Taylor

IMAGINARY NAMES

A quick reading of selected world history reveals a number of events or artifacts that are identified with a specific time, place or person. Many of these references are historically accurate, such as the Pax Romana (the so-called Roman Peace of the period 27 BC- 180 AD) or the Victorian period of 1837 - 1901. But other references are a little shaky on accurate details, like the Trojan Horse. Was there really a Trojan Horse? And was it related to the Trojan War?

In the long run it makes good mythology so the facts are secondary to the story but in the antique furniture business we frequently are looking more for the facts and less for a good story. Unfortunately there are a number of "good stories" that associate a particular style or type of furniture with a specific individual even though the facts are a little thin for the attribution.

One such famous case is the name commonly ascribed to the ubiquitous slant front desk. That name is the "Gov. Winthrop" desk. The story goes that the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century, John Winthrop, had a desk like this. Winthrop was born in England in 1588 and died in the Colony in 1649. This was at least 50 years before the drop front desk appeared in England and about 100 years before Thomas Chippendale gave it the famous form that commonly bears the Governor's name. In other words Gov. Winthrop did not have a desk like this. So who is responsible for the name given to the form of the drop front desk? The Winthrop Furniture Company of Boston has that honor. They introduced a new model of the desk in 1924 and called it the "Gov. Winthrop", a clever play on words that has polluted the trade vocabulary for over eighty years.

Another instance of the use, or misuse, of the name of an American historical figure is the case of Duncan Phyfe. Phyfe, whose family name was spelled Fife, was born in Scotland in 1768 and worked first in America in Albany in 1784 before moving to Manhattan around 1790. Phyfe was a talented cabinetmaker working in the styles of the day, including Sheraton, Federal Neoclassical and Empire. He didn't retire until 1847 so he saw a lot of styles come and go. But one style that he didn't see come or go was the "Duncan Phyfe" style. In fact there is no such style. That little flight of fancy was the result of a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1922 featuring Phyfe's work. Furniture manufacturers looking for inspiration in the burgeoning field of the Colonial Revival immediately attempted to parlay Phyfe's fame into their own by referring to their revival reproductions as "Duncan Phyfe" style. Now every dining table in America with curved legs supporting a central pedestal is referred to as a "Duncan Phyfe" table.

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