Duncan Phyfe Drop Leaf Saber Leg

Duncan Phyfe - (Furniture Cabinetmaker)

Duncan Phyfe - (Furniture, Cabinetmaker) Duncan Phyfe is not a style; he was a furniture or cabinetmaker maker. The style of furniture produced in the Duncan Phyfe shop was characterized by carved or reeded legs and neoclassic motifs. It is considered by art historians as more of an adaptation and refinement of Adam, Sheraton, Hepplewhite, and Empire is of than a style itself. The Fife family moved from Scotland in 1784. Duncan's father opened up a cabinetmaking shop in Albany, NY. Duncan Fife was first mentioned as a furniture "joiner" at 2 Broad Street; registered in the 1792 New York City Directory. He relocated, expanded, and changed his name to Phyfe two years later. Duncan Phyfe is the only cabinetmaker in America whose name is linked with various styles of furniture: central pedestal drop leaf breakfast tables, double pedestal banquet tables, reeded leg sofas, window benches, Martha Washington sewing stands, lyre back chairs, etc. His pieces incorporated decorative carving, turning and formed motifs associated, but not unique to his shop are: reeding, thunderbolts, trumpets, rosettes, acanthus leave, water leaf, palm leaf, lion's foot, dog foot, eagle wings, drapery swags, wheat ears, the saber leg, urn turned posts, curved or diagonal cross bars on chair backs and the lyre. A pioneer of the industrial revolution, at one time Duncan Phyfe employed over a hundred workers at his cabinetmaking shop. Although the number of pieces produced there was enormous, only about 20 marked or labeled pieces have been found. His work and work attributed to his shop has been widely reproduced.

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