Philadelphia Highboy, Summer 1995 Fine Woodworking
By Chris Arato and Robert McCullough
When the two of us worked at Irion Company Furnituremakers in Pennsylvania, we collaborated on a lot of furniture. Then Chris moved to far northern Maine, and Rob opened his own carving shop. Collaboration over? Not yet. We both still do plenty of work for Irion Company, and last year when the company wanted a showpiece Philadelphia Chippendale highboy, we were asked to build it. No problem. Chris would do that cabinetmaking on the Canadian border, and Rob would do the carving 800 miles to the south.
The collaboration began on the telephone, as we zeroed in on which highboy we’d like to build. We chose two very similar Philadelphia highboys, one in a collection in the East, the other in the Midwest. Instead of copying either one, we blended the two. We each had photos of the originals and began by scaling the photos and comparing the dimensions we came up with. When we had them nailed down, we drew various details on tracing paper and sent them back and forth. When one of us received a sketch of a leg, midmolding or gooseneck in the mail, he’d lay it over his won sketch to see how closely we were thinking. In most cases, very closely.
When the piece got underway, the packages traveling through the mail got heavier. Chris roughed out the cabriole legs and cut the joints for them. Then he popped the legs in the mail so that Rob could carve them. The carved drawer fronts were also well traveled. Chris milled blanks for them and sent them south. Rob did the flower, leaf and tendril carving and sent them back north. Chris cut the dovetails and assembled the drawers.
The cartouche and the flame finials are very fragile, so we didn’t mail them. We waited until Chris drove the completed highboy down to Pennsylvania, where Kendl Monn of Irion Company applied the finish. Then, like the trimming on a Christmas tree, the finials and the cartouche took their places on top of the piece.