Description:
This sideboard is the only documented example of the work of Northampton cabinetmaker Hervey Tillotson (1786-1813), and one of only a handful of examples of this form made by cabinetmakers in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts. The son of Amasa Tillotson (1759-1805) and Rachel Trumbull, Hervey Tillotson made this sideboard at the end of his apprenticeship at age 20, a year before he married Penelope Rust, the daugher of Daniel Rust (1753-1803) and Penelope Cook Rust, on June 25, 1807 in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1811, he formed a furniture making partnership with Elisha Smith in Northampton, which ended with his death in 1813 at age 27. An inventory of Tillotson's possessions taken after his death enumerated an extensive array of woodworking tools. The sideboard's D-shaped top and conforming case is supported on six tapered legs inlaid with stringing and abstract pendant motifs composed of graduated sand-shaded elements. The case contains three side-by-side drawers above a cupboard centered between two bottle drawers and side cupboards. The inner faces of the cupboard doors retain their original blue-green paper linings. The brasses are replaced. The proper right small side drawer and the back of the proper left bottle drawer are basswood. The interior of the proper right side of the cupboard doors is cherry. The central inlaid band inside the mahogany around the top is likely Australian she-oak (Casuarina).

Label Text:
Hervey Tillotson veneered the sideboard’s curved end doors and drawers with sheets of crotch mahogany with arched figure that echoes the shape of the sideboard’s double ovolo, or rounded-end, form. Tillotson veneered the flat middle doors with a single sheet of crotch mahogany veneer, cut vertically at its midline. He applied half of the sheet to each door—an unusual, subtle design detail meant to pull the eye in and counterbalance the arrangement of crotch veneers on the flanking tall, narrow bottle drawers.

After the American Revolution, middle-class families began to outfit rooms in their homes specifically for dining. In addition to center tables and sets of chairs, they bought large, stationary sideboards equipped with lockable drawers and cupboard doors useful for securing linens, flatware, wine and liquor. As the focal point of the dining room, sideboards provided space to display silver, ceramics, and glassware. Their outsized form afforded cabinetmakers an opportunity to showcase their skills. Tillotson designed this example with rounded, or ovolo, ends and a tier of drawers above sets of cupboard doors separated by narrow, vertical bottle drawers. Original blue-green paper linings are glued to the inner faces of the cupboard doors.

After completing his apprenticeship in 1806, Tillotson established a cabinetmaking shop in Northampton. In 1811, he formed a partnership with ornamental painter Elisha Smith of Northampton, a business relationship that lasted until Tillotson’s premature death at age 27 in 1813.

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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2009.6

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