Daniel Pabst - Without Furness

Without Furness

Pabst created masterworks without Furness. He received a medal for excellence at the 1876 Centennial Exposition for a large walnut sideboard (whereabouts unknown).

"The most prominent object of the class was a black-walnut sideboard designed and made by Daniel Pabst of Philadelphia. The treatment was rather architectural throughout, too much so for practical purposes. Such a heavy piece should be built in a house, and not be treated as movable furniture. The wood was filled and highly polished on shellac, as is the common practice of our cabinet-makers with their best work... The hinges and metallic mountings were of oxidized silver of the finest workmanship and spirited in design. All the panels were filled with relief-carving, animal and floral forms being introduced; but these were not all of original design. A noticeable feature was the central mirror surmounted by a crocketed gable, richly carved, with finial composed of two birds resembling pelicans. Four finials on the posts which defined the three main divisions were finished with carved cockatoos. The amount of rich carving far surpassed that on any other Gothic piece in the Exhibition..."

The paneling, library, mantels and grand staircase of the John Bond Trevor mansion "Glenview," in Yonkers, New York – part of the Hudson River Museum – are attributed to Pabst based on an 1877 newspaper article that documents his work there, and similarities to other works attributed to him. The parlor's mantel features the flanking dog-faced beasts seen on mantels in several Furness houses, and the 1877 article specifically credits the diningroom's sideboard to Pabst. Its fox-and-crane decoration (from Aesop's Fables) is repeated on the sideboard at the Art Institute of Chicago.