Samuel Harding (cabinetmaker)
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Ground floor of Independence Hall (right-click links below for room images)
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Samuel Harding (cabinetmaker) ( - 1758) was an 18-century American cabinetmaker, remembered for carving the interior architectural ornament of Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Independence Hall
Builder-architect Edmund Woolley (c. 1695-1771) began construction of the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in 1732, and completed the main building by 1748.[1] Harding and Bryan Wilkinson were listed as the carvers for the project.[2]
The staircase in the Vestibule soon proved inadequate for so large a building, and new one was planned in a tower addition.[3] The foundations for the tower were laid in 1750, and its exterior construction was completed by 1753.
Between 1753 and 1756, Harding executed (and probably designed) the interior architectural ornament for the remodeled Vestibule and Tower Stair Hall. His bill listed all of the fixtures for the mahogany staircase, along with moldings, pediments, column capitals, tabernacle frames, and two keystones with carved "faces."[4] For this he charged £195.13.11, a bill that was paid in part in 1757, and in full in 1758 (possibly, not until after his death). He provided ionic capitals for what he called the "green room" (thought to be the Assembly Room),[5] but it is unclear whether the shell-frieze within the room's tabernacle frame was carved by him in the 1750s, or by him or Wilkinson in the 1740s.
Harding also carved the giant clock case that stood on the exterior from 1752 to 1828.[6]
Other works
- Desk-and-bookcase (1748-54, mahogany, carving possibly by Harding), Philadelphia Museum of Art.[7]
- Desk-and-bookcase (ca. 1750, mahogany, carving attributed to Harding), Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[8] On loan to Milwaukee Art Museum.
- Dressing table (ca. 1750, mahogany, attributed to the Shop of Samuel Harding), sold at Sotheby's NY, 18 January 2008.[9]
- Carving work for James Hamilton (1751 and 1753). This may have included a coat-of-arms.[10]
- Eight gargoyle faces (1753-54), Steeple of Christ Church, Philadelphia.[11] Harding was paid £12 for these.
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Assembly Room. -
Vestibule. -
Looking from Vestibule into Tower Stair Hall. -
Liberty Bell on display in the Tower Stair Hall, early 20th century.
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References
- ^ "Edmund Woolley (c. 1695-1771) from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
- ^ Beatrice Garvan, "The State House (Independence Hall)," Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976), p. 42.
- ^ Garvan, p. 42.
- ^ Samuel Harding, "Carved Work Done for the State house" (1756), Norris Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
- ^ Constance M. Greiff, Independence: The Creation of a National Park (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987), p. 132.
- ^ Birch's Views, 1799 from Independence Hall Association.
- ^ Desk-and-bookcase from Philadelphia Museum of Art.
- ^ Desk-and-bookcase from Chipstone Foundation.
- ^ Dressing table from Sotheby's NY.
- ^ James Hamilton, Cash Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
- ^ Charles E. Peterson et al., The Building and Furnishing of Christ Church Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Old Christ Church Preservation Trust, 2001), p. 21.