Millford Plantation - Duncan Phyfe Furnishings

Duncan Phyfe Furnishings

John and Susan Manning furnished Millford in the then fashionable Grecian style, including a considerable quantity of furniture made by Duncan Phyfe (one of America's most celebrated cabinetmakers), much of which is still in the house. The furniture belongs to the last phase of Duncan Phyfe's career, the least studied until the 2011-2012 retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum thanks to the joint work of Peter M. Kenny, Michael K. Brown, Frances F. Bretter and Matthew A. Thurlow. This phase, it has been claimed, has been unfairly undervalued in the past by generations of curators, antique dealers and collectors.

In 1840, John Laurence Manning made a trip to New York City and most likely visited Phyfe. Between 1840 and 1844, the Mannings placed four separate orders with D. Phyfe & Son (the name of Phyfe's company between 1840 and 1847) for a total of 72 objects, more than 50 of which remain at the house today.

This period in Phyfe's work is characterized by the use of plainer bands of highly polished wood, with little carving, the use of volutes, deep cavetto cornices, simple square columns, Marlboro feet, and console supports (C-scrolls) that were known in the Phyfe shop simply as “Grecian scrolls”. The latter, lifted directly from the design vocabulary of French Restoration furniture of the 1820s, were ubiquitous in Phyfe’s Grecian plain style furniture.

Every room of the mansion was filled with D. Phyfe & Son furniture, as is documented by an 1841 letter and bill of lading from the firm. In most rooms the furniture was in a Grecian plain style, but for the double parlor, the most magnificent room in the house, the Phyfes created something entirely new, blending the Grecian with Gothic and French Restoration style overtones. This is remarkable because the Phyfes, confirmed classicists to the end, never fully engaged with the emerging historical revival styles (Baroque, Gothic, Rococo, etc.) that began about 1840.

In the entrance hall, most of the furniture is made of walnut, an economical and durable wood. In the double parlors, however, it is mainly of rosewood, an expensive and exotic wood from South America. The use of luxury woods indicates that the double parlors were a space for formal entertaining, a place for the Mannings to display their taste and wealth.

In the dining room, the elliptical table, matching the shape of the room, is made of mahogany and has four animal–paw feet and six leaves. The other pieces commissioned included, among others, 14 armchairs in the French Restoration style. It was uncommon to have armchairs at a dining table—usually there were armchairs only at the head and foot of the table, the others being side chairs—and this may express an egalitarian philosophy on the part of Gov. Manning.

When Richard Jenrette bought the property in 1992, less than half of the original furnishings remained in the mansion. Through research, documentation, and consultations with scholars, carried out over many years, he found and purchased much of the original furniture and returned it to its place. Other pieces were generously given by the descendants of the two families who had owned the plantation. This laborious process continues and more pieces are expected to be returned in the future.

Millford and its furnishings are remarkable in that the entire house was decorated with furniture commissioned from a single cabinetmaker (something uncommon those days), because it was one of the largest orders ever from D. Phyfe and most pieces are preserved within the same building they were intended to complement and grace, all this makes of it a case unusual in the USA.