Beschreibung:

The Ley Family Chippendale Sulfur-Inlaid Walnut Schrankprobably made by Christoph Uhler (1741-1804)Lebanon, Lancaster (now Lebanon) County, PennsylvaniaDated 1771 Appears to retain its original surface, cast brass hardware and feet. Inlaid with sulfur ML & EML 1771.Height 99 1/2 in. by Width 83 in. by Depth 23 in.ProvenanceMichael (1739-1824) and Eva Magdalena Ley (1744-1815) at Tulpehocken Manor, near Myertown, Jackson Township, Lancaster (now Lebanon) County, Pennsylvania; By descent in their family; To Conrad Loose, who purchased Tulpehocken Manor in 1834; To his son, Rev. Isaac Loose, of Bethlehem; Purchased by his granddaughter, Mrs. Mary K. Bowman Seidel, at his death; Purchased from her estate sale, March 7, 1970 and returned to Tulpehocken Manor; Kleinfelter’s Auction, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, January 17, 2004; Greg K. Kramer & Co., Robesonia, Pennsylvania. LiteratureMike Schropp, “Lebanon County Antiques: A History of the County as seen through its artifacts.” The Lebanon Daily News (April 1, 1970); Monroe H. Fabian, “Sulfur Inlay in Pennsylvania German Furniture,” Pennsylvania Folklife 27, no. 1 (Fall 1977): 9; Karl Pass, “Rare 1771 Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, Sulfur-Inlaid Walnut Kas Sells for $115,500,” Maine Antique Digest, Fragments, March 2004; Wendy A. Cooper and Lisa Minardi, Paint, Pattern & People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725-1850, (Winterthur, DE: Winterthur Museum, 2011), pp. 181–3, fig. 4.49 and 4.50; Lisa Minardi, "Sulfur Inlay in Pennsylvania German Furniture: New Discoveries," American Furniture 2015, (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee, WI, 2015), pp. 144-7, figs. 111 & 112. Catalogue noteAt eight and a half feet tall, this monumental and architectonic schrank stands as one of the best documented pieces of sulfur-inlaid furniture that survives. It displays the initials of its original owners, Michael Ley (1739-1824) and his wife Eva Magdalena Lauer (1743-1815), as well as its date of manufacture, 1771. An officer of the Continental Army, Michael was the son of Christopher Ley (d. 1741), who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1732 and moved to Jackson Township, Lancaster (now Lebanon) County, where he settled on a tract of 1,000 acres near Myerstown and the Tulpehocken Creek. Christopher died in 1741 leaving no will. In 1760, Michael Ley bought his father’s estate for 680 pounds and built Tulpehocken Manor, a large five-bay stone house which was finished in 1769 and extant today. Family tradition notes that this schrank stood in the best bedchamber of the house where George Washington slept during a visit in 1793 to thank the Leys for their financial support of his troops while encamped at Valley Forge.1 The schrank remained at Tulpehocken Manor until 1834, when the house was sold to Conrad Loose, who subsequently gave the schrank to his son, Isaac, of Bethlehem. After Isaac’s death, the schrank was auctioned off as part of his estate and purchased by his granddaughter Mary Seidel for 75 cents. In 1970, it was purchased at the sale of her effects and returned to Tulpehocken Manor. It was sold at auction around twenty years later. A pediment above the front door of Tulpehocken Manor inscribed “GOTT / ALLEIN DIE HER / MICHAEL LEY UND / EFA MAGDALENA LEYON / CHRISTOPH UHLER 1769 VON Lebanon” relates closely to the interior architectural woodwork of the house, including a fireplace surround with an overmantel resembling the door pediment and built-in corner cupboard. The cornice of the corner cupboard displays the same distinctive alternating square and triangular blocks as this schrank. The pediment identifies the craftsman, Christoph Uhler (1741-1804), who was responsible for the house and likely also its interior woodwork and this schrank. Born in Lebanon on February 2, 1741, the son of Anastasius Uhler, a German immigrant, and his wife Dorothea Jerg, Christoph became one of the largest property holders of Lebanon and a respected citizen by the ti