An Important American Gothic Walnut Bookcase, mid-19th c., attributed to Crawford Riddell's Journeyman Cabinet Makers, Philadelphia, crenellated crest, frieze bearing in applied letters the subject inscriptions of "Poetry, Religion, Metaphysics, Oratory, Drama and Music", glazed doors with muntins surmounted by pointed arches with trefoils, four adjustable shelves, plinth base, height 82 in., width 43 in., depth 15 1/2 in Provenance: Acquired from Antiquarian Joseph Sorger (1919-2008), Philadelphia, 2005.Note: In the 1840s, the Philadelphia cabinet warerooms of Crawford Riddell supplied a number of pieces of Gothic Revival furniture for the parlor and library of Phil-Ellena, a large-scale Greek Revival villa built in 1842-1844 in Germantown, which is now part of the city of Philadelphia. Furniture made for the library included a set of walnut bookcases distinguished by crenellated crests, glazed doors with muntins surmounted by pointed arches enclosing trefoils, and friezes inscribed in raised letters with the names of subjects typically represented by books in a scholarly library of the nineteenth century. The bookcases are visible in a photograph of the library dating from c.1887. Crawford Riddell became active as a cabinetmaker in 1835. From 1837 to 1844, he operated the Journeyman Cabinet Makers' Warerooms, located at 48 South Fifth Street, below Walnut Street, in Philadelphia. According to an advertisement in the Philadelphia city directory for 1839, Riddell's warehouse carried "the largest assortment of Furniture of the latest and most approved designs to be found in any establishment in the United States…all manufactured by the best Journeyman in the trade." His most famous commission was a suite of Gothic Revival rosewood bedroom furniture made in 1844 for the use of Whig presidential candidate Henry Clay in the president's bedchamber of the White House. The bookcase offered in the current lot bears a number of similarities to the bookcases that once stood in the library of Phil-Ellena, suggesting that it was sold in the warerooms of Crawford Riddell. The proportions of this bookcase are different from those made for Phil-Ellena, but share many of the same features, including the crenellated crest, configuration of muntins, pointed arches with trefoils, and raised letters in the frieze spelling the names of subject areas including literature, religion, science, and the arts. References: Richard Trent, "Vaulting Ambition: Philadelphia Gothic Revival Furniture and Other Decorative Arts, 1830-1860" (Philadelphia, 2005), pp. 100-101 and 115-117; Sheryl Farber Mikelberg, "A Decorative Analysis of Phi-Ellena, a Greek Revival Philadelphia Mansion," master's thesis written for the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, University of Pennsylvania (January 1992), pp. 60 and 111-112.