Standing on winged animal paw feet, this austere Philadelphia sideboard bears the label of two English-born cabinetmakers. Not surprisingly, the piece derives from an influential British pattern book, Thomas Hope’s Interior Household Furniture and Decoration (London, 1807). The sideboard’s architectural nature is enhanced by free standing columns with fully carved composite capitals flanking the upper cabinets. Fitted tambour doors (flexible shutters composed of closely set wood strips attached to cloth) carry the most delicate of brass knobs. The cabinets are crowned by acroteria bearing a honeysuckle motif – an ancient decorative device used by both Greeks and Romans to embellish rooflines and pediments. They stand like twin towers, linked only by a blade-thin horizontal board of rich mahogany.