This urn and flowers cartouche from a chest on chest was carved in Philadelphia c.1775. The chest was sold at Sotheby’s in 2008. These photos were made during the auction preview. I’ve recently been teaching classes on carving a basket and flowers cartouche. The flowers, carved from a separate block of wood, were identical in both versions. The nicely carved flower in excellent condition on this cartouche provides additional information for carving the flower for the basket cartouche.

Urn and flower cartouche, Philadelphia, c. 1775.

Back of the cartouche. the hole left from the carvers screw can be seen just above the white adhesive label.

Side view of the cartouche. The base of the cartouche is a vertically grained 2 inch block. The flower is a horizontally grained 2 inch block glued to the base.

Detail of the urn with a nail punch used on the background at the center.

Flower detail.

Top view.

Side detail of the flower.

An urn and flowers cartouche I made over 15 years ago for a Philadelphia chest c. 1770 missing its original. Before finish was applied.