Newspapers confirm the use of bellows by smiths and other artisans as well as domestically. In New York as early as 1726 William Fletcher, a brush maker, advertised making and mending bellows. Eventually specialists, such as John Covil, and small manufactories came to dominate the craft. These bellows are noteworthy for their complex inlays, patterns believed to have been fabricated by specialists in America or possibly in England for export.

Technical notes: Mahogany, unidentified inlay; white oak (clappers).

Related examples: Carved bellows are catalogued in Montgomery 1966b, pp. 428–29, nos. 429, 430. No other inlaid bellows attributable to America are published. Similar marquetry inlays, perhaps representing the passionflower, appear on a number of Neoclassical looking glasses of a type unique to New York: Antiques 102 (November 1972), p. 727; Fales 1976, p. 278; Sack 1969–92, vol. 6, p. 1507, no. P4584; Antiques 143 (May 1993), p. 637; Christie’s, New York, sale 8082, January 27–28, 1995, lot 1160.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.