Sold at Auction: Duncan Phyfe

Duncan Phyfe (1768 – 16 August 1854) was one of nineteenth-century America's leading cabinetmakers.

Although he did not create a new furniture style, he interpreted fashionable European trends in a manner so distinguished and particular that he became a major spokesman for Neoclassicism in the United States, influencing a whole generation of American cabinetmakers.

Born Duncan Fife near Loch Fannich, Scotland, he immigrated with his family to Albany, New York, in 1784 and served as a cabinetmaker’s apprentice.[2]

In 1791 he moved to New York City[2] and one year later is documented the earliest mention of him in the city, when he was elected to the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, sponsored by Isaac Nichols and Seabury Champlin, either of whom may have trained him.