Name/Title
Table, SewingEntry/Object ID
2012.011.001Tags
Needs review, Needs new photographyDescription
Work Table
Boston, MA
1810-1815
Mahogany with gilt-brass drawer pulls, collars, and toe caps, and leather castors; secondary woods mahogany, pine and poplar
Gift of Mrs. and Mrs. James P. Barrow
2012.011.001
From Hirschl & Adler Galleries:
Work tables became a staple of American cabinetmakers in the later years of the eighteenth century, and many examples were made in styles ranging from Hepplewhite and Sheraton to the later Neo-Classical styles influenced by the Englishman Rudolph Ackermann's serial publication, Repository of arts, literature, commerce, manufactures, fashions, and politics (1809-29), the Frenchman Pierre de la Messangere's Collection de maubles et objets de gout (1796-1830), as well as individual design books by Charles Pecier and Pierre-Franois-Leonard Fontaine (1801 and 1812), Thomas Hope (1807), George Smith (1808 and1826), and Thomas King (1829).
The present work table, originally incorporating a desk flap in the upper drawer, compartments for sewing equipment in the lower drawer, and, below that, a slide for a work bag, partakes of an aesthetic codified by Thomas Sheraton in his influential The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book of 1793, but the slightly broader reeds of the legs indicate a date closer to 1810-15 than the more delicate legs favored in the preceding decade.
The table speaks loudly of Boston aesthetic, the broad, bulbous reeds relating, for example, to a series of beds attributed by Robert Mussey in his Furniture Masterworks of John & Thomas Seymour [Salem, Massachusetts: Peabody-Essex Museum, 2003], pp. 434-41 nos. 150-53, to Thomas Seymour, and the turnings above and below also have counterparts in Seymour's work (see pp. 300-01 no. 83, 302-03 no. 84, 312-13 no. 89, and 366-67 no. 116).
One unique aspect of the present table is the die-rolled gilt-brass collars that encircle the tops of the legs, which appear to have no parallel in other tables of this type, although they are strongly reminiscent of very similar but larger collars that ornament the top of the legs on a considerable number of Boston pianos. (For example, see Selections from Israel Sack Collection VII [1983], pp. 1810-11 no. P5029 illus.; Celia Jackson Otto, American Furniture of the Nineteenth Century [New York: The Viking Press, 1965], pp. 60 no. 134 illus.; and Oscar P. Fitzgerald, Three Centuries of American Furniture [New York: Gramercy Publiching Company, 1982], p. 122 fig. VI-25). Another unusual feature is the series of castora, where the die-rolled cups are ornamented with a leafy motif closely matching that on the brass collars. the four original drawer handles, with leafy back plate and circular rings, are identical to those on a table Mussey attributes to Seymour (pp. 300-01 no. 83), although since they were all English imports, there may be no particular significance in this relationship.Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation CollectionAcquisition
Accession
2012.011Source or Donor
Mr. James BarrowAcquisition Method
GiftMade/Created
Date made
1810 - 1815Place
City
BostonLocation
MassachusettsCountry
United States of AmericaLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Tertiary Object Term
Table, SewingNomenclature Secondary Object Term
Table, WorkNomenclature Primary Object Term
TableNomenclature Sub-Class
Support FurnitureNomenclature Class
FurnitureNomenclature Category
Category 02: FurnishingsDimensions
Height
29-1/2 inWidth
19-1/16 inDepth
18-1/2 inDimension Notes
18.5 x 35.4375 inches with both leaves extendedMaterial
Mahogany with gilt-brass drawer pulls, collars, and toe caps, and leather castors; secondary woods mahogany, pine and poplarLocation
Location
Room
104Building
Nathaniel Russell HouseCategory
PermanentDate
February 7, 2023Condition
Overall Condition
ExcellentNotes
Excellent. Cleaned and French polished. One leg had a break at the top, which has been strengthened internally. The desk flap in the top drawer is missing. The gilt-lacquer finish on the brass hardware has been redone. The work bag is new.Provenance
Notes
Hirschl & Adler Galleries; purchased by Mr. and Mrs. James P. Barrow, January 2012, WInter Antiques ShowGeneral Notes
Note
Tag Date: 2022-11-07 16:00:48
Tag Notes: missingCreated By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
July 2, 2012Updated By
mooreks@wofford.eduUpdate Date
January 9, 2025