ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM HOOK (1777-1869), SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, 1800-1815

The cabinetmaker William Hook (1777-1867) arrived in Salem, Massachuestts in 1796. By 1800 he was in business for himself and married Abigail Greenleaf. Hook was apparently very successful, and sold furniture to Salem's leading families including the Derby family (see Fiske Kimball, "Salem Furniture Makers: William Hook" Antiques (April, 1934) pp. 144-146.) The table offered here has in common many details with the documented works from Hook's shop. The leaf carving at the tops of the legs is particularly distinctive, and a sideboard made by Hook in 1809 shares this detail (see Randall, American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1965) cat. no. 70). Other related examples attributed to Hook's shop are illustrated in Antiques vol. CIII, no. 3 (March 1973) and Sack, American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection (Vol. 5), p. 1240.