ATTRIBUTED TO HEYWOOD AND WAKEFIELD (1897-1910), MASSACHUSETTS, LATE 19TH TO EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Founded by Cyrus Wakefield, The Wakefield Rattan company (1873-1897) was later called Heywood and Wakefield (1897-1921) after a merger with a competing firm. It was one of the first American firms to use Asian rattan vine in furniture, innovating the wicker style. For the consistent quality of their tables and chairs, they were the best-known wicker manufacturers of the late nineteenth century. A motif similar to the elaborate scrolled base on the table offered here is used on a labeled example of Heywood and Wakefield furniture, illustrated in Donald C. Peirce, Art and Enterprise: American Decorative Art, 1825-1917: The Virginia Carroll Crawford Collection (Atlanta, 1999), p. 239. The fancywork and open-weave construction methods on the rail in the preceding lot are similar to a table, labeled Heywood and Wakefield, in Tim Scott, Fine Wicker Furniture 1870-1930, (Pennsylvania, 1990), p.57.