ESSEX COUNTY, POSSIBLY NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS, 1760-1780

Embellished with a gracefully shaped frame and elegant ball-and-claw feet, this drop-leaf table is a refined example of the popular form. Distinctive features include the frame's double ogee apron with angled notches, the rounded profile to the tops of the cabriole shaping on the legs (which eliminate the need for knee returns), and angular shaping on the front edges of the legs that continues to the foot. Based on these features, this table is related to a few others, including one that is thought to have descended from Offin Boardman of Newburyport, suggesting a possible origin for the entire group (See Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye, New England Furniture: The Colonial Era (Boston, 1984), pp. 280-281, cat. 64).