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Lot Essay
Of the same form and bearing an identical ormolu mount, this card table appears to be the mate to one made for the prominent fur-trader, John Jacob Astor of New York City, and now in a private collection in Canada. Astor lived on Vesey Street in the early nineteenth century, close to the showrooms of Duncan Phyfe located on Fulton Street. According to the notes of Ernest Hagen, Phyfe's nephew delivered many loads of furniture to the Astor's, who were Phyfe's "best customers" (see McClelland, Duncan Phyfe and the English Regency, New York, 1939, plate 239, p. 253).
In addition to the table's history, the attribution to the shop of Duncan Phyfe is strengthened by its similarity to another example that descended in the family of Thomas Lattimer Bowie of Philadelphia, another of Phyfe's known clients (see Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack, Inc., vol. 4, p. 1055, P3893). A desk and bookcase made for Bowie bears Phyfe's Fulton Street label dated August 1820 and suggests that Bowie may have ordered the table at the same time, providing an approximate date of manufacture for this group of card tables (see McClelland, plate 251, p.264-6). Furthermore, with the banding on the top leaf, slightly raised panels on the corners and double brass stringing on the base of the skirt, the top section of this table is very similar to that of another card table bearing the same 1820 label described above that was Sold in these Rooms, 8 October 1997, lot 86.
In addition to the table's history, the attribution to the shop of Duncan Phyfe is strengthened by its similarity to another example that descended in the family of Thomas Lattimer Bowie of Philadelphia, another of Phyfe's known clients (see Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack, Inc., vol. 4, p. 1055, P3893). A desk and bookcase made for Bowie bears Phyfe's Fulton Street label dated August 1820 and suggests that Bowie may have ordered the table at the same time, providing an approximate date of manufacture for this group of card tables (see McClelland, plate 251, p.264-6). Furthermore, with the banding on the top leaf, slightly raised panels on the corners and double brass stringing on the base of the skirt, the top section of this table is very similar to that of another card table bearing the same 1820 label described above that was Sold in these Rooms, 8 October 1997, lot 86.