ATTRIBUTED TO DUNCAN PHYFE (1768-1854), NEW YORK CITY, CIRCA 1815

With its reeded drum, incised reeded legs, and lion's paw carved feet, this candlestand demonstrates characteristics commonly associated with cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe. The incised legs with carved feet are also featured in a labeled Phyfe sewing table in the collections of the Winterthur Museum. Other Phyfe pieces with reeded drums include a dining table made for William Gaston of New Jersey (see Comstock, American Furniture (Exton, PA, 1962), fig. 566; Montgomery, American Furniture (New York, 1966), fig. 409); a card table and a breakfast table for James Lefferts Brinckerhoff in 1816; and a bedstead for Phyfe's daughter Elize Vail (McClelland, Duncan Phyfe and the English Regency (New York, 1939), pl. 114; Sloane, "A Duncan Phyfe Bill and the Furniture It Documents" Antiques 131, no. 5 (May 1987): 1106-1113, figs. 4, 6). Similar tables associated with or attributed to Duncan Phyfe are illustrated in American Antiques, vol. VI, 1979, P4127, p. 1613 and vol. IX, 1989, P6163, p. 2540; McClelland, figs. 9, 285, 287; and American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol. VII, 1983, P4868, p. 1737. Yet another related table is in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum (Comstock, American Furniture, fig. 590).

A similar candlestand, associated with furniture made by Duncan Phyfe for the Bronson family of Charleston, South Carolina, was Sold in these Rooms, Important American Furniture, and Decorative Arts: The Ronald S. Kane Collection, January 22, 1994, lot 410.