Lot Essay
Oval-top drop-leaf tables appear to have first been made in America in the 1660s. Serving as dining tables, these forms would have been used in conjunction with dining chairs; as such, the baroque turnings on the legs and pivot-supports, or gatelegs, emulate the design of chair stiles and legs of the same period (Peter M. Kenny, "Flat Gates, Draw Bars, Twists, and Urns: New York's Distinctive Early Baroque Oval Tables with Falling Leaves," American Furniture (Hanover, NH, 1994), p.108). With its inverted and attenuated baluster and ring- turned legs and stretchers, this table dates to the early eighteenth century. For related examples, see David F. Wood, ed., The Concord Museum: Decorative Arts from a New England Collection (Concord, MA, 1996), cat. 16 and David L. Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses (New Haven, CT, 1992), cat. 40.