Lot Essay
This pair of tables was owned by the prominent Brooklyn physician and Surgeon General of the 2nd Army Corps in the Civil War, Abraham J. Berry, as were the pair of pier mirrors in the preceding lot. Card tables were often made in pairs to be set between windows in a symmetrical fashion when not in use. Mirrors, such as the two pier mirrors in the previous lot, were hung above them to further balance the room.
One of the most expensive and elaborate classical card table forms available to New York clients was a "Veneered Eliptic Pillar and Claw Card Table." The labor cost alone for this table was five pounds, eight shillings. Extra embellishments such as the brass inlay and a double or treble eliptic top, as on this table, rather than the single eliptic top, were above and beyond the initial base cost (New York Revised Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair-Work (London, 1810).
There are a number of decorative features on these tables that relate them to the work of Charles-Honoré Lannuier, the prominent French emigré cabinetmaker. Foremost, is the use of delicate stylized brass inlaid stylized floral and urn motifs that decorate the central tablet and reserves of each apron. Both relate to the floral and urn brass inlay on a table labeled by Lannuier and are often associated with his work. The brass edging along the base of the apron is also linked to furniture produced in his shop (see Edward Vason Jones, "Charles-Honoré Lannuier and Duncan Phyfe" in The American Art Journal, vol. IX, No. 1 (May, 1977):5-14, fig. 18), a nearly identical table to the labeled example with similar inlays was owned by Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon in his home Point of Breeze in New Jersey and is illustrated in, MET, Nineteenth Century America (New York, 1970), fig. 26.
Other features of these tables that relate to examples made by Lannuier are the elongated sweep of the legs and the manner in which the carved waterleaf extends nearly the entire length of the leg with no reeded termination (see, Jones, "Charles-Honoré Lannuier and Duncan Phyfe".)
These tables represent a mixture of both English and French inspired designs in the combination of the Regency-influenced waterleaf carved urn and legs, and in the rosette and the brass paw castors, and in the French flavor with the inlaid brass motifs. The intermingling of styles seen on this table represents the anglicanization of furniture derived from elaborate French designs, toward the more familiar English prototypes. See Nineteenth Century America; Woodside, "French Influence on American Furniture" (Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1986).
One of the most expensive and elaborate classical card table forms available to New York clients was a "Veneered Eliptic Pillar and Claw Card Table." The labor cost alone for this table was five pounds, eight shillings. Extra embellishments such as the brass inlay and a double or treble eliptic top, as on this table, rather than the single eliptic top, were above and beyond the initial base cost (New York Revised Prices for Manufacturing Cabinet and Chair-Work (London, 1810).
There are a number of decorative features on these tables that relate them to the work of Charles-Honoré Lannuier, the prominent French emigré cabinetmaker. Foremost, is the use of delicate stylized brass inlaid stylized floral and urn motifs that decorate the central tablet and reserves of each apron. Both relate to the floral and urn brass inlay on a table labeled by Lannuier and are often associated with his work. The brass edging along the base of the apron is also linked to furniture produced in his shop (see Edward Vason Jones, "Charles-Honoré Lannuier and Duncan Phyfe" in The American Art Journal, vol. IX, No. 1 (May, 1977):5-14, fig. 18), a nearly identical table to the labeled example with similar inlays was owned by Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon in his home Point of Breeze in New Jersey and is illustrated in, MET, Nineteenth Century America (New York, 1970), fig. 26.
Other features of these tables that relate to examples made by Lannuier are the elongated sweep of the legs and the manner in which the carved waterleaf extends nearly the entire length of the leg with no reeded termination (see, Jones, "Charles-Honoré Lannuier and Duncan Phyfe".)
These tables represent a mixture of both English and French inspired designs in the combination of the Regency-influenced waterleaf carved urn and legs, and in the rosette and the brass paw castors, and in the French flavor with the inlaid brass motifs. The intermingling of styles seen on this table represents the anglicanization of furniture derived from elaborate French designs, toward the more familiar English prototypes. See Nineteenth Century America; Woodside, "French Influence on American Furniture" (Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1986).