拍品专文
According to family tradition, this table was bought by the present owner's great-grandfather directly from John Jelliff and Company. A smaller table attributed to Jelliff with related marquetry and similar construction methods is in the collection of the Newark Museum (Berry Tracy et. al., 19th-Century America (New York, 1970), cat. 178). John Jelliff (1813-1890) and Company produced furniture in the array of Victorian styles throughout most of the nineteenth century. Furniture made during the company's early years was relatively simple and cost-effective for a locally-based clientele. After the Civil War, however, the company produced more lavish furnishings, competing with the larger New York City firms and appealing to a more sophisticated consumer (Ulysses G. Dietz, "A Major New Piece in the Jelliff Puzzle," Antiques (May 1986), pp. 1096-1099). Made in the company's later years, this table incorporates a finely detailed and elegant marquetry top imported from Europe. Yet this has been geared to a specifically American audience in its inclusion of marsh grasses, cat o'nine tails and shorebirds.