Lot Essay
With its scalloped top and medial shelf, turned supports, and highlighted gilt-decoration, this table is a popular New Hampshire form adapted from English patterns (see Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book (London, 1793), p.415 and Hepplewhite, The Cabinetmaker and Upholsterer's Guide (London, 1794 ed.), pl.89). Contemporary price guides offered options for sewing tables with "the top cut oval or serpentine," a "plain shelf sweep'd and fix'd with stretcher plates," and "a rim on each side of shelf" (Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period 1788-1825 (New York, 1966), p. 397).
Related tables are illustrated in Albert Sack, Fine Points of Furniture (New York, 1960), p. 273; in Sack, The New Fine Points of Furniture (New York, 1993), p. 306; a third from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy Nicholson collection, sold in these Rooms January 27 & 28, 1995, lot 1173. An additional stand with scalloped medial shelf above a single dawer, was sold in these Rooms, January 26, 1991, lot 279.
Related tables are illustrated in Albert Sack, Fine Points of Furniture (New York, 1960), p. 273; in Sack, The New Fine Points of Furniture (New York, 1993), p. 306; a third from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy Nicholson collection, sold in these Rooms January 27 & 28, 1995, lot 1173. An additional stand with scalloped medial shelf above a single dawer, was sold in these Rooms, January 26, 1991, lot 279.