MID-ATLANTIC STATES, POSSIBLY NEW JERSEY, 1740-1760

This table's diminutive size, rare single-drawer form and elegantly shaped skirt combine to make it an important survival of early American furniture. As determined by microanalysis, the secondary woods are white cedar and tulip poplar, indicating its production in the mid-Atlantic states. Its distinctive tall slipper feet suggest a New Jersey origin. Similar feet are seen on a number of Queen Anne chairs that while they have been attributed to New York City, all descended in various New Jersey families and may have been made locally. Furthermore, furniture from Middletown, New Jersey features related up-turned versions of this foot design (Christie's New York, January 16, 1998, lots 437-439; Charles T. Lyle and Philip D. Zimmerman, "Furniture of the Monmouth County Historical Association," The Magazine Antiques (January 1980), pp. 190-192, figs. 7, 9, 10). For a single-drawer dressing table attributed to Pennsylvania, see John T. Kirk, American Furniture and the British Tradition to 1830 (New York, 1982), p. 369, fig. 1478).