NEW YORK, 1760-1780

With its square and robust ball-and-claw feet below boldy carved knees, this compact bureau is one of a rare group of six-leg bureau tables made in New York. First identified by Morrison Heckscher, all are made of dense mahogany with secondary woods of poplar and have plain doors with H hinges. The group comprises an example at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one thought to have been owned by Philip van Rensselaer of Cherry Hill and now part of the collection at the Albany Institute, and one in a New York Collection, all with a similarly carved leaf motif on the sliding drawer; one offered Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 1 October 1978, lot 370 from the collection of Dr. and Mrs. James W. Marvin of Burlington, Vermont; and one in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with acanthus-carved knees (Morrison H. Heckscher, American Furniture: The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles (New York, 1985), cat. no. 136, pp. 213-214). Since Heckscher's publication, two additional pieces have come to market: the present lot, as well as one sold, Skinner, Boston, 7 November 2004, lot 116, which features carving on the slide drawer and descended in the family of Mary Pearson Murdock (1843-1923) of Placentia in Hyde Park, New York.