NEW YORK, LATE 19TH CENTURY

This library or center table is an extraordinary example of the Aesthetic movement and a masterpiece crafted by a talented cabinetmaker. Impressive in scale, austere in its simple rectilinear form and inspiring in its elaborate decoration, the present table is visually captivating and combines the Aesthetic movement’s interests of various historical and geographical styles. The piece also shows many similarities in its decorative style to those works by George A. Schastey & Co . (w. 1873-1894). Furniture made by Schastey incorporated Renaissance sources with Islamic and Asian motifs and styles, and with elements of the British design reform movement. Flowerheads are used to decorate the table throughout and they are enveloped by stylized leafy vines, a design seen in the Worsham-Rockefeller Dressing Room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 2009.226.18). The table’s top is decorated with inlaid Greek key and floral borders. The Greek key motif is repeated in the carved inner borders of each door. At each corner a highly-carved female herm emerges from twisting hair curls and a crown of leaves, similar to those seen on the armchair in in the Richard H. Driehaus Museum collection. The table’s doors open to reveal ten sliding drawers that are very wide and deep, presumably built to accommodate large-scale maps, allowing it to serve a functional and also decorative purpose in its space.