ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN AND THOMAS SEYMOUR, BOSTON, 1800-1810

With its vibrant veneers and demonstrating several construction features characteristic of the work of John and Thomas Seymour, this sideboard is an elegant example of high-style federal furniture produced in Boston. The drawers are constructed in a manner linked to the shop of John and Thomas Seymour: precise dovetails of medium size are present; the drawer bottoms are oriented with the grain running from side to side, slide into grooves cut into the drawer sides and front and overhang the back of the drawers slightly, with small nails securing the bottom and back board; small, evenly-spaced glueblocks, some with chamfered outer corners, secure the joint between the bottom board and the drawer front while long glueblocks that butt against each other are glued underneath the long sides of the drawers.

The lively inlay exhibited on this sideboard, specifically the checkered stringing and garlanded pillars, relate closely to that seen on a masterful sideboard attributed to Thomas Seymour, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and illustrated in Robert D. Mussey, The Furniture Masterworks of John and Thomas Seymour (Salem, 2003), pp. 220-221, cat. no. 43.