拍品专文
One of the more common design aesthetics of the early nineteenth century was the combination of contrasting panels of satinwood or flame-birch veneer set against a mahogany or rosewood veneer ground. Some of the finer Massachusetts console and card tables, such as this example, were decorated with three panels of veneer along the facade surrounded by darkwood banding and string inlay (Stoneman, John and Thomas Seymour and Sons (Boston, 1959), figs. 119, 188-189).
The basic card table form was a square top with straight legs. Each embellishment to the form such as serpentine sides and front, quarter-round corners, turned and then reeded legs and the use of inlays and expensive veneers such as satinwood, added to the cost of the finished product. The cabinetmaker of this table additionally outlined each satinwood panel in ebony and painstakingly sand-burnt the band of satinwood in the top to give it an undulating serpentine appearance. The line-and-feather inlay present along the top leaf and lower edge of the apron was favored by craftsmen working from Massachusetts to coastal New Hampshire (Montgomery, American Furniture (New York, 1966), no. 302, lot ).
Card tables involved the cooperative efforts of cabinetmakers, inlay specialists and turners. There were usually several shops in an urban community that supplied inlays to the various cabinetmakers just as turners often furnished shops with piecework. Cabinetmaker Joseph True turned and reeded table legs for his fellow cabinetmakers in Salem which contributed to a recognizable regional style (Clunie, 'Joseph True and Piecework System in Salem,' The Magazine Antiques (May 1977):1006-1013). The legs of this card table were likely made under similar circumstances as they relate to other Massachusetts examples. the turner who supplied these legs was apparently familiar with plate 9 of Thomas Sheraton's, An Accompaniment to The Cabinet-Makers and Upholsterer's Drawing Book (London, 1794) for he borrowed the rounded exposed reeding on the upper portion of the legs and copies the turned feet.
For nearly identical card tables see Sack, American Furniture from Israel Sack Collection I (1959), p. 93, no. 282; IV (1974), p. 924, P3575; V (1983) p. 2050, P5348; Sotheby's January 24-27, 1990, lot 1089; Stoneman, John and Thomas Seymour (Boston, 1959), figs. 118-120.
The basic card table form was a square top with straight legs. Each embellishment to the form such as serpentine sides and front, quarter-round corners, turned and then reeded legs and the use of inlays and expensive veneers such as satinwood, added to the cost of the finished product. The cabinetmaker of this table additionally outlined each satinwood panel in ebony and painstakingly sand-burnt the band of satinwood in the top to give it an undulating serpentine appearance. The line-and-feather inlay present along the top leaf and lower edge of the apron was favored by craftsmen working from Massachusetts to coastal New Hampshire (Montgomery, American Furniture (New York, 1966), no. 302, lot ).
Card tables involved the cooperative efforts of cabinetmakers, inlay specialists and turners. There were usually several shops in an urban community that supplied inlays to the various cabinetmakers just as turners often furnished shops with piecework. Cabinetmaker Joseph True turned and reeded table legs for his fellow cabinetmakers in Salem which contributed to a recognizable regional style (Clunie, 'Joseph True and Piecework System in Salem,' The Magazine Antiques (May 1977):1006-1013). The legs of this card table were likely made under similar circumstances as they relate to other Massachusetts examples. the turner who supplied these legs was apparently familiar with plate 9 of Thomas Sheraton's, An Accompaniment to The Cabinet-Makers and Upholsterer's Drawing Book (London, 1794) for he borrowed the rounded exposed reeding on the upper portion of the legs and copies the turned feet.
For nearly identical card tables see Sack, American Furniture from Israel Sack Collection I (1959), p. 93, no. 282; IV (1974), p. 924, P3575; V (1983) p. 2050, P5348; Sotheby's January 24-27, 1990, lot 1089; Stoneman, John and Thomas Seymour (Boston, 1959), figs. 118-120.