Furniture Examination &
Attribution Report

Robert D. Mussey Jr.

Antique Furniture Research,

Consulting, Lecturing,
Writing

291 Hillside Street / Milton,
MA 02186
617-276-7754

Object: Marble-top
mixing or serving table, Portland, Maine or Boston, ca. 1787-1795
Maker: Probably
John Seymour, perhaps working with one or more of his four sons.
Owner: Stanley
Weiss
Date: Oct.
14, 2012

Dimensions: 28
3/4″ H X 31 7/8″ W X 21 1/4″ D
Materials: Mahogany,
with satinwood veneers and decorative veneer stringing, primary. Eastern
white pine and cherry (rear rail), secondary (I.D. ‘s by eye only).  Brass
drawer pulls (replacement). Bone
keyhole escutcheon inlay. Marble
top (gray with white veining), possibly original.
Marks,
inscriptions: “III” marked with chisel stab cuts on top inner
edge of rear rail.  “VI”
marked with similar cuts on lower edge of drawer front at center, and upper
surface of lower front drawer rail.
History:  Family
history is unknown.  Purchased by the present owner at Skinner Auctions, Nov. 7, 2010 Sale 2542B of Americana, lot 241.

Description:

Double-tapered
legs are tapered on all four sides, terminating in tall tapered feet which are
set off with satinwood ankle-cuff inlays bordered by ebony stringing. The
frieze rails are joined to the legs with mortise and tenon joints with two wood
pins per tenon. The through-pins are original. A double line of white stringing
runs up the legs above the cuff inlays. The tops of the legs have large, neat
chamfers cut on the two inner edges.

The
front frieze is composed of a wide upper and narrow lower rail, each framed
with a simple white veneer stringing surround. The drawer front is veneered
with a panel of curly-figured satinwood, surrounded at the edges with lines of
simple dark-light veneer stringing. The drawer opening is framed with thin
cockbead moldings applied to inner surfaces of the legs and front rails.
Mahogany side rails of the frieze are without ornamentation. Thin mahogany
panels/slides pull out from both side rails for additional serving surfaces,
each with mahogany “breadboard” ends applied with tongue-and-groove
joints. These mahogany slides are grooved into 3/4″ pine rails which run
side-to-side and join to the end rails ofthe table frame at the top. These two
grooved pine rails are joined at the center with a small pine front-to-hack mid
rail. Replacement stop block strips (of poplar?) are screwed to the tops of the
mahogany slides near the rear.

The
drawer comers are dovetailed with very neat dovetails. Edges of the pine drawer
bottom are tapered on the bottom and fit into grooves cut into the drawer sides
and front. The bottom is nailed at the rear up into the drawer back with two
large hand-forged “rose-head” nails. There are no blue blocks on the
underside of the drawer.

Moldings
are applied to the tops of the legs and rails to serve as a frame for the
marble top. These are secured with glue and fine hand-wrought brads. I pried
the rear molding off–there is no evidence of any other nails or small wood
pins having been used in its history.

The marble top is old with considerable
wear on the top and chips on the chips on the comer edges and may be original.
The underside is relatively smooth and flat, but with evidence of irregularity
and hand workmanship.

Discussion and basis of attribution:

New
England marble top tables of this form are rare in this early Federal or
“neo-classical” period. A series of features appear to be
characteristic of the work of John Seymour’s work in Portland, Maine in the
years after his immigration from Southwest England to Portland in 1784, or just
after his subsequent move to Boston in 1792 or 1793. The double-tapered legs
with tapering on four sides and ankle cuff inlays is very similar to a Pembroke
table with a history of descent in the related Cutts-Thornton-Emery families of
Maine. This table is attributed to Seymour during his period of Maine work.(1)
Seymour always tapered his legs on all four sides unlike many other early New
England makers. Seymour also favored the use of curly satinwood veneers, found
here on the drawer front. He was perhaps the first Federal-era cabinetmaker in
New England to use this very English decorative preference in his New England
work.

Seymour
also frequently combined secondary woods following both American and English
habits. On the present table, the cherry rear rail mirrors his frequent use of
that wood. Most commonly on other pieces, he used it for veneered drawer fronts
or drawer sides, or for table rails as found here.

Although
marble-top furniture is uncommon in early Federal New-England, a significant
number of tables of varying form and sideboards with marble tops are documented
or firmly attributable to John Seymour, or after 1793 to him working with his
son Thomas in Boston as John Seymour and Son. In all examples of their marble
top furniture, the marble is framed with wood molding surrounds, as is found on
the present example. A pair of marble top pier tables for example with marble
of similar character has a firm history of descent in the Portland, Maine
family of Nathaniel Deering.(2) One is pictured in a 19th century
photograph of the Deering house. The molding pattern used on this pair of
tables is identical to the pattern on the present mixing table.

Another
key feature is the beautifully rendered bone keyhole inlay depicting a
classical vase with curving handles. This shows up in several variations on
numerous pieces by the Seymours, most frequently on sideboards.(3) No
other New England maker is known to have used bone or ivory inlays of this
distinctive pattern.

Workmanship
on secondary areas of the present table is not obsessively neat as Thomas
Seymour’s later Boston work typically was. But this somewhat more hasty work on
less visible areas does reflect the known pieces of John Seymour’s Maine work.
He was trained and worked principally as a joiner in England, with cabinetmaking
being a secondary trade. Receipts and documents for this period indicate that
three of his four young and less-skilled sons often worked with their father in
Portland-John Jr. (died 1793), Joseph, and Thomas. The youngest son Samuel is
not recorded in Portland-era accounts. The less-practiced hands of these sons
may be responsible for the less finished hidden details found here. John Jr.
was principally a decorative painter, Joseph and Samuel later became engravers
initially in Boston, later in Philadelphia. Only Thomas later followed his
father’s trade.

It is
worth noting that not all features of the table exactly match the habits of
John Seymour’s typical shop practices. For example, there are no glue blocks on
the underside of the drawers. There are no pairs of chalk numbers on interior
drawer parts to match the parts during assembly. The tenon pins for the table
frame are visible on the outside–he typically used no pins, though in this
case he may have judged them necessary because of the heavy weight of the
marble on a light frame.

In
short, there are enough distinctive features of this mixing table that match
John Seymour’s practices that it can be assigned as probably by him, possibly
working with one or more of his sons.

Repairs, restorations:

No
veneer repairs or replacements were found. Satinwood and ebony ankle-cuff
inlays appear to be replacements due to their pristine appearance and the plain
grain of the satinwood. Hardware is replaced. Stop blocks/cleats for the
serving slides are replaced. A crack in the left front leg has been repaired
and is now sound. Refinished.

ROBERT D. MUSSEY JR.

Endnotes

l. At
the Saco Museum, Saco, Maine. See Robert D. Mussey, Jr., The Furniture Masterworks of John and Thomas Seymour (Salem:
Peabody Essex Museum, 2003), cat. no. 115, pp 365-466.

2. Mussey,
op. cit., cat. no. 70, pp 274-275. The photograph is in a private Maine
collection. The tables are owned by Stratford Hall, Stratford, VA, the restored
home of Robert E. Lee.

3. See
for example Mussey, op. cit., cat. no.’s 1, 12, 14, 25, 36, 43, and 44.