While Mussey explains much about this table (see the report below), the unusual three flutes on the legs are uncommon in the U.S.   They are, in fact, an English design which Seymour used.   (See this motif on two related pieces of English furniture shown below.)  Seymour was an English immigrant trained in England and was known in Boston for adhering to English standards of design, which is an indicator of a Seymour attribution that Mussey has not noted.

Furniture Examination Report
By Robert  D. Mussey, Jr., Milton, MA

August  11, 2013

Object:            Tambour writing desk on frame; Boston,  ca. 1812-1825
Maker:            Possibly  Thomas Seymour
Dimensions:
Materials:         Mahogany, primary; mahogany, Eastern  white pine and cherry;  baize lined interior writing surface (replaced); one glass ink bottle is possibly original (lacks lid); brass lid hinges, key escutcheon plate and lock on drawer (all replaced, but the original hinges are saved in the drawer).
History:

Inscriptions:     “No 2” in large fluid hand on bottom of both drawers and on the horizontal top board of the base frame. “Keys” in pencil is inscribed  on the underside of the large drawer bottom in an old but probably  not original hand.  One end of each reed of the tambour  lid is inscribed  with consecutive penciled  numbers, “…26, 27, 28, 29, 30…” by a later restorer  when he replaced the canvas backing for the tambour.
 
As literacy increased during the Federal period, especially  among women, the variety of writing desks available to them proliferated to meet the demand. Small portable desks and lap desks were especially  popular in Boston, among them a distinctive type with a sliding tambour lid and a hinged fold-out  writing surface. Several small lap desk models of this type were made by Boston cabinetmaker Thomas  Seymour  based on a standard  English Regency  design. The outstanding example  of this form was made by Seymour  and decoratively painted  by Hannah Crowninshield of Salem for her sister Maria. This is now at the Peabody  Essex Museum.
 
The offered desk is of a very similar design, but is scaled much larger and placed on a frame so the writer could sit in a chair and write. Its basic design is identical.  When the drawer is pulled out, the tambour lid (which is attached to the drawer back) is automatically opened, which “unlocks” the slanted lid, which then hinges forward  and is supported on the opened  drawer.  The unfolded writing surface is lined with baize. With the lid open, a small drawer is revealed at the rear of the writing surface,  along with a concave tray for pens flanked  by cubbyholes for ink bottle and sander below the tambour  lid. The upper desk unit merely sits on the base frame with four small locator dowels, and is screwed  up through  each side rail to secure the two units.
 
No other desk-on-frame like it is known to the author, although  with both drawers  inscribed  “No 2”, presumably a second just like it was made at the same time. The style and distinctive  hand of the number inscriptions appear to match the typical practice of Thomas Seymour. The workmanship throughout is very neat and the detailing  well executed. The tapering  legs with shaped and molded square feet also match favorite Seymour foot designs of this period derived from an engraved plate for “Therm Feet” in Thomas Sheraton’s Cabinet Dictionary, London, 1803. Here, each leg and foot is shaped from one continuous piece of mahogany, rather than apply small moldings to the bottoms of the legs. This labor-intensive and expensive method also follows Seymour’s typical method. The use of cherry as one of the secondary woods is also found frequently on his work.

However, a number of features on this writing desk are not typical of his work. These include the narrow and deeply-carved leg flutes, the white-black-white pattern line stringing on the large drawer front which do not form a full four-sided frame, the plain quality of the mahogany used, and the complete lack of any figured veneer. The drawer bottom also lacks the distinctive glue blocking pattern typical of Seymour’s work.

Also puzzling is the use of very small machine-made steel screws to attach the drawer bottoms, the frame and panel below the drawer, and the inner edge of the tambour lid to the drawer back. The desk has had a number of small patches let in by a previous restorer, who also apparently replaced the baize lining, the lining canvas on the tambour lid, and refinished the interior and exterior. Did he also replace earlier screws with the more modem machine-made examples found now? Small screws instead of cut brads are found in some of Seymour’s later high-end work of the 1820’s when he was foreman cabinetmaker for the Isaac V ose shop, so the presence of screws in this desk-on-frame would not be out of character for his later work.

At this point, the evidence only allows for a possible assignment of the desk to Thomas Seymour, possibly working for Isaac Vose. Perhaps research into the “Keys” inscription may turn up documentation linking it more firmly to a cabinetmaker. A numerous family of that name, pronounced “Kize”, has long been resident in Concord, Mass. and perhaps might be tied to the desk through future research.

Height: 34 1/2 in. Width: 30 in.  Depth: 18 in.