This is a small mahogany drum table, which is a rare form given its diminutive size and with bird’s eye maple drawers that open just below the top, which is similarly inlaid with a contrasting bird’s eye maple star.
What makes this table extra special is that it is supported on a beautiful large open lyre column, all of which sits on a base with small saber legs with delicately carved paw feet and gilt balls.
I first saw this piece when I started out many years ago. It was at the Israel Sack gallery in New York (one of my “must go” haunts during seasonal trips to Manhattan for Americana week events at Sotheby’s and Christie’s Auctions). If there ever was an attractive object of desire, this was it, but I was not going to have it at this time. When I entered the gallery there was a grouping around this piece including Albert Sack (one of the sons of Israel Sack who became a mentor to me years later) but as I feared, it was sold. This piece was illustrated in the Sack volumes and always served as a reminder.
Hope springs eternal and many years later it came up at auction. I was not bashful, it was a former “can’t have” that had now become a “must-have!” And now it’s in our collection.
The only other example I have found that comes close to this piece was illustrated in Classical Maryland 1815-1845: Fine and Decorative Arts from the GoldenAge, Gregory Weidman, et al, fig.133. That table, while decoratively painted, does not have drawers and is not as such a drum table. Interestingly, though, it points to a Baltimore origin.
Later classical pieces of the style and quality are very rare as America moves on into the industrial age of production given a growing population.
Provenance: Israel Sack
Illustrated: American Antiques in the Israel Sack Collection, Vol III, pg. 660
Height: 29 1/2 in. Width: 24 in.