A Monumental Queen Anne Cherrywood Tea/Center Table with Maginificent Shells, New England, c.1750
This
is a grand sized tea table, probably a third bigger than the usual, and is a
masterpiece. Very rarely in American
furniture do we see large shells like these on a tea table. When you do, they’re usually
English/Irish. The top is beautifully
scooped out from the solid, and the apron has an interesting open fretwork that
lightens its mass. The legs have
beautiful outlining at the edge and along the blockwork (at the corners of each
leg) which runs completely down through the end of the slipper.
The decoratively pierced apron is a particularly rare feature in American furniture, but it does exist in some documented Connecticut examples. (Please see below for a scan from Arts of the Federal Period, showing a Lichfield, CT Card table with a similarly pierced apron.)
This
is a very individualistic piece and comes from probably the same shop that
produced an unusual cherrywood silver table. The provenance of this piece came out of the
Holzer estate and they acquired it out of a Pioneer Newport collection of
Cornelius C. Moore who was mayor and quite involved in early Rhode Island
politics.
Height: 28 in. Width: 37 1/2 in. Depth: 26 1/2 in.
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