Classical Marble-Top Center Table

CLASSICAL MARBLE-TOP CENTER TABLE

Attributed to Duncan Phyfe (1770-1854)

New York, 1825-1830

The circular Egyptian marble top with reeded edge above a conforming skirt, raised on a tapering pedestal with molded collar on a circular plinth with three hocked, saber legs terminating at cylindrical feet with turned caps, raised on brass casters. Secondary wood: Pine.  Construction note: The cross-brace beneath the top is dovetailed into the apron.

H: 30″ Diameter: 36″

Condition: Excellent: retaining its original marble top. Slight sun bleaching and de-lamination of shellac on one portion of the apron.

The legs and pedestal of this table relate closely to a tilt-top center table by Duncan Phyfe illustrated in Peter M. Kenny and Michael K. Brown’s Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), 222-223, pl. 41.  Phyfe’s use of the hocked saber leg seen on this table can also be seen on card tables by Phyfe as illustrated in Philip D. Zimmerman, “New York Card Tables 1800-1825,” American Furniture 2005, Luke Beckerdite editor (Hanover: Chipstone Foundation, 2005), 141, figs. 39, 40. The dovetail construction and the design of the turned collar at the top of the column beneath the cross brace relate closely to a center table with marble top in the collection at Winterthur, attributed to Phyfe, that descended in the family of Robert Donaldson, Phyfe’s most important client of the 1820’s.[1] Its overall quality suggests the hand of a top maker and its design and construction points to Phyfe.

[1] Peter M. Kenny and Michael K. Brown’s Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), 208, pl. 32.