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Dimensions: height 30 1/4 in. by width 38in. by depth 23in. 77cm by 96.5cm by 58.5cm

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Provenance: Purchased at Harbands Auction studio in San Francisco by present owner in the 1940's for approximately $700.

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Notes: Appearing to retain its original King of Prussia marble top, this table is a rare manifestation of an American table form with a construction following English practice, and opulent carving incorporating the full vocabulary of high-style English rococo furniture of the 1750s and 1760s. It is without question the combined effort of a talented and accomplished London-trained cabinetmaker and carver working in pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia.

The pine box construction with applied mahogany facings, while unusual in American cabinetwork, is commonly seen in English cabinetmaking. The sturdy mortise-and-tenon joinery is reinforced with a cross-brace, corner braces and glue blocks to support the weight of the top, which is made of a marble that may have originated from a quarry on the eastern side of the Schuylkill River, possibly in the vicinity of Whitemarsh Township. A top made of similar stone appears on a sideboard table attributed to the shop of Henry Clifton and Thomas Carteret of Philadelphia illustrated in R. Curt Chinnici, "Pennsylvania Clouded Limestone: Its Quarrying, Processing, and Use in the Stone Cutting, Furniture, and Architectural Trades," American Furniture 2002, fig. 30, p. 110. That slab also has holes cut into its underside intended for metal indexing pins, in order to secure the top to the table frame. Chinnici notes that although stonecutters often followed this practice, "...most cabinetmakers assumed the weight of the stone would prevent the top from moving " (Chinnici, p. 111).

The richly textured carving on the front and side rails of the serpentine skirt of this table may have been inspired by designs for pier tables and frames for marble slabs illustrated in plates CLXX and CLXXV of The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker's Director (London, 1762) by Thomas Chippendale. The carving is comprised of high relief acanthus leaves, scrolls and ruffles balanced against a loosely-carved low relief background decorated with punchwork flowerheads and strikes, the whole centering an exuberant asymmetrical foliate cartouche. The top portion of the rails is uncarved. The adeptly-carved cabriole legs feature acanthus leaves on the knees, slender ankles and bold claw feet with defined knuckles and bulbous rear talons. The strike-outlined lozenges in the ruffle carving of the skirt and the strikes on the turrets are distinctive features that may be a signature of this carver's work.

A Philadelphia marble-top table, given to Winterthur Museum in 1999 by The Claneil Foundation in memory of Henry S. and Lois F. McNeil, has nearly identical construction and carved decoration, and appears to be from the same shop (see illustration). Traditionally thought to have been owned by the Van Rensselaer family of New York, the table was part of a group of furniture acquired in the nineteenth century by the government of Denmark for use in their "Government House" at St. Croix, Virgin Islands. The table was sold in 1905, and taken to Copenhagen in 1912; eventually it was brought back to America and in 1965 purchased by the McNeils. Several New York tassel-back chairs with a similar history were sold in these rooms, January 26-28, 1984, sale 5142, lots 860-61, as the property of the St. Croix Landmark Society, and January 20, 2001, sale 7591, lot 121, from the estate of Andrew D. Wolfe.

A comparison of the two marble-top tables was conducted at Winterthur in August of 2003. Refinished, with no extant knee bracket blocking and a missing dovetailed cross brace, the Winterthur table displays the same unusual pine box construction with applied mahogany facings and poplar secondary woods. It offers the same mass as this table and a very close depth. The front and side rails are fully carved with the top portion of the skirt left uncarved and the same type of design featured on the skirt, turrets, knees, and feet as on this example. Minor differences in the carving include the shell-carved cartouche, the deeply-carved droplets on the skirt, the reverse design on the brackets, the gouge cuts that do not follow through to the extent seen on the present table, the less-pronounced corners of the turrets, and the side rails with ruffled lower edges extending to the back. Many of these differences in motifs and design orientation could perhaps be explained by the greater dimensions of the Winterthur table, measuring 29 1/4 in. by 49 1/2 in. by x 20 3/4 in., which would create a need for additions and variations to the carving.

Remarkably similar exuberant carving, possibly executed by the same craftsman, with the distinctive strike-lined lozenges, gouged ruffles, and naturalistic acanthus leafage appears on a set of chairs made for the Lambert family of Lambertville, New Jersey (see illustration). Chairs from this set are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Winterthur Museum, the Chipstone Foundation, Colonial Williamsburg and a Private Collection. Another Philadelphia marble-top pier table in the study collection at Winterthur Museum (now believed by Winterthur Museum to have rebuilt areas with out of period elements) displays carving of a closely related pattern (see Joseph Downs, American Furniture: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods in the Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum, New York, 1952, no. 360). A related form and claw-and-ball feet with defined talons and bulbous rear talons are found on a marble-top table in the Karolik Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (see Edwin Hipkiss, Eighteenth-Century American Arts: The M. and M. Karolik Collection, Cambridge, 1941, no. 52, p. 97). A pair of serpentine card tables made by Thomas Affleck in 1771 for General John Cadwalader features gouged ruffle carving at the top of the front and side skirt rails that bears comparison (see Morrison Heckscher and Leslie Greene Bowman, American Rococo, New York, 1992, no. 154, p. 215). Similar low relief ruffle carving surrounds the upper skirt of a tea table attributed to Thomas Tufft with an unusual sheet iron top (see ibid, no. 135, p. 198). Closely related knee carving and claw feet are known on a card table illustrated in Israel Sack Inc., American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, Volume IX, P6123, p. 2470.

Similar carving is found on an English mid-Georgian marble-top pier table, as well as on several china, card and tea tables, the photographs for which are in the R. W. Symonds Collection, Winterthur Library (59.1837; 59.1505.1; 59.2120; 59.1941; 59.2154; 59.2155.)

Please refer to department for images.