Description:

Federal Figured Mahogany Breakfast Table, New York, c. 1815, Probably Duncan Phyfe, the rectangular top with rounded corners tilting above a base with four leaf-carved supports on a plinth further on acanthus carved legs ending in caps on casters. Provenance: Descended within the John Wells (1770-1823) and Sabina Elliott Huger Wells (1781-1845) family, to her brother Daniel E. Huger, to his daughter Sabina Elliott Huger II, to her daughter Marie Lowndes, to her daughter Fanny Marie Cottenet (1876-1956) and inherited from Fanny Marie Cottenet by the current consignor in 1956. John Wells was a distinguished New York lawyer and known patron of Duncan Phyfe. When he married his second wife, Sabina Elliott Huger of Charleston, South Carolina in 1815 they moved to their new home at 292 Broadway. "Wells wanted the house readied for Sabina to receive her friends when they returned from their wedding trip. In anticipation of their homecoming, he wrote from Boston in July to his new sister-in-law, Sarah Elliott Huger (b. 1775), who was living in New York. Asking her to oversee the order of certain furniture and decorations, he requested that she select a carpet for our two lower rooms with proper tables for the front room and a tea table for the back room..." information on the family and their connection to Duncan Phyfe see: Kenny, Peter M. and Michael K. Brown, Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pg. 126-128, which details items that were commissioned for their house at 292 Broadway. It should be noted that the table bears Phyfe's typical construction method with the x-form brace under the platform stretcher.

Measurements: Height: 29 in. x Width: 63 in. x Depth: 46 in.

Condition:

Good condition, old marks and scratches, repairs and braces to the underside of the legs where they join the platform stretcher, repair to one leg just above foot, cracks to veneer on platform stretcher along x-form construction.

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