Lot 1198

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Description:

Pair Massachusetts late Federal carved card tables Boston area, circa 1820, shaped rectangular top conforming to elliptic and hollowfront frieze with brass trim on bottom edge, resting on acanthus-carved, ring-turned and twist-reeded legs terminating in brass cups and casters.
H29 1/8" W37 3/4" D17 5/8" (2pcs)

Provenance: Maryland private collection.

Literature: The form of these tables is described in Benjamin Hewitt, Pat Kane and Gerald Ward: THE WORK OF MANY HANDS, CARD TABLES IN FEDERAL AMERICA 1790-1820 (Yale: 1982) as square with elliptic and hollow front, half-elliptic and hollow ends and ovolo corners. Although clearly grounded in earlier and lighter Federal-era models, this pair of tables assumes the new, bolder presentation of the form based on Classical examples. Similar tables with more extensive decoration: heavily carved acanthus-leaf decoration above reeded or rope-turned legs, brass inlays and carved skirt decoration, originated in the Salem, Massachusetts area, and are associated with the shop of Samuel McIntire. The carved acanthus turret corners, the applied brass decoration and the rope-turned legs seen here reflect the extent of McIntire's influence.

Other Notes: A brass plaque affixed to the tables indicate that they were made for Lewis Whiting Fisher (1792-1827) and Nancy Fisher (1800-1881) of Wrentham, Massachusetts, about 30 miles southwest of Boston. Both the Whiting and Fisher families were prominent and prolific in the city. Lewis Whiting Fisher, the son of Lewis and Abigail Whiting Fisher, graduated from Brown University in 1816 and studied law with the Honorable Josiah H. Fiske of Wrentham, the same office where renowned educational reformer Horace Mann began his apprenticeship in 1819. He opened his own office in Wrentham in 1820, the year he married Nancy Fisher, and it is likely this pair of tables was made the same year. He lived in Wrentham until his death in 1827.
The couple had four children: Lewis (1821-1881), Henry (1822-1870), Elizabeth (b. 1825) and George Park Fisher (1827-1909) who attended Brown and Yale, where he became a professor of theology and wrote many texts, including History of the Christian Doctrine, still today considered to be an iconic work of Christian theology.

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December 5, 2010 1:00 PM EST
West Columbia, SC, US

Charlton Hall

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