A FEDERAL BIRCH-VENEERED CHERRYWOOD SERPENTINE-TOP STAND

Displaying the talents of an imaginative and accomplished artisan, this single-drawer stand illustrates the creativity of early American cabinetmakers. The same distinctive inverted- and fluted-urn on the pedestal is seen on a candlestand in the collections of the Chipstone Foundation, and with paired notches heading each line-incised leg, pedestals with serrated lower edges and tops with serpentine profiles, these forms were undoubtedly made in the same shop. The use of birch on this example and its history in the True family indicate a Northern New England origin and that the fluted drum turning on the Chipstone stand relates to tripod forms attributed to Boston and Salem suggests the influence of craftsmen or products from these areas. Furthermore, Charles F. Montgomery believed that the inlay on the top of the Chipstone example pointed to a Massachusetts or New Hampshire origin (Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone (Madison, Wisconsin, 1984), pp. 370-371, 374-375, 420-421, cats. 175, 177, 197).