A FEDERAL INLAID MAHOGANY PEMBROKE TABLE

With exquisite inlaid decoration, an attribution to William Whitehead (w. circa 1792-1799) and an old surface, this Pembroke table is an exceptional example of New York Neoclassicism from the late eighteenth century. The inlaid patera and line-and-bellflower inlay on the legs relate it to two sideboards labeled by Whitehead. Both the Fulton Family sideboard and companion knifeboxes, illustrated and discussed in Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol. 5, no. 29, pp. 1254-1255, as well as a labeled sideboard in a private collection in Barry Greenlaw, "American Furniture in Houston Collections, "The Magazine Antiques (September 1979), p. 553 share these inlay patterns. For two Pembroke tables with related inlay see Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol. 5, no. 29, p. 1386, P4394; see also David Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses (New Haven, 1992), pp. 149-150, figs. 61, 62.