Antique Duncan Phyfe Mahogany Drop Leaf Table With Very Rare Dolphin Casters

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With our highest compliments and utmost honors, Bay Colony Antiques is proud to offer for sale this exceptional early 19th … Read more With our highest compliments and utmost honors, Bay Colony Antiques is proud to offer for sale this exceptional early 19th century antique Mahogany drop leaf table. We believe the table was made in New York City, as the construction and overall form is consistent with examples we’ve encountered from top tier New York City cabinet Makers like Duncan Phyfe, Michael Allison, Charles Lannuier, and their contemporaries. This table dates from the early 19th century, CA 1810-1815, and is a wonderful example of American neoclassical furniture. The table has shaped leaves and showcases some absolutely stunning crotch mahogany grain on the leaves and top. The leaves are supported by two shuttles built into the table box with a triangular block in between them which was commonplace in New York City furniture from the era. There’s a long drawer on one side of the table and the other side has a simulated drawer face. The dovetails are impressively thin and the original scribe marks can still be seen. The table has a finely carved pedestal and reeded saber legs. The two center reeds extend a bit further than the peripheral carvings and are reminiscent of the bow knot & thunderbolt designs that can be found on Phyfe’s sofa and chair rails.

The table itself is absolutely wonderful in every regard, but without a doubt the most noteworthy aspect of the table in our opinion are the cast brass dolphins form toe caps. Between my brother, father, and I, we’ve never encountered these casters before throughout our century of combined experience. They are extremely rare and extremely well executed. The high relief casting work is indicative of a skilled foundry and was probably cast using a lost wax technique. The process dates back to antiquity and involves sculpting the wax, applying a ceramic coating, burning out the wax, pouring out the molten metal, and finally breaking the ceramic mold to reveal the end product. The process was labor intensive and expensive but produced finer castings with superior detail than wood or sand casted molds. Because the wax is melted away and the ceramic mold is broken, the molds can only be used once which explains the subtle differences in each toe cap. We don’t think it’s a stretch to say each caster could be worth up to $500 on their own and we contemplated separating them from the table but opted against it because the table is too rare to disturb its original integrity. We scoured our old trade catalogs and online databases but couldn’t find anything like these dolphin form casters in any of our reference materials. We believe they were made in France and were imported to the United States. The table measures 22 1/2” wide x 42” deep x 20” tall with the leaves down. When the leaves are locked up the table measures 52 1/2” wide. See less