Very Fine and Rare Pair of Classical Giltwood and Verte Antique Brass-Inlaid, Carved and Figured Mahogany Games Tables, attributed to Deming and Bulkley, New York, Circa 1825

Carswell Rush Berlin, Inc., New York.

Fine condition. Shrinkage cracks to the top of each. Secondary wood: poplar and white pine
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With their dolphin supports and feet, this pair of card tables offers a distinctive and sophisticated design associated with the work of Deming and Bulkley, the cabinetmaking partnership of Brazilia Deming (1781-1854) and Erastus Bulkley (1798-1872). These cabinetmakers manufactured furniture in New York, which they supplied to a clientele that extended to Charleston, where they operated a retail storefront on King Street from 1818 into the 1840s. Bulkley resided in Charleston and supplied local elite patrons with expensive domestic goods in the height of fashion ranging from custom furniture to silk draperies, cornices, and Brussels carpets.  These card tables relate stylistically to a group of tables attributed to Deming and Bulkley with dolphin supports and Charleston histories. These tables are identified and discussed by Maurie D. McInnis and Robert A. Leath in “Beautiful Specimens, Elegant Patterns: New York Furniture for the Charleston Market, 1810-1840,” published in American Furniture 1996, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover and London: the Chipstone Foundation): 137-174. One of these tables made of rosewood with satinwood veneers descended in the Alston-Pringle family of Charleston.¹ Two others of rosewood with magnificent spread eagle supports and dolphin feet were acquired in the early twentieth century by the Roebling family of Charleston.² With mahogany veneers, simple carved dolphins, no freehand gilded decoration, and rope-twist balusters, one with a history in the Huger family was considerably less expensive than the aforementioned examples.³

This pair of tables was likely commissioned by a wealthy client. The canted corner top ornamented with mahogany veneers sits atop elaborately carved dolphin front supports and acanthus carved balusters at the rear. The concave four-sided plinth below with canted corners is supported by carved and gilded dolphin feet with acanthus leaves and vert antique decoration.  Commonly associated with the goddess Venus in antiquity, the dolphin motif was fashionable during the Classical period and appears in English design books such as Thomas Sheraton’s Cabinet Dictionary (1803) and Rudolph Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics (1825).  This group of tables attributed to Deming and Bulkley suggest that the motif was especially popular in Charleston. Several other examples of seating furniture with dolphin supports made for the Charleston market include a recamier that belonged to Colonel William Washington (1785-1830) and a sofa that descended in the Ravenel family.<sup>4

1</sup> See Maurie D. McInnis and Robert A. Leath “Beautiful Specimens, Elegant Patterns: New York Furniture for the Charleston Market, 1810-1840,” American Furniture 1996, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover and London: the Chipstone Foundation), p.138, fig. 1.
² See ibid, p. 158, fig. 19.
³ See ibid, p. 161, fig. 24.
⁴ See ibid, p. 162, fig. 26 and p. 163, fig. 29.