Very Fine Classical Carved and Figured Mahogany Games Table, attributed to Barzilla Deming and Erastus Bulkley, New York, circa 1825

With its robustly carved dolphin supports and feet, this table 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 establishment on King Street from 1818 to the 1840s. Bulkeley 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 tables relate stylistically to a group of tables attributed to Deming and Bulkley with dolphin supports and Charleston histories. The group is 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 table made of rosewood with a canted-corner top and gilded decoration descended in the Alston-Pringle family of Charleston.¹ It has classical motifs taken from English design books rendered with gilding and penwork to simulate more costly ormolu mounts. Two others of rosewood with magnificent eagle supports and dolphin feet were acquired in the early twentieth century by the Roebling family of Charleston.² Another with a history in the Huger family of Charleston represents a less costly version of the form with mahogany veneers, simple carved dolphins, and lack of freehand gilded decoration.³ Two others with dolphin feet decorated with gilt and vert antique were sold in these rooms, Important Americana, January 18-21, 2018, lot 1155 as property from the collection of Patricia M. Sax.

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 (1825). This group of tables attributed to Deming and Bulkley suggests 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.⁴

¹ See Maurie D. McInnis and Robert A. Leath, “Beautiful Specimens, Elegant Patterns: New York Furniture for the Charleston Market, 1810-1840,” American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Hanover and London, The Chipstone Foundation, 1996): fig. 1, p. 138.

² Ibid, fig. 19, p. 158.

³ Ibid, fig. 24, p. 161.

⁴ Ibid, p. 162, fig. 26 and p. 163, fig. 29.