Very Fine Diminutive Federal Brass Inlaid Mahogany Chest of Drawers

The oblong, cross banded top with reeded edge, inlaid with brass stringing on a conforming case with four flat drawers with brass bale handle drawer pulls with stamped brass back plates, flanked by vertical reeding raised on turned and reeded tapering legs terminating in brass ferule socket feet. The brass drawer pull are original and are stamped "HJ".

This is a rare form and desirable size. Indeed, it has no exact counterpart in the literature and museum collections of the period although a similar bureau with an upper layer of short drawers is in the collection of Boscobel Restoration and illustrated in Berry Tracy's Federal Furniture and Decorative Arts at Boscobel (New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1981), p. 97. The evident entasis of the reeded legs is reminiscent of the legs on a Sheraton scroll-back sofa in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Stylistically, it is related to the furniture that Duncan Phyfe was making for his client William Bayard in 1807 and a work table that bears Phyfe's label, made about the same time. The cross banding and string inlay of the top is very rare and indicates a high level of refinement and the hand of a top cabinetmaker.