Anne Mahogany Handkerchief or Breakfast Table
South Carolina, 1740-1760, very heavy dense mahogany throughout with cypress rear rail, set on pad feet, retains a rich, dark early surface, 28 x 37-1/2 x 19-1/4 in., opens to 26-3/4 x 26-3/4 in., two areas of early loss to leaf at rule joint, scattered very minor checks and cracking including at joints of legs to rails, some possible repinning. Notes: Literature: Illustrated in Milby Burton, Charleston Furniture 1700-1825, Figure 87.
Charleston breakfast tables of this form are extremely rare. Bivins and Rauschenberg illustrate only one (Volume 1, Figure CT-8) and that is an example made entirely of mahogany and possibly of British origin. As such, the table offered here is the only example we are aware of to contain cypress and thus may be the only surviving example of the Charleston-made breakfast table of this form. Sometimes called corner tables, this form does appear in period Charleston inventories. Bivins and Rauschenberg record that the 1753 inventory of James Fowler listed a "corner table" valued at three pounds (see p. 330, footnote 22).. Provenance: From the Estate of Alicia Rhett

two areas of early loss to leaf at rule joint, scattered very minor checks and cracking including at joints of legs to rails, some possible repinning