Description:
Pembroke table with one drawer in cherry that was orginally mahoganized, made by Daniel Clay (1770-1848). Born in New London, Conn., Clay probably trained in the Hartford area (or perhaps New York) with a cabinetmaker familiar with New York fashions; he moved to Greenfield, Mass. sometime before Nov. 1794, marrying Lucinda Smead in 1795. In 1794, he advertised in the "Greenfield Gazette" and had his first paper label printed; this piece has two of the labels that he used after 1800: "MADE BY/ DANIEL CLAY :/ GREENFIELD/ MASSACHUSETTS." He also made Windsors and fancy chairs, dressing and card tables, clock cases, chests, candlestands, and coffins. He expanded his business to include other ventures, but eventually all failed and he moved to NYC in 1832 to become a druggist. The design of this table illustrates Clay's knowledge of the patterns popularized by Hepplewhite's "The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer's Guide" (London 1788), which was sold in Hartford, Conn. by 1799. The rectangular table has a simple molded edge top with two drop leaves supported by fly brackets, two delicately pierced cross stretchers, and four plain tapered legs. Clay used a template to produce the distinctive stretchers, whose forms appears on other Pembroke tables (see HD 57.018).
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+70.142 |
