A Highly Important American Chippendale Carved Mahogany and Marble Top Sideboard Table, c. 1760-1775, Eastern Virginia, Tidewater, marble, mahogany primary, cherry (by microanalysis) secondary. Height 30 .75in., width 36 1-4 in., depth 21 in. E80000-120000 This sideboard table is an uncommonly fine expression of the neat and plain style found in the coastal regions of the early South. A scarce survival from the late colonial period, it is particularly notable for its superb condition and especially for the survival of its marble top Its boldly molded legs, distinctive feet, original brass casters and pierced brackets all distinguish the form. CONDITION: The table survives in a remarkable state of preservation. It retains an early and possibly original finish beneath later coats of shellac and varnish. The marble has a superb surface quality, normal and expected wear and a credible history of finish that gives every indication and confidence in being original to the base. In the eighteenth century sideboard table and marble slab table were interchangeable and referred to distinctive tables used in elegant surroundings to serve guests. Their expensive marble tops were often covered with damask cloths. The form of this table, and many of its details, suggest the maker may have been inspired by Chippendale's Director (3rd Edition, 1762), the publication most widely used by the master American cabinetmakers. Plates LVI engraving of a Sideboard Table and CXXIII Chinese Cabinet are particularly instructive. Interestingly, numerous variations of the distinctive leg design on the table are recorded from the early South. The tables with architectonic guttae feet have either tapered or straight legs. The leg variation was particularly popular for rectangular tea tables. Recorded examples include a Williamsburg example owned by George Washington, now at the Smithsonian, having fretwork rails and tapered legs with acanthus carved panels; as well as a more ambitious version with serpentine rails, descended in the Lewis and Byrd families, (see Wallace B. Gusler, The Tea Tables of Eastern Virginia, Magazine Antiques, May 1989, pl. VI and VII). Amidst the rococo straight-leg tables made in Virginia, one other can be said with implicit certainty to have been produced in the same shop as this marble top example. A fretwork kettle stand at Winterthur, (illustrated in Gusler, Tea Tables of Eastern Virginia, fig. 4), presently attributed to the Williamsburg workshop of Anthony Hay, has legs with virtually identical ogee deeply molded panels and guttae feet. The kettle stand shares other features with this sideboard table, including the chamfered inner edge of its legs and astragal moldings set in grooves just above the guttae feet. Both the kettle stand and the sideboard table are exceedingly well made, and appear originally to have been constructed without pegged joints. Neal Auction Company is indebted to Mr. Sumpter Priddy of Virginia, antiquarian and scholar, for his assistance in the preparation of this catalogue entry.