Lot 190
An American Rococo Rosewood and Rosewood-Grained Half Tester Bed, mid 19th c., stamped "C. Lee", the shaped beaded serpentine tester with lobed finials above tapered faceted columnar supports, the foot posts with urn finials, the scalloped headboard with cabochon and shell cartouche, pendant fruit and nuts below, height 122 in., inside length 77 1/2 in., width 65 1/2 in. E8000-12000 Note: For most of the 20th century, it was commonly held that Charles Lee was a free man of color from the workshop of New Orleans cabinetmaker Prudent Mallard. Indeed Mallard did own a slave named Charles, and beds with the C. Lee stamp are often found in historic homes in Mississippi River delta (a stamped C. Lee half-tester bed is still part of the Stanton Hall collection in Natchez, Mississippi) and appear in the inventories of New Orleans dealers Calvin Chandler Sampson, John Yetter and William McCracken in the years just before and after the Civil War. Research by scholar and Curator Stephen Harrison has revealed that Charles Lee wc. 1856-1868) was a Manchester, Massachusetts craftsman who was known locally as a "maker of bedsteads for the Southern market." Reference: see Stephen Harrison, "'C. Lee' Maker of Beds for the Southern Market" Maine Antiques Digest, April 1994, pp. 29-30A.
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