Lot 41: Very Rare Sister’s Sewing Table

Butternut, mahogany and pine, early varnish finish, worldly Queen Anne tea table adapted by the Shakers for their use as a sewing table, top was changed to butternut, one board (32 1/4″ l, 22 3/4″ d), skirt was widened and added to with butternut to accommodate a dovetailed drawer in butternut and pine, with a Shaker turned cherry wood pull, skirt has beads around circumference to a cloth skirt to minimize draft, and small wood pegs for sewing utensils, scissors, rule, etc., signed in chalk by the Shakers under the lid “M…G…1835”, signed under drawer in pencil “bought from Sadie Neale (1927, Mr. & Mrs. E.D. Andrews), Church Family Shaker Mt. Lebanon, N.Y. formerly the … loaned for use to Amelia Caber”, (see The Encyclopedia of Shaker Furniture, Rieman and Burks, p. 34, Fig. 18).

Provenance:

Purchased from Mrs. Brothers, Great Barrington, Mass. in 1952 for $140

(Dr. McCue’s Journal Entry #220)

Estimate: $20,000-30,000