Illustration [31] shows a mahogany bureau of the style known as “kettle” shape, owned by Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. Desks and secretaries were occasionally made with the lower part in this style, and many modern pieces of Dutch marqueterie with kettle fronts are sold as antiques. But little marqueterie furniture was brought to this country in old times, and even among the descendants of Dutch families in New York State it is almost impossible to find any genuine old pieces of Dutch marqueterie.
Illus. 32.—Serpentine-front Bureau,
about 1770.
A bureau with serpentine front is shown in Illustration [32]. It is made in two sections, the upper part with four drawers being set into the moulding around the base in the same manner as the top part of a high-boy sets into the lower part. The bureau is owned by Charles Sibley, Esq., of Worcester.
The bureaus described so far all have the small single moulding upon the frame around the drawer. From the time when the designs of Shearer and Hepplewhite became fashionable, bureaus were made with a fine bead moulding upon the edge of the drawer itself or without any moulding.
The serpentine-front bureau in Illustration [33] belongs to Mrs. Johnson-Hudson of Stratford, Connecticut. The corners are cut off so as to form the effect of a narrow pillar, which is, like the drawers and the bracket feet, inlaid with fine lines of holly. The bracket feet and the handles would indicate that this bureau was made before 1789.
Illus. 33.—Serpentine-front Bureau, about 1785.
A bureau of the finest Hepplewhite type is shown in Illustration [34], owned by Mrs. Charles H. Carroll of Worcester. The base has the French foot which was so much used by Hepplewhite, which is entirely different from Chippendale’s French foot. The curves of the lower edge, which are outlined with a line of holly, are unusually graceful; the knobs are brass.
