Pier Table

This table, designed to be placed against a wall, or pier, between two windows, is attributed to Charles-Honoré Lannuier, a French cabinetmaker who emigrated to New York in 1805 and became one of the leading proponents of the late neoclassical style in America. From the styles of the Directoire, Consulat, and early Empire, he created a New York style, exceedingly light and delicate compared to French examples, and far closer in spirit to the fashionable furniture of his Anglo-American contemporaries. With a top only thirty-eight inches wide, the table is unusually light, and has some ravishing details that may be unique; the brass lyres on the apron are inlaid into the ebony panels with contrasting rosewood, and the curves of the platform above the dolphins have delicate carved acanthus leaves finished in verd-antique (a green patina).

Credit: Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund