With our highest compliments and utmost honors Bay Colony Antiques is proud to offer for sale this exceptional early 19th century Antique Sheraton worktable. The worktable has an extremely rare chinoiserie paint decoration, and it is in wonderful condition with our only notes being minor paint loss. In the 18th century China trade items and Oriental items were all the rage and the finest homes would have imported carpets and textiles and mainly ceramics from China. China did make furniture for export, but it was usually lacquer painted and nothing close to this form. The paint decoration is absolutely stunning and was probably made in Eastern Massachusetts around Salem because Salem held one of the only direct trade routes with China. The top of the stand is Cherry and has a fantastic Asian scene showing a man or woman giving an offering to a noble. The sitter is wearing yellow and that's important because only the emperor could wear Imperial Yellow and other yellows were reserved to distinguish people of high status. What we really love about this painted surface is how imaginative the painter was as they probably never traveled to China and were working from second hand sources or from glances of the goods they saw being imported. The drawer has a Lion and a buck surrounded by filigree work with geometric designs on the knee blocks on each side of the drawer. The legs have a nice turning pattern and are also painted with an animal in the deer family, possibly an ibex. The stand has White Pine secondaries with a thin set of hand cut dovetails & a hand chamfered bottom. The stand measures 20” wide x 17 1/2” deep x 26 1/2” tall.
