With our absolute highest compliments Bay Colony Antiques takes the utmost pleasure in offering this exceptional and rare antique mixing table. We have had the great fortune of owning nearly every American furniture form produced throughout the past three centuries; from the earliest tables and chairs of the Pilgrim Century to the Avantgarde designs of the 20th century, and despite a love for all periods we always find ourselves enthusiastically pursuing antique from our favorite design movement, the American Federal period. During the half a century which spans from the American Revolutionary War until the end of the first quarter of the 19th century the finest furniture and decorative art in our nation's history was produced from the Northern New England states all the way south past Charleston, South Carolina into the American South. It has been the great privilege of our careers to have handled museum and institutional level examples from every major historical region along the east coast and the primary focus of our firm today is to find the rarest and most impressive antique examples for the 18th and 19th century historical homes still remaining. With that focus we proudly offer this American Federal mixing table for the consideration of discerning collectors and antique enthusiasts alike.
Antique mixing tables are considerably rare and often misclassified when they appear in the American antiques market. Originally a mixing table is a serving table meant to be furnished in a dining room and generally accompanies an antique sideboard for the specific purpose of preparing and serving beverages. While there are no excluding factors for which beverages may be served from a mixing table it is generally accepted that the most elegant and expensive tables of these forms were reserved for serving liquors or spirits. Bottles of wine or another preferred drink would be housed in a cellarette or inside a sideboard which has full functioning bottle drawers and during large gatherings the chilled beverages would be accessible from the marble top surface where the perspiring bottles are free to drip onto the marble surface without damaging the table. The overall style of the finest mixing tables are designed to work with sideboards or dining servers as they were all generally put to use for the same occasions. When not used for large gatherings, these tables generally would have a large pitcher of water on top of the marble surface.
This example was produced for a household of some wealth and distinction towards the end of the 18th or beginning of the 19th century circa 1790 - 1810. The marble is the original piece first built for the table which is remarkable as they are often damaged and subsequently replaced. A finely scrolled gallery is dovetailed and surrounds the marble top with a small shelf affixed towards the back edge for the purpose of staging cordials or small drinking vessels. A single convex drawer serves to house various accessories and mixing implements needed for entertaining a typical gathering. The table is supported by well turned columns and finely formed feet and features a lower shelf completely adorned with figured mahogany and has a concave form so that one may stand closer to the table when preparing drinks. The marble serving surface measures 23 1/2" wide x 17" deep. The overall dimensions of the table are 25 1/2" wide x 22 1/4" deep x 34" tall.
