Bureau Table (Primary Title)
Goddard and Townsend Group, British American, active late 1730s - late 1770s (Maker)
For four decades, members of the Goddard and Townsend group – a large extended family of entrepreneurial craftsmen – were among the finest American cabinetmakers of the colonial period. Beyond commission work in their immediate Newport region, they also produced case pieces for the broader New England market and for export trade to ports of colonial America, the Caribbean, and Great Britain.
Representing the best of the group’s renowned block-and-shell carved furniture, this elegant bureau table stands with architectural poise. The tiered drawer fronts, flanking a central niche, can be read as graceful columns, topped with boldly carved shells and resting on a strong sculptural base. The drawer pulls are original.
Bureau tables were fashionable bedchamber furnishings, functioning variously as writing surfaces, dressing tables, and safes. The form’s distinctive “kneehole,” a recessed cupboard at center, could be tall enough to house a wig stand, or – as in this example – to accommodate fitted shelves.
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