FEDERAL BOWFRONT BUREAU In mahogany and select mahogany

FEDERAL BOWFRONT BUREAU Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Circa 1800
In mahogany and select mahogany veneer. Banded inlay along edge of top. Four full-width drawers with cock-bead molding and hardwood veneer panels surrounded by banded inlay -- a rectangular panel at the center of each drawer and oval panels centering the hardware. Skirt with rectangular drop panel, typical of Portsmouth. French splayed bracket feet. Height 37.75". Width 40". Depth 20.75".
A similar example is illustrated in Portsmouth Furniture - Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast edited by Brock Jobe (Hanover, N.H.: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities/University Press of New England, 1993), p. 116 and colorplate 2. The hardwood veneer panels in the illustrated example are the reverse of this bureau, with oval panels at the center of each drawer and rectangular panels centering the hardware, but the banded inlay and cock-bead molding are nearly matching. Interestingly, the hardware is also very similar.
Condition Report: Hardware are period replacements. Some loss of inlay at top and skirt. Stains to the top and the right top corner is badly damaged. Some wear to finish. Left foot has pieces missing and veneer damage to both feet.

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