Federal Academy Painted Tiger Maple Work Table, together with a portrait "Imogine"

Description:

Federal Academy Painted Tiger Maple Work Table, together with a portrait "Imogine", watercolor, pencil and ink, artwork by Hannah Stone Brown, 1801, Newbury Massachusetts - June 7, 1869, Boston, Massachusetts, the worktable, c. 1820, with its square top with ovolo corners overhangs a case of two cockbeaded drawers, the top one fitted for writing, and flanked by ring-turned tapering legs on casters, the shaded ink drawings of landscapes appear on the top and four facades, original turned pulls, old surface, original casters, ht. 33, wd. 20, 15 1/4, o.d. 17 1/4 in. The watercolor and pencil on paper portrait, c. 1825, of a young brown-eyed woman with brown curls wearing a light brown hat with ribbons and a blue dress trimmed with lace and gold narrow braid enclosed in a reverse painted black and gilt mat lettered in gilt,"Imogine" within an original gilt molded frame with rope twist. Condition: imperfections including toning, foxing and scattered minor color losses, ht. 21, wd. 17 3/4, (including frame).

Provenance: Descended in the consignor's family from their ancestor, Hannah Stone Brown, who made them, according to the family history. She married Robert B. Williams (b. 1792 d. 1872) of Newbury, Massachusetts, on October 18,1821. Family genealogy accompanies this lot.

Note: Private academies for teaching young women art existed in Newbury and Boston. Mrs. Brown of Newbury advertised her school for young ladies as offering instruction in "plain needlework, embroidery of all kinds, painting on wood, silk or paper, flowers, figures, landscapes, transparencies, and the new much admired art of drawing and shading in durable ink," according to the book Girlhood Embroidery American Samplers and Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850, Vol. 1, by Betty Ring, N.Y., 1993, p.123. It is likely Hannah Stone attended the Newbury School of Mrs. Brown and learned the art of painting and drawing and shading in durable ink as we see in this work table.
Estimate $10,000-15,000

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