Mrs. Jonathan Mason's (Susannah Powell Mason's) Boston Sheraton Mahogany and Bird's-Eye Maple Sewing/ Work Table, Attributed to the Workshop of John & Thomas Seymour, Massachusetts, 1800-1815. The octagonal top with rounded edge, banded border and contrasting diagonal line inlay centering a burl walnut panel, above a red paper-lined fitted drawer and bag drawer, each with banded flame birch drawer fronts and brass pulls, the separate bag frame resting on interior cross-corner wood supports, the banded case inlaid with flame birch side panels, raised on ring-turned tapered legs line-inlaid in vertical contrasting satinwood and ending in cuffs. Appears to retain the original brocade bag. With two keys, the first key affixed with a note written in Elizabeth Gray Parker's (1886-1969) hand, "key belonging to work table of my mother's. Now in Art Museum. It came down from Mrs. Jonathan Mason. E.G.P. 1931;" the second key with a note inscribed "Key for my great great Grandmother's sewing table (Mrs. Jonathan Mason)," and also with a museum tag "99/ 101.31" and inscribed "Mrs. Cortlandt Parker's TABLE."H: 27.625 in., W: 22 in., D: 16.125 in.Provenance: Property from the Collection of Cortlandt and Nancy Knowles Parker, descendants of William Gray (a Salem merchant and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts), Jonathan and Susannah Powell Mason, Patrick and Anna Powell Mason Grant, Morris Gray (President of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1914-24) and Flora Grant Gray, and Major-General Cortlandt and Elizabeth Gray Parker. Spanning multiple styles and periods across the categories of furniture, fine and decorative arts, the collection has been housed in the family home, Greenvale Farm Estate and Vineyard, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, for six generations. Boston China Trade merchant John Sargent Barstow purchased 53 acres of land on the Sakonnet River during the early 1860’s and hired the prominent Boston architect John Hubbard Sturgis to design the main house, stable and barn. The historic Stick style home with Gothic elements was constructed from 1864 to 1865 by Edmond Coggeshall of Portsmouth, Rhode Island.Literature: A nearly identical sewing table is discussed and illustrated in Vernon C. Stoneman, "John and Thomas Seymour: Cabinetmakers in Boston 1794-1816," p. 237, pl. 150; a nearly identical table was exhibited and is illustrated in the "Girl Scouts Loan Exhibition of Colonial and Early Federal Furniture, Portraits and Glass, Lustre Ware from England and Lowestoft from China," September 25 - October 9, 1929, American Art Galleries, New York City, n. 685.

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27.625 x 22 x 16.125 in