A Great Pair of Legs

Every period and style of furniture has trademarks that elevate it above all others. For the Sheraton style of furniture, the trademark of a really great piece was in the legs. In the trade, we will often say that a piece "dances." What we are referring to is the scale and proportion of the legs and how delicate they are, but perfectly proportioned to balance the piece so that it dances on the legs.

The Salem, Massachusetts pembroke table shown in the first photo is a piece that dances. Although the table is made with beautifully grained mahogany and it has a drawer with cross banding, what one is drawn to about this table are the clover leaf edges of the top and the way they dance on the delicate legs. The legs are very tall, and that verticality is a strong trademark of American furniture and differentiates it from its English counterpart. Notice the way that the legs gracefully taper almost to a point on very, very high feet. Furthermore, they are delicately reeded which further emphasizes the verticality. In other words, this is a fabulous example of wonderful Sheraton legs.

In the second photo is a New York Sheraton pembroke table of the same time period. Notice that the table is gutsier than its Salem counterpart. The single board mahogany top is wider, and the canted corner leaves appear more bold. The drawer is noticeable because unlike the Salem table, the New York table has hardware to pull the drawer. While the legs taper and rest on feet with casters, they are more robust than the Salem table even though they too are reeded. This is a wonderful New York table in original condition and it is very well proportioned. However, it comes across as a much stronger piece than the Salem table.

Finally, the less sophisticated, more country version of the Sheraton table is featured in the third photo. Notice that all of the tradmarks are there: pembroke style table, simple leaves over a conforming case with tapered legs and tall feet. You can see that there is no reeding and the taper is not as graceful. However, this is a wonderful table for what it is: a less sophisticated version, but is retains the original surface and has not lost any height to the feet.

And that brings me to my final point: don't ever, ever, ever buy a piece that has lost its feet or has new feet. The value is gone. Only pay for it for aesthetic pleasure, but not for any investment or guarantee of return of that investment. A great pair of legs is fabulous on any person or any piece, but you can see why we say Salem Sheraton furniture "dances."