Center Table and Pier Tables

The center and pier tables in the Drawing Room are thought to be part of the original furnishings of the Presidential Suite in the American Hotel in New York. The rooms were specially decorated for a visit by President Andrew Jackson, Vice President Martin Van Buren, and officials that took place in June 1833. An account of the presidential visit in the New York Commercial Advertiser reported that “the rich mahogany furniture is from the ware room of J. Meeks & Son(s).” It was in the latest taste, just introduced from Europe and featured in a broadside printed by Joseph Meeks in 1833. The style features classical forms with large scrolls or columns and veneered with highly figured mahogany that became very popular in the 1840s and is now classified as American Empire or Grecian. All the contents of the American Hotel rooms were sold at auction. Clarke bought the center and pier tables from James C. Smith, a furniture dealer and auctioneer in New York City. Meeks’ broadside lists his price for a mahogany center table with a white marble top at $80 and a mahogany pier table with a white marble top at $90. Clarke paid $165 for each. With their larger than standard sizes, they fit proportionally into the newly completed Drawing Room at Hyde Hall, one of the largest rooms in a private house in America in the 1830s. They have remained there ever since.