Boston Cheater/Seymour server

 At The turn of the  19th to 20th centuries there were a small number of antiques dealers located in and around Charles street at the base of Beacon Hill in Boston. These dealers both commissioned cabinet makers  to create and they themselves created  fake antiques from old wood and old furniture parts. This is such a piece. Created to mimic the work of Thomas and John Seymour who worked in Boston in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.The Seymours are considered to be  among the best  cabinet makers of that era, they enjoyed great success and an important client list ,so it is easy to understand why some one who would perpatrate a fraud would  fake the best.  Of course, there are good fakes and bad fakes. This piece is about as good as they get with the exceptions of the fakes in mueseums that got by the experts. From the proportions to the use of veneers and the highly skilled execution of the bulbous tapered reeded legs terminating in a Roman foot, this craftsman not only had the aesethitic sensitivity to understand the form but also the talent to create it. A truly fine piece of furniture now  about a hundred years old and antiqiue in its own right.  The price is about 10% of what the authentic article might be reasonably be expected to realize at auction.