Figural motifs-such as the delicate swan carved on the central drawer of this table-are rare in American Rococo furniture. The table belongs to a small group of Philadelphia pieces embellished with scenes thought to be from Aesop's "Fables." The popularity of Aesop's moralistic tales soared in the mid-eighteenth century, and illustrations from the stories were widely copied by English and American craftsmen on textiles, architectural elements, and other media. The fact that these tales, which warned against greed and vanity, decorated expensive luxury goods was an irony that may have appealed to, or been lost on, eighteenth-century consumers.

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