Duncan Phyfe knew something about New York City back in the early 19th century that is still true for talented and ambitious newcomers to the Big Apple. He knew if he could make it there, he could make it - and sell it - anywhere.

What he made, of course, was neo-classical furniture of such refined design and graceful execution that it became the highest of high fashion in the new nation's most fashionable city. Phyfe must rank even now with Chippendale and Queen Anne as the most frequently reproduced of all furniture styles in this country. Thousands of American families will gather this coming holiday season around their treasured 1920's-era dual-pedestal, four-leg, hairy-paw-castered "Duncan Phyfe" dining tables.

So firmly is Phyfe's name attached to New York Federal furniture of the 1790-1820 period that pieces made by other highly skilled cabinetmakers of that time and place are often attributed to him. So great was the gravitational tug of his reputation in the early 1800s that it pulled in wealthy clients from as far away as the West Indies, Charleston and Savannah.

Several fine pieces attributed to Phyfe can be seen in Savannah house museums and a couple of these pieces may have been ordered by Savannahians directly from Phyfe at the peak of his career. Confirmed attribution of any piece to Phyfe is difficult, and only 20 pieces bearing his label are known to exist, but local family tradition forges a strong link between some of the Savannah pieces and the master artisan.

The Owens-Thomas House currently has two Phyfe pieces on display, a card table and a caned settee, both in the front parlor. Owens-Thomas also has a small worktable with built-in writing desk that will soon return to the public rooms. The Telfair Museum has a large Phyfe sideboard and several chairs in the ground floor dining room.

All of the Savannah pieces are dated between 1800 and 1820, the period when Phyfe's reputation was growing apace with the popularity of the Federal style. Savannahians could order their furniture directly from Phyfe through their agents in New York or buy pieces locally from consignments shipped into the port as venture goods.

The Telfairs, Owenses and their friends could afford to order from the most fashionable New York cabinetmakers because they were born to wealth. Phyfe, on the other hand, worked his way up from the lower rungs of the economic ladder.

Born Duncan Fife in Scotland in 1768, he and his family fled the poverty of the homeland in 1784 and settled in Albany, N.Y. Phyfe learned his trade in Albany, perhaps from his cabinetmaker father, and moved to New York City in 1792, changing his name to conceal his British origins. He set up shop at 35 Partition (now Fulton) Street and worked there until his retirement in 1847. Phyfe's national reputation was made when, early in his career, he successfully handled a large order from wealthy fur trader John Jacob Astor.

A visitor to Phyfe's shop in the early 1800s would not have seen him tapping away with mallet on carving chisel. As a budding entrepreneur trading on his fame, Phyfe quickly realized it made more sense to hire skilled men to do the actual work and he eventually had as many as 100 working for him. The high order of work produced by his shop in these years indicates, however, that Phyfe closely supervised every aspect of construction.

Mary Telfair, sister of the man for whom the Telfair house was built, sent her New York friend Mary Few to Phyfe's shop in October, 1816, on the matter of a new secretary-bookcase for the Telfair family. In her letter, Mary Telfair authorizes her friend to pay Phyfe for the piece and to keep for herself the change from $100. There is no indication of how much Mary Few got for her trouble after paying Phyfe, but contemporaries considered his prices exorbitant.

Of the local Phyfe pieces, the sideboard at the Telfair and the card table and worktables at the Owens-Thomas are believed to have been acquired from Phyfe by members of those families.

The sofa in the Owens-Thomas parlor - donated to the museum in 1964, not ordered from Phyfe by Savannahians - has many of the elements that make Phyfe's work so highly prized.

With its open-weave cane seat and back and slender vertical elements, it gives a visual impression of lightness, and yet its 6 1/2-foot length and high rolled back makes it a dominant presence in this small parlor.

The abundant reeding, a characteristic of this style, is perfectly and evenly carved, especially in the front arm supports and along the length of the seat edge. The front arm supports also incorporate an urn turning with exquisitely carved miniature acanthus leaves. The three panels of the crest piece along the top of the back display carved swags and ribbons of extreme delicacy and fluid movement.

Jim Gannam is a furniture restorer and writer who works and lives in Savannah.