While the vigorously carved winged paw feet with acanthus leaf of this example conform to many New York-made card tables of the Grecian period, the combination of the swan-necked griffin-head terminals of the lyre and the concave lobate shell at the lyre’s base is unusual. The hexagonal stretcher joining the two lyre elements is distinctive. Subtle details such as the brass stringing on the edge of the top, the brass and ebony crossbar at the top of the lyre, the ebony banding at the base of the skirt, and the cross-banding on the top surface all indicate that this was an expensive piece of furniture.

Technical notes: Mahogany, mahogany veneer, rosewood (banding), ebony (crossbar); yellow-poplar (bottom board), cherry (cross braces), eastern white pine (front apron framing), brass.

Related examples: A sewing table, labeled “Michael Allison 1823,” has a very similar griffin-headed lyre (McClelland 1939, p. 195, pl. 179); Davidson and Stillinger 1985, p. 149, fig. 232.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.