The Early Baroque period saw the advent of folding oval dining tables. This is an unusual example made of walnut, rather than the more common maple. At vari­ous times this table has been ascribed to Rhode Island, on the basis of the chestnut used as a secondary wood, and to Ports­mouth, New Hampshire, on the basis of the boldly carved paintbrush feet. How­ever, it seems appropriate to assign this example to Boston, where chestnut was also employed in furniture. No docu­mented Rhode Island tables with paint­brush feet have been identified, and Portsmouth feet were made with solid construction rather than pieced, the Boston norm, as in this table.

Technical notes: Black walnut (drop leaf, drawer front, lower stretcher); soft maple (gateleg rail, rail between gatelegs), chestnut (drawer bottom), and eastern white pine (cen­ter rail underneath drawer). The drawer construction is dovetailed, the bottom board nailed. Hinges and drawer knob are replace­ments. Top of leg posts have been beveled.

Related examples: Art Institute of Chicago (Naeve 1981, p.18); Williamsburg (Greenlaw 1974, p. 156, no. 135); Historic Deerfield (Fales 1976, p. 117, no. 239); Win­terthur (Comstock 1957c, p. 59); Wadsworth (Nutting 1962, no. 963); W. K. duPont Collec­tion (Kennedy and Sack 1977, no. 27); Christie’s, New York, sale 7924, June 22, 1994, lot 209. All these examples, save the one at Winterthur, have pieced feet.

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.