Charles Baudouine
Pair of Card Tables

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Pair of Card Tables
Datec. 1853–1855
Made inNew York, New York, United States
MediumMahogany; yellow-poplar, black walnut, ash, and primavera
DimensionsEach: 28 1/2 x 45 1/4 x 30 1/2 in. (72.4 x 114.9 x 77.5 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Strange, Sr.
Object numberB.74.4.1,.2
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Belter Parlor
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

By the 1850s the furniture forms found in the Rococo Revival parlor were virtually standardized—one or more sofas, armchairs and side chairs, étagère, and center table. The méridienne, or couch, added another form of seating furniture. However, the full-blown Rococo-style card table with folding top, such as this pair, seems to be a relatively rare form; in fact, it can be traced to one shop only that of Charles Baudouine. Documentation is found in an 1852 bill of sale, where an identical pair is described as multiform. Indeed, these two tables, when not used for cards or placed against the wall as small pier tables, can be placed back to back and secured with knobbed screws to form a center table.

Technical notes: Mahogany (top board, front rail, drawer front); yellow-poplar (drawer bottom base), black walnut (support panel underneath drawer pocket, side of drawer pocket), ash (top rail of swing leg), primavera (right side of drawer, drawer bottom veneer, drawer back).

Related examples: An identical pair was purchased by James Watson Williams for his Utica, New York, house, Fountain Elms, and is documented by a bill from Baudouine dated May 26, 1852. The tables (Comstock 1962, no. 650) remain at Fountain Elms, but the bill is now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum (for information on Fountain Elms, see Franco 1973). It is interesting to note that the Heitmanns were married just a year later, suggesting this sort of table was a model available from Baudouine in the early 1850s. Other examples: a pair in the collection of Stuart P. Feld; one in a private collection on loan to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; MFA, Boston (acc. no. 1981.299).

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.





ProvenanceFrederick W. Heitmann (1828–1889), Houston [1]; by descent to his son, Frederick August Heitmann (1859–1955); by descent to his daughter, Blanche Heitmann Strange (1916–1996); given to MFAH, 1974.

[1] This pair of card tables furnished Frederick W. Heitmann's home and, according to family tradition, were purchased in New York from a French cabinetmaker.
Exhibition HistoryTheta Charity Antiques Show, Houston, September 11–15, 1991(LN:91.31)

"The Masterpieces of Bayou Bend, 1620–1870," Bayou Bend Museum of Americana at Tenneco, Houston, TX, September 22, 1991–February 26, 1993

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Easy Chair
c. 1740–1795
Black walnut; white oak, soft maple, ash, and yellow-poplar
B.69.31
Card Table
c. 1820–1830
Grained, painted, and gilded mahogany, and birch; mahogany veneer on eastern white pine with black walnut banding, ash, eastern white pine, cherry, and original brass casters
B.68.31
Étagère
John Henry Belter
1855
Rosewood and rosewood veneer; black walnut, mahogany, eastern white pine, yellow-poplar, undetermined exotic wood (possibly eucalyptus), marble, and mirrored glass
B.81.9.10
Dressing Table
c. 1760–1800
Black walnut; black walnut, yellow-poplar and Atlantic white cedar
B.69.78
c. 1740–1800
Black walnut; southern yellow pine, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, and spruce
B.66.15
scan from file photograph
c. 1760–1800
Black walnut; red gum, Atlantic white cedar, yellow-poplar, southern yellow pine, and eastern white pine
B.69.527
Sideboard
Joseph Meeks & Sons
c. 1825–1835
Gilded mahogany and mahogany veneer; white oak, soft maple, ash, eastern white pine, and yellow-poplar
B.67.6
Card Table
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany, satinwood, and unidentified inlay; yellow-poplar, white oak, hickory, and southern yellow pine
B.69.129
Card Table
c. 1755–1800
Mahogany; yellow-poplar, southern yellow pine, white oak, and hickory
B.70.23
Card Table
c. 1820–1825
Mahogany, mahogany veneer, rosewood, and ebony; yellow-poplar, cherry, eastern white pine, and brass
B.68.32
Valuables Box
c. 1740–1800
Black walnut; black walnut, chestnut, and yellow-poplar
B.65.8
Desk
c. 1700–1730
Black walnut, undetermined burl veneer, and eastern white pine; eastern white pine, black walnut, yellow-poplar, cherry, Cuban oyster wood (Gymnanthes lucida), and chestnut
B.69.42