In spite of efforts to legislate card playing in colonial Boston, the existence of several sophisticated Late Baroque game tables corroborates that by the second quarter of the eighteenth century playing cards was an accepted social activity. This table and its privately owned mate are the earliest pair of American game tables. The Bayou Bend table, with its needlework playing surface and concertina action support, is particularly noteworthy. Bands of checkered inlay accentuate the table’s graceful Late Baroque contour. The inspiration for all these features can be found in English furniture dating from the 1720s, suggesting that the table’s design and construction was derived from an imported example or perhaps represents the work of a craftsman recently migrated. The top’s prominent candle recesses correspond to what the 1772 and 1786 Philadelphia price lists describe as a card table “With Round Corners.” The playing surface provided the colonial woman with an opportunity to display her needlework skills. Here, a bountiful bouquet is carefully worked in a tambour stitch. This still life may be after a hand-drawn design or, more likely, one available through a published pattern book. The cover represents a second generation, as the tambour stitch was not used in America until the 1770s, and its beautifully worked bowknot expresses a Neoclassical aesthetic.

Technical notes: Mahogany; unidentified inlay; mahogany (drawer), cherry (drawer rails), eastern white pine (corner blocks), spruce (blocks, probably replacements). The card table is constructed with a concertina action. The side rails are hinged so that they can be folded in. The vertical concave transitions between the sides and turrets are separate elements. The drawer is constructed of thin mahogany components, reminiscent of English workmanship. Two-part triangular interior corner blocks join the turret and the sides. Each of the sides, the drawer, the needlework panel, the candle recesses, and the top edge are outlined with an inlay of alternating light and dark horizontal rectangles bordered by a light line inlay. Remnants of an earlier surface treatment survive. The playing surface is covered with a wool tabby-weave cloth embroidered in tambour, a chain stitch, and French knots. A label attached to the drawer reads: “property of Peter Faneuil Jones, and his two daughters.”

Related examples: Card tables with needlework tops include Randall 1965, pp. M-14, nos. 79, 80; Fairbanks et al. 1975, pp. 82–83, no. 95; Antiques 126 (July 1984), p. 81; Rodriguez Roque 1984, pp. 320–21, no. 150. A small number of Boston card tables with  concertina actions are recorded: Winchester 1957a, p. 154; Randall 1965, pp. 111–13, no 79; Antiques 97 (April 1970), pp. 448–49; Sotheby’s, New York, sale 5429, January 30–February 1, 1986, lot 617; Levy Gallery 1988b, pp. 32–33; Christie’s, New York, sale 8494, October 18, 1996, lot 119; and in at least one instance by a New York cabinetmaker: Heckscher 1985, pp. 174–75, no. 105.

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., 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.