Card Table

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Card Table
Datec. 1820–1830
Made inNew York , New York, United States
MediumGrained, 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
DimensionsOpen: 30 1/8 × 36 3/4 × 36 3/4 in. (76.5 × 93.3 × 93.3 cm)
Closed: 30 7/8 × 36 3/4 × 18 3/8 in. (78.4 × 93.3 × 46.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.68.31
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Chillman Parlor
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

In the Grecian period, the card table continued to be an important form of parlor furniture, often made in pairs and positioned as small pier tables when not in use. The Bayou Bend example manifests the eclectic combination of references to the antique that characterize the style: paw feet in the Roman taste, lotus-shaped capitals of vaguely Egyptian taste, and Grecian anthemia on the central bronze mount. The use of painted surfaces to suggest more expensive or exotic woods returned to favor; the mahogany surfaces of this table have been grained to resemble rosewood and the paw feet painted black to look like ebony.

Technical notes: Grained, painted, and gilded mahogany birch (turned columns); mahogany veneer on eastern white pine with black walnut banding (top), ash (center section of left front foot), eastern white pine (outer section of right front foot, bottom of upper section, carved eagle bracket), cherry (braces for top). The casters are original.

Related examples: A virtually identical table, save for the central mount of the skirt, was in the collection of the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, and then sold at Christie’s, New York, June 2, 1990, sale 8006, lot 173, present location unknown. It had been suggested that the Bayou Bend table was part of a set of furniture that included a music stand inscribed “Miss M.A. Babcock/April 1824” (Tracy and Gerdts 1963, no. 47). However, there does not seem to be any concrete evidence to support this.

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.


Provenance[Peter Hill, Washington, D.C.]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, July 8, 1966; given to MFAH, 1966.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Worktable
c. 1810–1820
Mahogany and mahogany veneer; yellow-poplar, eastern white pine, cherry, and original brass casters
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Square Piano
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c. 1810–1815
Painted and gilded mahogany, mahogany veneer, satinwood, soft maple, and holly; yellow-poplar, holly, beech, basswood, cherry, soft maple, eastern white pine, hemlock, mahogany, and ash
B.57.4
Card Table
c. 1820–1825
Mahogany, mahogany veneer, rosewood, and ebony; yellow-poplar, cherry, eastern white pine, and brass
B.68.32
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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
Center, or Loo, Table
c. 1825–1835
Painted and gilded mahogany; mahogany veneer, yellow-poplar, and eastern white pine
B.67.7
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
Sofa Table
c. 1815–1825
Mahogany, mahogany veneer; eastern white pine, yellow poplar, cherry, and mahogany
B.71.106
Card Table (one of a pair)
c. 1805–1810
Mahogany and mahogany veneer; eastern white pine and brass
B.69.385.2
Card Table (one of a pair)
c. 1805–1810
Mahogany and mahogany veneer; eastern white pine and brass
B.69.385.1
Card Table
c. 1740–1750
Mahogany; mahogany, black walnut, soft maple, eastern white pine, and basswood
B.69.132
Armchair
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.1
Image of B.60.37.2, representative of set
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany; eastern white pine, ash, red oak, sweetgum, and black cherry
B.60.37.2