The principal difference between this card table and the previous example (B.69.406) is the preference for ball-and-claw feet over the more conventional pad. It is believed this motif is derived from the Chinese dragon’s claw grasping a pearl. In England, it was adopted by the late seventeenth century, becoming integral to Late Baroque design. Paradoxically, in America the ball-and-claw foot has long been associated with the subsequent style, the Rococo, thereby implying a later date for this table. In Boston, however, this motif is documented as early as 1733.

Technical notes: Mahogany; mahogany (turrets, rear corner blocks), black walnut (front corner blocks), soft maple (fly leg hinged rail, pin), eastern white pine (fixed back rail, top glue blocks, drawer runners, sides, back), basswood (drawer bottom). The fly leg is attached by a five-part hinge. The top is recessed for a cover as well as for counters and candlesticks. The drawer runners are dovetailed into the front rail and tenoned into the backboard. The shell pendant does not appear in the 1944 auction catalogue illustration. On the drawer bottom is a pencil inscription, largely worn off; its last segment appears to be “[—]Chest St.”

Related examples: Examples with ball-and-claw feet are pictured in Antiques 96 (July 1969), p. 1; Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, sale 5001, January 27–29, 1983, lot 415; Sack 1969–92, vol. 8, pp. 2260–61, no. P5773.

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.