The 1772 Philadelphia cabinetmakers’ price book lists “frame for Marble Slab,” specifying that the basic model was four feet in length, to which could be added a range of options, primarily for the table supports. One could select Marlborough or cabriole legs, the latter, with “Claw feet,” “Leaves on the knees,” and “Carved Moldings,” a description reminiscent of the Bayou Bend table, being the most costly. While the price book records the basic form in either mahogany or walnut, all of the available options are specified only in mahogany, further asserting the slab table’s prominence as well as expense.

The marble tops for many of these tables were quarried outside Philadelphia at King of Prussia. In 1748 Peter Kalm visited the site and commented that it “is very good for working, though it is not one of the finest kinds of marble. People make tombstones and tables, enchase (encase) chimneys and doors and lay floors and flags in front of fireplaces, of this kind of marble. A quantity of this commodity is shipped to different parts of America.” An approximate value for the marble can be inferred from John Cadwalader’s accounts when he was remodeling his Philadelphia residence. David and William Chambers, marble masons, billed him twelve shillings per foot of new marble. Applying that formula, a top corresponding to the dimensions of the Bayou Bend table would cost approximately five pounds, exactly the same amount as the finest mahogany frame specified on the price list.

This extraordinary table, together with its mate in the Pendleton Collection, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, must have made an impressive ensemble in eighteenth-century Philadelphia. They were probably commissioned for a principal parlor, or perhaps adjoining rooms, where their placement produced a mirrored symmetry. Although neither provenance is known prior to the twentieth century, there is no doubt they were conceived as a pair. This is confirmed by the subtle yet complementary variations observed on the two pieces: for example, on the Bayou Bend frame the carved leaves trailing down the legs curl outward, while on the Pendleton table they turn inward. The central ruffles carved on the skirts, while identical in execution, also display a paired orientation, maintaining an asymmetry consistent with Rococo dictates.

Related examples: Monkhouse and Michie 1986, p. 110, no. 48.

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.