- Card Table
Closed: 29 1/4 × 36 × 17 1/4 in. (74.3 × 91.4 × 43.8 cm)
Explore Further
Card tables became increasingly prevalent during the post-Revolutionary years. Examples in a variety of shapes and exhibiting a range of regional idiosyncrasies exist in even greater numbers in the United States than were available in England at the time. The contour of this table is unique to the Philadelphia-Baltimore region, its overall design and inlay being specific to Philadelphia. Its shape is described in the 1811 Philadelphia price book as “kidney end...with serpentine middle.”
Technical notes: Mahogany, unidentified inlay; black cherry (hinge rail), eastern white pine (lamination of front and fixed rail). The hinged rail is flush with the stationary rear rail. The table is constructed with the knuckle hinges associated with the New Jersey-Pennsylvania-Maryland region.
Related examples: Nutting 1962, no. 1035; Garrett et al. 1985, p. 118, no. 118; Barquist, Garrett, and Ward 1992, pp. 213–15, nos. 109, 110.
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.
ProvenanceGertrude H. Camp, Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania; [American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, January 18, 1929, lot 105]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1929; given to MFAH, 1969.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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