Card Table

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Card Table
Datec. 1785–1815
Made inRhode Island, United States
MediumMahogany and unidentied inlay; mahogany, eastern white pine, and birch
DimensionsOpen: 29 × 33 × 34 in. (73.7 × 83.8 × 86.4 cm)
Closed: 29 7/8 × 33 × 17 in. (75.9 × 83.8 × 43.2 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.57.61
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

Throughout the second half of the eighteenth century, Rhode Island cabinetmakers and their clientele chose to retain many of the forms and motifs popular during the Late Baroque period, rarely embracing the Rococo style. An exception is the stop-fluted Marlborough leg. Even so, this Rococo element was not recorded in Newport until the mid-1780s, forty years after the Marlborough leg made its appearance in Boston. Here the addition of inlay underscores the protraction of this element. By this date Providence was beginning to surpass Newport, and in all likelihood its craftsmen were making similar tables, which complicates identifying a more precise origin.

Technical notes: Mahogany, unidentified inlay; mahogany (side rails), eastern white pine (front rail blocks, fixed back rail), birch (hinge rail, pin). The hinge consists of five parts. There are two rear rails with spacers in-between. Large blocks back the concave sections of the front skirt. The lower half of the top has a discrete line inlay around the edge. The playing surface is completely plain. The frame carries a label with the number 15519/v-x.

Related examples: Tables in museum collections include Greenlaw 1974, pp. 162–63, no. 140; Jobe and Kaye 1984, pp. 291–94, no. 70; Jobe et al. 1991, pp. 182–85, no. 68.

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.


ProvenanceNowark collection; [Louis Lyons, New York, by November 24, 1956]; [Ginsburg & Levy, New York, 1956–1957]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, June 17, 1957; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Card Table
c. 1820–1830
Grained, 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
B.68.31
Gentleman's Secretary
c. 1790–1820
Mahogany, eastern white pine, soft maple, and unidentified inlay; birch, yellow-poplar, and eastern white pine
B.61.94
Card Table
c. 1735–1745
Mahogany and unidentified inlay; mahogany, cherry, eastern white pine, and spruce with needlework
B.69.406
Basin Stand
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany, birch, and unidentified inlay; eastern white pine
B.82.9
Card Table
c. 1800–1820
Mahogany and unidentified inlay; hard maple, hickory, and eastern white pine
B.65.9
Card Table
c. 1800–1820
Mahogany and unidenfied inlay; eastern white pine and black cherry
B.69.408
scan from file photograph
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany; eastern white pine, birch, southern yellow pine, and hickory
B.76.163
Pier Table
c. 1785–1820
Mahogany and hard maple; birch and eastern white pine
B.69.200
Gaming Table
c. 1800–1820
Mahogany and unidentified inlay; eastern white pine
B.69.377
Pair of Card Tables
c. 1795–1810
West Indian satinwood, East Indian satinwood, mahogany, ebony, dyed holly or boxwood; white pine, birch, mahogany
B.2004.1.1,.2
Lolling Chair
c. 1810–1825
Mahogany and birch; birch and eastern white pine
B.69.128
Card Table
c. 1820–1825
Mahogany, mahogany veneer, rosewood, and ebony; yellow-poplar, cherry, eastern white pine, and brass
B.68.32