Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State

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Federal Inlaid Mahogany Demilune Side Table

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Object Details

Maker
Unknown
Date
ca. 1790-1815
Geography
United States: New York: New York City
Culture
North American
Medium
wood; mahogany; mahogany veneer; light- and dark-wood inlay; eastern white pine; yellow-poplar
Dimensions
Overall: 36 1/8 in x 66 3/8 in x 30 3/8 in; 91.7575 cm x 168.5925 cm x 77.1525 cm
Provenance
John S. Walton, Inc., New York; to the Fine Arts Committee through purchase
Inscriptions
A modern paper label on the top of the drawer bottom reads, "September 17, 1963" and "John S. Walton, 23 West 55th Street, New York" with notations "Hepplewhite Inlaid Console Table New York Origin" and "Repairs are minor"
Credit Line
Funds donated by the Honorable Gordon Gray and Mrs. Gray
Collection
The Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.
Accession Number
RR-1963.0053

Object Essay

This large table is an example of a form rarely encountered in American furniture. Much wider than the customary pier table, it probably served as a side table. Placed against the wall, its wide and deep top held silver plates, ceramics, and glassware used for dining, while its capacious drawer contained cutlery, textiles, and other accoutrements. Although side tables are not unusual in English furniture, they are the exception in America where sideboards, and so-called “hunt boards” in the South, predominate.1For a discussion of pier, console, and side tables, see Edwards, 577–98. Large Boston and South Carolina side tables are discussed in Montgomery 1966, nos. 345 and 356.

It is also possible that this table was made as one end of a large oval dining table composed of several pieces. Often, but not always, such circular ends were fitted with drop leaves. This table, however, shows no evidence of ever having had a drop leaf or a flyleg to support it, and its height argues against its use as a dining table. Whatever its precise function, the table reflects the larger size and greater formality of interiors in the Federal period and underscores the new importance placed on dining and entertaining.2A Baltimore dining table with drop leaves is illustrated in Comstock 1962, fig. 565. See also Kirk 1982, 31–43, for a discussion of the vast variety of dining tables available in the Anglo-American world during the Federal period.

Several features suggest that the table was made in New York City, especially the intersecting inlaid husks or bellflowers on the front legs and the use of yellow-poplar for the drawer linings.3Related husks are found, for example, on a chamber or barrel organ at Winterthur (Montgomery 1966, no. 447, and pl. 38, inlay no. 109). See also Sack Collection, 5: P4077 (Pembroke table) and 6: P4719 (card table). New York sideboards are themselves longer and deeper than most American examples, which may help to account for the large size of this side table.

Gerald W. R. Ward

Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.