Federal Mahogany Card Table

Object Details

Related Objects

Federal Inlaid and Figured Mahogany Card Table

Unknown
ca. 1790-1820

wood; mahogany; mahogany veneer; light- and dark-wood inlays; birch; eastern white pine; hard maple

Object Essay

In superb condition and replete with classical motifs such as eagles and urns, this Boston card table is one of the more successful American expressions of the form. Numerous characteristics of design and construction link the table with other Boston work. Its shape (square with ovolo corners), its construction with one rear, leaf-edge tenon and filler construction, its double-tapered legs, and its use of patterned and pictorial inlays all point strongly to its origin in a Boston shop.^{1_{Hewitt et al., nos. 150, 180. Boston straight-leg tables are discussed in ibid., 137–42.}} Related examples are relatively numerous.

This table has often been attributed to the shop of John (1738–1818) and Thomas (1771–1848) Seymour, who worked in partnership between about 1796 and 1804.^{2_{See, for example, Biddle 1963, cat. no. 76, when the table was in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lansdell K. Christie; Antiques 90, no. 5 (November 1966), inside front cover, when it was offered for sale by Israel Sack, Inc., New York; Guidebook to the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, 101; and Sack 1987, 171, when the table was in the Department of State’s collection. The table has been published without attribution to a specific shop in Fitzgerald 1982, 93, fig. V–16.}} Recent research, however, indicates that tables such as this and a second example in the Collection (Acc. No. 76.50) were standard, ready-made products of a large number of Boston-area shops.^{3_{See, for example, tables published in Sack Collection, 1: 510; 6: P4539 (branded by William Leverett); 6: P4630 and 8: P5712.}}

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.