Card Table Maker: Unknown

1810–25

American Decorative Arts

On view, 1st floor, American Decorative Arts before 1900

The eagle supporting this card table frame is one of the most sculptural elements known on a piece of American furniture made prior to the Victorian period. In its original setting, the dramatic effect of this life-size carving would have been heightened by a matching table (now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) with its eagle facing in the opposite direction. Although the use of an eagle may well have been dictated by patriotic sentiments of the client, the craftsman's inspiration came from pier tables made in England during the second quarter of the eighteenth century.

Medium

Mahogany, mahogany veneer, eastern white pine

Dimensions

29 1/2 × 35 1/2 × 18 1/16 in. (74.9 × 90.2 × 45.8 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.2002

Geography

Made in New York, New York

Culture

American

Period

19th century

Classification

Furniture

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Louis Guerineau Myers (1874–1932), New York, by February 26, 1921; sale, American Art Association, New York, February 24–26, lot 655; sold to Francis P. Garvan (1875–1937), New York, February 26, 1921; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1930
Bibliography
  • Philip D. Zimmerman, "New York Card Tables, 1800-1825," American Furniture (2005), 140, fig. 37
  • David L. Barquist, Elisabeth Donaghy Garrett, and Gerald W. R. Ward, American Tables and Looking Glasses in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 55, 225–27, no. 119, pl. 17, ill
  • Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 96, ill
  • Thomas E. Norton, 100 Years of Collecting in America: The Story of Sotheby Parke Bernet (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1984), 92, ill
  • Philip M. Isaacson, The American Eagle (New York: New York Graphic Society, 1975), fig. 181
  • Charles F. Montgomery, America's Arts and Skills (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1957), 72
  • "Outstanding Examples From the Mabel Brady Garvan Collections," Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University 8 (February 1938), 109
  • Nancy A. McClelland, Duncan Phyfe and the English Regency, 1795–1830 (New York: William Scott, 1935), 148, pl. 128
  • Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, 1st ed., 3 vols. (Framingham, Mass.: Old American Company Publishers, 1928–33), n.p., fig. 1052
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

card tables

Inscriptions

"C 1308" is written in pencil on the back of the top's lower leaf.

Technical metadata and APIs

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