Card Table Maker: Unknown

1790–1810

American Decorative Arts

By appointment, Hume Furniture Study

On the central inlay of this card table, an eagle with a striped shield holds an olive branch in its talons; above it are stars. These patriotic symbols of the new nation were popular ornaments for card tables in several regions. The eighteen-star eagle inlay on this card table was unique to the Boston area and was probably the work of a local inlay maker.

Medium

Mahogany, mahogany veneer, eastern white pine, birch

Dimensions

29 7/16 × 34 3/16 × 17 11/16 in. (74.7 × 86.9 × 45 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.2080

Geography

Made in Boston, Massachusetts

Culture

American

Period

18th 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
R.T. Haines Halsey (1865–1942), New York, before 1929; sold to Francis P. Garvan (1875–1937), New York, about 1929–30; given to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1930
Bibliography
  • Jules David Prown, Art as Evidence: Writings on Art and Material Culture (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001), 58, 231, pl. 2, fig. 4.7, 13.5
  • 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), 197–99, no. 98, ill
  • Benjamin Attmore Hewitt, Patricia E. Kane, and Gerald W. R. Ward, The Work of Many Hands: Card Tables in Federal America, 1790–1820, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982), 139–41, no. 22
  • Jules David Prown, "Style as Evidence," Winterthur Portfolio 3, no. 15 (Autumn 1980), 202–3, fig. 7
  • Meyric R. Rogers, "The Mabel Brady Garvan Collection of Furniture," Yale Alumni Magazine 25, no. 4 (January 1962), 14, ill
  • Helen Comstock, American Furniture: Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Century Styles (New York: Viking Press, 1962), n.p., fig. 550
  • Meyric R. Rogers, "Garvan Furniture at Yale," Connoisseur Year Book, 1960 (1960), 61, fig. 16
  • Edgar G. Miller, American Antique Furniture: A Book for Amateurs, 2 vols. (Baltimore: Lord Baltimore Press, 1937), vol. 2, pp. 784, 787, no. 1511
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

card tables

Inscriptions

"Mr R T Haines Halsey / 64 W 55 Street" is written in red crayon on the back side of the fixed portion of the hinged rail.

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