Provenance

Private Collection, Richmond, Va. [see note 1]; sold to H.C. Valentine and Company, Richmond, Va., by January 31, 1930; sold to Francis P. Garvan (1875–1937), New York, October 9, 1930 [see note 2]; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1930

Note 1: When the firm of H.C. Valentine and Company of Richmond, Va., sent the table on approval their letter of January 31, 1930 stated that “this table was purchased by us from a family here in Richmond . . . ." (Correspondence in H.C. Valentine and Company file, Francis P. Garvan. Correspondence and Related Papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., copy in curatorial object file).

Note 2: The surviving documentation for the acquisition of this table illuminates the procedures Garvan followed in his collecting: the table was advertised by H.C. Valentine and Company, in the February 1930 issue of Antiquarian; immediately upon receiving his copy and seeing the illustration, Garvan had his secretary write to Valentine, on January 29th, asking to have the table sent to his loft on approval; Valentine did so on January 31st, noting the object’s ownership history in his cover letter. Once at the loft, the table was examined by Jacob Margolis (1875–unknown), New York, who prepared a detailed report on its condition. Margolis noted that the end of one leaf was pieced and that a later painted surface had been removed, although "the color is still there and the finish is not entirely spoiled." (Correspondence in H.C. Valentine and Company file, Francis P. Garvan. Correspondence and Related Papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C, copy in curatorial object file; David L . Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), p. 398)