Dining Table

Date1795-1805

Attributed to William Jones (fl. 1780 - 1805)

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Perquimans County

MediumMahogany with oak and yellow pine

DimensionsH: 27 5/8"; OW(open): 43 3/4"; OW(closed): 15"; OD: 40 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1930-14

DescriptionAppearance: Rectangular dining table with unmolded leaves; four molded, tapered legs, two fixed and two hinged.

Construction: The table has rule-jointed leaves. Screws set in wells attach the frame to the top. A diagonal brace is nailed into open mortises on the bottom of the side rails. Wrought nails driven through the interior rails attach the fixed hinge rails to the inner rails. With the leaves down, the end rails sit in rabbets on the upper leg stiles. The swing legs rotate on knuckle hinges.

Materials: Mahogany top, leaves, end rails, and legs; oak hinge rails; yellow pine inner rails and diagonal brace.
Label TextDue to their often generic construction, it is rare when a southern dining table can be firmly attributed to a specific maker, and rarer still when it can be associated with case furniture by the same artisan. One example is this mahogany table, which is part of an important group of furniture made or influenced by William Jones (w. 1780-1805) of Perquimans County in the Albemarle region of North Carolina.

The cornerstone of the group is a second mahogany dining table signed by Jones that is virtually identical to the CWF table in both design and construction (see Object File for images). The sole difference between the two is that the frame of the latter is further secured with a cross brace nailed into open mortises. Within the same group is a matched pair of black walnut dining tables that descended in a Perquimans County family. These, too, feature cross braces, though they are nailed into mortises of half-dovetail shape. All of these tables reveal Jones's practice of joining the side rails to the end rails with relatively large dovetails. Dovetails of the same pattern appear on a chest of drawers made in the Jones shop that bears the signatures of his apprentices Joshua Whidbe and William Burke (MESDA research file 3052). The signed chest in turn makes possible the attribution of additional case furniture.

Jones's dining tables may be distinguished from many other southern examples by their diminutive scale. While neoclassical tables are often more delicate than earlier forms, the Jones tables are unusually small. When its leaves are down, the CWF example measures only fifteen inches across the top, several inches smaller than the norm. Dining tables of similar scale were commonly produced in New England but were rarely made in the South. The Jones tables also differ from most of their southern counterparts in the use of fully molded legs, another popular northern convention. Most eastern Virginia and North Carolina tables made at this time have plain tapered legs sometimes adorned with simple edge beading.

Jones's career began in 1780 when he was apprenticed to Perquimans County cabinetmaker and riding-chair maker Charles Moore (1759-1806). By 1791, Jones had his own furniture-making business. When he accepted brothers John and Joseph Pratt as apprentices that same year, Jones described himself as a "joiner" who would teach the boys the "shop joiner's trade." In an apprenticeship agreement signed in 1800, Jones promised to teach another youth the "cabinet joiner's" trade.

By 1803, Jones was considering relocating his business from Perquimans to the town of Washington in Beaufort County, North Carolina. Jones wrote to John Gray Blount "Having been informed by several diferent Persons that the Town of Washington, would be a very Good stand for a Cabinet Joiner's shop I would therefore thank you as a Friend; for Your sentiments, respecting the business, whether You think, there might be work enough engaged to keep a shop imployed; and what the Customary price is of different Kinds of Ferniture; made of Mahogany Cherry Walnut &c. and whether they are Chiefly Cash articles or not? If from Your information, I think the Place will suit, I expect to be there next spring. . . . [I] would wish to know whether there is a shop of that kind in town or not &c." There is no record of a reply from Blount, and it appears that Jones never moved to Washington.

InscribedSeveral modern inventory numbers appear on the underside of the table.
MarkingsNone.
ProvenanceThe table was purchased in 1930 from C. P. Holland, a Suffolk, Va., antiques dealer.