Images(9)

Marble Chess Table

Date1819-1820

Maker John C. Bowie

Maker Walter Bowie

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Port Royal and Europe, Italy, Rome

MediumMahogany, black walnut, brass, slate, marble, limestone, lapis lazuli, malachite, and other stones

DimensionsOH: 27 1/8"; OW: 24 ¾”; OD: 24 7/8”

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, TIF Foundation in memory of Michelle Iverson

Object number2015-341,A

DescriptionAppearance: Pedestal base center table with octagonal marble and limestone top; large baluster shaped pedestal on an octagonal base supported by four Doric columns on an octagonal base with four saber legs with original brass lions face and paw castors; octagonal slate bed, sides longer than corners, with small polychrome square stone pieces arranged in checkerboard style in center outlined in white, similar arrangement of three rows of small square stone pieces extend towards sides, outlined in black, leaving triangular sections at each corner with small triangular shaped stone pieces; entire top bordered and edged in long marbled orange stone pieces.

Construction (base): The slate and marble top rests on an octagonal black walnut frame comprised of five boards. A center board is tenoned on each end into boards cut diagonally at each end. The octagon is completed with two end boards that are parallel to the center board and tenoned at each end into the diagonally cut boards. All outer edges of the octagon are chamfered on the underside to create a very thin edge. The chamfers expose the tenons.

The top frame is joined from the top with four screws to a black walnut ring that is over a beveled mahogany ring through which the screws probably extend. The rings rest on a pedestal. The beveled ring may be screwed to the top of the pedestal with the screws obscured by the ring above it. The pedestal is comprised of three thick, vertical mahogany boards glued together and turned in the shape of a baluster with 1¼” round tenons at each end. A round center tenon extends from the pedestal through both rings. The pedestal in turn rests on an octagonal mahogany platform through which it is tenoned and screwed from below with four screws.

Four Doric columns are through-tenoned (and possibly wedged) to the bottom of the platform and to the top of the octagonal mahogany base. (Due to the through-tenons, the top of the mahogany platform is veneered with mahogany.) The four mahogany saber legs overlap the underside of the base and are screwed with two screws to the underside of the base. Original brass lions face and paw casters are screwed to the legs from the underside.
Label Text"To dear Helen, her Father and myself think as she is the only chess Player she will most use the marble chess Table." Left as a personal bequest in 1852 from Jane Gay Bernard (1795-1852) to her daughter Helen Straub Bernard (1836-1901), this marble top table illustrates the importance of the Grand Tour and European design to an early Virginia couple. John Hipkins Bernard traveled through France and Italy on his yearlong Grand Tour in 1818-1819 soaking up the culture and purchasing various trees, animals, and decorative objects for his Virginia home. Ordered while Bernard was in Rome in the spring of 1819 and shipped from Naples later that year, the "mosaic" table top was a fashionable souvenir from the continent. The Bernards had the base for the table constructed by local cabinetmaker John C. Bowie and or his brother Walter Bowie once the top arrived in Port Royal in 1820. Over the next few years, John and Gay Bernard incorporated other European accents into their Port Royal, Virginia home, Gaymont, including a European style garden.
InscribedTorn paper label adhered to top of base inscribed in ink “J Bernar…/ Gay…”.
ProvenanceDescended in the Robb-Bernard family of Gaymont, Port Royal, Virginia. Line of descent: John Hipkins Bernard (1792-1858) and Jane Gay Robertson Bernard (1795-1852); to daughter Helen Struan Robb (1836-1901); to son Philip Lightfoot Robb (1878-1965); to dauther Eugenia Van Dyke Robb (c.1923-2015).

Originally owned by John Hipkins Bernard (1792-1858) and wife Jane Gay Robertson Bernard (1795-1852). Left as a legacy from Jane Gay Bernard to daughter Helen Straub Bernard (1836-1901) who married Philip Lightfoot Robb in 1865. "To dear Helen her Father and myself think as she is the only chess Player she will most use the marble chess Table." (Swem Library, Bernard-Robb papers, Mss. 65 R54, box 2, folder 4, item 3 legacies of Jane Gay Bernard).