Images(4)

Card Table

Dateca. 1765

Attributed to John Elliott

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumMahogany, white pine, and oak

DimensionsOH: 30 7/8"; OW: 36"; OD (Closed): 18 1/4” OD (Open):35 3/4”

Credit LineBequest of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Hennage

Object number2020-152

DescriptionAppearance: Turret-top card table having hinged top with rounded "turret" corners opening to a (replaced) baize-lined playing surface with circular wooden corners made to hold candlesticks and oval areas dished out along each side for gaming counters. Straight skirt with gadrooned lower edge, single drawer in front with original pierced brass drawer pull/escutcheon, and shaped ends terminating in rounded turrets at corners; cabriole legs with double scrolled knee brackets; each front knee capped by a carved shell with descending leafage surrounded by cross-hatching and punchwork simulating leather; four ball-and-claw feet.

Construction
The rear rail and front rail are dovetailed (half-blind in rear) into the side rails to form an inner frame. The dovetails are reinforced with vertical rectangular glue blocks in the four corners. The center section of the front rail is relieved for the drawer leaving a 1/2” drawer blade. A gadrooned edge molding is nailed with sprigs to the underside of the front and side rails between cabriole legs that terminate in ball and claw feet.

The fixed portion of the oak swing rail is nailed with wrought nails from the inside to the back rail of the inner frame, tenoned and double pegged into the fixed rear leg and joined to the swing section with a knuckle joint (with iron pin). The swing section of the swing rail is tenoned and double pegged to the upper section of the swing leg.

Knee blocks for the fixed rear leg are nailed to the leg and to the underside of the fixed swing rail and side rail. The rear facing knee block for the swing leg is nailed to the leg and the swing rail; the side facing bracket is nailed to the leg and overlaps the underside of the side rail when closed.

Cabriole front legs with ball and claw feet and knees with shell carving that extends over the corner brackets are surmounted by mahogany turrets comprised of three sections. The center section of the turret is integral with the leg. The flanking sections of the turret, which include about 1/3 of the turret and ogee flanking section, are glued to the center section and to the mahogany front and side rails. Corner brackets are glued and nailed to the legs and flanking sections of the turret.

The underside of the fixed top is secured to the inner frame with 1x1x6” glueblocks and glued to the upper surface of the front, side and back rails as well as the tops of the turrets, flankers and fixed legs. The folding top is joined to the fixed top with knife hinges. The raised edges of the top as well as the candlestick cut-outs and oval depressions for counters are integral to the top.

The white pine “L” shaped drawer supports/guides are toe-nailed to the back of the front rail and rest in “L” shaped relieved mortises in the interior back rail

The drawers are of standard dovetail construction with bottoms chamfered to fit in rabbets in the front and sides and nailed with wrought nails from the underside to the edge of the back. Runners are nailed with sprigs to the edges of the bottoms into the voids created by the rabbets. Drawer fronts are mahogany, sides and back are tulip poplar, bottom is white pine. Drawer pull and lock are original.

Visible surfaces are mahogany. Swing rail is oak, interior back rail is white pine as are glue blocks and other secondary woods.
InscribedChalk figure and “R[VC]” on inside of rear rail.
ProvenanceDescended in the Bringhurst and Broome families of Philadelphia.
Donors purchased from Bernard & S. Dean Levy, Inc. in 1991

Inscribed on back of Levy photograph of this table: From the Charles Morris House, Philadelphia, 1760.

Based on the provenance supplied by the dealer, this piece may have been owned by Ziba Ferris (1743-1794) and his wife Edith Sharpless Ferris (1742-1815) of Wilmington, Delaware. Edith's parents were Edith Broome Sharpless and Benjamin Sharpless of Concord Meeting (Chester County), Pennsylvania. Ziba and Edith Ferris's daughter Deborah Ferris (1773-1844) married Dr. Joseph Bringhurst (1767-1834) in Wilmington in 1799. This is the only Bringhurst-Broome family connection discovered to date but there may have been other marriages between the two families.