Dining Table

Date1745-1770

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Rappahannock River Basin

MediumBlack walnut and yellow pine

DimensionsOH: 29 1/4"; OW: 44 3/4"; OD: 17"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1933-39

DescriptionAppearance: Rectangular top with two drop leaves; boldly scrolled and arched end rails; two fixed legs and two swing legs; cabriole legs with rounded knees and ovoid, pointed feet.

Construction: The table is entirely of black walnut with the exception of the two yellow pine inner side rails. The top is screwed to the rails from two screw pockets in each inner side rail, and a single screw pocket in each end rail. Exposed pegs on the top, sheered off at the rails, indicate that at some point the top was pegged to the rails.

One end of each end rail is tenoned and pegged into a stile. The fixed inner side rails are nailed to the fixed section of the swing rails at one end and dovetailed to the end rails at the other. The fixed end of each swing rail is tenoned and pegged into a stile. The swing section of the swing rail is joined to the fixed section with a knuckle joint and tenoned and pegged into the stile of the swing leg. The stiles are integral with cabriole legs that terminate in pointed slipper feet.

The two board leaves are joined to the top with mortised butt hinges.
Label TextBlack walnut and cherry dining and tea tables with legs, feet, and end rails of this form have histories in the counties on either side of Tidewater Virginia's Rappahannock River. (See CWF accession 1983-18 and MESDA research file 3894.) In combination these details are associated with contemporary Irish furniture; one or more immigrant Irish cabinetmakers appear to have been working in the Rappahannock valley during the third and fourth quarters of the eighteenth century.
InscribedNone
MarkingsNone found
ProvenanceCOLL Mrs. B. L. Brockwell, Petersburg, Virginia (1932)
At the time of the purchase, William Perry in a letter (November 16, 1932) to Robert Lecky, Jr., states the table is of Virginia origin.