Images(6)

Breakfast table

Datec. 1790

Attributed to James Woodward

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Norfolk

MediumMahogany, tulip poplar, black walnut, boxwood, maple, and resinous inlays

DimensionsOverall: 28 1/2 x 38 3/8 x 33in. (72.4 x 97.5 x 83.8cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1978-84,2

DescriptionAppearance: breakfast table with single drawer two drop leaves; oval top with single string inlay; four tapered legs with rectangle, quatrefoil, drop, and string inlays.

Construction: Iron butt hinges secure the rule-joined leaves to the top board. Traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery appears on the frame. Screws set in wells on the interior rail surfaces secure the top to the frame, while wrought-iron nails affix the hinge rails to the inner rails. Finger joints are used on the leaf supports, which have angled outer edges and deeply gouged finger holds. Thin drawer runners are wrought-nailed to the inner rails, as are small drawer stops. The front blade, drawer facade, and rear rail are veneered to solid grounds. Cock beading surrounds the drawer front. The bottom panel on the dovetailed drawer is chamfered on the underside, set into grooves along the sides and front, and flush-nailed at the rear. Small glue blocks further secure the drawer bottom. A kerfed thin glue strip backs the front glue blocks and provides a wider groove for the panel.

Mahogany top, leaves, legs, drawer blade, drawer front veneer, cock beading, and rear rail veneer; tulip poplar inner rails, rear rail core, drawer front core, drawer sides, drawer back, and drawer bottom; black walnut hinge rails; boxwood, maple, and mastic inlays.
Label TextBy the mid-eighteenth century, card tables were often sold in pairs so that they could double as pier tables when not in use. Breakfast tables were also made in pairs, although much less frequently. The Virginia example illustrated here represents one of the few known surviving pairs from the early South. With a history in the Swepson and Allen families of Nansemond County, the table and its mate exhibit unusual quatrefoil inlays, variations of which appear on a number of Southside Virginia tables, bottle cases, and sideboards from several shops.

More than a dozen breakfast tables and several card tables are closely related to the Swepson examples. Most descended in families that resided on the south side of the James River between Petersburg and Norfolk. Despite this broad geographic distribution, the evidence suggests that the tables were made in Norfolk or a nearby town such as Portsmouth or Suffolk where smaller artisan communities must have been strongly influenced by Norfolk cabinetmaking traditions. Details typical of Norfolk work that are present on the Swepson tables include the use of mastic or pitch for filling the quatrefoil inlays and their scalloped borders. This technique, also present on CWF chair 1990-210 and card table 1987-729, was rarely employed in other parts of the country. Although their primary wood is mahogany, the tables have hinge rails of black walnut, another common Norfolk practice. The extremely fine quality of the narrow line inlays also argues for production in an urban center like Norfolk.

Even the modest ornamentation on the CWF tables contrasts sharply with the highly conservative approach evident in many other pieces of contemporary Virginia and North Carolina furniture. Norfolk's role as the Tidewater's primary international port and a leading Middle Atlantic cultural center attracted many immigrant artisans from Great Britain and other American furniture-making centers. The city also served as a major regional transhipment point for imported furniture. These factors compelled local artisans to keep pace with the latest fashions and at times to emulate imported wares. An example of such influence may be the dot-and-lenticular inlays on the legs of the present tables, a pattern common to Salem and other New England coastal centers.

While simple quatrefoil inlays are usually associated with Southside Virginia, they also appear in southern Piedmont North Carolina. William Little (1775-1848), a British-trained artisan, often employed the device on furniture he made in the Anson County, North Carolina, town of Sneedsborough, just above the South Carolina border. Little emigrated from England in 1798 and settled initially in Norfolk, where he worked for several months as a journeyman cabinetmaker before moving on to Charleston, South Carolina, there to be employed by John Watson (1751-1812). The next year, Little relocated to the new town of Sneedsborough, which had been established to serve as the market center at the headwaters of the Pee Dee River. Although the town's potential was never realized, Little remained there and produced numerous neoclassical forms that clearly relate to Norfolk models (MESDA acc. 2618). In addition to the quatrefoil detail, Little also used mastic or pitch for his inlays.
ProvenanceThe tables descended through the Swepson family of southeastern Virginia. The first owners were probably Thomas (1765-1819) and Anne Riddick Swepson (1783-1846) of Farmer's Delight, an estate in Nansemond Co. The tables then descended to their daughter Mary Riddick (1810-1860) and her husband, Archibald Allen, of Rose Hill near Suffolk in the same county; to their daughter Mary Swepson Allen Darden (1837-1913); and to her great-grandson, Joseph Prentis Webb, who sold them to CWF in 1978.