Breakfast table

Date1770-1800

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Richmond (possibly)

MediumBlack walnut and yellow pine

DimensionsOH: 28 3/4"; OW (leaves closed): 21 5/8"; OW (leaves open): 40 1/8"; OL: 37 1/4"

Credit LineGift of the Vestry of Bruton Parish Church

Object number1938-210

DescriptionAppearance: Breakfast table with rectangular top and pair of short hinged leaves, each leaf supported by a pair of sliding leaf supports or lopers. Straight skirt, four legs "square" in section, molded on outside edges and chamfered on inside edges. Four triangular pierced fretwork brackets at inside junctions of skirt and legs at table ends. "X"-shaped stretcher bracing legs near bottom.

Construction: End rails are tenoned and double pegged into the legs; three of the four sets of pegs are through-pegs. The side rails are tenoned and double pegged to the legs (no through-pegs).

The rails are screwed to the single board fixed top from screw pockets (2 per rail). Five of the six remaining screws have leather washers.

The leaves are rule joined to the top with original iron hinges that are recessed. The square legs are molded with a bead on the three outside corners and chamfered on the inside corner starting about 1½” below the rails. The X-shaped stretchers are tenoned to the legs and half-lapped to each other at the center intersection. The pierced fretwork triangular corner brackets are glued and nailed to the end rails and legs.

The rectangular sliding lopers extend from under the top through relieved openings in the side rails. Lopers are slightly notched on the top edge with the taller portion remaining inside the table as a stop when the loper is extended. One of the lopers is original, two are replacements and one is missing. All pulls are missing. The loper supports, which are nailed to the table rails from the outside and rabbeted on both sides of the top face to form a central, integral loper guide that separates the lopers for the opposing leaves, originally had sides that were face nailed to them forming a box on the underside of the top (sides missing on the one original loper support; all parts replaced on second loper support).

The top, end rails, legs, leaves and brackets are black walnut, the side rails and remaining portion of the leaf support boxes are yellow pine.
Label TextThis Southern breakfast table was discovered in Richmond, Virginia in the early 20th century. The pierced brackets relate to a similar feature on a sideboard table in the collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. And the unusual construction of a box under the center of the top to hold the leaf supports relates to a group of breakfast tables with histories around Petersburg, Virginia. Based on these relationships, the table may well have been produced in Richmond in the late 18th century.
InscribedChalk inscription on the underside of the table top "T H K..."
Indecipherable chalk inscription on the inside of one side rail.
Graphite inscription "'Ruth Play"
ProvenanceTable purchased for Wythe House by Dr. Goodwin from Ahern of Richmond, VA.