Sideboard table

Date1800-1825

OriginAmerica, Georgia, Elbert County (probably)

MediumYellow pine, soft maple, and brass

DimensionsOH: 37 1/8"; OW: 46 1/4"; OD: 20 7/8"

Credit LineGift of Mr. Joseph France

Object number2001-38

DescriptionDESCRIPTION: Sideboard of hard pine with some molding and beading of soft maple. One row of two drawers with maple cock beading on drawer frame surrounding each drawer. Cove molding of hard pine under top where it overhangs the front by ½" and sides by 1". The bottom of skirt on front and both sides is trimmed with ½" maple molding. Two board top with 18 3/8" deep front board and 2 ¾" deep rear board.

CONSTRUCTION: Top, formed by two butt-joined boards, is surface nailed to sides and back. The back, sides, front top rail and drawer blade are tenoned and pegged to legs. The drawer divider is tenoned and pinned to the top rail and drawer blade. Center drawer runner is tenoned to back and drawer blade. Side drawer runners are nailed to sideboards. Drawer guides are glued to drawer runners. Cock beading on drawer frames is nailed in place as is the cove molding under the top and the molding at the bottom of the case. Drawer fronts and backs are rabbeted to receive sides and are secured with nails. Beveled drawer bottoms are dadoed into front and sides and nailed to bottom of the back.
Label TextBetween 1780 and 1820 many people moved from the lower Chesapeake to the Georgia Piedmont. There they replicated the social patterns, achtiectural designs and furniture forms of southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Among the latter was the sideboard table or slab, as the form was called in Georgia. Used for serving food, the slab was often taller than other American serving tables. The earliest examples were in the Chippendale style, with square legs and pierced brackets. Although hardwoods were available, many Georgian slabs were fashioned from pine and then painted, stained, or left plain. In 1838-1839, Fanny Kemble observed of a rural Georgia furniture in general that most was made of pine "planed as smooth as marble - a species of furniture not very luxurious, but all the better adapted therefore to the house itself."
ProvenanceJoseph France inherited the object from his parents, Richard and Louisa F. France. Dr. and Mrs. France collected in the 1940s and often bought from noted southern furniture dealer J.K. Beard of Richmond, Virginia. They gifted several notable objects to CWF.

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