On View
Not on viewDropleaf Tables
Date1790-1800
Terms
- Dropleaf Tables
- Cherry
- Hickory
- Pine
- Concord (Massachusetts)
- Boston
Dimensions69.8 × 85.03 × 83.76 cm (27 1/2 × 33 1/2 × 33 in.)
Credit LineGift of Cummings E. Davis (1886)
Object numberF714
DescriptionCherry, eastern white pine, hickory. Chippendale. Two short leaves, Pembroke or "breakfast table". Straight reeded and fluted legs, chamfered at the back and braced with X-shaped stretchers shaped and pierced. Drawer at one end. Leaves are cut in long scallops and are attached to the table with a cove and quarter-round.
Tables of this form--smaller than a dining table, but, with the leaves up, larger than a tea table--were popular in the second half of the 18th century, when they were called either pembroke or breakfast tables. With its shaped pierced cross-stretchers, shaped top, curved brackets and molded legs, it is about as Rococo as any piece of furniture known to have been owned in Concord in the 18th century.
The scratched bead rather than applied molding surrounding the front of the drawer indicates this table was made rather late in the period of popularity for this form. If it was made in Concord, a likely candidate for maker is Ammi White, whose shop was located in a house later owned by John Thoreau and by his sisters, Jane and Maria, Henry Thoreau's aunts.
Tables of this form--smaller than a dining table, but, with the leaves up, larger than a tea table--were popular in the second half of the 18th century, when they were called either pembroke or breakfast tables. With its shaped pierced cross-stretchers, shaped top, curved brackets and molded legs, it is about as Rococo as any piece of furniture known to have been owned in Concord in the 18th century.
The scratched bead rather than applied molding surrounding the front of the drawer indicates this table was made rather late in the period of popularity for this form. If it was made in Concord, a likely candidate for maker is Ammi White, whose shop was located in a house later owned by John Thoreau and by his sisters, Jane and Maria, Henry Thoreau's aunts.
Collections
- Henry David Thoreau Collection
- Furniture
