Authors:
Historic Era:
Historic Theme:
Subject:
February/March 1991 | Volume 42, Issue 1
Authors:
Historic Era:
Historic Theme:
Subject:
February/March 1991 | Volume 42, Issue 1
The Chippendale card table on the opposite page was made in Massachusetts between 1760 and 1780, about half a century after special furniture for playing games first made its appearance in the Colonies. The idea came from England, where card tables—symbols of growing prosperity and the consequent expansion of leisure time—had become a social necessity in every fashionable home. The same held true in America by the time this beautifully preserved example was produced, and it is fairly typical of card tables in great houses along the Eastern seaboard. They were made of walnut or—like this one—of mahogany, and each had a hinged two-leaf top that, when open and supported on a swing leg, revealed an inner surface lined with leather, felt, or the coarse woolen cloth called baize. Since household lighting was usually inadequate for evening play, most of the tables had four turrets projecting from the corners to accommodate candlesticks. In addition, there were often “guinea pools” or “fishponds”—shallow dishlike depressions to hold money, dice, or counters—and, in Chippendale styles, a single drawer in which to keep the cards. The tables stood on graceful cabriole legs (ideally meant to resemble a woman’s shapely calves); but their backs, unseen against the wall, remained unfinished. Since so many of these tables were highly decorative and also bore their makers’ labels, they provide valuable evidence of the varieties of carving, inlay, veneer, and other detail used by the specific cabinetmakers, as well as of regional characteristics. Tables with bowed fronts were popular in Boston and Salem, and five- and six-legged examples appeared in New York. For some, card tables had a utility and appeal beyond their intended purpose. The Philadelphian William Cowper was so enamored of his green baize-covered table, made in 1785, that he would regularly “write, breakfast, dine [and] sup upon” it, according to his correspondence of 1824. “The card table that stands firm and never totters,” he continues, “is advanced to the honour of assisting me upon my scribbling occasions; and … proves equally serviceable upon all others. It has cost us now and then the downfall of a glass: for, when covered with a table-cloth, the fishponds are not easily discerned, and not being seen, are sometimes as little thought of. But having numerous good qualities which abundantly compensate that single inconvenience, we … resolve that it shall be our table still, to the exclusion of all others.” Still, in most households the card table was reserved for recreational use, and its ubiquity was hardly surprising in view of the fact that even the most upstanding Founding Fathers enjoyed gambling. George Washington’s account books, for example, reveal that he was an inveterate cardplayer. Thomas Jefferson was involved in the same pursuits just two days