image of object
Photo: Courtesy The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Bayou Bend Collection, Gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Click the image to enlarge

Marble slab table

Object number

RIF901

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

32 3/8 × 45 1/4 × 22 1/2 in. (82.233 × 114.935 × 57.15 cm)

Date

1785–1820

Current location

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Geography

Probably made in Providence, Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Mahogany (primary); hard maple (stretchers); birch (rear rail); eastern white pine (corner blocks) (by microanalysis)

Marks

None

Inscriptions

"IP" over "16," in paint, underside of marble top

Style

Rococo, Neoclassical, Federal

Provenance

Possibly made for Nathan Bowen (1729–1814), Providence, Rhode Island, or for his son, Nathan Bowen II (died 1848), Providence, Rhode Island; by descent to his son, William Bradford Bowen (born 1808), Providence, Rhode Island; by descent to his son, Amos Miller Bowen (1838–1907), Providence, Rhode Island; by descent to his son, William Manuel Perez Bowen (born 1864), Providence, Rhode Island. Harry Arons, Ansonia, Connecticut, by 1955; sold to Ima Hogg (1882–1975), Houston, Texas, 1955; given to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1969

Associated names

Harry Arons
Nathan Bowen
Nathan Bowen II
William Bradford Bowen
Amos Miller Bowen
William Manuel Perez Bowen
Ima Hogg

Construction

The triangular blocks in front are fills set in between the block and front rail. The rear blocks are replaced. The lapped cross stretchers may be later additions to strengthen the frame or replacements of original stretchers. Source: Warren, David B., Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paitnings in the Bayou Bend Collection (Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, in association with Princeton University Press, 1998): 109, no. F176.

Bibliography

Helen Comstock, American Furniture: Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Century Styles (New York: Viking Press, 1962), fig. 386.
David B. Warren, Bayou Bend: American Furniture, Paintings, and Silver from the Bayou Bend Collection (Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1975), 59, fig. 112.
David B. Warren et al., American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1998), 109, no. F176, ill.