Rhode Island Furniture Archive - Yale University Art Gallery

Photo: Courtesy Sotheby's, New York Click the image to enlarge	Dining table
	Object number RIF5330
	Maker Maker, attributed to Ichabod Cole, 1748–1841
	Dimensions 27 1/2 � 17 1/2 � 43 in. (69.85 � 44.45 � 109.22 cm)
	Date 1780–1800
	Current location Unknown
	Geography Made in Warren, Rhode Island (view a map of Rhode Island)
	Medium Sabicu (primary); maple (hinged rails and cross braces); pine (stationary rails); chestnut (glue blocks)
	Marks None
	Inscriptions “i,” “ii,” and “iiii,” incised on underside of top in three of the corners; “iii / ii,” incised on underside of top near one of glue blocks at center of long rails; “/////,” incised on underside of one leaf near center hinge; “X” and “////,” incised on underside of same leaf near one of outside hinges; “N 2,” in graphite, on underside of other leaf; “ii,” incised on underside of same leaf near center hinge; loop and “X,” in graphite, on underside of lower rails (respectively); “X,” in chalk, on interior of one short rail and on adjacent underside of top
	Provenance Christie's, New York, October 18, 1986. H. Richard Dietrich, Jr., (1938–2007), Philadelphia; consigned by his estate to Sotheby's, New York, January 21–22, 2011, lot 267; sold to Bernard and S. Dean Levy, New York
	Associated names H. Richard Dietrich, Jr. Sotheby's Bernard and S. Dean Levy, Inc.
	Construction The rectangular oblong single-board, square-edged top is joined to its rectangular single-board leaves by six pairs of wrought-iron hinges, each leaf thrice-screwed and laid out with scribe lines. The top is secured to its frame by six screwpockets ? one each inside each short rail, one each in the outside face of the interior long rails, and one each in the outside face of the stationary portion of the exterior long rails. The top is also connected to the frame by glue blocks (two horizontal triangular ones near the center of the frame) and by two transverse battens set into grooves in the inner long rails and nailed with brads in the underside of the top. One batten is accompanied by a horizontal triangular glue block. The inner rails are joined by transverse battens dovetailed to their respective skirts, and are fixed to the stationary portions of the outer rails with rosehead nails laid out with scribe lines. Each short rail is tenoned and wood-pinned to one leg. The neighboring leg meets the end of an inner long rail in a dovetail joint having finely cut pins of slightly varying configuration, with half-pins above and below, reinforced with a vertical chamfered glue block at the corresponding inside corner of the frame. The stationary portions of the outer rails are tenoned and wood pinned to one leg and the swinging portion to the other leg, moving by means of a round, five-knuckled carved wood hinge. The top of each swinging leg is rabbeted to fit over the end of the short rail. The square legs are stop-fluted on their outside faces only. Examined by P. E. Kane and J. N. Johnson, June 16, 2014; notes compiled by T. B. Lloyd.
	Notes Ichabod Cole is know to use lines capped by dots to identify drawer parts in case pieces. Similar line and dot markings for the corners of this table suggest that it may also be a product of his shop.
	Bibliography Sotheby's, New York, Important Americana: Including American Stoneware Assembled by Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Hochberg, sale cat. (January 21–22, 2011), 144, lot 267, ill. Patricia E. Kane et al., Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2016), 371nn1, 3.