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Photo: Courtesy private collection
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Dining table

Object number

RIF6049

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

26 1/2 × 47 1/2 × 15 in. (67.31 × 120.65 × 38.1 cm)

Date

1760–80

Current location

Private Collection

Geography

Made in Newport, Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Mahogany (primary); maple (hinged rail, stationary rail, and battens); chestnut (glue blocks)

Marks

None

Inscriptions

"3," in chalk, on interior surface of one of the stationary rails; "4," in chalk, on interior surface of other stationary rail

Provenance

Private collection, 1968

Construction

The oblong, single-board rectangular top is joined to its single-board rectangular leaves by four pairs of wrought-iron hinges (each leaf thrice-screwed), set inward from the corners of the frame. The top is secured to the frame by four screw pockets- two each in the flat-arched short rails- by four rectangular horizontal glue blocks, and by two transverse battens. These are set into grooves in the stationary and hinged rails, passing through notches in the swinging rails, where their tapered, rounded, and chamfered ends are set with domed top screws into the underside of the top. The hinged and stationary rails are joined by rosehead nails. There are two empty screwpockets in one stationary rail. The stationary rails are joined by a full-depth transverse batten dovetailed into the rails near their midpoints. In the swinging-leg corner of each stationary rail are shadows of vertical glue blocks. The kerf-marked short rails join the stationary rails at a rabbeted corner in a dovetail joint, having large, finely cut, narrow-necked pins with half-pins above and below. The short rails are tenoned into the blocks atop the legs, showing two wood pins. The swinging end of the hinged rails move by means of a round, carved wood, five-knuckled hinge. At the end of each swinging rail is a mortise and tenon joint, showing some repairs, joining it to a cabriole leg without knee bracket, square in section, with angular knee and deeply carved tendons, claws and talons grasping an elongated ball foot, formerly fitted with a caster. Examined by P.E. Kane and J.N. Johnson, March 7, 2014; notes compiled by T.B. Lloyd.