Rhode Island Furniture Archive - Yale University Art Gallery

Photo: Courtesy The Chipstone Foundation, Fox Point, Wis. Click the image to enlarge	Card table, one of a pair
	Object number RIF149
	Maker Maker, attributed to John Townsend, American, 1732/33–1809
	Dimensions 27 1/4 � 34 � 15 1/2 in. (69.215 � 86.36 � 39.37 cm) Height: 27 1/4 in. (69.215 cm) Width: 34 in. (86.36 cm) Depth, closed: 15 1/2 in. (39.37 cm)
	Date ca. 1794
	Current location Private Collection
	Geography Made in Newport, Rhode Island (view a map of Rhode Island)
	Medium Mahogany (primary); yellow poplar and chestnut (secondary)
	Provenance Colonel John Cooke (1744–1812), Middletown, Rhode Island; by descent to Rhoda Cooke; by descent to William Cooke Gray; by descent to George Wanton Gray; by descent to Thomas T. Gray; by descent to Phoebe McCorrie Gray Durfee; sold to Philip Flayderman, Boston; consigned by his estate to American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, Inc., New York, January 2–4, 1930, lot 471; sold to Israel Sack, Inc., Boston, and New York; sold to Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York; consigned to Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, December 10, 1948, lot 215; sold to Polly Mariner Stone (1898–1995) and Stanley Stone (1896–1987), Fox Point, Wisconsin; bequeathed by Stanley Stone to The Chipstone Foundation, Fox Point, Wisconsin, 1987; sold to a private collection, by 2005
	Associated names Philip Flayderman American Art Association Anderson Galleries Thomas T. Gray Phoebe McCorrie Gray Durfee William Cooke Gray George Wanton Gray Rhoda Cooke Colonel John Cooke Stanley Stone The Chipstone Foundation Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc. Joseph H. Hirshhorn Israel Sack, Inc. Polly Mariner Stone
	Construction The rear legs swing out to support the fully opened folding tops. The front and side frame rails are serpentine and made of shaped mahogany; they are tenoned to the upper part of the front legs. The rear frame rail is poplar and is dovetailed to the back ends of the side frame rails. A stationary mahogany block is nailed to the center of the back side of the rear frame rail. The mahogany hinged rails, tenonoed to the upper parts of the rear legs, are attached to this stationary block by means of rounded knuckle joints. Just below the table top, three thin poplar cross braces run between, and are dovetailed to the tops of the front and rear frame rails, at roughly equally spaced intervals. Screws driven from below attach the top to these braces. Two poplar cross braces also bridge the lower ends of the front and rear rails in a similar manner. A cock-beaded opening in the right frame rail accommodates a drawer. The drawer supports are chestnut rails attached to the frame rail and resting on top of the nearest lower cross brace. Yet another brace, this time made of chestnut and running between, and attached to, the two upper cross braces nearest to the drawer opening, keeps the drawer from tilting and falling when open. The drawer has poplar sides, dovetailed to a mahogany front and to a poplar back; the bottom is chestnut, nailed to the front, sides, and back. Source: Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), 328.
	Notes This table was one of four virtually identical tables sold in the Flayderman sale in 1930, two of which bore John Townsend's label and two of which did not. The tables were sold in two lots, each of which had a labeled and unlabeled table. Slight differences in construction between the labeled and unlabeled tables suggest they were made at different times. This table is the mate to the unlabeled table at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (RIF5501). Source: Liza and Michael Moses, "Authenticating John Townsend's Later Tables," Antiques 119 (May 1981): 1153, figs. 2–3; Morrison H. Heckscher, John Townsend: Newport Cabinetmaker (New York, 2005), 162–163.
	Related objects RIF5501
	See also RIF1018 RIF2759 RIF2760
	Bibliography Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), 328–329, no. 154, ill. Anderson Galleries and American Art Association, New York, Colonial Furniture, Silver, and Decorations: The Collection of the Late Philip Flayderman, sale cat. (January 2–4, 1930), 220, lot 471, ill. Morrison H. Heckscher, John Townsend: Newport Cabinetmaker, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005), 162. Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr., The Arts and Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island, 1640–1820 (Newport, R.I.: Preservation Society of Newport County, 1954), 97. Alice Winchester, "Living with Antiques, The Milwaukee Home of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Stone," Antiques 69, no. 5 (May 1956): 436. Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, Choice Old English Silver, K'ang Hsi Porcelains, Important XVIII Century American Furniture from Four Private Collections, sale cat. (December 10, 1948), 62–63, lot 215. Thomas E. Norton, 100 Years of Collecting in America: The Story of Sotheby Parke Bernet (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1984), 148, ill.