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Photo: Courtesy Newport Restoration Foundation, R.I., 1999.534
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Tilt-top table

Object number

RIF406

Maker

Maker Unknown

Dimensions

Height: 26 in. (66.04 cm) Diameter, with grain: 28 7/8 in. (73.34 cm) Diameter, across grain: 28 1/4 in. (71.76 cm) Width, at feet: 21 in. (53.34 cm)

Date

1750–80

Current location

Newport Restoration Foundation, Rhode Island

Geography

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

Medium

Mahogany (primary and secondary)

Marks

None

Inscriptions

“1”(?), in graphite, exterior lower drawer bottom; “2,” in graphite, exterior drawer bottom, interior proper-left front corner, and interior drawer back of second drawer from bottom; “3,” in graphite, exterior bottom of third drawer from bottom; “4,” in graphite, on interior drawer back and in interior front corners of fourth drawer from bottom; “5,” in graphite, on exterior drawer bottom, interior front corners, and interior drawer back of lower drawer; “X,” in graphite, interior proper-right side of upper and lower cupboard compartments

Provenance

Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, October 25, 1969, lot 84; sold to Doris Duke (1912–1993) for Newport Restoration Foundation, Rhode Island, 1969; Whitehorne House Museum, Newport Restoration Foundation, Rhode Island, from 1974

Associated names

Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc.
Doris Duke

Construction

The circular, single-board top has an edge which is raised, molded, and slightly stepped at the transition to its underside, which is fitted with two cleats, with rounded ends, and quarter-round profiles near the ends, and at the transitions to their deeper, middle portions. Each cleat is fixed to the top with five countersunk screws. There are marks on the underside of the top where it was attached to a faceplate during turning. A circular brass catch latch under the top, attached with three brass screws, locks it to its pedestal in a brass plate. Dowels, integral with the straight side of the triangular pedestal top, fit into the cleats and allow the top to tilt in such a way as to stand in a corner when not in use. The corners of the incurvate-sided pedestal below are half-columns, with turned capitals and bases, on slightly incurvate rectangular pedestals. One panel consists of a hinged door, opening to five graduated concave-blocked drawers whose fronts attach to their arched-top sides with dovetail joints, having finely cut pins, spaced somewhat irregularly, with half-pins above and half-pins with rabbets below. The incurvate drawer sides are just shy of their fronts, and cut from the solid. The drawer bottoms are flat and nailed with brads. The concave-blocked drawer dividers fit into grooves in the pedestal walls and match the profile of the stiles? integral cockbeading. The incurvate faces of the pedestal base are molded, the undersides are chamfered. Metal brackets conceal the joints between the legs and the pedestal base. One bracket is held on with rosehead nails, the other two with flat and dome-top screws. The cabriole legs have stylized foliage-carved knees and claw and ball feet. Examined by P.E. Kane, J.N. Johnson, E. Litke, February 4, 2013; notes compiled by T.B. Lloyd.

See also

Bibliography

Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, Important XVIII Century American Furniture, sale cat. (October 25, 1969), 20–21, lot 84, ill.
Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, N.J.: MMI Americana Press, 1984), 49, fig. 1.36–1.36a.
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), 327nn1, 4.