Title
Dining Table
Object Type
Creator
Date
1796
Description
Comprising two d-shaped ends and a drop leaf central section of three leaves, each end with an apron inlaid with an oval patera, the dies inlaid with black and white bookend form inlays, and supported on eleven square tapering legs inlaid with bellflowers and ending in crossbanded cuffs. Signed John Townsend- reads: "Made By/John Townsend/ Newport/1796", in ink, printed on paper label.
Notes
The Whitehorne oval dining table is one of only two known labeled dining tables made by John Townsend. The other table made in 1797, a year after this table is at the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence (RI Furniture Archive at Yale, RIF416).
Published references:
The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery (http://rifa.art.yale.edu/), RIF4072
Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, N.J.: MMI Americana Press, 1984), 82, 125, fig. 2.10, 3.44–3.44a.
Morrison H. Heckscher, John Townsend: Newport Cabinetmaker, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005), 171–73, no. 43, 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), 409nn1–2.
Published references:
The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery (http://rifa.art.yale.edu/), RIF4072
Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, N.J.: MMI Americana Press, 1984), 82, 125, fig. 2.10, 3.44–3.44a.
Morrison H. Heckscher, John Townsend: Newport Cabinetmaker, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005), 171–73, no. 43, 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), 409nn1–2.
Cultural Origin
American (Newport, Rhode Island)
Medium
Mahogany, mahogany veneer, and lightwood inlays (primary); chestnut, white pine, maple (secondary)
Extent
Overall: 27 1/4 x 48 1/4 x 98 1/4 in. (69.2 x 122.6 x 249.6 cm)
Collection
Source
Annie H. Cook (born ca. 1889) and Benjamin Ladd Cook (1885–1968), Providence, Rhode Island; by descent to Mrs. Norman Cook, Middletown, Rhode Island; sold to Doris Duke (1912–1993), Newport, Rhode Island, 1972; Whitehorne House Museum, Newport Restoration Foundation, from 1974
Identifier
1999.392
For more information about this item, please contact its owning institution.