PROBABLY VIRGINIA, 1790-1810

This striking table appears to be the mate to a card table sold in these Rooms, 18 June 1998, lot 196. The distinctive passages of inlay on the skirt conform to vase-and-flower and pitcher-and-flower inlay and painted decoration on Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina furniture. Some Pennsylvania lift-top chests incorporate related inlay, as well as dates in the 1780s (see Fabian, The Pennsylvania-German Decorated Chest (New York 1978), cat. nos. 104 and 117). Such motifs were also popular in painted lift-top chests, and appear on numerous examples pre-dating and post-dating this Federal card table. This design impetus likely traveled from Pennsylvania down the Great Road of Virginia with the numerous immigrants who moved South seeking land. A related pair of tables with vase and flower inlay sold in these Rooms, 18 October 1996, lot 151. A pier table with vase and flower inlay is in the Baltimore Museum of Art (see Elder III, American Furniture 1680-1880 (Baltimore 1987), cat. no. 120).