- Gallery Text
-
Although it was constructed during a period when commodities and materials circled the globe, this table was fabricated in New England from local woods. Seventeenthcentury colonial furniture makers had access to ample supplies of oak, as the object’s stocky legs and thick stretchers make clear. With its vase-shaped, turned legs, corner brackets, drop pendants, and mortise-and-tenon construction, however, the table is international in style. It closely relates to British and Dutch forms from the early seventeenth century.
New England square tables like this one are extremely rare, and their function is something of a mystery. Adorned on all four sides, this piece was clearly designed to stand in the center of a room. Its large scale and deep drawer indicate that it may have been used in a public space such as a church or town hall.
- Identification and Creation
-
- Object Number
- 2014.11
- People
-
Unidentified Artist
- Title
- Joined Table
- Classification
- Furniture
- Work Type
- table
- Date
- c. 1690
- Places
- Creation Place: North America, United States, Massachusetts
- Culture
- American
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/348881
- Physical Descriptions
-
- Medium
- Oak with restored top
- Dimensions
- 77.2 x 108.6 x 108.9 cm (30 3/8 x 42 3/4 x 42 7/8 in.)
- Provenance
- [William's Antique Shop (William Richmond), Old Greenwich, CT] sold; to Frederick Vogel III and Anne H. Vogel, Milwaukee, WI (October 1971) gift; to Harvard Art Museums (2014).
- Acquisition and Rights
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- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Anne H. and Frederick Vogel III
- Accession Year
- 2014
- Object Number
- 2014.11
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Publication History
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Daniel Grant, "Museum Acquisitions: Top Picks of 2014", Antiques and Fine Art Magazine (2015), XIIV, 1, pp. 128-137, pp. 135-136 and repr. in color p. 132 as fig. 9
- Exhibition History
-
32Q: 2300 Dutch & Flemish, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 03/12/2020
- Subjects and Contexts
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Google Art Project
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This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu