Sheraton Style Card Table

Sheraton-style Card Table

Artist/Maker: Unknown

Created: c. 1810

Origin/Purchase: Mid-Atlantic

Materials: mahogany, mahogany and rosewood veneer

Dimensions: 75 × 94 × 45.7 (29 1/2 × 37 × 18 in.)

Location: North Square Room

Provenance: Thomas Jefferson; by purchase to Jefferson Monroe Levy; by purchase to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1923

Accession Number: 1923-21-1/2

Historical Notes: If the provenance of this pair of Sheraton-style card tables is accurate, they are the latest works made by an urban cabinetmaker to be acquired by Jefferson, as most of his furniture made after 1810 was produced in the Monticello joinery. The tables were acquired from Jefferson Monroe Levy, the last private owner of Monticello, who attempted to furnish Jefferson's house with authentic works.

The tables may have been purchased for Jefferson while he was president by [Thomas] Claxton. They might have come from Philadelphia, where Claxton was known to have acquired furnishings for the President's House, or possibly from the shop of Henry Ingle, a Philadelphia cabinetmaker who had moved to Washington. Jefferson had employed Ingle in the early 1790s in Philadelphia and later while he was president, but not enough is known about the work that he completed. In 1809, about the time that these tables were made, Jefferson paid Ingle for "cabinet work 16.11."^[1]

Each of the D-shaped tables has four turned and reeded legs terminating in bulbous feet. The top is hinged at the back, and when extended, is supported by one of the rear legs, which pivots 90 degrees.

- Text from Stein, Worlds, 268