Marble Top Tripod Table

Artist/Maker: Unspecified

Created: 1785-1790

Origin/Purchase: top: Paris; base: Philadelphia (?)

Materials: marble, brass, mahogany

Dimensions: 75.6 × 71.1 × 53.3 (29 3/4 × 28 × 21 in.)

Location: Entrance Hall

Provenance: Thomas Jefferson; by purchase to Thomas Jefferson Randolph; by descent to Carolina Ramsay Randolph; by purchase to De Lancey Kountz; by gift to the Yale University Art Gallery; by loan to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation since 1945

Accession Number: 1945-16

Historical Notes: This table top was one of four marble table tops with a brass border that Jefferson brought back to America from France. It is not known if the tops were accompanied by bases. The tilt-top base may have been joined to the top after Jefferson's return in 1790, possibly in Philadelphia. The pillar and slipper feet bear a striking similarity to a Pennsylvania-made stand in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art said to have been designed by Benjamin Franklin.^[1]

- Text from Stein, Worlds, 306