Drop-leaf or dining table

1780-1800

Measurements

27-3/4 in x 43-1/4 in x 15 in (41 open)

Materials

Maple; probably white pine (inner frame rails)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.656

Provenance

An early accession record states that this table was purchased by the trustees of The David Wilson Mansion, Inc., between 1963 and 1968, but it gives no information about the seller or the previous history of the table.

Comments

The drop-leaf table has one-board rectangular leaves and a rectangular frame standing on Marlborough legs decorated only with a bead cut into the outside corner edges.  The legs do not have chamfers cut into the inside corner edges, which is a significant departure from period practices and indicates that the table was likely made outside of urban environments.  The primary decoration on this table lies in the double-ogee undercutting of the end rails of the frame.

Purchase of the table by Wilson Mansion trustees suggests that the table was acquired from a relatively local source, probably somewhere in Delaware.