Dining Table

Makerattributed to Shaw Furniture Company (founded 1780)

Date1917

MediumMahogany; metal hardware

DimensionsOverall (fullest overall): 29 1/2 × 192 × 60 in. (74.9 × 487.7 × 152.4 cm) Overall (currently on display, with 4 leaves): 29 1/2 × 108 × 60 in. (74.9 × 274.3 × 152.4 cm)

Credit LineReynolda Estate

CopyrightPublic Domain

Object number1922.2.17a-l

DescriptionThis rectangular mahogany table has rounded corners and a deep decorative skirt with framed rectangular panels having low-relief neo-classical ornament separated by ranges of stop-fluting. The ornaments in the panels include drapes, urns with drapes, and a feather cluster flanked by feathered scrolls. Small panels of patera flank the urns. The square legs, two at each corner, with recessed panels of bellflowers carved in low relief, taper to spade feet raised on small trapezoidal plinths. The table can accommodate up to eleven leaves.

Extra leaves are stored in two unfinished wooden frames with painted inscriptions: “To: SHAW FURNITURE Co. Boston Mass. / From: Mrs. J.E. Johnston. Winston-Salem, N.C.” The notations suggest that Shaw Furniture Company may have been the original maker and that the leaves were returned in the early 1920s for some reason that is not now obvious.

The table was made en suite with the serving tables (1922.2.18 & 19) and demi-lune cabinets (1922.2.25 & 26) also in the dining room.
ProvenanceFrom 1964
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, acquired in 1964. [1]

Notes:
[1] In the early 1960s Charles H. Babcock (1899-1967) gave the house and its contents to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection (Reynolda House, Inc.) on December 18, 1964 with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.

Status

On view