DepartmentHistoric House

Demi-lune Cabinet

Makerattributed to Shaw Furniture Company (founded 1780)

Date1917

Mediummahogany; marble

DimensionsOverall (including marble): 38 1/8 × 47 9/16 × 19 3/16 in. (96.8 × 120.8 × 48.7 cm)

Credit LineReynolda Estate

CopyrightPublic Domain

Object number1922.2.25

DescriptionThis demi-lune mahogany cabinet with neo-classical ornament has a black-and-white marble top. A short frieze below the top includes pairs of beaded circles enclosing ornaments resembling fleur-de-lis and alternating with narrow panels of patera. The wide rectangular panel on the center front of the frieze is filled with a wide gadrooned urn. The cabinet is divided into three large panels. The single panel on the front is also the door to the cabinet. It is decorated in the center with a large beaded oval framing the figure of a female in classical drape bearing a cup and saucer. Leafy scrolls and a bellflower drape surround the beaded frame. The side panels of the cabinet have frames with notched corners enclosing a large neo-classical ornament made up of an urn-like central motif surrounded by leafy scrolls. The four bulbous feet of the cabinet are reeded.

The demi-lune cabinet, one of a pair, was made en suite with the dining table (1922.2.17) and serving tables (1922.2.18 & 19) also in the dining room. Notations on the frame that holds leaves for the dining table suggest that Shaw Furniture Company may have been the original maker.
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