Demi-lune Table

Datecirca 1918

Mediumpainted wood

DimensionsOverall: 29 7/8 × 42 1/4 × 21 in. (75.9 × 107.3 × 53.3 cm)

Credit LineReynolda Estate

CopyrightPublic Domain

Object number1922.2.192

DescriptionThe demi-lune table (or semi-circular table end) is of neo-classical shape overall with three tapered legs having recessed panels. The legs are capped with small rectangular panels in the plain skirt. Two stretchers curve inward from the back legs and meet at the leg in the middle. The table is painted in a cream color overall with a black board top and a black checkerboard pattern on the narrow plain skirt having two painted reserves of blueberries on branches enclosed in plain mustard yellow frames.

The end table in its present form and decoration was included in Charles Barton Keen’s plans for Wanamaker’s (see A-36421). The decorative treatment was called “Bigarré” in Chamberlayne advertisements and professional commentary of the period. The word translates in French as “colorful.” The breakfast room is described in decorating advice manuals as being “a lounge” having an “informal nature” that should be “bright and cheerful.”

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