Beschreibung:

Very Fine and Rare Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany Games TablePhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaCirca 1770
Height 28 1/2 in. by Width 31 1/2 in. by Depth (closed) 16 in.Condition reportFor further information on the condition of this lot please contact americana@sothebys.com or call (212) 606-7130. ProvenanceDorothy Dean Armstrong Quigley (1887-1969), Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. She was leader in the woman suffrage movement in Pennsylvania;Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, New York, Important Eighteenth Century American Furniture & Decorations from the Estate of the Late Dorothy A. Quigley, Lock Haven, PA, January 31, 1970, sale 2980, lot 122;Israel Sack, Inc., New York.Catalogue noteLate Baroque games tables with projecting circular front corners, or turret corners, were manufactured in England from about 1720 and variations of the form were made in America in New England, New York and Philadelphia in the Rococo aesthetic. The Philadelphia price lists for 1772 and 1786 include the form as “Card tables with Round Corners” as one of three models available. The sophisticated table offered here is made of choice mahogany and displays boldly rounded turret ends and exceptional carving on its turrets, knees and feet. It undoubtedly stood in a room used for entertaining where it likely served as a gaming table, dining table or tea table.
This table most closely relates to a group of Philadelphia turret top games tables that display the additional embellishment of a gadrooned apron. One at Bayou Bend also with carved turret corners and a central drawer was originally owned by George Ross (1730-1779) of Philadelphia.1 Another descended in the family of Judge Jasper Yeates of Philadelphia.2 An example with history in the family of Mrs. DeWitt Burlingame of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania is illustrated in Israel Sack Inc., American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol. 1, (Washington, DC: Highland House Publishers), no. 618, p. 249. Lastly a turreted games table was sold at Sotheby's, New York, Important Americana: Furniture, Folk Art, Silver, Porcelain, Prints and Carpets including property sold by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 25-26, 2013, sale 8950, lot 409.
1 David Warren et al, American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection, (Houston, TX: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1998), no F115, pp. 67-8.2 William M. Hornor, Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture (1935) plate 33 and sold at Sotheby's, New York, Property From The Collection Of Irvin & Anita Schorsch: Hidden Glen Farms, January 20, 2016, sale 9466, lot 45.