Card Table in the Neo-Classical Taste

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Card Table in the Neo-Classical Taste

Artist John Finlay (American, 1777-1851)

Artist Hugh Finlay (American, 1781 - 1830)

Place of OriginBaltimore, Maryland

Dateabout 1825

DimensionsH: 28 7/8 in. (73.34 cm) ; W: 35 7/8 in. (91.12 cm); D: 17 3/4 in.(45.09 cm)
Open: 35 9/16 in. (90.33 cm) x 35 7/8 in (91.12 cm)

MediumMahogany, maple, pine, and poplar, painted and paint-grained rosewood, and gilded, with gilt-brass toe caps and castors and die-stamped rosettes, and red velvet in the wells

ClassificationFurniture

Credit LineMr. and Mrs. Robert J. Barber Art Fund

Object number

2016.4

Not on View

Label TextThe social lives of prosperous families in America often revolved around a card table, or two. During the 1700s and 1800s, more people had leisure time, and they furnished their homes to reflect this. Comfortably-off hosts in middle-sized houses organized card games for their evening guests. People usually played for money, but the games, like whist or piquet, involved more skill and less betting. The players might enjoy conversation more than cards once a group was gathered around the table—a scenario often used in novels of the time, such as young women confiding secrets over cards in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (1811). Card games also provided casual occasions to share news of the day and other important information and to negotiate political and business relationships. The lightweight construction and folding design of this pair of luxury painted and gilded card tables, probably made by Baltimore-based brothers John and Hugh Finlay, allowed them to be mobile and multifunctional: when closed, they served as side tables that could be compactly stored against a wall, while in the open position they revealed their specialized purpose.Published Referencescf. Bidwell Bates, Elizabeth and Jonathan L. Fairbanks, American Furniture 1620 to the Present, New York, Richard Marek, 1981, p. 270, repr.

The Andy Warhol Collection: Americana and European and American Paintings, Drawings, and Prints , New York, Sotheby's, April 30, 1988, repr. (col.) no. 3215.

cf. Bush, G. K. S., in The Magazine Antiques CXLI, January 1992, p. 4, repr. (col.).

cf. Armstrong, Thomas et al., An American Odyssey: The Warner Collection of American Fine and Decorative Arts , New York, The Monacelli Press, 2001, pp. 174, repr. (one of pair) p. 175.

cf. Priddy, Sumpter, American Fancy: Exhuberance in the Arts, 1790-1840, Milwaukee, WI, Chipstone Foundation for the Milwaulkee Art Museum, 2004, p. 62, repr. fig 102 (red painted table in Winterthur collection).

Cf. Kirtley, Alexandra Alevizatos, "Benjamin Henry Latrobe and the furniture of John and Hugh Finlay," The Magazine Antiques , 2009, vol. 176, Issue 6, p. 56.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Very Rich & Handsome , 2014-2015.