Description: Card table with a demilune top attributed to Jacob Forster (1764-1838), who moved to Charlestown in 1786 from his birthplace, Berwick, Maine, via Watertown where he served an apprenticeship. He lived in Charlestown until his death; his son, Charles carried on the business with Edward Lawrence as "Forster and Lawrence" and later included Abraham Crowninshield as "Forster, Lawrence and Company." This circular table is unlabled, but has the same curved rail construction with a simple veneered facade with rectangular panels of plain stringing, and squat, double-tapered legs found in Forster-labelled card table such as one in the Yale University Art Gallery collection and another card table attributed to Forster in the HD collection, 0457. Benjamin Hewitt theorized that these distinctive legs, which appear only in the Boston area, were produced in Forster's shop and sold to other cabinetmakers; they appear on only one of the other known documented Forster card tables. This table has two bands of stringing around the top's edge; the inlaid script initials "T.W" and a meandering vine inlay (similar to one used by Forster) in rectangular panels of plain stringing on the apron separated by arched stringing; and four tapered legs with an additional taper at the feet and decorated with string inlay along the length and cuffs around the feet.
Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+0826 |