Georgian Mahogany Card Table, ca. 1750
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APPRAISER:
Would you describe yourself as a bargain hunter?
GUEST:
Oh, yes, oh, yes.
APPRAISER:
Okay, okay.
GUEST:
Always looking for bargains.
APPRAISER:
Always looking. So where do you go? Tag sales, flea markets?
GUEST:
Yard sales; just anywhere that's having a sale. Antiques listed, I'm going there.
APPRAISER:
Yep. Okay, you're going there. So what's the story on this table? Where did you find it?
GUEST:
Well, I bought this in Tennessee, in Camden, near where I live. I just saw the advertisement in the newspaper.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
And they said they had antiques.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
So I went by and found this little table.
APPRAISER:
Okay, what was it marked?
GUEST:
Oh, $7.50, I believe.
APPRAISER:
$7.50, so did you negotiate down to any lower price?
GUEST:
No, I didn't. But she did add a potted plant.
APPRAISER:
She added a potted plant to it? Is this stain on the top from the potted plant?
GUEST:
I think it might be, don't you?
APPRAISER:
It really was? Have you found out what it is?
GUEST:
Well, I was told that it was a card table.
APPRAISER:
Yep, you're right on that point. This is a mid-18th-century-- circa 1740 to 1750-- Georgian mahogany card table. Card tables were a huge part of 18th-century life. They were status symbols, because when you had a card table, and here this leaf, which has come off here, right, opened up, and you played the cards at it, right?
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
But when you had this table in your home, it meant that you were, had reached a status, a level where you could afford this rich, mahogany table with a drawer to keep the cards in, with a shell on the knee, with a bellflower, and with these wonderful claw-on-ball feet. All classic English-- probably London-- characteristics. So you have this card table, also called a gaming table. It's a little beat up, okay? You have a couple of spots where you have some, some repairs here and there. This is worth, in a New York shop, about $5,000.
GUEST:
Oh, wonderful.
APPRAISER:
Now, you paid $7.50.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Now, that's not a bad profit.
GUEST:
That is great.
APPRAISER:
I would think that's... I'd be real happy.
GUEST:
Thank you, thank you.
APPRAISER:
You're welcome. Now, let me tell you what it would be worth if it were American. There's an American version of this. If these were white pine and a little thicker, those drawer sides, that's one of the things that would tell us that this is an American table made in Boston. And then, it would be worth about $100,000.
GUEST:
Oh, wow.
APPRAISER:
But $5,000's not bad.
(both laugh)
Appraisal Details
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