Massachusetts Federal Card Table, ca. 1800
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GUEST:
The story in the family is that it was made by my great-great-grandfather in Concord, Massachusetts, Cyrus Benjamin. It's been in the living room of my mother's house and my house for, for as long as I can remember.
APPRAISER:
So family lore says it was made by Cyrus Benjamin.
GUEST:
Cyrus Benjamin.
APPRAISER:
About what time would that have been?
GUEST:
It would probably have been, we thought, about 1860, 1870.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
About the time his son had gone into the Civil War and he had a shop in the back of the house.
APPRAISER:
Okay, well, as sometimes can happen, family history is off by a generation or two here.
GUEST:
(chuckles)
APPRAISER:
A table like this is generally referred to as a demilune card table, made in Eastern Massachusetts about 1800. So 60 or 70 years earlier than family lore would suggest.
GUEST:
And before Cyrus Benjamin was born.
APPRAISER:
Exactly.
GUEST:
(chuckles)
APPRAISER:
This table, though it's based on a Boston example of a demilune table, is likely made, if not in Concord, certainly in the Concord, Massachusetts, area.
GUEST:
That makes sense.
APPRAISER:
Without a doubt. It'd be referred to as a Federal period card table. It relates to Federal furniture. It is a remarkably colloquial table.
GUEST:
And what does that mean?
APPRAISER:
Well, there's a lot of country cabinetmaker things that are going on.
GUEST:
All right.
APPRAISER:
Especially with relation to the inlay on this table.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
Which relates to a lot of Boston forms. At the top of the dies here, you can see what I would refer to as a contrasting quatrefoil, very similar to a lot of furniture made in Concord, certainly. What I like best, however, is the really delicate line inlay just below that, at the top of each leg. You can see this wavy line inlay that sort of intersects a couple times and then ends in drops. That's a great country example of a city form made with indigenous woods, like cherry on the top, and it excited us when we saw it because it's a good rarity to have a table made in that area of Massachusetts.
GUEST:
Good to hear.
APPRAISER:
In its current state, we'd estimate it, for auction purposes, at $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST:
(chuckles) That will shock my brothers and sisters.
APPRAISER:
(chuckling) Well, good.
GUEST:
Wonderful to hear.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
I appreciate that, thank you very much.
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