Trestle Table

between 1660 and 1680

On View

American: Higley Cottage, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

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Provenance

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

A carpenter trained in a late-medieval English woodworking tradition made this table around 1670 in Massachusetts. The massive pine top is a single board more than ten feet long. It rests on trestles at either end connected by a long stretcher. Two decorative turned spindles near the center of the stretcher were probably added in the early 1700s to provide extra support when the top began to sag. The scale of the table suggests it was probably made for a tavern or other public space.

Very few examples survive of large-scale public furniture made in New England in the 1600s. Antiquarians discovered this table in the early 1900s in the attic of a tavern in East Medway, Massachusetts. Tradition says George Washington ate at that tavern in July 1775 while traveling to Boston, so those early collectors preserved the table for its possible presidential association.

Title Trestle Table

Artwork Date between 1660 and 1680

Artist ----------

Life Dates ----------

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Pine and maple

Dimensions Overall: 28 × 124 × 24 inches (71.1 cm × 315 cm × 61 cm)

Classification Furniture

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Gift of Mrs. Edsel B. Ford

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 46.85

Markings

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Provenance

Formerly in the collection of:
Richardson Tavern, Medway, MA.;
B. A. Behrend
Eleanor Ford
DIA in 1946

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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