Card table

Duncan Phyfe

1810–15 · Mahogany, mahogany veneer, white pine, yellow poplar, rosewood, brass, iron · The American Wing

Duncan Phyfe (1770-1854) was a Scottish émigré who established one of the most successful furniture-making operations in New York in the early nineteenth century. Phyfe produced furniture in the newest, Neoclassical style which was widely sought after by affluent consumers in New York and beyond in places as far south as the Caribbean. Thomas Cornell Pearsall (1768-1820), a New York merchant, commissioned Duncan Phyfe to make the spectacular swivel-top "pillar-and-claw" card tables for his family home on the East River known as "Belmont." The Pearsalls arranged Belmont with these card tables and another suite of chairs and sofas (1960.4.1-15), donated to the Metropolitan Museum in 1960, with a sella curulis or curule style crossed base designed after ancient Roman folding chairs.

Artist

Duncan Phyfe

Date

1810–15

Medium

Mahogany, mahogany veneer, white pine, yellow poplar, rosewood, brass, iron

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Purchase, Ronald S. Kane Bequest, 2018