Worktable

Unknown

1805–10 · Mahogany, mahogany veneer, ivory with white pine, maple, mahogany · The American Wing

Worktables were one of several gender-specific forms produced in the Federal period. The silk fringed bag was for storing sewing supplies, the upper drawer, fitted with compartments, held items for writing. The leaf-covered turret cornices and tapering turned and reeded legs with a drum at the top and elongated, swelled feet are characteristic of Salem Federal-period table forms. The earliest documented use of the word “worktable” in Salem is in 1807, when the cabinetmaking partnership of Elijah and Jacob Sanderson paid Samuel McIntire three dollars for “Reeding & Carving 4 legs for [a] worktable.”

Artist

Unknown

Date

1805–10

Medium

Mahogany, mahogany veneer, ivory with white pine, maple, mahogany

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of the Members of the Committee of the Bertha King Benkard Memorial Fund, 1946