Card Table
1755–90
Medium
Mahogany with tulip poplar, white oak, and white pine
Dimensions
69.9 × 88.3 (open) × 87.6 cm (27 1/2 × 34 3/4 × 34 1/2 in.)
Classification
table
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
45522
Art Historical Context
This elegant card table, crafted between 1755 and 1790, exemplifies the refined furniture-making traditions of colonial America. Made primarily from rich mahogany—a premium imported wood symbolizing wealth and status—with supporting tulip poplar, white, and white pine, it measures 27½ × 34¾ × 34½ inches open. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Arts the Americas department, this table was designed for sociable card games like whist or loo, which were staples of elite leisure in prosperous households from New England to the South. The use of multiple woods highlights skilled joinery techn...