Card Table

Description

Trained as a cabinet-maker in Paris, Charles-Honoré Lannuier arrived in New York in 1803 at the age of twenty-four. His older brother was already well established as the owner of a successful confectionary shop on Broadway and from there the young furniture maker first advertised his services to all potential clients who desired furniture in the “latest French fashion.” Early-nineteenth-century America was much enamored with French taste, and Lannuier successfully catered to his upscale clientele, tempering his designs to suit their preference even while he retained a distinctive French flair. One of a group of similar card tables, this example shares many of their decorative and design elements, including a winged caryatid central support, a Lannuier trademark.

Provenance

Rosemary Crane Hastings (American, 1900-1983) ( m. 1926 John Maurice Hastings (British, 1896-1968)), New York and Rainthorpe Hall, Tasburgh, Norfolk, England. With Sotheby’s, New York, by 1994; sold Sotheby's, New York, Important Americana, 10/23/94, lot 373 (illus.) to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1994.

Card Table

Charles-Honoré Lannuier

c. 1815

Accession Number

135533

Medium

Mahogany with rosewood veneer, giltwood, brass and ebony inlay, ormolu

Dimensions

74.9 × 91.1 × 45.1 cm (29 1/8 × 35 7/8 × 17 3/4 in.)

Classification

table

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Jamee J. and Marshall Field; Pauline Armstrong Endowment