In 1845 Alexander Jackson Davis designed Belmead, a magnificent Gothic Revival villa, for the prominent builder Philip St. George Cocke of Powhatan County, Virginia. In addition to designing Belmead’s exterior, Davis also designed furniture for the interior, notably a parlor set that included the side chairs (1998.565.1-2). The table descended in the Cocke family along with the parlor set and, remarkably, retains its original marble top and intricately carved tracery lantern. Fitted between the supporting columns, the tracery was installed before the cabinetmaker assembled the table.