Important Charleston mahogany card table South Carolina, circa 1735-50 shaped folding top over green baize playing surface installed with candle and counter wells, above conforming blocked facade with single drawer, on graceful cabriole legs with pad feet; bald cypress and mahogany secondary woods. (Old repairs, possibly lacking knee responds, good overall condition) H28 7/8" W32" D31 1/2" open *Note: Recently rediscovered, the present table is one of the finest examples of this form to survive from Charleston's colonial period; it exemplifies the eighteenth century Charlestonian's preference for objects of conservative yet elegant style. The cabriole legs are competently turned and shaped with a highly evolved pad foot which is typical in form and execution to those found on related tables of Charleston origin. The facade and sides exhibit blocked ends below a conforming top affixed with glue blocks and screws set into pockets. The facade drawer is flush fit with an ovolo cut around its perimeter in the typical fashion and retains its original 'batwing' brass pull. The interior of the top is covered in green baize and exhibits candle and game piece reserves cut into the solid. The pivoting top is supported by a single swing leg. As was common in Charleston during the mid-colonial period, the table is virtually identical to work produced in London and reveals the hand of an artisan that had likely just arrived from the cultural center of the Western world. Although the table's specific whereabouts have not been known since the 1950's, it is well-known in collecting and academic circles. It was first illustrated in 1955 as Figure 84 in Milby Burtons's groundbreaking regional study, CHARLESTON FURNITURE 1700-1825. This photograph, currently in the archives of the Charleston Museum (MK-6445), was published again in 2003 as Figure CT-37, page 269 in Brad Rauschenberg and John Bivins, Jr.'s comprehensive three-volume work entitled THE FURNITURE OF CHARLESTON, 1670-1820, published by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA). A stylistic analysis revealing the table's relationship to other examples of Charleston origin is discussed on pages 268-269. Since its rediscovery, microscopic analysis has affirmed the table's Charleston origin; the presence of bald cypress as the predominant secondary wood is common among furniture produced in the Lowcountry during the eighteenth century. One aspect of its production which it shares with numerous examples of cabinetwork produced in Charleston during this period is the extensive use of a toothing plane on the underside of the fixed top to relieve stock and provide additional surface areas for adhesion of the glue blocks. Like the vast majority of tables from this period in Charleston, this table has lost its original knee responds. This is common due to the fact that cabinetmakers often attached the responds with nothing but hide glue which is water-soluble and therefore often fails in the humid Southern climate. The table retains an early finish which may indeed be original, and has received minor repair commensurate with age and use. Old repairs include a replaced portion of the left rear foot, repair to upper and lower portions of the right facade adjacent to the drawer and replacement of the drawer bottom. All of these repairs were done before 1955. The green baize presently on the playing surface appears to be early. The name 'A. Simons' is inscribed on the rear of the drawer. Of particular note is the exceptional weight of the table which is composed of extraordinarily dense Cuban mahogany. Interestingly, the fixed and moveable portions of the rear gate assembly are also mahogany (by microanalysis), but of a lesser grade.