Worktable

1805–10
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 774
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.”

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Worktable
  • Date: 1805–10
  • Geography: Made in Salem, Massachusetts, United States
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Mahogany, mahogany veneer, ivory with white pine, maple, mahogany
  • Dimensions: 30 1/2 x 19 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. (77.5 x 49.5 x 40 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of the Members of the Committee of the Bertha King Benkard Memorial Fund, 1946
  • Object Number: 46.67.110a–c
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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