The Morris Family Chippendale Games Table, New York, Circa 1775

This table was purportedly made for Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816) and originally formed part of the furnishings of his country seat "Morrisania".

It descended through the Morris Family to Lewis Morris;

Anita "Anna" Helena Emmet Hall (1893-1966), Ashfield, Massachusetts;

Ellen Fales Lomasney, Locust Valley, New York;

Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., Americana Week, January 24-27, 1973, sale 3467, lot 990.

Ellen Fales Lomasney advertisement The Connoisseur, vol. 179, no. 719, (January 1972), p. 40.

Retaining its original hardware and surviving in very good condition, this New York games table is distinguished by its exaggerated overhanging top and fine carving on the shell skirt, cross-hatched and acanthus knees, and claw feet. It may have been originally owned by Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), a Founding Father and signer of the Constitution, and possibly stood amongst the furnishings of Morrisania, his estate located in New York. It was later owned in the 20^th century by Anita Emmet Hall (1893-1966), the daughter of Col. Robert Temple (1854-1936) and Helena Van Cortlandt Phelps Emmett (1860-1920) of New York.

This table relates very closely to a New York games table in the collection of Winterthur Museum (Joseph Downs, American Furniture Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods in the Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1952): no. 337). While that example lacks the drawer of present table, it is nearly identical in its dimensions, carving and design and likely stems from the same shop.