The Fine Oliver Ellsworth Federal Inlaid and Figured Mahogany, Maple and Rosewood Serpentine Games Table, probably Connecticut River Valley, circa 1800

Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807), and his wife, Abigail (Wolcott) of Windsor, Connecticut;
To their son Martin Ellsworth (1783-1857) of Windsor, who married Sophia (Wolcott);
To their daughter, Delia Williams Ellsworth (1818-1889) of Hartford, who married Henry Griswold Taintor;
To their daughter Mary Ellen Taintor (1860-1933) of Hartford, who married Frederick Wendell Davis;
To their son Frederick Ellsworth Davis (1892-1946) of Hartford;
To Dorothy Wendell Estacellas (b. 1930), who consigned it to Winter Associates in 1995;
Winter Associates, Americana Auction, October 2, 1995.

Maine Antique Digest, October 1995, p. 30-H;
The Antiques and the Arts Weekly, November 10, 1995, p. 46.

Secondary woods are basswood, maple, white pine; nice dark historic surface to the legs and turnings; some minor scratches and nicks to the extremities.
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With its serpentine veneered and crossbanded facade, serpentine ends, and ovolo corners over reeded legs, this card table resembles a popular pattern made in Massachusetts during the Federal period. However, the use and cherry and basswood as secondary woods, details in the turnings of the legs, and ownership history suggest that is of Connecticut origin.

The table was originally owned by Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) of Windsor, Connecticut, who was one of the framers of the United States Constitution, as well as a member of the Connecticut delegation to the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1783 and a Connecticut delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. In 1789, he was elected the first Senator of Connecticut. In 1796, President Washington appointed him to the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Oliver Ellsworth resided at the family homestead, “Elmwood,” in Windsor, Connecticut, which was built by his father, David Ellsworth in the 1740s. 

One of a pair, this table and its mate are likely the “pr mahogany tables” valued at 22 pounds in the estate inventory taken after his Oliver Ellsworth’s death in 1807. His probate records indicate that he left his furnishings to his son, Martin, and this table descended through successive generations of Martin’s family until it was consigned at auction in Connecticut in 1995. A Federal side chair from a set of nine documented by a 1791 bill of sale to the Aaron Chapin shop in Hartford with the same history of descent from Oliver Ellsworth was also included in the sale.

The mate to this table was given by an heir to the Ellsworth Homestead in Windsor on the occasion of its opening as a museum in 1983. It is listed as “Card Table - Sheraton. Mahogany, inlaid with bird’s-eye maple; folding leaf; slender fluted legs. An original Ellsworth piece. Presented by Miss Fanny Hall” in A Memorial of the Opening of the Ellsworth Homestead,” published by the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution in October 1983.

A wood sample taken from the front apron was tested and identified as basswood in October 1995 by the Forest Products Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.