Table
1674-1694
Physical Qualities
Walnut, kingwood, brass, 29 1/2 × 37 × 25 in. (74.9 × 94 × 63.5 cm.)
Credit Line
Jean and Sidney Silber Collection, Lutherville, Maryland
Object Number
2016.174
Many wealthy colonizers decorated their homes with furniture imported from England; the table at left illustrates the circular trade of colonial materials and resources. Its top is decorated with “oyster” marquetry—fan-shaped cuts in the shape of oyster shells— made of kingwood, which was likely cut down by enslaved African and Indigenous laborers in Brazil. In the 1600s, French and Portuguese merchants shipped kingwood from South American colonies to European ports, where it was sold to English furniture makers.They, in turn, sold completed furniture to their North American colonies at a profit.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2016; Jean and Sidney Silber, Baltimore, by purchase from H. W. Keil, Broaway, England, 1983
On View at the BMA
