Research Catalog

Title

The work of many hands : card tables in Federal America, 1790-1820 / Benjamin A. Hewitt, Patricia E. Kane, Gerald W.R. Ward.

Author

Hewitt, Benjamin A.

Publication

New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Art Gallery, 1982.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Kane, Patricia E.
• Ward, Gerald W. R.
• Yale University. Art Gallery.

Description

198 pages : illustrations (some color); 27 cm

Summary

One of the primary functions of a university art museum is to present exhibitions which are the result of important new research. "The work of many hands: card tables in Federal America," breaks new ground in the field of decorative arts. Based upon Benjamin A. Hewitt's ten-year computer study of one specific furniture form, it is unprededented in its statistical method of analysing American furniture. Drawing upon his professional training as a psychologist and aided by grants for time at the Yale University Computer Center, Dr. Hewitt undertook this pioneering study as a labor of love. -- Foreword.

Subjects

• Card tables
• Decoration and ornament > Federal style
• Decoration and ornament > Federal style > Exhibitions
• Exhibition catalogs
• USA
• Geschichte 1790-1820
• Exhibition catalogues
• United States
• Card tables > United States > Exhibitions

Genre/Form

• Exhibition catalogs.
• Exhibition catalogues.

Note

• "Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the Yale University Art Gallery, 25 March-30 May 1982"--Title page verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Foreword / Alan Shestack -- Preface / Benjamin A. Hewitt -- "Avarice and conviviality": card playing in Federal America / Gerald W.R. Ward -- Design books and price books for American Federal-Period card tables / Patricia E. Kane -- Regional characteristics of American Federal-Period card tables / Benjamin A. Hewitt -- The methodology -- Statistical analyses -- Regional characteristics in form, ornament, and construction -- Form -- Straight legs -- Turned legs -- Shapes of Federal card tables -- Ornament -- Relief ornament -- Veneer -- Stringing and banding -- Plain inlay -- Patterned inlay -- Pictorial inlay -- Single-unit inlay -- Integrated inlay -- Facade designs -- Construction -- Woods -- Rails -- Curved rails -- Hinged rails -- Back construction -- Flyleg -- Rear leaf-edge tenon -- Medial brace -- Sturdiness -- Customized and custom-made tables -- Customized tables -- Custom-made tables -- Conclusions -- A regional survey of American Federal-Period card tables: selections from the study / Benjamin A. Hewitt with the assistance of Barbara McLean Ward -- List of tables included in the study -- List of patterned inlays and the table on which they appear -- List of pictorial inlays and the tables on which they appear -- Charts -- Photograph credits -- Index of cabinetmakers and other craftsmen

ISBN

• 0894670166
• 9780894670169

LCCN

81071042

OCLC

• 8396884
• SCSB-2351858

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries