Table
Maker
Jonathan Potter Holmes
Period1825 - 1830
MediumMaple, and hard pine
Dimensions25.5 × 31.25 × 18.75 in. (64.8 × 79.4 × 47.6 cm)
ClassificationsTables and Stands
Credit LineGift of Jonathan Ivins Holmes
Object number1992.540
DescriptionThis tavern-style table consists of a maple and hard pine frame with a plain rectangular top widely overhanging four baluster-turned legs and a plain recessed frame. The legs of the table end in small ball feet and are braced with four plain stretchers that are beaded on their lower edge. The entire table has been finished with several layers of paint, with a heavy black layer applied over earlier coats of blue and green.Curatorial RemarksIf this table was in fact made by someone born in 1803 as family legend states, then it harkens back to forms made beginning in the middle of the eighteenth century. The only suggestion that it might be a late example is the quarter inch setback of the table frame from the legs.NotesA small handwritten label glued to the underside of the top reads "Jonathan Potter Holmes / Born 1803 made this table. / It is to be given to / Jonathan Ivins Holmes." Jonathan Potter Holmes (1803 - 1831) lived in the Colts Neck area of Monmouth County. A son of Jonathan Holmes and Grace Jarvis Smith, he married Louise Van Mater and had two sons. Holmes appeared in the 1830 census, but died the following year. He was interred in the Van Mater family burying ground in Colts Neck. The table then descended through four generations of the Holmes family to Jonathan Ivins Holmes (1916 - 1953), a son of William S. Holmes (1876 - 1948), first Director of the Association. Accession records are silent on when this table entered the collection. It could have been a gift of Jonathan's father, mother Margaret Ivins Holmes (1882 - 1954), brother Robert L. Holmes (1927 - 1985), or himself. All were donors to the organization.
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