The eighteenth-century cabinetmakers of Newport, Rhode Island, were among the very best in colonial America. Among them, John Townsend is arguably the most accomplished and unquestionably the best documented. More than thirty pieces of furniture bearing his signature or label, and often the date, are known—far more than is the case with any of his contemporaries. The earliest of these objects, made in 1756 when Townsend was only twenty-four, is the dining table illustrated below. (The table is signed and dated, in pencil in a bold and proud calligraphic hand, on the underside of the top.) It is proof that Townsend already had fully learned his craft: in scale and proportion, in choice of wood, in assured execution, it is masterful—the work of a mature artisan.

The dining table, a form not hitherto represented in our Newport holdings, brings to five the number of documented pieces by Townsend in the Museum's collection, the largest such assemblage anywhere.