Drop-Leaf Table

Name/Title

Drop-Leaf Table

Entry/Object ID

76.124

Description

Drop-leaf walnut dining table with gate legs. Constructed with one center panel and two drop panels, one on either side, held by brass hinges. Plain apron. Tapered square legs.

Collection

Patrick & Dorothea Henry Collection

Made/Created

Date made

1760 - 1785

Time Period

18th Century

Place

* Untyped Place

Virginia, USA

Dimensions

Height

42-3/4 in

Width

41-3/8 in

Length

41-3/8 in

Dimension Notes

Details: 41.375 inches square when leaves open Each Leaf: 15.5 inches wide

Material

Brass, Walnut

Provenance

Notes

This walnut table was owned by Patrick Henry while he and his family lived at Leatherwood plantation in Henry County from 1779 to 1784. After Patrick Henry left Leatherwood to become Governor of Virginia in Williamsburg, he sold the table to Sam Cook. Mr. Cook lived at Oak Level and was Henry's overseer for Leatherwood. Sam Cook sold the table to Jeoffrey Woody who wanted it as a special gift for his young bride, Susan Stockton Woody. The table passed from Mr. and Mrs. Woody to their granddaughter, Cynthia Penn Slicer. In 1968 a friend of Mrs. Mabel Bellwood, the curator at Red Hill, became acquainted with the daughter of Cynthia Slicer, Mrs. Ann Gulley. Discovering her mother's connection to Leatherwood and the existence of the Henry table, this friend wrote to Mrs. Bellwood encouraging her to contact Mrs. Slicer. Mrs. Slicer and her daughter Ann Gulley offered to place the table on long-term loan with the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation on November 12, 1970. In January 2022, Curator Cody Youngblood attempted to contact Mrs. Slicer and her family to renew their loan of the table. After exhausting all efforts to contact the family, no information could be found. Mrs. Slicer was presumed deceased and no relatives could be located. The table was then considered to be abandoned property and was accessioned into the Red Hill collection on November 10, 2022.