Card table

One of the richest and most opulent rooms of the American Wing is the Richmond Room. It’s a French room in America. And the pair of card tables on the opposite wall have always been my favorite. You’ll notice there are wheels under the paws, and that allows you to glide it effortlessly into the middle of the room. They are tables that hold two very special surprises. The top folds open to play cards. And, when you remove the top entirely, written on a cross brace, it says, “made in New York,” in French, and the date. H.L. stands for Honoré Lannuier, who worked first in Paris and then came to New York in 1803, bringing to bear all the glory and the grandeur of the French Empire style. And he worked until 1819, when he died at the age of forty; a meteor across the sky of New York, with the energy that he brought to the dynamic designs. This would have been considered extremely avant-garde and stylish in its day. It has a magnificent sculptural quality. The winged, siren-like figure that supports the top: she is gilded and re-cut in the finest French style, she almost looks metallic in the brightness of her gold. The feet are green. The French call that vert antique. It’s meant to look like excavated bronze from antiquity, something that was perfected in Empire France and then brought here by Lannuier. He wants you to know that he’s French, and he’s selling that as part of who he is, it’s part of his identity. So that New Yorkers felt that they had Paris right in New York City. Imagine people seated at all four sides, the cards dealt on the table, candles or argon oil-burning lamps. You’d have to be careful around it too, it wasn’t for poker at night for the boys. This furniture was for a very elite clientele, with a taste for high style and fashion. It is a full American realization of a wonderful international style. And he sent us a message to say, “I’m here. I’ve arrived.” I react to it as somebody would look at a piece of sculpture. That’s why I like it.