Card table 1805 - 1812

Editor: This is Charles-Honoré Lannuier's card table, made sometime between 1805 and 1812. I find its geometric forms and dark wood strangely alluring. What symbols do you see present in this piece? Curator: Indeed, it’s an object steeped in significance. Notice the circular motifs—circles representing wholeness and completion—and how they are echoed in the veneer work at the top and on the legs. Don’t they remind you of ancient Roman symbols? Editor: Yes, the circles evoke a sense of timelessness, but I was thinking more about the rectangular form of the table itself; it's repeated in the drawer front and the top, very boxy! Curator: That rectangularity, or the preference for it in Neoclassicism, symbolizes rationality and order—qualities highly prized during the Enlightenment. And, think about its function as a card table. It provided a setting where people would engage, trade, compete...What associations come up for you related to that? Editor: It reminds me of the salons from the 18th and 19th centuries, where people would come together for entertainment but also political discussion, but in a space for leisure. The Neoclassical lines hint to its aspirations of rationality in its entertainment. Curator: Precisely. The table embodies a certain spirit of both the period and aspiration, an emblem of civilized discourse—controlled, refined, perhaps even a little…ceremonial, wouldn't you say? Its symmetry projects balance. And symmetry means equality, wouldn’t you say? Editor: I can see how the symmetry and balance evokes a call for equality. I did not make that association when I first approached the artwork! Curator: Ultimately, this card table carries cultural memory. By considering its design and function, it's like peeking into a lost world, which can provide cultural and historical lessons that continue to resonate today. Editor: That makes me think about the long lives of functional things; how their symbolic presence transcends generations, constantly offering a way for people to participate and project a cultural meaning onto a tangible object.