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Benjamin Franklin's Chess table
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Status: |
Missing |
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Date: |
about 1780 AD |
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Artist: |
Unknown |
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Origin: |
France |
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Media: |
Possibly fruitwood and tulip |
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Measurements: |
Unknown |
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Last Known: |
Displayed in the Loan Exhibit of the Philadelphia Antiques Show in 1963 |
What is it?A small, rectangular French table referred to as "Franklin's chess table" by his descendents beginning in the 19th century.Why is it important?Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) may have made the most important individual contribution to the founding of the United States, and chess played a central role in his life. Because none of his homes survive, excepting a house where he lived in London from 1757 to 1775, his surviving possessions are especially important to our understanding of the man and his world.Description:This small table is rectangular and stands on four slender cabriole legs that are connected by a low shelf. One or both long sides have a bowed contour. The deep body contains a drawer that opens from one short side, and has an ogee skirt. One long side may have a slide that can be drawn out to extend the top; and descriptions mention "a sliding screen to shield the players' faces from the heat of an open fire."History:The game of chess was especially important to Benjamin Franklin, and he likened his life of business and diplomacy to the game. In his Morals of Chess (1779) Franklin wrote, "Life is a kind of Chess, in which we often have Points to gain, & Competitors or Adversaries to contend with. . . .The game is so full of events . . . that one is encouraged to continue the contest to the last, in hopes of Victory from our own skill."
Franklin's own life was instrumental in the founding of the United States and influential in its course since. He was the only person to help draft and to sign all of the nation's founding documents: The Declaration of Independence, in 1776; the Treaty of Paris, in 1783; and the Constitution of the United States, in 1787. In addition, he negotiated and signed the Treaty of Amity with France, in 1778, which secured France's financial and military support without which the American Revolution would likely have foundered.
While living in the Paris suburb of Passy from 1776 to 1785, Franklin was the American rebels' representative not only to the French court but to the world. He frequently entertained friends, spies, and fellow statesmen. Franklin's continued popularity with the French helped guarantee his greatest diplomatic victory, the 1783 Treaty of Paris, officially ending America's Revolutionary War with Great Britain.
It was during this time in Paris that Franklin likely purchased the missing table around which he would have discussed his official duties as well as pursued his passion for chess. This would make the table witness to some of the most diplomatically delicate moments in American history.
Franklin probably brought his "chess" table back to Philadelphia with him when he returned from Paris in 1785 as well a fruitwood chess set likely made in France between 1750 and 1780. Morris Duane, a member of the American Philosophical Society and Franklin descendent, presented the chess pieces, with a 19th century English chess board not connected to Franklin, to the Society on December 28, 1976.
Underscoring the importance of chess in Benjamin Franklin's life are the large number of anecdotes, most of them likely apocryphal, about Franklin and chess. However, two of the most amusing stories are documented.
One evening, Franklin played late into the night with Madame Brillon de Jouy (1744-1812), a much younger woman with whom he was close friends in Paris, while she lay in the bath. Franklin wrote to her afterward, "Upon returning home, I was astonished to find that it was almost eleven o'clock. I fear that because we were so overly engrossed in the game of chess as to forget everything else, we caused great inconvenience to you, by detaining you so long in the bath. Tell me, my dear friend, how you feel this morning. Never again will I consent to start a game in your bathing room. Can you forgive me for this indiscretion?"
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) recorded this exchange that Franklin had in Paris: "When Dr. Franklin went to France on his revolutionary mission, his eminence as a philosopher, his venerable appearance, and the cause on which he was sent, rendered him extremely popular. For all ranks and conditions of men there, entered warmly into the American interest. He was therefore feasted and invited to all the court parties. At these he sometimes met the old Duchess of Bourbon, who being a chess player of about his force, they very generally played together. Happening once to put her king into prise, the Doctor took it. 'Ah,' says she, 'we do not take kings so.' 'We do in America,' says the Doctor."
Benjamin Franklin rented rooms from 1757 to 1775 at 36 Craven Street, London (now known as The Benjamin Franklin House and open for tours). It is now the only house Franklin lived in still standing. His childhood home in Boston and the house that he built for his family in Philadelphia were both later torn down. For this reason, objects known to have belonged to Franklin are especially important to our understanding of the man and his world. The fact that this table is connected with Franklin's chess-playing makes it all the more important.
The table is not designated by name in the inventory of Franklin's possessions taken on his death. There are six tables listed, usually as being mahogany. One entry cites "Chair & Table" without mentioning a wood, and assigns a combined value of ₤3 to both. The value put on each other table alone is between ₤2 and ₤4, putting the pair of objects below the average. The table in this pair is likely the missing French "chess" table.
The table descended to Franklin's granddaughter, Deborah, who married William Duane. It passed to their daughter, Elizabeth Duane, who married Archibald Hamilton Gillespie, and was inherited by their daughter, Ellen Duane (Gillespie) Davis. Following Mrs. Davis' death it was sold, with many other family "relics," by the auctioneers Stan V. Henkels and Son, on June 16, 1924.Clues:The table was last seen in the Loan Exhibit of the Philadelphia Antiques Show in 1963, loaned by its last known owner Mrs. Benjamin R. Hoffman (Margaret Clawson), and is illustrated in the show's catalog. It may have been sold at Freeman's auction in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1973, following the death of Mrs. Hoffman.Special thanks to:
The staff of the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
American Philosophical Society
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The table shown in a Franklin family photograph. Courtesy of Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
The chess table as shown in the catalog of the Loan Exhibit of the Philadelphia Antiques Show in 1963. Courtesy of Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
Benjamin Franklin's chess set. Courtesy of American Philosophical Society Links and SourcesFranklin, Benjamin. "Letter to Anne-Louise Brillon de Jouy." November 29, 1777. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. Ed. Leonard W. Labaree. Vol. 25. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959. p. 204 Jefferson, Thomas. "Letter to Robert Welsh, enclosure." December 4, 1818. Thomas Jefferson and Chess: Documentary Sources. Kristen K. Onuf. 2006. Charlottesville, VA : Monticello: The Home of Thomas Jefferson. 27 June 2006. "Frankliniana Database." Ben Franklin 300. Ed. Constance V. Hershey. 2006. Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary. 27 June 2006 "Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World." Ben Franklin 300. Curator Dr. Page Talbott. 2006 Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary. 27 June 2006 Related publications:Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital Antiques Show - The catalogue does not contain detailed entries for individual objects; however, the table is listed among objects in the Loan Exhibit, and visible in a photograph of the installation. Gillespie, Mrs. E.D. A Book of Remembrance. Philadelphia and London: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1901 Frontispiece illustration. Henkels, Stan V. & Son, "Relics of Benjamin Franklin and Family Papers, Estate of Ellen Duane Davis, Deceased... To Be Sold... June 16th, 1924...." Lot 10, illus. See also:The Benjamin Franklin House, London The Scholars' Version of this article will be available here soon. |
