Pier table

Similar to other furniture in the Grecian style, this pier table is geometric in design and decorated with richly grained veneers and architectural motifs, such as fluted columns and carved capitals. The Egyptian marble top was an expensive option in the mid 19th century. This table was one of a number of objects donated in 1970 to the Institute by the Twin Cities architect Rhodes Robertson (1886-1974), who came to Minnesota from Somerville, Massachusetts around 1920. Robertson inherited 18th and early 19th century portraits, silver, and glass, as well as furniture from five generations of his Massachusetts ancestors. Portraits of Robertson's great, great grandmother and his great grandmother by the18th-century New England painter Joseph Badger are on display in the Connecticut Room.