Chippendale Carved Mahogany and Marble-Top Pier Table

Object Details

Object Essay

Large tables with carved fronts and unfinished backs were designed to stand against walls or in piers between windows. This example, which originally had a wooden top, would have been called a “Side Board Table;” a table with a stone or marble top was also known as a “Slab Table.” These tables were used as serving tables for meals and as stationary pieces of furniture that visually anchored rows of chairs lined up against walls after use. They first appeared in Philadelphia during the second quarter of the 18th century, one of the earliest references being the 1734 inventory of John Bryant’s estate, which contained “a Slab in a frame for a table.”^{1_{Cited by Hornor 1935, 61.}} In 1738, Josiah Claypoole advertised “Side Boards,” and Caleb Jacob owned a “Black Walnut Side board Table” before 1750.^{2_{Pennsylvania Gazette, May 18, 1738, as cited in Prime 1929, 163; Hornor 1935, 61.}}

Philadelphia pier tables were the most elaborate versions of the form made in colonial America, and this is the finest example in the Queen Anne style to survive. It relates directly to furniture produced in the city during the 1750s and 1760s. The bold, double scallop shell carving at the center of the skirt was inspired by the work of such English Palladian designers as William Kent.^{3_{Some Designs of Mrs. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, pls. 23, 38, 53.}} Similar double shells appear on a group of Philadelphia tea tables that Luke Beckerdite has attributed to the workshop of Samuel Harding, the supplier of the architectural carving for the Pennsylvania State House between 1750 and 1756.^{4_{I am grateful to Luke Beckerdite for the information concerning the work of Samuel Harding. Among the furniture he has assigned to Harding are three tea tables (Hummel 1971, 104–5; Hornor, pls. 73–74).}} The dramatically scrolled skirt relates to a pair of Philadelphia card tables at Winterthur.^{5_{Downs 1952, no. 343.}} A set of four stools with identical scrolled knee brackets and shell-carved knees (now at Winterthur) are probably those purchased by Charles Norris in 1756 from John Elliott.^{6_{Hayward 1971, 24–26.}} A slab table with similar shells on the knees, ball and claw feet, and scrolled skirt was made in Philadelphia for Sarah Franklin at the time of her marriage to Richard Bache in 1767.^{7_{Sotheby’s, New York, Sale 5680, January 28–30, 1988, Lot 1902.}}

David L. Barquist

Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.