Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany Piecrust Tea Table

Object Details

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Object Essay

Tea tables with tripod bases and circular tops were first made in Philadelphia about 1740. Josiah Claypoole advertised in 1738 that he made “all Sorts of Tea Tables,” which probably included the tripod-base variety.^{1_{Pennsylvania Gazette, May 18, 1738, as cited by Prime 1932, 163.}} In 1741 the hardware merchant Joseph Paschall sold both iron and brass “Tea Table ketches,” the fittings used to lock the tilting tops in a horizontal position. In 1748 Thomas Cant recorded making a “Pillar & Claw Tea Table” that included a “Box” or “birdcage.”^{2_{Hornor 1935, 143.}} This type of table was copied from contemporary English models, although none of the design books contained illustrations of such a form.^{3_{Ince and Mayhew, pl. 13, illustrates “Claw Tables” with tilting tops, but the bases are unlike those found on American tables.}}

Tripod-base tea tables with birdcages were extremely popular in Philadelphia and immense numbers of them were made. They ranged from less expensive mahogany versions with “plain top & feet” that cost £2.15s. in 1771 to tables like this one with elaborately carved pedestals and “scalloped” tops (today known as “piecrust” edges) that cost more than £4.^{4_{Weil, 187. The Collection’s table was owned by Dr. James Hutchinson (1752–1793) of Philadelphia, who may have inherited it from a relative in the Howell family. Hornor called it the “Howell-Hutchinson-Fox-Lukens” table in 1935, when it was owned by Dr. and Mrs. George T. Lukens (see Hornor 1935, 142, pl. 222). It descended to their son, John Brockie Lukens of Lafayette Hill, Pa.}} The pedestal on this table, with a compressed ball at the base of the pillar, was the most popular type. Some craftsmen apparently made a specialty of supplying cabinetmakers with pedestals for tea tables; Samuel Williams advertised “mahogany and walnut tea table columns” in 1767.^{5_{Cited in Prime 1929, 185.}}

These pedestals were probably sold uncarved to the retailer, who contracted specialist carvers to complete the work. This table was carved by an unidentified but prolific craftsman working during the 1760s and 1770s, who also carved a high chest in the Collection.^{6_{See Conger and Rollins, Treasures of State, cat. no. 85 (Acc. No. 78.9).}} He created rich effects of volume and shading through a distinctive use of detail cuts, particularly turned-over ends on the long leaves and clusters of parallel, straight cuts to shade the ends of leaves.^{7_{I am indebted to Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller for this observation, and particularly to Luke Beckerdite for sharing his extensive research on this carver’s techniques and individual production.}} At least one other tea table has carving laid out with the same distinctive pattern, which extends onto the lower edge of the legs and the sides of the base.^{8_{Hornor 1935, pl. 223.}}

David L. Barquist

Excerpted from Jonathan L. Fairbanks. Becoming a Nation: Americana from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State. New York: Rizzoli, 2003.