Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany Rectangular Tea Table

Object Details

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Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany Piecrust Tea Table

Garvan Carver
ca. 1760-1780

wood; mahogany

Object Essay

The majority of surviving tea tables from Philadelphia date after 1750, although the form was in use well before that date. As early as 1717, the inventory of Sarah Quary’s estate listed a “Tea Table and Stand” worth 16s.^{1_{McElroy 1970, 48–49.}} The term “table” in this reference may have signified a large tray that could be set on a special stand and used at a convenient height. Rectangular tea tables such as the one in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms were created as a permanent version of the form. “A Black Japand Tea Table & a sett of China Ware belonging” listed in the 1741 estate inventory of one Thomas Fraeme was probably of this rectangular type, as it was customary to store china on these tables where it was protected by the moldings around the edge.^{2_{Hornor 1935, 20 and 49.}} One of the earliest surviving examples is a table ca. 1750 made for Thomas Graeme (1688–1772) of Philadelphia.^{3_{Hummel 1971, 104–5.}}

For reasons that are unclear, rectangular tea tables with applied, molded rims were never as popular in Philadelphia as circular, tilt-top tables (see Acc. No. 82.71). The finest rectangular tea tables made in Philadelphia had richly carved rails with ovolo or ogee profiles. The taut form, flat side rails, and gadrooned moldings on this table are reminiscent of contemporary examples made in Newport and New York City. A closely related Philadelphia table was in the collection of Mitchell Taradash.^{4_{Comstock 1962, no. 395.}} Although not as dynamic a form as the tables with shaped rails, simpler tables such as this one were much less expensive. In a list of cabinetmakers’ prices published in Philadelphia in 1772, a mahogany “Tea table Square top Claw feet leaves on the knees” cost £4.10.0, whereas the same table “with Carved Rales” cost £6.^{5_{Weil, 188.}}

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.