Chippendale Carved Mahogany Piecrust Tea Table

Object Details

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Object Essay

Baluster-shaped pedestals were made in Philadelphia for scalloped-top tea tables, although this type of base was more popular in New York. On this and most other Philadelphia examples, the baluster and crisp turnings were left uncarved. In contrast, the legs are enriched with ball and claw feet and finely detailed rococo foliage. Two other tea tables have leg carving laid out with the same pattern, and at least one of them appears to be the work of the same carver.^{1_{The table carved by the same hand is in the Pendleton Collection at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (Monkhouse and Michie, no. 74); the other table was owned by the dealer David Stockwell in 1970 (Advertisement, Antiques 79 [June 1970], 771).}} Distinctive features that these tables have in common are the reserved panels with punched backgrounds at the legs’ upper ends and the fine beading on either side of the center vein of the leaf on the knees. Still preserved on the underside of the feet of the Department of State’s table are arrow-shaped markings used by the carver to lay out the position of the claws. The table also retains its original leather and brass casters.

This table was purchased from a descendant of Vincent Loockerman (d. 1785) of Dover, Delaware.^{2_{Sotheby’s, New York, Sale 5295, February 2, 1985. Lot 1139.}} The inventory of Loockerman’s house in Dover listed a “Mahogany Tea Table” in the parlor that was valued at £3.15. The table recorded in the inventory may have been the rectangular tea table owned by Loockerman now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, although the inventory also included a “Mahogany Chinea Table” in the parlor that was given the surprisingly low valuation of £1.15.^{3_{For other examples from Loockerman’s estate in the Collection, please see 71.4, 71.8, 71.9, 71.20, 71.21, 73.19, and 71.22.}} The rectangular tea table has been attributed to Benjamin Randolph; the tea table in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms does not appear to be the work of Randolph or his shop.^{4_{Philadelphia: Three Centuries, 127–28.}}

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.