Object Details
Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany Piecrust Tea Table
ca. 1760-1780
Object Essay
The craze for tea that swept the Western world in the 18th century created a demand for specialized furniture, such as tea tables and kettle stands, as well as for myriad serving accessories in silver and porcelain to accompany them.1Roth, passim. Whereas large circular tea tables could hold an entire tea service, smaller tables like this one were used as candle or kettle stands and may also have served as tea tables in more intimate settings beyond the best parlors. Like its larger counterparts (see Acc. Nos. 82.72, 79.1, and 82.71), this table’s molded top rotates and tilts vertically by means of a box, or “birdcage,” mechanism at the top of the turned pillar.
The flattened ball turning at the base recalls those on dozens of similar stands and tables produced between 1740 and 1770 in Philadelphia, where patrons could choose among any of several options, ranging from a plain top and feet to a scalloped top, claw feet, and carved leaves on the knees.2Compare, for example, Monkhouse and Michie, no. 73; Rodriguez Roque, nos. 172–73; and Christie’s, New York, PIMM Sale, May 5, 1979, Lot 417.
This particular design, listed in Philadelphia cabinetmakers’ price books of the 1770s as a “folding stand,” was evidently distinguished from tea tables by the smaller size of its top; it cost £1.12.6, or £2.2.6 in mahogany.3Weil, 187. In the estimate books kept by the English firm of Gillows, a similar design was called a “snap table” in 1788, its name no doubt inspired by the brass latch that secures the top; they were offered for sale in Philadelphia as early as 1740.4See Kirk 1982, fig. 1435; and Heckscher 1985, 190.
The legs of the Collection’s stand, which are dovetailed to the turned shaft and secured underneath with a three-armed metal brace, were probably made by a cabinetmaker and supplied to a turner, whereas the feet were probably carved by another craftsman. The inexact fit of the legs to the pillar on many examples and the sheer number of similar tables that survive, suggest that these and other table components were mass-produced in several shops before being assembled and sold by Philadelphia’s many turners and cabinetmakers.
Thomas S. Michie
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.