The Philadelphia price lists describe tables with tops twenty-two inches in diameter as “folding Stands.” Typically they incorporated a box, plain feet, and top, as exemplified by the Bayou Bend stand. The cabinetmakers price lists register a number of options for a relatively simple object: a choice of mahogany or black walnut, with a folding or fixed top, plain or claw feet, the consummate example complete with carved knees and a fluted pillar. The form’s versatility accounts for its widespread popularity and may have prompted the mass production of standardized components.

Related examples: Garrett 1976, p. 755; Bishop and Coblentz 1982, p. 78; Heckscher 1985, pp. 191–92, no. 120; Monkhouse and Michie 1986, p. 135, no. 73; Venable 1989, p. 47, no. 21; Barquist, Garrett, and Ward 1992, pp. 242–47, nos. 129–32.

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.