Tea Table

At the same time that Chinese tea was introduced to the West, quantities of Oriental furniture were also imported. During one four-year period at the end of the seventeenth century, more than 6,500 wine tables were shipped to London. While it is not known when Chinese furniture first made its way to America, the purity of line distinguishing this tea table is consistent with an Oriental aesthetic. A related table descended in John Townsend’s family and similar furniture are documented to Job and Christopher Townsend’s shops in Newport during the 1740s; however, the Bayou Bend table and related examples are characterized by a simple design and generic construction that preclude any credible attributions. Traditionally, they were assigned to Newport, but it is entirely plausible that this design was also produced by Providence’s well-organized cabinet trade, or elsewhere in Rhode Island.

Technical notes: No original secondary wood remains. The top is composed of two boards, the subtop diagonally cut at each corner to accommodate the stiles and blocks. The quarter-round convex rim, which shares the same profile as the applied skirt molding, is accented by a molded bead. It retains remnants of an old surface treatment.

Related examples: Benes 1982, p. 58, no. 109; Sack 1969–92, vol. 7, p. 1959, no. P5234; Moses 1984, p. 73; Heckscher 1985, pp. 185–86, no. 115; Antiques 132 (December 1987), p. 1164; Antiques 137 (January 1990), p. 141; Antiques 142 (October 1992), p. 418; Antiques 145 (June 1994), p. 785; Wood 1996, pp. 46–48, no. 18.

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.