Tea and dining tables are the largest of all tripod-based forms. In Philadelphia two types of supports evolved: a leaf-carved urn shape (see B.56.5) and the compressed ball, both surmounted by columnar shafts. The price lists record a medley of options, this table representing the most fully developed version, with claw feet and carved knees. Its top, almost three feet in diameter, is fashioned from a single board of dramatically figured crotch mahogany and framed by a rim composed of twelve segments rather than the usual eight.

Related examples: Tables with tops composed of twelve segments are in Antiques 17 (January 1930), p. 65; Antiques 27 (March 1935), p. 81. Institutional examples include Hipkiss 1941, pp. 104–7, nos. 56, 57; Downs 1952, nos. 376–81; PMA 1976, pp. 75–76, no. 57; Heckscher 1985, pp. 193–96, nos. 123, 124; Monkhouse and Michie 1986, pp. 136–37, nos. 74, 75; Conger 1991, pp. 152–53, 171, nos. 68, 84; Barquist, Garrett, and Ward 1992, pp. 235–37, no. 124.

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.