Tea Table

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Tea Table
Datec. 1750–1800
Made inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumMahogany
Dimensions48 3/4 × 29 × 34 1/2 in. (123.8 × 73.7 × 87.6 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.35
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Drawing Room
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

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.


ProvenanceProbably [Collings & Collings, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg; given to MFAH, 1969.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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