Tea Table

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Tea Table
Datec. 1750–1800
Made inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumMahogany
DimensionsOpen (Top down): 28 7/8 × 23 5/8 in.diameter (73.4 × 59.9 cm)
Closed (Top up): 41 7/16 × 23 5/8 in. diameter (105.3 × 59.9 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.360
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Massachusetts Room
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

This table varies discreetly from the previous examples, with claw feet substituted for the plain ones and its top slightly greater in diameter. According to the Philadelphia price lists these additions increased the cost of the simpler table by approximately 21 percent. While the lists do not specify the tea table top’s dimensions, they define that a folding stand’s diameter was no more than twenty-two inches, implying that anything larger was a tea table. 

Related examples: Downs 1952, no. 280; Comstock 1962, no. 234; Elder and Stokes 1987, pp. 167–68, no. 127; Venable 1989, p. 48, no. 22; Conger 1991, p. 107, no. 27; and a labeled tea table by Philadelphia cabinetmaker Edward James (Sack 1969–92, vol. 1, p. 200, no. 507).

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.


Provenance[John S. Walton, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, October 28, 1954; given to MFAH, by 1969.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Tea Table
c. 1735–1780
Mahogany; mahogany and cherry
B.54.10
Tea Table
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany; hard maple
B.59.33
Tea Table
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany
B.69.35
Tea Table
c. 1740–1780
Mahogany
B.57.94
Tea Table
c. 1750–1800
Mahogany
B.61.96
Tea Table
John Goddard
c. 1760–1780
Mahogany
B.57.1
Tea Table
Christopher Townsend
c. 1760–1780
Mahogany; chestnut
B.58.108
Tea Table
c. 1735–1790
Mahogany
B.69.362
Sofa Table
c. 1815–1825
Mahogany, mahogany veneer; eastern white pine, yellow poplar, cherry, and mahogany
B.71.106
Pier Table
c. 1815–1825
Mahogany and mahogany veneer; eastern white pine, mahogany, yellow-popolar, marble, mirror glass, brass, and gilt
B.67.29
Card Table
c. 1820–1830
Grained, painted, and gilded mahogany, and birch; mahogany veneer on eastern white pine with black walnut banding, ash, eastern white pine, cherry, and original brass casters
B.68.31
Writing Table and Bookcase
c. 1825–1835
Mahogany and mahogany veneer; eastern white pine, yellow-poplar, gilding, glass, and gilt-bronze mounts
B.82.4