COASTAL MASSACHUSETTS, 1760-1790

Its bold form embellished with discrete carving, this tea table epitomizes the restrained elegance favored in Massachusetts during the Chippendale era. While the attenuated talons of its ball-and-claw feet are indicative of a coastal Massachusetts origin, the scallop-shell ornament and bird-cage support are unusual features. Their presence on a nearly identical tea table in the collections of Winterthur Museum (fig. 1) indicates the work of the same craftsman. As Nancy Richards and Clare Noyes point out, the bird-cage support, a device frequently found on Pennsylvania and New York tables, was rarely used in New England. Like the table at Winterthur, this table's bird-cage consists of four column-turned supports and contrast with the baluster turnings typical of Mid-Atlantic forms. Such turnings were used by English cabinetmakers and suggests that the maker of this table may have trained in England or been inspired by an imported item (Richards and Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (Winterthur, Delaware, 1997), cat. 145, p. 275).