PROBABLY NEWPORT, 1740-1760

This elegant porringer table with its weightless appearance, and distinctive turret corners, illustrates one of the innovative forms created during the Queen Anne period. The rich patina and undisturbed one-board top make this table an exceptional 18th century survival of the porringer form. Originally referred to as square tables or scalloped tables, the porringer form was inspired by English card tables with rounded corners. These durable moveable tables were perfect for activities such as tea drinking, while also useful for many other serving or entertaining needs.

For a closely related example in the collection of the Winterthur Museum, see Richards and Evans, New England Furniture at Winterthur (Winterthur, 1997), figure 111. Both with similarly shaped tops inclusive of turret corners, straight skirts with restrained decorative details, round tapering legs leading to slim ankles on petite padded disc feet, and almost identical dimensions, these tables could be from the same shop. A similar example, also with a one board top and rich surface, is thought to be the work of John Goddard, and is illustrated in Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, volume 8 (New York, 1986), p. 2324. For another, see Sack, Fine Points of Furniture: Early American (New York, 1979), p. 247.