Lot Essay
With the greater supply of tea in the middle of the eighteenth century, tea ceremonies became fashionable among the elite in America. The rapid development of this form during this time reflects how essential tea tables were to the social etiquette of affluent families.
The concave and convex edge molding on this table visually divides the tray top in two parts and is reminiscent of earlier forms where trays were placed on top of stands. While tea tables with molded tray tops and slender legs were made throughout New England, the stylistic and construction similarites of this table with two others distinguish its origin to be Connecticut and possibly to the same hand as the other two. The first related table, in the Bybee collection is illustrated in Charles Venable, American Furniture in the Bybee Collection (Austin, Texas, 1981), p. 14. The second with a grain-painted tray top from the Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little collection sold at Sotheby's, New York, October 21 and 22, 1994, lot 735. Stylistically, these two cherrywood tea tables are similar to the one being offered here with their similar tray top moldings and shapes of their slender legs. Structurally, the Bybee tea table and this tea table have rims which surround the top and are integral with the molded exterior surface, and the tops both rest on the rabbeted edges of the inner rails.
A group of tea tables from Connecticut with similar proportions, molded rims, pad feet and legs; to the tea table offered here are illustrated as follows: Dean Fales, The Furniture of Historic Deerfield (New York, 1976) p.148-9. Another tea table with scalloped shaped skirt is illustrated in The Magazine Antiques (August 1985) p. 177 and in the Winterthur Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, no. 86.341.
The concave and convex edge molding on this table visually divides the tray top in two parts and is reminiscent of earlier forms where trays were placed on top of stands. While tea tables with molded tray tops and slender legs were made throughout New England, the stylistic and construction similarites of this table with two others distinguish its origin to be Connecticut and possibly to the same hand as the other two. The first related table, in the Bybee collection is illustrated in Charles Venable, American Furniture in the Bybee Collection (Austin, Texas, 1981), p. 14. The second with a grain-painted tray top from the Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little collection sold at Sotheby's, New York, October 21 and 22, 1994, lot 735. Stylistically, these two cherrywood tea tables are similar to the one being offered here with their similar tray top moldings and shapes of their slender legs. Structurally, the Bybee tea table and this tea table have rims which surround the top and are integral with the molded exterior surface, and the tops both rest on the rabbeted edges of the inner rails.
A group of tea tables from Connecticut with similar proportions, molded rims, pad feet and legs; to the tea table offered here are illustrated as follows: Dean Fales, The Furniture of Historic Deerfield (New York, 1976) p.148-9. Another tea table with scalloped shaped skirt is illustrated in The Magazine Antiques (August 1985) p. 177 and in the Winterthur Decorative Arts Photographic Collection, no. 86.341.