Side Table with Cane Top

Date1690

MediumWalnut with cane top.

DimensionsOH: 29 1/4'; OW: 33 1/8"; OD: 24 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1960-572

DescriptionSide table; rectangular top; quarter-found edge carved with leaves and flowers; frame around large cane panel carved with large leafy scrolls and flowers. Plain, straight-sided aprons molded at base. Aprons tennoned and pinned into squared tops of legs, which are carved below the apron in a broad spiral which ends in a ring stop just above the flat, curving X-stretchers. Stretchers intersect in the middle; where they are half-lapped and held together more firmly by the pin of a turned finial, whose peak is oval, and whose lower sides are gadrooned. Stretchers are 1 1/2: off the ground. Table rests on four ball feet which are dowelled into the legs through the stretchers.
Label TextCane top tables such as this are mentioned in several bills to Queen Mary during the 1680s and 1690s. In all instances they are associated with garden rooms and the display of flowers. Alexander Frost billed the Queen in July 1689 for a "caned walnut tree table to set flowers in L2.10.0." The survival of such a delicate object is remarkable, exceptionably so in this case, since even the finial on the cross stretches and the ball feet are original. The twisted columns are particularly strong, and the double border of carving around the top is of very high quality.
MarkingsNone found.
ProvenanceThe table resembles in details of carving, proportions, and concept, a book rest with a cane panel which was acquired from the same source. (Accession Number 1960-573). The book rest, which is carved with the Crown of England, is believed to be from the Chapel Royal. The history of this table, however, was not mentioned by the source.

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