Tea table

Date1755-1780

MediumAll components of black walnut.

DimensionsOH: 28 3/4"; OW: 27 1/2"

Credit LineGift of the Sealantic Fund

Object number1988-361

DescriptionAppearance: Tilt-top tea table; round dished top with molded edge; columnar shaft; plain cabriole legs.

Construction: The legs are dovetailed into the underside of the pillar and are further secured with a nailed metal brace. A pair of battens is screwed into the underside of the top. The birdcage is round-tenoned into the battens and functions in the usual way.
Label TextWhile a substantial number of southern tea tables feature baluster-form shafts, many others are supported on columnar turnings derived from one of the five classical orders of architecture. A few of the shafts are elaborately fluted or carved, though most, including this eastern Virginia example, are relatively unadorned. Numerous urban and rural variations of these plainer forms, which were especially favored in the lower Chesapeake during the eighteenth century, survive. Other tables from the shop that produced this one have not been identified, but a very similar Doric column appears on the remains of a black walnut tea table that descended in the family of Williamsburg cabinetmaker Benjamin Bucktrout (d. 1813) (acc. 1989-426). Tea tables of the same form were also popular in Newport, Rhode Island. The design, common in Britain as well, probably was transmitted to both Rhode Island and Virginia by British artisans.

The attenuated nature of the Doric column on this table lends it a vertical appearance not often seen on tea tables with baluster-form pillars. Further contributing to this verticality is the table's unusually tall birdcage, which measures one-fifth the overall height of the pedestal instead of the more common one-sixth. Yet the verticality is deceiving since the width of table top almost equals the overall height. In other words, the outer dimensions of the table essentially form a cube.

InscribedAn early twentieth-century label glued to the birdcage reads "H. C. Valentine & Co. / Antiques / Richmond, Va."
MarkingsNone.
ProvenanceThe table was acquired ca. 1930 by Archibald and Molly McCrea from H. C. Valentine & Co., a Richmond antiques firm. The McCreas collected British and American decorative arts to furnish Carter's Grove, their James River plantation just outside Williamsburg. In 1963, the house and its contents were acquired from Mrs. McCrea's estate by the Sealantic Fund, a Rockefeller family charitable trust. Both were later given to CWF.