Pembroke table

Dateca. 1775

MediumMahogany, tulip poplar, and white pine (by microanalysis).

DimensionsOverall: 27 3/4 x 36 1/4 x 30in. (70.5 x 92.1 x 76.2cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1969-185

DescriptionAppearance: breakfast table with single drawer and two drop leaves; Marlboro legs chamfered along interior edges; cross stretchers; straight skirts.

Construction: The frame utilizes standard mortise-and-tenon construction. When open, each leaf on the table top is supported by a sliding batten that is perpendicular to the side rails. When not in use, these battens recede into a box assembly under the center of the top. The box is glued together and is set into dadoes inside the side rails. The dovetailed drawer rests on nailed runners, and the drawer bottom is set into grooves at the front and sides and is flush-nailed at the rear. Wooden drawer stops are nailed to the insides of the side rails. The runners and drawer stops are beveled at the far ends, perhaps a particular shop practice.

Materials: Mahogany top, leaves, drawer front, end rails, legs, and stretchers; tulip poplar drawer sides, drawer back, drawer bottom, sliding battens, and bottom to batten box; white pine (microanalysis) side rails, runners, drawer guides, drawer stops, and sides to batten box.
Label TextCountless surviving objects, written references, and period graphics indicate that from about 1750 onward, breakfast tables were widely used in Britain and her American colonies. Evidence of the form's popularity also appears in early design manuals including Chippendale's 1754 DIRECTOR, plate XXXIII. As the name suggests, breakfast tables were employed primarily for serving light meals; like most small tables, however, they also were used for everything from reading to sewing.

Some householders associated the form with the taking of tea, apparently preferring it to more standard tea table forms. In 1772, Thomas Jefferson recorded in his memorandum book the measurements for a "Tea table" with "leaves." Similar phrasing appears in the accounts of Charleston cabinetmaker Thomas Elfe, who manufactured an object he termed a "pembroke tea table" in 1773. As the Elfe accounts imply, other names were employed to identify these tables as well. Sheraton consistently used the term Pembroke table, ascribing the name to the Countess of Pembroke, "who first gave orders for one of them, and who probably gave the first idea of such a table to the workmen." Sheraton further specified that the "use of this piece is for a gentleman or lady to breakfast on," and that the tables should never exceed two feet, four inches in height, their casters included.

Although allied stylistically with furniture from many southern centers, the table illustrated here is perhaps most closely associated with the cabinetmaking traditions of Petersburg, Virginia. Many Petersburg tables exhibit similar neat and plain exteriors, as well as cross stretchers and sliding battens to support the leaves. Further suggesting the table's manufacture in Petersburg is its history of ownership in the Harrison family of Prince George County. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Petersburg was the primary market center for residents of that adjacent, primarily rural area.

InscribedNone.
MarkingsNone.
ProvenanceThe table has a tradition of ownership in the Harrison family of Prince George Co., Va. It was acquired in 1969 from Mrs. Vera Harrison, the widow of a Harrison descendent.