Oval table

1740-1775

Measurements

24 in x 30-1/4 in x 21-3/4 in

Materials

Maple, white pine

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, bequest of H. Rodney Sharp

Accession Number

1968.842

Condition Notes

The table has been stripped of all paint and repainted so as to suggest age and wear to the paint. The feet have worn down but are sufficiently intact to suggest what they looked like originally.

Provenance

Ex coll. H. Rodney Sharp

Comments

The oval-top table stands on four legs with baluster-and-ring turnings and ends in ball feet, a classic turning profile for mid-18th-century New England furniture.  The two legs on each wide side splay outward.  All of the legs are joined by rectangular stretchers. The frame rails are plain rectangles with no decorative molding along the bottom edge.  The green paint on the table has been partially removed to simulate wear and age.

Popularly called tavern tables, these tables were used broadly in a variety of environments, typically domestic.  If described in estate inventories beyond merely a table, they likely referred to the shape of the top—oval in this instance.