Tea table
Tea table
Philadelphia, PA region
Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of H. Rodney Sharp
1958.3306The top had a split, now repaired, and loose aspects of the table were addressed. See a 1981 conservation report in the Historic Odessa object folder.
Ex coll. H. Rodney Sharp
The three-board top of this tilt-top tea table was turned on a lathe, leaving a narrow molded rim. It attaches to a box, popularly called a birdcage, by two battens screwed to the underside. The box allows the top to swivel and turn upward for storage. The baluster-turned pillar or shaft has a cylindrical bottom with dovetail-shaped grooves into which three carved cabriole legs with claw-and-ball feet slide. The turning details of the shaft do not suggest a particular geographical origin. Small clues, such as the molded detail at the top of the legs, their rather angular modeling, and the rat-like shape of the feet, indicate an origin outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.