Tea table

1735-1755

Measurements

28 3/4 in x 29 3/4 in (dia)

Materials

Cherry

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Charles Lee Reese Jr.

Accession Number

1976.135

Condition Notes

The hinged top was once screwed into the top of the box from the top. Each screw site has been repaired with an inset disk of similarly grained and colored cherry. The pillar has a modern aluminum plate screwed to the undersides of the legs.

Provenance

The table was probably owned by Daniel Corbit, his wife Mary Brinton, or her parents, William and Jane Thatcher Brinton. It descended in the William Corbit family to Sara Corbit Levis and to Harriet Hurd Curtis, wife of the donor.

Comments

This unusual tilt-top tea table introduces complexity into the story of Corbit furnishings and their contribution to understanding furniture making in the Odessa area.  The turning profile of the shaft and of the four small posts in the box (or "birdcage") is unlike furniture from Delaware or Philadelphia.  Similarly, this table has flanges running along the bottom edges of the legs, and the framing of the cleats underneath the table top differs.  Given the likely time this table was made, it may have originated in Southern Chester County with William Corbit's parents.

Bibliography

Sweeney, Grandeur, 118.

Sweeney, “Corbit-Sharp House,” 878, pl. III.

Zimmerman, A Storied Past, 63-64.