Tilt-top stand

1760-1790

Measurements

28-1-2 in x 23 in (dia)

Materials

Walnut

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of H. Rodney Sharp

Accession Number

1958.3213

Condition Notes

The top has a few chips along the rim.  The top was once screwed onto the turned shaft in the down position. The brass snap appears to be a replacement.  The legs have been reinforced with screws at a later date.  A record of restoration at Winterthur, completed in January 1981, is in the Historic Odessa object file.  The table has a thick clear finish that partially obscures the wood. 

Provenance

Ex coll. H. Rodney Sharp

Comments

The size of the top is slightly larger than most stands, but the table is designed and constructed like a full-size tea table, which typically has a top that is almost one foot larger in diameter.  This two-board, lathe-turned top has a dished edge, but the molding detail has worn (or been abraded) away.  The top attaches by two cleats to a box, popularly called a birdcage, that allows it to swivel and turn upward.  The four colonnettes forming the box are baluster turnings, as was the norm in the Philadelphia area.  The table shaft is much narrower than those in tea tables, but it is shaped similarly: a column above a flattened ball with a ring around the widest diameter.  Three cabriole legs ending in bulbous, plain feet on integral pads slide into the base of the shaft in dovetail-shaped slots.