Artist unknown (American, 18th century)
Philadelphia
Tea Table
INV-1986
Artist unknown (American, 18th century)
Philadelphia1750–90
tablefurniture
Date
1750–90
Medium
Mahogany
Dimensions
73.7 × 86.4 × 88.9 cm (29 × 34 5/8 × 35 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Roger and J. Peter McCormick Endowment; purchased with funds provided by Jamee J. and Marshall Field, and Carol W. Wardlaw
In the 18th century, Americans delighted in the genteel art of tea drinking, which facilitated socializing based on strict rules of engagement. First introduced to New York in the 1740s, the tilt-top tea table, designed in the service of fashionable domestic tea parties, was a popular form in colonial Philadelphia and New York. The spindled “birdcage” mechanism allowed rotation, which provided the hostess with a measure of gentility by enabling her to spin the table so that she did not have to reach for anything; the table also flipped into a vertical position, permitting efficient storage against a wall. Illustrating the understated Quaker aesthetic present in late-18th-century Philadelphia, this tilt-top tea table was likely used in the parlor or drawing room of a middle- to upper-middle-class home.
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