Object Details
Object Essay
The design of this stand is a popular variant for Chippendale-style mahogany tripod stands and tables in New York.1Philadelphia cabinetmakers termed any circular table with a top of twenty-two-inch diameter or less a stand; see Gillingham 1930, 299. Several tripod tables and fire screens exist with nearly identical turned shafts and feet, but particularly with knee carvings composed of a gather of acanthus leaves bound by a C-scroll. Three tea tables with documented Albany histories are known. One bears the brand of Philip Van Rensselaer (1749–1798) of Albany.2Heckscher 1985, no. 127. Another came from the Knickerbacker homestead in Schaghticoke, near Troy, New York.3Rice, 42. A third is branded “P” for the Pruyn family of Albany.4DAPC, no. 71.396. Similar turned and carved tripod bases are found on two fire screens, although neither has a family history.5Downs 1952, no. 241; Rodriguez Roque, no. 194.
The knee carving of the Collection’s folding stand is a decoration used on other New York furniture. The same pattern appears on four Chippendale-style card tables and a highly carved tripod-base tea table at Winterthur, although the execution in the latter object is noticeably different.6Heckscher 1973, 974–83. In the former group of tea tables, including the Collection’s stand, the acanthus gather is cinched tightly by the C-scroll, with two or three greatly extended lobes on either side. In the group more closely associated with New York City cabinetmaking, the acanthus gather has a broader waist and the lobes are more uniform. When certain construction details are also considered, such as occasional small flaws in the mahogany, an attribution of the Collection’s stand to the Albany area as a place of manufacture is reasonable.
Gilbert Tapley Vincent and Joseph T. Butler
Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.