The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-02
TABLES OF PAST CENTURIES.
WORK OF OLD MAKERS THAT rs
THE COLLECTORS JOY.
N Tables Of the Eighteenth Century. win
Their Various shapes and Materials,
These Most sought After styles of tho
Master Furniture MAkers-weods Used.

Master Furniture MAkers-weods Used.
without touching on che tables Of which
there are records as existing before the
Christian era, with their choice woods,
garnished with gold, silver and pearls Of
great price; without describing those equally
sumptuous tables OF the first century, with
their hundred legs OF gold inlaid with
colored stones, those OF the Middle Ages
and later may be taken up.
The first dining table was a board set on
t~restles. For hundreds Of years these were
In use, INC so late as the opening Of the
nineteenth century they might be found in
this country and In some parts Of England.
where old ways and old things held their
conservative sway.
Within three years two OF these old
trestle boards Rave been rooted out in this
country by persons who had them in some
Of those delightful old attics which are now
picked pretty bare. In England, at Berke-
ley Castle, built in the thirteenth century,
In the great dining hall are oak trestle boards
black with age and heavy as iron.
These stand against the wall and are used
on occasions when q large number OF people
are at table, and 60 around the sides OF the
great room, leaving the centre free for the
attendants. These tables are Of oak,
unpublished and plain. So were all the
tables made. roughly speaking, from 1900
70 1900.
Just when the trestle board began TO be
disused, and tables with fixed legs substi-
tuted, cannot be stated, but by 1900 in the
inns and taverns were found oak tables six
or eight feet long, with heavy legs carved
or turned and strengthened with under
braces. These were called Cavalier tables,
no doubt from the character Of many OF the
guests who summoned the landlord with a
rap with q sword, and whose liquor was
brought In q blackjack OF CUP OF horn.
Then came tables with O whole row OF
baluster legs along the narrow ends, and
gradually hinged leaves which could be
raised at pleasure were introduced. These
were put on the narrow ends first. and then
came to be a part Of the table body.
BY 1885 that form Of table called variously
" hundred legged" " thousand legged or
sometimes : gate table," was known in this
country, and one that is said TO have belonged
to William Penn Is still in existence. 1t is
OF oak, has a circular top, as most of these
tables have-this one is five feet in diameter
and has a small drawer placed among the
supports OF the legs, as all the earliest OF
these tables had.
1t has the overlapping edge which drawers
OF this period were furnished with, and
the legs fold together, permitting the leaves
10 drop, 90 that when not in use the table
Ii narrow and long, and can be placed
against the wall. Old inventories show
that in 1890 such a table was sold at Salem
for e. S., at Boston In 1909 for 60. n
In Philadelphia in 1905 for e..
Walnut tables now appear in the in
v~entortes with considerable frequency.
They were valued at about the same rate
as the oak, and very rarely you can find
one now, generally in a bad condition,
but sven O held at a high price.
The tables Of the eighteenth century.
with their various shapes and materials,
are the ones which appeal TO collectors
most. There are not many with the pa
thence and the purse OF that collector in
New Haven who has only oak tables OF
American make prior to 1900. Think OF
such a collection, admire its owner, but do
not try to duplicate it.
By 100 oak, walnut, nutwood hickory
and bilstead (maple) were all being worked
by American cabinetmakers, and mahogany
was Just coming into favor. Small tables
we're being made, and stands, as they we're
called, for candles, for trays with wine,
piers for busts or vases or for -cisterns'
with water we're all being turned out.
By I75O the world seemed table mad and
thousands Of pieces Of furniture we're made
in Europe and in this country which are
now the joy and at the same time the despair
OF the collector. Handsome furniture was
at this time made In France, but in England
Thomas Chippendsle was evolving a style
OF his own.
The tables which were made in the last
nifty years OF the eighteenth century may
never be duplicated and each one OF them
10 q Joy forever. No content with making
them Of the choicest woods, inlaid, carved,
set with lapis lazuli and malachite, ivory,
ebony and brass, the painters art was called
In 10 assist, and the names of Pergolesi and
Angeles KAuff mann are found on some Of
these tables. with round tops or half circle
In shape, and on dainty little spindle legged
affairs OF the boudoir.
Card tables were important when every
body played cards. They come with tops
which fold over n an extra leg which
moves out to support the top, sometimes
with five legs, like n fine table OF Chippen-
dale make which Is owned in Rochester.
These tables had fat square corners,
where the candles stood, and in the sides
oval depressions. where the counters were
placed. These counters were often little
mother OF pearl fishes.
Hepplewhite and Sheraton were both
famous for the excellence OF the tables
which they made, and Hepplewhite's can
generally be told by that square end TO the
legs which is known as the spade foot. which
IL always associated with this maker. He
worked in choice woods, he revelled in inlay.
and used white wood and ebony 70 outline
the circles and ovals which decorate so
many of his pieces.
Both Hepplewhite and Sheraton used
what was called the husk pattern in their
inlay. II looks like the musk Of a grain OF
bats laid fiat, with another one just behind
II, the whole forming a pattern less than
an inch wide, and on such places as legs and
arms tapering 70 fit the space.
While H~epplewhite and Sheraton and
Shearer used inlay in countless ways, Chip
pendale never used IL at all. He was a carver
pure and simple whether he used close