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Lot Essay
Eye-catching, designed in America and exceptionally rare, this turret-top tea table illustrates one of the most celebrated furniture forms from colonial America. The repetition of fourteen turrets along and around the rails is an arresting arrangement, one that in its boldness and severity strikes a modernist note in comparison to its contemporaneous forms from mid-eighteenth century Boston. Like the block-and-shell furniture of colonial Newport, the turret-top tea table of Boston displays native ingenuity. English-made forms undoubtedly inspired its colonial innovators and Brock Jobe and Allan Breed in their recent study of the group illustrate a close probably London-made parallel with rims and skirts that follow similar outlines (Brock Jobe and Allan Breed, “Boston Turret-Top Tea Tables,” Boston Furniture, 1700-1900 (Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, forthcoming). However, the use of half-round and three-quarter round turrets to decorate the perimeter of a rectangular form is not known outside the vicinity of Boston.
A labor-intensive and costly form to make, few turret-top tea tables were made during the era and this table is one of only five eighteenth-century examples known to survive. All of the other four are in public collections, namely Winterthur Museum, Historic Deerfield, Bayou Bend and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (figs. 1-4), and the example offered here is the only remaining in private ownership. Due to its frequent appearance in exhibitions, scholarly articles and reproductions, the form is widely recognized today and as noted by Jobe and Breed in their recent study of the group, “the impact of this distinctive form has far outweighed its numbers.” Another table at the MFA, Boston has long been considered part of the group, but as outlined by the above authors, it probably dates to the twentieth century; finally, described by the same as a “distant cousin,” another table with swelled projections on the sides but lacking the corner turrets is known (see Christie’s, New York, 25 January 2013, lot 174).
As discussed by Jobe and Breed, the five turret-top tea tables were made in Boston from about 1740 to 1770 by at least two different shops. Their recent study stands as the most comprehensive examination of the group and what follows is a summary of their findings regarding the table offered here. The construction of this table is closely related to that at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (fig. 4) and both may have been made in the same shop, one whose practices evolved over time, or possibly in two separate shops. Both originally had tops with applied rims, corner turrets composed of blocks of secondary wood with mahogany veneers, and rails tenoned into the turrets. These details contrast with the evidence from the tables in figs. 1-3, which with integral rims, solid mahogany corner turrets and dovetailed rails, represent the work of a competing shop. However, the MFA, Boston table and that offered here display different methods for joining the legs to the turrets; here, each is affixed by a sliding dovetail, as is seen on turret-top card tables of the period, while the MFA, Boston table has legs with a quarter-round extension that fits within a conforming recess in the turret. The two tables also have ball-and-claw feet of variant design. Those on the table offered here having noticeable webbing and straight side talons, details that relate to the more pronounced renditions of the design seen on Boston forms from the 1740s and 1750s. In contrast, the raking side talons on the feet on the MFA, Boston table suggests a 1760s date of production. Thus, while the differences between the two tables may indicate the work of two different shops, Jobe and Breed raise the possibility that the tables may have been the work of the same shop, one whose practices evolved over an approximate ten year period with the table offered here the earlier of the two.
A labor-intensive and costly form to make, few turret-top tea tables were made during the era and this table is one of only five eighteenth-century examples known to survive. All of the other four are in public collections, namely Winterthur Museum, Historic Deerfield, Bayou Bend and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (figs. 1-4), and the example offered here is the only remaining in private ownership. Due to its frequent appearance in exhibitions, scholarly articles and reproductions, the form is widely recognized today and as noted by Jobe and Breed in their recent study of the group, “the impact of this distinctive form has far outweighed its numbers.” Another table at the MFA, Boston has long been considered part of the group, but as outlined by the above authors, it probably dates to the twentieth century; finally, described by the same as a “distant cousin,” another table with swelled projections on the sides but lacking the corner turrets is known (see Christie’s, New York, 25 January 2013, lot 174).
As discussed by Jobe and Breed, the five turret-top tea tables were made in Boston from about 1740 to 1770 by at least two different shops. Their recent study stands as the most comprehensive examination of the group and what follows is a summary of their findings regarding the table offered here. The construction of this table is closely related to that at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (fig. 4) and both may have been made in the same shop, one whose practices evolved over time, or possibly in two separate shops. Both originally had tops with applied rims, corner turrets composed of blocks of secondary wood with mahogany veneers, and rails tenoned into the turrets. These details contrast with the evidence from the tables in figs. 1-3, which with integral rims, solid mahogany corner turrets and dovetailed rails, represent the work of a competing shop. However, the MFA, Boston table and that offered here display different methods for joining the legs to the turrets; here, each is affixed by a sliding dovetail, as is seen on turret-top card tables of the period, while the MFA, Boston table has legs with a quarter-round extension that fits within a conforming recess in the turret. The two tables also have ball-and-claw feet of variant design. Those on the table offered here having noticeable webbing and straight side talons, details that relate to the more pronounced renditions of the design seen on Boston forms from the 1740s and 1750s. In contrast, the raking side talons on the feet on the MFA, Boston table suggests a 1760s date of production. Thus, while the differences between the two tables may indicate the work of two different shops, Jobe and Breed raise the possibility that the tables may have been the work of the same shop, one whose practices evolved over an approximate ten year period with the table offered here the earlier of the two.