Page:Southern Antiques - Burroughs - 1931.djvu/101

Rh   on either side, and served the purpose of a breakfast or supper table. Hepplewhite and Sheraton show tables of this type in very elaborate design, and call them breakfast or supper tables, and those produced by the Southern workmen were chaste and interesting examples of the type. Specimens in the tripod type are found extending into the Empire period; and the later Sheraton examples had brass lion's-paw feet and tilting top.

Many Southern gentlemen combined hard drinking with their other diversions, and were inveterate gamblers, be it known. Piquet, faro, and écarté were the chief games that they played. The ladies and younger men indulged in loo. Card tables needed to be well made, and were especially constructed for the purpose in the eighteenth century; and they were listed in inventories as early as 1727. They took the characteristics of each period in which they were made, and appear in delightful manner in many forms. As distinguished from other tables, they have a flap top, and four or five legs. Peculiar to the majority of Southern-made card tables are the five legs, four of which are stationary, and one of which swings out to support the top when open. Card tables of the Hepplewhite period are sometimes found very elaborately inlaid, and frequently in pairs. Mahogany was the most popular wood for this type of table.

The active interests in the home relate themselves to the small table. To encompass the various tables of small size made in the South, to meet the various needs, would constitute a comprehensive study. One plantation owner is listed as having owned twenty-three. Much ingenuity was employed by the Southern craftsmen to meet the demand. With the gate-leg and its drop-leaf, used for many purposes, on came the procession of the small tables: the tavern early as the gate-leg, with a fine table of the stretcher type shown in this book, followed by a stretcher table of a more elaborate variety; the side table and dressing table; tea and card tables, devoted to many uses; mixing tables; a Windsor table after a more northern type; a host of them were employed. "At the Sign of the Tea Table and Chair in Gay Street," Hopkins in 1767, in Baltimore, was offering a vast array made in mahogany, walnut, and cherry, with carving and without, "card, parlor and tea tables . . . decanter stands, tea kettle stands, dumb waiters and tea boards."

Attention is called to the sewing table. Diversion was afforded, even for women of wealth, in handwork and sewing, and which made the sewing table a piece of importance. Women of all classes took pride in their work. "In the country life of America there are many moments when a woman can have recourse to nothing but her needle," Thomas Jefferson wisely observed, urging his daughter in Paris to perfect herself further in the use of it before her return to Albemarle County. The influence of Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Sheraton and the Empire is seen in the workmanship of these small, Southern tables, and collectors have long been in the field searching out types.

PLATE I. . (North Carolina—c.