Queen Anne Cherrywood Dish-Top Tilt-Top Tea Table, Connecticut River Valley, circa 1780

This remarkably turned, fluted and chip carved tea table relates to several other surviving Connecticut River Valley tea tables.  They all have urn shaped shafts and claw-and-ball feet and most have carved shells on their knees (see Frederick K. & Margaret R. Barbour’s Furniture Collection, (Connecticut Historical Society, 1963), pp. 32-3, American Tea Party: Colonial Tea and Breakfast Tables 1715-1783, (New York: Bernard & S. Dean Levy Inc., 1988) p. 32, no. 22, and Joseph Downs, American Furniture: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods, (New York, MacMillan Company, 1952), no. 387).  Interestingly the shaft is secured to the tilt block by means of a large wooden thread.