Tilt-top breakfast or tea table

Furniture

-

Boscobel House and Gardens

Name/Title

Tilt-top breakfast or tea table

Entry/Object ID

F 77.11

Description

The rectangular top made of figured "plum pudding" mahogany has rounded corners. It is hinged to a block attached by double tenons to the top of a shaft. The shaft is turned to a column above a baluster carved with encircling water leaves. Four curved, or "swept," legs with water-leaf carved top surfaces are dovetailed into the base of the shaft. The legs end in foliated cast brass caps and casters, which appear to be original.

Category

Furniture

Acquisition

Accession

F 77.11

Source or Donor

F. Bealey

Acquisition Method

Purchase

Credit Line

Purchase, 1977

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

Duncan Phyfe

Attribution

Probably by

Date made

1810 - 1820

Place

State/Province

New York

Country

America

Continent

North America

Dimensions

Height

29-7/8 in

Width

42 in

Material

Mahogany

Provenance

Notes

Descended in the Van Rensselaer, Livingston, and Strong families in Albany and Greenbush, NY 1805-10, and was acquired from a direct descendant. According to Miss Cornelia Livingston Van Rensselaer Strong, the table probably came from the Albany town house of the seventh Patroon, Stephen Van Rensselaer, who married Catherine Livingston. The table then passed to the ownership of Miss Katherine Westerlo Van Rensselaer who was the last Van Rensselaer to own Vly House at Greenbush, New York, across the river from Albany. This house was built in 1767 and demolished in 1926. The furniture was left to Mrs. Cornelia Livingston Van Rensselaer Strong who allowed Nancy McClelland to illustrate the table in her book, Duncan Phyfe and the English Regency, published in 1939. The present Miss Strong is her daughter and namesake, the table was acquired from her brother, Woodbridge, to whom she had given it. **This information needs to be verified Purchased by Boscobel from Fenton Brown, through F. Bealy, Essex, CT, 5/16/77