Tea Table, 1770–80
Charleston, South Carolina
Mahogany
Lent by the Chipstone Foundation, partial gift of John and Cynthia Cross
in memory of Charlotte Elton Cross 2002.1
In colonial America, tea-drinking became the most fashionable social activity of the day, and tea tables—with thier shiny surfaces and delicate legs—looked as elegant and sophisticated as the tea-drinkers themselves. By the 1770s, when craftsmen in Charleston, South Carolina made this masterfully carved example, the tea table had become an essential element of the American parlor.