A Tip-top table is a folding table with the tabletop hinged so it can be placed into a vertical position when not used to save space. It is also called tilt-top table, tip table,[1] snap table[2][3] some variations are known as tea table, loo table. These multi-purpose tables were historically used for playing games, drinking tea or spirits, reading and writing, and sewing.[4] The tables were popular among both elite and middle-class households[5] in Britain and the USA in the 18th and 19th centuries. They became collector's items (pie-crust tea tables) early in the 20th century.[6]
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Construction
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The tables were assembled from three main components: legs (typically three), pillar, and top. The latter came in three main varieties: "plain" with smooth edges, "dished" with molded edges protruding either up to prevent sliding of items off the table (in-turned molding) or down for purely decorative purposes (descending molding), and ornate with carved and molded (scalloped using combinations of cyma curves and flat segments) edges.[7]
The pillars were turned and usually have either a balluster or plain cylinder/conical shape sometimes with carved decorations at the bottom in the shape of compressed balls, inverted cups, etc.[8]
The legs formed a tripod and came in a large variety from cabriolet with articulated shoulders to smooth curves sloping towards the floor.[9]
The table measurements varied:[10]
| Measurements | Mininum | Low typical | High typical | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 25 | 27 | 29 | 30 |
| Diameter | 18 | 28 | 36 | 40 |
| Tripod width | 20 | 26 | 29 | 30 |
A range of smaller tabletops, called "candlestands" (and, despite the name, most likely multi-purpose), was also popular, with top diameters between 18 and 22 inches and tripod widths between 20 and 22 inches. [11]
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The tables frequently utilized a box ("birdcage") at the top of the pillar, so that the tabletop can be rotated relatively to the tripod.[4] This flexibility allowed for more compact storage: a folded table can be either pushed against a wall with two legs, or oriented with one leg going into a corner.[12]
In the USA
editThe tip-top tables appeared "suddenly" in the British North American colonies around 1740 and enjoyed a still-unexplained rapid spread.[4]
Manufacturing of tip-top tables in the United States was almost immediately characterized by a wide-scale division of labor: the craftsmen actively traded the table parts and manufacturing services (carving, turning).[13]
Loo table
editThe loo table, with three or four legs,[14] is a table model from the 18th and 19th centuries originally designed for the card game loo, which was also known as lanterloo.
Gloag[further explanation needed] points to the term being applied to both the tilting and also to non-folding round gaming tables.[14]
In culture
editThe design of the tip-top table has multiple disadvantages. Many tables were neither sturdy, nor stable, with easily breakable mechanisms. The accounts of cabinetmakers have many records of fixing the tilting mechanism; the contemporary satirical pictures compared the instability of the table to the one of the fashionable society.[15] Still, the very fragility of the tip-top tables underlined the refinement of the parlor.[16] Getting a tilt-top involved a significant expense;[17] the purchase indicated the desire to participate in the genteel theatricality of the entertainment.[16]
A loo-table stands in the hall at Midnight Place in the children's fiction book Midnight is a Place by Joan Aiken.[non-primary source needed]
References
edit- ^ "tip-top table". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
- ^ Gloag 2013a.
- ^ "snap table". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
- ^ a b c Fayen 2002, p. 1.
- ^ Fayen 2002, p. 21.
- ^ Fayen 2002, p. 3.
- ^ Fayen 2002, p. 8.
- ^ Fayen 2002, pp. 8–9.
- ^ Fayen 2002, p. 9.
- ^ Fayen 2002, p. 19.
- ^ Fayen 2002, pp. 13, 19.
- ^ Fayen 2002, p. 91.
- ^ Fayen 2002, p. x.
- ^ a b Gloag 2013b.
- ^ Fayen 2002, pp. 107–108.
- ^ a b Fayen 2002, p. 107.
- ^ Fayen 2002, p. 88.
Sources
edit- Fayen, Sarah Neale (Spring 2002). Tilt-top tables: commodities in eighteenth-century America (Master of Arts thesis). University of Delaware.
- Sack, Albert (January 1987). "Regionalism in Early American Tea Tables". Antiques. 131 (1): 248–263.
- Gloag, J. (2013a). "Snap Table". A Short Dictionary Of Furniture. Read Books Limited. ISBN 978-1-4474-9772-1. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
- Gloag, J. (2013b). "Loo Table". A Short Dictionary Of Furniture. Read Books Limited. ISBN 978-1-4474-9772-1. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
- Miller, J. (2005). "Tilt-Top Tables". Furniture: World Styles from Classical to Contemporary. DK Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7566-7288-1. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- LeFever, George (October 2007). "Tables for Tea" (PDF). Early American Life.