Tripod tables

I was interested to see that Nicholas Wells Antiques has a tripod table for sale which is attributed to Ince and Mayhew, though it could equally be by James Allen of Fredericksburg.  This has led me to read up about tripod tables, in particular the publication by Ronald Phillips entitled 18th Century Tripod Tables, which tells you everything you could possibly want to know.

The table for sale is made of mahogany, which was the best wood to use as it grows wide enough for the table top to be made from one piece, with no joins.  The table top of the piece for sale is solid, ie no veneer, dished and scalloped. It has a birdcage support which enables the table top to be rotated round the column.  Tripod tables became popular in the eighteenth century partly because of the rise in popularity of drinking tea.  You can imagine the value of being able to spin the table!   A number of family portraits of the time feature a tripod table.

Some tripod tables were made for gaming, especially for playing hombre, a three player game.  Plate LIII of the Universal System of Household Furniture shows a drawing by William Ince of a three sided card table with three money wells.  Plate XIII shows three Claw Tables and Plate XIV shows Tea Kettle stands, some of which would also have had three legs.   At Burghley there are a number of examples of Ince & Mayhew's three-legged work, including candlestands, torcheres and pole-screens.

Peter Holmes of Arlington Conservation, writing in the Tripod Tables publication, says 'Even the simplest tripod can have a breath-taking line of beauty..... Look for line and proportion - these are as important to the success of a tripod as the relationship between the top and base. ..In a good example the drawing of the legs often achieves the poise of an alert animal, giving the tripod elegance and tension.'

18th Century Tripod Tables, Ronald Phillips, 7 July 2014 https://issuu.com/artsolution/docs/84191_rp_for_web-edited (accessed 11/8/2018)