Folded late 18th century English loo table with Japanese motifs.
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]
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]
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]
Birdcage mechanismSnap mechanism
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
The 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
The 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.
The 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 that 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]
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. ISBN978-1-4474-9772-1. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
Gloag, J. (2013b). "Loo Table". A Short Dictionary Of Furniture. Read Books Limited. ISBN978-1-4474-9772-1. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
Miller, J. (2005). "Tilt-Top Tables". Furniture: World Styles from Classical to Contemporary. DK Publishing. ISBN978-0-7566-7288-1. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
LeFever, George (October 2007). "Tables for Tea"(PDF). Early American Life.
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