Customs and Fashions in Old New EnglandEarle, Alice Morse
History
Customs and Fashions in Old New England
Earle, Alice Morse
New England -- Social life and customs -- To 1775
In the early days of the colonies doubtless the old Anglo-Saxon board
laid on trestles was used for a dining-table instead of a table with a
stationary top. "Table bords" appear in early New England wills, and
"trestles" also. "Long tables" and "drawing tables" were next named. A
"long table" was used as a dining-table, and, from the frequent
appearance of two forms with it, was evidently used from both sides, and
not in the ancient fashion of the diners sitting at one side only. A
drawing-table was an extension-table; it could by an arrangement of drop
leaves be doubled in length. A fine one can be seen in the rooms of the
Connecticut Historical Society. Chair tables were the earliest example,
in fact the prototype, of some of our modern extraordinary "combination"
furniture. The tops were usually round, and occasionally large enough to
be used as a dining-table, and when turned over by a hinge arrangement
formed the back of the chair. "Hundred legged" tables had flaps at
either end which turned down or were held up in place by a bracket
composed of a number of turned perpendicular supports which gave to it
the name of "hundred legs." These tables were frequently very large; a
portion of the top of one in the Connecticut Historical Society is seven
feet four inches wide. Tea-tables came with tea; they were advertised in
the _Boston News Letter_ in 1712. Occasionally we find mention of a
curious and unusual table, such as the one named in the effects of Sir
Francis Bernard, which were sold September 11, 1770: "Three tables
forming a horseshoe for the benefit of the Fire."
As a table was in early days a board, so a tablecloth was a board-cloth;
and ere it was a tablecloth it was table-clothes. Cristowell Gallup, in
1655, had "1 Holland board-cloth;" and William Metcalf, in 1644, had a
"diaper board-cloth." Another Boston citizen had "broad-clothes." Henry
Webb, of Boston, named in his will, in 1660, his "beste Suite of Damask
Table-cloath, Napkins & cupboard-cloath." Others had holland tablecloths
and holland square cloths with lace on them. Arras tablecloths are also
named in 1654, and cloths enriched with embroidery in colors. The witch
Ann Hibbins had "1 Holland table cloth edged with blewe," worth twelve
shillings; and a Hartford gentleman had, in 1689, a "table Cloth wrought
with red." In 1728 "Hukkbuk Tabling" was advertised in the _New England
Weekly Journal_, but the older materials--damask, holland, and
diaper--were universally used then, as now.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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