This style of table dates to the first half of the seventeenth century, as may be seen by the drawer which all these early tables had. The brass handle is a late addition, and the drawer has about it the overlapping edge, this style immediately succeeding the drawers with mouldings like those shown in the chest on frame in Figure 5. The legs fold together, fitting into the lower braces, and the leaves drop. This make of table was always considered of value, so we find them selling at Philadelphia in 1705 at £2; at Boston, 1699, at £2; in 1690 at Salem, "a round, black walnut table, £2 5_s_." Such a table as this was used by Sir William Johnson, so potent a factor in the settlement of the Mohawk Valley. His table is of mahogany, the leaves drop on hinges, and it has one more leg on each side than our example. It is oval in shape instead of round, six feet six inches long, and five feet eleven inches in its shortest diameter. In 1776 this table was confiscated, and was bought by the Hon. John Taylor. His descendents have lent it to the Albany Historical Society. The social life in Philadelphia in Revolutionary times was easy and agreeable, consisting of the original Quaker families and another class connected with the government, and these two gave the tone to society. The pleasures of the table were the only luxuries which the sedate Quakers allowed themselves, and the city was famous for the quality of its Madeira and French wines, and the wonderful cooking of West India turtle. In 1778 differences in rank were strongly marked. The labourer wore his leather breeches, checkered shirt, and neat's-hide shoes. The queue or club was still worn by men of fashion; so were rich broadcloth coats of every colour except scarlet, which was seen only on the "backs of soldiers, Carolinians, and dancing-masters." Winthrop Sargent, a Philadelphian himself, writing of this time, says: "Silver tankards and china punch-bowls were evidences of prosperity, as were the small mirrors in wooden frames, and the mahogany tea-boards that are still sometimes met with in the lumber-rooms of old-time houses. Glass tumblers were rarely seen, a dipper for the punch-bowl, or gourd or cup for the water-pail supplied those who did not have recourse to the vessel itself." This latter statement seems hardly compatible with "elegance," but there were certainly great extremes to be met with even in the Capitol City, as Philadelphia was at that time. [Illustration: Figure 49. CORNER CUPBOARD.]