COLLAPSIBLE TABLE WITH RARE X STRETCHER. C. 1660.
The top folds over. Fine example.
(In the collection of Lady Mary Holland.)
PRIMITIVE GATE-LEG TABLE. SEVENTEENTH OR EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Gates at one end. Made by a local carpenter or wheelwright not conversant with turning.
As exhibiting two types as wide asunder as the poles, and yet not far removed in point of time, the two tables illustrated, p. [101], make a curious contrast. The upper one, in date about 1660, is a slender, graceful example, with the unusual X-shaped stretcher. It will be seen from the illustration that the two stretchers when closed fit flat with the legs and the top flaps over, thus making the table practically collapsible.
The lower Table, of late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, is a somewhat primitive form, with the gates at one end. This has obviously been made by a local carpenter or wheelwright not conversant with turning, as the shaping of the legs is strongly suggestive of the rude fashioning of the shafts of a farm wagon.