Stands were made in different sizes, one being intended for a “light-stand” to hold the candlestick, and the smallest for a tea-kettle stand, to accompany the tea-table. Illustration [251] shows three sizes of stands, all smaller than those illustrated previously, and giving somewhat the effect of the three bears of the nursery tale. The middle stand, which has a dish-top, has a base which is exquisitely carved. The tiny kettle-stand is only eighteen and one-half inches high. These three stands also belong to Mr. Flagler.
Illus. 250.—Chinese Fretwork
Table, 1760-1770.
Illustration [252] shows a small tea-table belonging to Mrs. C. M. Dyer of Worcester. A star is inlaid upon the top, the edge of which has a row of fine inlaying. The base has three fanlike carvings where the legs join the pillar.
The exquisite Chippendale card-table shown in Illustration [253] is not only beautiful in itself, but it frames what is a monument to the industry of the frail young girls who embroidered the top, and to the good housekeeping of its owners for one hundred and twenty odd years. The colors in this embroidery are as brilliant as when new, and never a moth has been suffered to even sniff at its stitches, which are the smallest I have ever seen. The work is done upon very fine linen, and each thread is covered with a stitch of embroidery, done with the slenderest possible strands of crewel, in designs of playing-cards, and of round and fish-shaped counters, in mother-of-pearl shades, copied from the original pearl counters, which still lie in the little oval pools hollowed out for them in the mahogany frame.
Illus. 251—Stands, 1760-1770.
Illus. 252.—Tea-table, about
1770.
The fashionable game at that date was quadrille, which was played with these round and fish-shaped counters.