Tea Table
Tea Table
Attributed to Robert Walker (c. 1710-1777)
King George County, Virginia
1750-1760
Mahogany and Cherry
HOA: 28 1/2″, WOA: 30″
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John T. Warmath in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Worsham Dew (3992)
This iconic object in the MESDA collection was for many years attributed to the workshop of Peter Scott (ca. 1696-1775) of Williamsburg. Recent research has reassigned the piece to the Fredricksburg area of Virginia, and to the workshop of Robert Walker, a Scottish émigré. The masterful carving of the tea-table’s pie-crust top is the work of an as-yet unknown carver who was employed by Walker’s shop.
Robert Walker, and his brother William (1705-1750), a master builder built and furnished many of the Northern Neck’s grandest houses. Working alongside their journeymen and apprentices were enslaved craftsmen. In 1743 Spence Monroe – father of the future president – apprenticed to Robert Walker to learn the “Trade & Mystery of a Joyner.” Walker also agreed to take Monroe’s slave Muddy as an apprentice as well.
Learn more about this object in MESDA’s online collection catalog.
