Table, Dining

Description

Trestle dining table of cherry with between-centers turned standards (3) having support cleats lapped into tops and arched feet bridled into bottoms. Trestle ends are stub-tenoned into tops of standards as well and the joints at the center standard are reinforced with forged iron brackets bolted to the center standard and screwed to the undersides of the trestles with wood screws. Trestles are secured to the end standards by two bed bolts through each standard which thread into captured nuts in the trestle. The top has bread-board ends tongue-and-grooved to the top and held on by nails. Natural finish.

Notes

Although meals in Shaker communities were brief and usually without conversation, few pieces of furniture represent the communal existence of the Shakers as well as the large tables found in the dining halls. Shaker families ate three meals together daily, and the taking of meals together remained a central feature of everyday life in all Shaker communities. Brothers and sisters sat at separate tables that could accommodate numerous people. Initially the Shakers sat at long benches running the length of the table, but later in the 19th century it became customary for everyone to sit in individual chairs. Unaccompanied by chairs, dishes, and meal accessories, this table appears dramatically different from how the Shakers experienced it. A photograph in the Emma B. King Library depicts the interior of the Center Family dining room at Hancock, with similar tables topped with porcelain cups, sauces, and plates; silver or pewter pots holding spoons; glasses; cruet stands; and table mats. Surrounding the tables are cane-bottomed side chairs purchased from the world. Photographs showing Mount Lebanon dining rooms in the late 19th century show a similar amount of accoutrements found on Shaker dining tables. The Church Family had cruet stands suspended from the ceiling above the tables, and the North Family decorated their tables with vases containing tall plumes of flowers. Long Shaker tables on central column supports are thought of as "typical," although the Shakers also used tables supported by legs on the corners.