Discover Mid-America — January 2012
The 20th century lower level: the coffee
table
I know you have one. You
probably have two or more. And you are pretty sure at least one of them is an
antique. It belonged to Grandma and she got it used a long time ago so it has
to be an antique. What am I talking about? The coffee table, of course!
Is Grandma’s old table an
antique? Let’s take a look. Partly it depends on what you call an antique but
by most measures it means at least 100 years old. To the hard-core, it means
much earlier that that. There are many verifiable antique items in many homes
ranging from dining tables to chairs, chests, beds, armoires, china cabinets,
claret cabinets, tea tables, desks and all manner of other items made in prior
centuries. But a coffee table? That is a definite maybe.
A quick look back in time
doesn’t show many similar tables in our Western history. Old photos of late
Victorian period room settings show taller tables, often placed behind a sofa
to receive cups and glasses when not in use. Some of the photos depicting the
“Moorish/Turkish taste” of the period, illustrated and explained in Eileen and
Richard Dubrow’s book American Furniture
of the 19th Century 1840-1880, (Schiffer Publishing), do show
low tables but they are more suited for participants sitting on the floor or on
a carpet to partake in a water pipe or are placed as end tables next to
individual seating, much taller than the generally accepted height of seventeen
to eighteen inches for modern coffee tables.
In Helen Comstock’s excellent
survey American Furniture, (Schiffer Publishing)
reveals no low tables. Other books devoted to antique furniture show no
examples of Federal low tables or of Empire coffee tables. And the Encyclopedia of Furniture by Joseph
Aronson in 1938 states: “There is no historical precedent.”
So where does the form come
from? There are lots of ideas but not much solid evidence. One school of
thought is based on Oriental design. America was so taken with the Japanese
exhibit at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 that elements of
Oriental design worked their way into many areas of American furniture. The
most notable was the Aesthetic Movement of the 1880s that blended Eastlake and
Renaissance Revival concepts with Oriental designs. Less noticeable was the use
of Oriental motifs in chair design, especially in platform rockers of the
period and in folding chairs. It would have been a natural progression to adopt
the standard of a low Oriental table to a parlor setting.
In their somewhat light-hearted
approach to the history of the subject, authors Alexander Payne and James
Zemaitis in The Coffee Table Coffee Table
Book, (Black Dog Publishing, 2003), come to the conclusion that the coffee
table is a 20th century invention. They use the French “table bas” as the
basis, a low table that was placed around the perimeter of a room rather than
in the center. They state that in 1915, fashion magazines started showing the
tables in the middle of the room and the concept literally flew across
continents and borders to become routine in American households.
On the other hand, there’s a
more local source. In 1903, F. Stuart Foote founded the Imperial Furniture
Company in Grand Rapids, MI. He had learned the furniture business from his
father E. H. Foote who founded the Grand Rapids Chair Company in 1872. Early in
the history of the company, according to Grand
Rapids Furniture – The Story of American’s Furniture City by Christian
Carron, The Public Museum of Grand Rapids, Foote claimed to have invented the
coffee table while helping his wife prepare for a party. He simply lowered the
legs on an existing table and the new form was born fully developed. So there
you have it. Maybe.
There’s one other important
element in the development of the coffee table – that failed social experiment
fondly referred to as “Prohibition.” From 1920 to 1933 America was legally
“dry.” This led to a shortage of well-blended, smooth tasting spirits. To
supplement the short supply, “bathtub gin” and “white lightning” were created, both
full of kick with a raw edge. That led to the invention of the “cocktail” – a
mixture of ragged spirits with something that tasted good to disguise the raw
rotgut liquor.
When Prohibition was repealed
in 1933, the table previously known as the coffee table suddenly became the
“cocktail table” as people openly celebrated at home with friends over the new
freedom. Sales of the low table skyrocketed, even in the depths of the
Depression.
Another thing that was
popular in the depths of the Depression was the Colonial Revival, more fallout
from the 1876 Exposition. All kinds of furniture was suddenly being made in
supposedly “Colonial” styles and many of the designers took great liberties in
mixing and matching styles and periods to come up with new ideas. The same
thing happened to coffee tables. All of a sudden there were Queen Anne coffee
tables, Chippendale coffee tables, Jacobean coffee tables, Federal coffee
tables and even Rococo Revival marble top coffee tables.
Of course none of them were
period pieces and everybody knew that – then. But today, three or more
generations later, some of those Depression-era tables look pretty old and
exotic to new buyers. So they must be “antique” – right?
Send your comments, questions and pictures to me at P0 Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423 or info@furnituredetective.com
Visit Fred's website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book "HOW TO BE A FURNITURE DETECTIV"? is available for $18.95 plus $3.00 S&H. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.
Fred and Gail Taylor?s DVD, ?IDENTIFICATION OF OLDER & ANTIQUE FURNITURE?, ($17.00 + $3.00 S&H) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of "COMMON SENSE ANTIQUES by Fred Taylo" ($25.00 + $3.00 S&H) are also available at the same address. For more information call (800) 387-6377, fax (352) 563-2916, or e-mail info@furnituredetective.com.