Tea table

All these men have indigestion at times. This she knew from the half-admiring plaints she listened to over the teatables.

Aside from the oval, mostly lacquered teatable, there were the Chinese or Chinese-inspired teacups – which in Holland were always placed on saucers – the teapots and water kettles, the teacaddies, the sugar bowls, and the boxes for silver spoons used to stir the sugar in the tea.

Lavish carving became a major component in Philadelphia furniture and interiors, as seen in the parlor of the Powel House (Fig. 6.14)—on Chippendale chairs, sofa, piecrust teatables, the grandfather clock, the pictureframe, fireplace ornamentation, and architectural decorations.

“Oh, she learnt French and the Court curtsey, and how to preside at teatables, but none of it would rid her of her wild blood.”

I noticed an unfamiliar car parked outside our gate as I came in, but thought nothing of it—people park their cars all anyhow in our road, especially at weekends, when the kettles are on and the teatables are spread, and the grandmothers and the babies and the in-laws are on the move, like nomadic tribes, back and forth across the suburbs.