The Eighteenth-Century Gate-Leg Table

The gate-leg was the first sophisticated table design of makers. It was also the first with drop leaves. Its descriptive name comes from the gate-like form of the two swing legs which support the raised leaves. This type of table ranges in size from the small occasional ones which, when closed, occupy so little space as to earn the name "tuckaways," to very large ones which can seat twelve to fourteen people. The small tables usually have a circular top; that of the larger sizes is either oval or oblong. The center fixed leaf is rectangular and relatively narrow. It is attached to the understructure of turned legs and stretcher members and has a single drawer within the bed. The two movable or drop leaves are attached to the long sides of the fixed one by hinges, their matching edges being finished with a concave-convex beading known as a knuckle joint.

The understructure, of which the swinging gates are a part, consists of four stationary and two swinging legs that are baluster-turned in vase-and-ring or kindred turnings and terminate in ball, pear-shape, knob or, less often, carved Spanish feet. Just above these feet the legs are braced by a box stretcher with members of the same type of turning as the legs. The two swinging legs have similar braces, and their upper ends are mortice-and-tenon joined to hcrizontals on which the leaves rest when raised. The inner ends of braces and stretchers are pivot-joined to the mair, framework so that they swing out to a maximum of 90 degrees to support the raised leaves.

Gate-leg tables were made by American cabinetmakers from as early as 1690 to about 1730 with simpler ones of the survival sort for possibly twenty years longer. They were produced in all sections of the American colonies from American cabinetdesign came about these craftsmen began to produce drop-leaf tables with an underbaluster-turned members. It was a table form that had been used for some fifty years before it came into favor in the American Pennsylvania northward. Walnut was usual for those made south of New England. Plain or curly maple or a combination of maple and cherry were favored by New England craftsmen.

With a few very large tables, the drop leaves are each supported by a pair of swinging gates, but these are much rarer than examples with single gates. Usually the gate-leg was used as the family dining table, placed in the center of the large main room which did duty as both living and dining room. Because of constant use, the upper surfaces of stretcher members are usually worn down, sometimes nearly flat, from the generations of feet that have rested on them during mealtime-a sign of age and normal wear. Feet, of ball or other shape, we also apt to be partially worn away.