Tea Table
Walnut
Mecklenburg or Amelia County, Virginia
By Direct Descent in the Alston Family of Saxham Hall, Warren County, North Carolina
Attributed to William Townes (1714-1777)
circa 1770
This table can be added to a small group of furniture including four tables attributed to the cabinet shop of William Townes who worked in Mecklenburg and Amelia Counties in Virginia. Several of the pieces have ownership histories in nearby North Carolina counties, including Warren County. The tables have distinctively quarter round molded tops (some with corner treatments) and equally distinctive well shaped “Queen Ann” legs terminating in sharply coved turned disc pads. Mesda records that ” Townes was active throughout Southside Virginia and was the only cabinetmaker in the region who advertised in The Virginia Gazette. In 1770 and 1772, he posted advertisements for journeyman cabinetmakers, offering “good encouragement” to journeymen “acquainted with the CABINET or CHAIRMAKING BUSINESS” who could be employed “by the month, or by the year, on application to the subscriber, in Mecklenburg.”
This table’s original owner was likely Thomas Whitmell Alston (1755-1809) and passed to Archibald Davis Austin (1817-1899) of Saxham Hall, Warren County, NC which he built in 1842. Hence in the Alston Family of Warren County until its recent acquisition from a direct descendent.
