Tip-top table

A Tip-top table is a folding table with the tabletop hinged so it can be placed into a vertical position when not used to save space. It is also called tilt-top table, tip table,^[1] snap table^[2][3] some variations are known as tea table, loo table. These multi-purpose tables were historically used for playing games, drinking tea or spirits, reading and writing, and sewing.^[4] The tables were popular among both elite and middle-class households^[5] in Britain and the USA in the 18th and 19th centuries. They became collector's items (pie-crust tea tables) early in the 20th century.^[6]

Folded late 18th century English loo table with Japanese motifs.

Construction

Tabletop with scalloped edges

The tables were assembled from three main components: legs (typically three), pillar, and top. The latter came in three main varieties: "plain" with smooth edges, "dished" with molded edges protruding either up to prevent sliding of items off the table (in-turned molding) or down for purely decorative purposes (descending molding), and ornate with carved and molded (scalloped using combinations of cyma curves and flat segments) edges.^[7]

The pillars were turned and usually have either a balluster or plain cylinder/conical shape sometimes with carved decorations at the bottom in the shape of compressed balls, inverted cups, etc.^[8]

The legs formed a tripod and came in a large variety from cabriolet with articulated shoulders to smooth curves sloping towards the floor.^[9]

The table measurements varied:^[10]

Ranges of sizes, in inches

Measurements	Mininum	Low typical	High typical	Maximum
Height	25	27	29	30
Diameter	18	28	36	40
Tripod width	20	26	29	30

A range of smaller tabletops, called "candlestands" (and, despite the name, most likely multi-purpose), was also popular, with top diameters between 18 and 22 inches and tripod widths between 20 and 22 inches. ^[11]

Birdcage mechanism

Snap mechanism

The tables frequently utilized a box ("birdcage") at the top of the pillar, so that the tabletop can be rotated relatively to the tripod.^[4] This flexibility allowed for more compact storage: a folded table can be either pushed against a wall with two legs, or oriented with one leg going into a corner.^[12]

In the USA

The tip-top tables appeared "suddenly" in the British North American colonies around 1740 and enjoyed a still-unexplained rapid spread.^[4]

Manufacturing of tip-top tables in the United States was almost immediately characterized by a wide-scale division of labor: the craftsmen actively traded the table parts and manufacturing services (carving, turning).^[13]

Loo table

The loo table, with three or four legs,^[14] is a table model from the 18th and 19th centuries originally designed for the card game loo, which was also known as lanterloo.

Gloag^{[further explanation needed]} points to the term being applied to both the tilting and also to non-folding round gaming tables.^[14]

In culture

The design of the tip-top table has multiple disadvantages. Many tables were neither sturdy, nor stable, with easily breakable mechanisms. The accounts of cabinetmakers have many records of fixing the tilting mechanism; the contemporary satirical pictures compared the instability of the table to that of the fashionable society.^[15] Still, the very fragility of the tip-top tables underlined the refinement of the parlor.^[16] Getting a tilt-top involved a significant expense;^[17] the purchase indicated the desire to participate in the genteel theatricality of the entertainment.^[16]

A loo-table stands in the hall at Midnight Place in the children's fiction book Midnight is a Place by Joan Aiken.^{[non-primary source needed]}