An unusually small turned Welsh two-tier cricket table. The one piece sycamore top has a raised cockbeaded edge and is on three ash legs which is united by an ash shelf. Wonderful untouched colour.
West Wales circa 1780
13 ¾” diameter x 25 ½” high / 35cm diameter x 64.7cm high
£3850
Private collection North Wales.
Similar round “cricket” tables are known and they are sometimes referred to as “cheese-top” cricket tables and it is likely that they were used in the dairy and farmhouse kitchen.
| Turned cricket table were found throughout West Wales and there were many wood turning workshops in this area. The village of Abercych in North Pembrokeshire was a centre of the wood turning industry with many families working at the craft. Much of what they produced was for use in the dairy industry, items such as dairy bowls, butter scoops, spoons, cream skimmers and turned cheese vats. Most of the items that were used in the dairy were made from sycamore as it is one of the few timbers that will not taint food and it can also be turned and worked while still green (un-seasoned). The additional benefit of sycamore is that it could be regularly immersed in water without splitting or cracking.
Many of these tables would have originally stood on slate or flagstone floors and a piece of furniture be it a table, stool or chair which has three legs will always remain stable on an uneven floor.
Why are cricket tables called cricket tables? – This is one of the most frequent questions we get asked. Dealers and collectors need name for things and whether these three legged table were originally known cricket tables or not ( I don’t think so) the name is now universally known and used. Is it because the three legs resemble the three stumps in a game of cricket – well maybe….
Names for Things – a Description of Household Stuff, Furniture and Interiors 1500 – 1700 by Victor Chinnery. Oblong 2016
‘Cricket (crackett) A small three legged stool or table; of primitive staked construction; a block stool. The game of cricket (also called stool-ball and played chiefly by young women) probably originated with the use of a stool as a wicket or target at which the ball was thrown.’
Or This from English Country Furniture 1500 – 1900 by David Knell. The Antique Collectors Club 1988
‘The true origin of the term is somewhat less fanciful, although its use may be comparatively modern; it is simply derived from an old term for stools. Since the archetypal stool, or “cricket”, has a circular top and three legs, a table of essentially the same form only larger…’
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