Antique Mid-1800s Early American Primitive Side Table

This table was made to be used. The top is softwood, a single wide plank worn smooth and dark at the center where hands and objects have rested for more than a century and a half. The edges are live and slightly uneven, the way wood is when it comes from a mill and not a catalog. Four turned legs taper to small ball feet, hand-shaped on a lathe, each one slightly different from the next. The apron is plain. No hardware. No ornament. Nothing added because nothing was needed. The proportions are right — approximately 20 to 22 inches square, 25 to 27 inches tall. It works beside a chair, beside a bed, in a hall, anywhere a flat surface and a little history belong. The condition is good for its age, with honest wear consistent with more than 170 years of use.

River sat on it bare, skin against old wood, and did not move for a long time. She ran her palm slowly across the worn top like she was reading something written there. Something passed between her and this table that does not have a name. She is not sure she wants to give it one. That feeling goes with the piece now. It belongs to whoever takes it home.