… the tray to the height required by European chairs. London furniture-makers began making their own forms for the luxury market in the first decades of the eighteenth century, often using exotic and luxurious materials such as mahogany … the tea itself. An item of furniture, in this sense the tea-table was also a tea-preparation utensil. The form of and market for tea-tables importantly reflected women’s taste and patterns of consumption, and in this way they were …