A pad foot is a simple, rounded foot found at the base of a cabriole leg, shaped like a club and resting on a flat circular disc or pad. It is sometimes called a club foot or Dutch foot, and it was one of the most common foot forms on English and American furniture in the early to mid eighteenth century.
The pad foot arrived in England with the fashion for the cabriole leg around the end of the seventeenth century, under Dutch influence, and it is particularly associated with the Queen Anne and early Georgian periods. It was used on chairs, stools, side tables, tea tables, card tables and lowboys, typically in walnut and later in mahogany. Compared with the carved claw and ball foot that became fashionable in the 1730s and 1740s, the pad foot is plainer and less expensive to make, and it continued to be used on country furniture in oak, elm, fruitwood and other woods throughout the eighteenth century. Variants include the slipper and trifid foot. Collectors examine pad feet for wear, chipping and replacement, as later repairs at the foot are common. Original feet with good patina and graceful profile add significantly to value.
