A tapered leg is a furniture leg that narrows gradually from the top, where it joins the frame, to the foot. Tapered legs may be square in section, often with the taper confined to the inner faces, or round and turned, and they may end in a plain foot, a spade foot, a brass cup castor or a decorative collar.
The tapered leg became fashionable in England during the 1760s and 1770s with the rise of Neo-classicism, when designers turned away from the curving cabriole leg of the Rococo in favour of straight, slender lines inspired by antiquity. It is a hallmark of the furniture associated with George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton and was used on sideboards, side tables, chairs, Pembroke tables and card tables, frequently enriched with stringing, inlay, fluting or reeding. Turned tapering legs remained popular through the Regency and Victorian periods, and the square tapered leg returned in the Edwardian Sheraton revival. Mid-twentieth-century designers adopted splayed tapering legs for a lighter modern look. Collectors should check that legs have not been shortened, replaced or reshaped and that the tapering is crisp and well proportioned.
