17th Century Card Tables.
TABLES early card and side
It is perhaps ironic that the design of early games tables can be traced back to sacred and ecclesiastical pieces. Furniture from one period borrows from another in ways which can be surprising. Card playing and gaming once occupied a place which has since been replaced by other forms of gambling and much care was lavished on the instruments used.
An oak folding-top table with a back gateleg to support the flap when open. It is a type known as a credence table, used in churches on which the bread, wine and water were placed before consecration. The block-like feet are clearly not original and must be ignored, but above the stretchers all is original, including the drawer. The column turned legs, with rims at top and bottom, taper almost imperceptibly at the top. The bold curve below the stylised arcaded moulding shows the maker was aware of the need to avoid a
straight line.
When sensibly restored $1,500 2,500
A development of the previous design. The main difference lies not in the legs, which have overall retained their simple cannon turning and only acquired decoration at the base, but in the rounded top frame. It is still a credence and very overpriced for what it is.
Late 17th century
The Continental influences which arrived with the Restoration, 1660, and the coronation of William of Orange and Mary, 1689, are described in every textbook on furniture but the progression from the previous table to this example provides a dramatic demonstration of the effect on British furniture design. Techinically it can hardly be improved upon: splayed feet, shaped stretcher, finials, turned hexagonal legs, ogee frieze with cock-beaded edges, veneered frieze, double-D drawer edgings, herring-bone crossbanding to the drawers, double-D moulding to the top and Italian figured veneers, but even that had to be touched up with black to show more contrast. Within a few years craftsmen had adopted the techniques to produce some of the most elegant furniture ever made in Britain.
If walnut as shown $7, 500 -10, 000. If burr walnut or burr elm $9, 000 -12, 000
The shape has changed to the rectangular form, which is more
familiar, but the arrangement of the legs remains the same. Although there are formal contrasting inlays on the top, it is the turning on the legs which attracts attention sharp rims and baluster forms and, at the top, flat bobbins are mixed to provide a decorative arrangement. A feature of this type is that the tops of
the legs are veneered and fit flush into the carcase. c.1690
Tags: credence table, furniture, gateleg, Rectangular, stretchers, Tables, walnut