Folding card table

Separate tables for playing cards became popular during the reign of Queen Anne and were built on the same construction principles as gate-leg and drop-leaf tables, except
Signs of authenticity
1. Patination of whole inner surface from constant polishing of cards and hands.
2. Frieze not too deep to make sitting uncomfortable.
3. Correct height, about 2 ft 6 in.
4. Matching front and back legs of equal quality.
5. Decoration and carving always incised and not applied.
6. Patination on hinge, gate or concertina part of frame where it has been constantly handled.
7. No saw marks on bottom edges of serpentine friezes.
8. No signs of boreholes on inner front of concealed drawer where handles have been
removed and veneered over.
9. On concealed drawers, patination on near underside where it has been pulled out from beneath.
10. Drawers lined with oak.
11. Cross-cut veneer framing to inset cloth panels on veneered tables.
12. On solid wood tables, no inset cloth panels.
13. Heavy weight for size —later, mahogany from West Africa was less dense and
coarser grained.
Likely restoration and repair
14. Inset panel of baize or even leather on solid wood tables: damaged surface planed out and panel inset — grain will run in one direction only on surround.
15. New underframe, usually gate-leg variety: side table converted to card table using original legs but new frame.
16. Serpentine frieze cut from plain frieze to increase value: frieze will be too shallow on upper curve.
17. Thumb or lip moulding around table edges: indicates top made up from small square table, usually Victorian.
that the flap folded over the top of the fixed surface. In Queen Anne and early Georgian days their playing surfaces were not always inset with baize or velvet, for these tables were also used for taking tea and were made in solid wood, either walnut or mahogany. By c.1730, however, with a proliferation of small decorative tables for many purposes, the card table was often veneered and lined with baize or velvet, its corners rounded for holding candlesticks, and the playing surface dished with small containers for counters. This type of card table often had cabriole legs, crisply carved with a scallop shell, acanthus or lion’s mask, and although not necessarily made en suite with chairs of the period, are recognizably contemporary.
The best card tables of the Georgian period have both back legs on hinges which swing out to support the flap, using the same construction as the drop-leaf table, or have both legs on a separate frame which either slides out or opens out with a concertina action. It is sometimes said that the back legs of card tables are of poorer detail because when not in use they stood, like side tables, against a wall. This is debatable, since when in use card tables were free-standing and all four legs were equally important.
Folding card tables were frequently made in pairs, but it is extremely rare to find that the two have remained together undamaged over such a long period of time.
Construction and materials
Card tables were made with several different methods of construction to enable the folding flap to be supported. The earliest method was the same principle as the gate-leg table, with both back legs swinging out on wooden hinges to an angle of 45 degrees so that the back legs squared up with the front legs. From c.1760 many card tables had a separate sliding frame, on to which the back legs were attached, and which pulled out on runners to extend to double the width, and so support the table top. From c.1780 a novel hinged wooden concertina action doubled back on itself to fold neatly into the underframe. Many card tables had a single drawer in the frieze, concealed and without handles from c.1770 onwards.
Detail
Card tables were either rectangular, with elliptical corners to hold candlesticks, or demi-lune opening to a circular table. From the middle of the eighteenth century, in line with fashionable design, many were made with serpentine shapes. The round-cornered rectangular shape and the elongated demi-lune opening to an oval are both of later date.
Early versions had simple cabriole legs and pad feet to c.1740, after which they were more richly decorated with carved scallop shells, acanthus leaves, lion masks, and ball-and-claw feet. Until c.1770, edges closed flush and were undecorated. From c.1770 many were made with carved and fretted decorations to legs and frieze.
Because of their function, card tables had to be smooth with an unbroken surface. The display sides of the flaps were sometimes discreetly veneered, or inlaid with featherbanding or small panels of decorative marquetry, and always edged with cross-cut veneer.
Variations
Almost all country versions continued to be made on the old construction principles long after mahogany and better-quality tables were constructed with improved methods, using screws rather than nails, brass rather than steel hinges, and drawers on runners. Mortise-and-tenon joints and dowelling, drawers sliding on a single bearer, no lock rail above the drawer in the frieze were characteristic.
They are found in a variety of woods: oak, simply made with plain straight legs, undecorated with no moulding or carving to table edges; also in oak and elm, preferably with oak table top and flap, and in elm and fruitwood. If in fruitwood alone, there was minimal decoration and legs were chamfered down the backs.
Pairs: Matching pairs of card tables are worth considerably more than singles. Sadly all too often one of them is a recent copy of the original. The clue is to turn them upside down. There is no way of matching age and patination on a new underframe. Where a skilful hand has been at work, patination and marks may be there, but a carbon copy of the genuine one — an impossibility on a true pair.
Above right: D-shaped folding card table of late Georgian style, a type much copied in the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Left: Sheraton period demi-lune in light mahogany veneer.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
Satinwood demi-lune card tables of Adam style have a more fragile construction and are of later date. Card tables were largely supplanted during the Regency period by ‘games tables’ with fitted compartments, drawers for backgammon, chequers, chess, etc., and the circular `loo’ table named after the fashionable card game of the day.
Many card tables in a poor state of repair have had their flaps removed, their back legs fixed to the frame and have become side tables.
Twentieth century
Edwardian reproductions of later satinwood tables are the most common, and are often known as ‘bridge’ tables. Few variations or reproductions are in solid woods — most are veneered, and their construction is far more flimsy than the thick-timbered solid-framed.
Price bands
Queen Anne, walnut, £5,000+.
Georgian solid walnut, hinged leg, ball-and-claw feet, £1,300-1,800.
Same period and design, with concertina action, 11,500-1,900.
Sheraton period, 12,100-3,500.
D-shape, early nineteenth century, £800-1,200.