TABLES  centre pedestal
Not all the tables in this section started out life as dining tables by any means. Many were intended as centre tables or for occasional use, but the modern collector, with more modest space and size of household, is
happy to adopt them for dining. Indeed, many of the large extending tables used in Victorian dining rooms are now more suitable for boardrooms or for those who entertain many people at a time than for modern
dining purposes. These larger tables are dealt with in the section, TABLES  dining.
A walnut centre table on four scrolled supports which are themselves on four scrolled cabriole legs. A very popular design in the 1850s. (Smee’s catalogue shows an almost identical table, 1850.) Now perhaps regardedas a high-point of scrolled Victorian rococo, whose exuberance and frivolity snap their fingers at the stolid, classical dourness of the other prevailing styles. Not designed constructionally for heavy use but a splendid example of the genre. c.1860
An oval walnut centre table on a centre turned support and four carved scrolled supports on an X-shaped platform which is, in its turn, on four scrolled feet. This elaborate base is of a type popular in the 1850s and
1860s.
A circular walnut centre table on a gadrooned baluster column and three scrolled rococo legs. The top is veneered in sections of burr walnut whereas the base is solid. A design popular in the 1850s but still offered by various manufacturers in modified form to later dates. 1860-1870
An oval walnut table on a four-column base with four scrolled feet and a finialled circular central section. The top is inlaid with boxwood stringing and stylised foliage marquetry. Stylistically derived from the 1850s and 1860s but more likely to have been made twenty years later when this four-column version of the base was very prevalent in commercial catalogues such as C. & R. Light. 1865-1885
A walnut oval breakfast table inlaid with stringing lines and a centre marquetry panel. The designer has adopted a belt-and-braces approach in using both a centre column and four smaller supporting columns rising from the curved legs. Similar designs occur in catalogues of the 1860s to the 1880s.
A circular rosewood table in the George III manner, with a broad satinwood banding to the top and satinwood panels in the curving legs supporting the turned centre column. The top is veneered in two matched halves
of figured rosewood and the quality of execution is very high. 1910-1930
A mahogany two-pedestal rectangular dining table of Georgian design. The column-turned supports end in four curved reeded legs with brass paw castors and the table is a straightforward reproduction of one of the
most popular forms of English dining table. 1920 to present day
TABLES  centre pedestal, Gothic
The centre pedestal table was quite a favourite of the Reformed Gothic designers who adapted Pugin’s models to their own ideas. The use of structural timbers of more architectural configuration was a hallmark of the type and some of the really high-quality, roof-beamed versions in oak with inlaid tops are now very expensive collectors’ pieces.
An oak centre pedestal table with a tip-up top which is of Puginesque design, although probably not by him. The use of the grotesque carved animals’ heads and the heavily-pillared centre column, more like stonework
than wood, is typical of the use of Gothic design. Note the carved edge of the table top, with its Gothic-Islamic motif. Possibly intended as a library table and of the mid-Victorian Gothic style transitional between fanciful Regency `Gothick’ and the severer Reformed Gothic of the 1860s.
A typical Reformed Gothic octagonal centre table using ,revealed’ construction and an architectural structure to the base, following Pugin’s example. The top is inlaid and the joints are pegged, with ebony ‘dowels’ to
mark them, reiterated in the decoration of the frieze. Note also the carefully-designed handles.c. 1865
An octagonal walnut centre table on four column supports and a structural stretchered base ending in-shaped feet. The piece has all the hallmarks of Reformed Gothic design: turned collars on the columns, ebonised for emphasis; moulded stretchers connecting the heavy central crossed base with its chamfered edges; incised Gothic trefoil motifs.1865-1870
Another, very popular, design of octagonal table in which the Reformed Gothic style is marked by the heavy crossed stretchers on the base on which the four turned column supports stand. These crossed stretchers
curve downwards to form feet and, in this case, have a further stretcher between them at the base of each column.c. 1865
Put here for contrast and instruction, this octagonal pitch-pine table is still ‘Gothic’ in style but is probably ecclesiastical in origin and taken from a chapel or a church. The base looks a little out of proportion with the top. 1870-1880