Pillar-and-claw table

1. Matching tops and pillar-andclaw supports – reeded edges to all pieces of table top including leaves, with reeded feet, legs and pillars.
2. Plain edges to table tops and leaves, with plain pillars, sometimes octagonal or polygonal, plain legs and feet.
3. Squared cast-brass shoes, plain swivelling castors with horizontal sockets more common on period tables than lion’s paw, which is often a sign of Victorian Regency revival.
4. Four legs and not three to each pillar for the best examples.
5. No cross-bearers visible near edge of table tops – always chamfered so that they could not be seen.
6. Squared tops to pillars in same timber as the rest.
7. Patination, particularly on leaves, the depth of a hand on undersurface of table top where table and leaves have been handled.
8. Grain of tops and leaves running parallel with rule
joints, not down the length of the table in any part.
9. Ring turning on pillars above leg joints.
10. Height of table, 2 ft 4 in.
Likely restoration and repair
11. Mismatched tops and pillars: reeded with plain, or vice versa, means a marriage of more than one table. Even if correct period, worth considerably less.
12. Replaced pillars from later bulbous Victorian shapes, cut down and reeded. Reeding will be rough, no patination in grooves.
13. Replaced legs and feet: ring turning may be directly above leg joints where wedge dovetail has been recut.
14. Bearers visible too near edge of table: top cut down from
larger size.
15. Bearers not chamfered indicates new top or replacement.
16. Edge moulding rough, no patination indicates Victorian machine-carving cut away.
17. Carved edges to tops and leaves indicates later Victorian table tops. Period tables were undecorated except for reeding or thumb moulding.
Historical background
The method of supporting table tops with one or more central columns on splayed legs was the natural development of the tripod table, combined with the great strength of mahogany. The greatest innovation in the design was that an extra leaf could be supported on the rule-join of the two endpieces, with nothing more than bolt-and-fork fastenings and no supporting pillar beneath it. This had obvious advantages for seating arrangements, as legs and chairs did not have to contend with a forest of uprights below the table.
The best examples of the pillar-and-claw construction are those with pillars terminating in four splayed legs rather than three. The square base of four legs suited the more symmetrical style of the Regency period and the whole appearance of these tables is characteristic of the ‘Sheraton period’ of simple, undecorated,
glossy mahogany, with smooth tapering lines and restrained reeded decoration. Dining tables of this period were designed to set off the quantities of silver, crystal and porcelain reflecting light from chandeliers and table candles –hence the emphasis on richly veneered surfaces.
Brass shoes and castors are an integral part of the design of pillar-and-claw tables –sometimes with lion’s paw feet but more often a simple squared shoe was preferred, with the castor horizontally beneath it.
Pillar-and-claw tables are sometimes known as pedestal tables, but strictly speaking the pedestal was a solid affair without separate splayed feet and belongs to a later period. No pillar-and-claw table measures less than 4 ft across and their height is always 2 ft 4 in. The smallest pillar-andclaw table measures about 9 ft long with the extra leaf inserted.
Construction and materials
The function of the table demanded a massive, heavy mahogany. San Domingo or Cuban mahogany was also used and is nearly always darkened from rich chestnut brown to deep gloss with age and polishing. Each piece of table top was cut from a single piece of timber, planed and rubbed with brick dust or sand until perfectly smooth, and then oiled and polished with beeswax until it shone like silk.
Legs fitted into the pillar on the same principle as the tripod table construction – each curving splayed leg dovetailed into the base of the pillar with a wedge dovetail, glued and clamped for extra strength.
Pillars ended in a square platform of the same piece of timber, and were mounted between chamfered bearers under the table top. There was a hairline join between the two halves, a fixed top
and extra leaves, with rule joint and bolt-and-fork fastenings below the table top on either side. Large spans had additional bolt-and-fork fastenings further towards the centre. With all extensions, the progression of numbers is: two pillars with one extra leaf, three pillars and two extra leaves, four pillars and three extra leaves or five pillars and four extra leaves.
Detail
The tables were always solid –never veneered – because of the potential damage from spillages and hot dishes, which could lift veneer. The edges to tops were plain, as were the circular pillars with their narrow band of ring-turning above the leg joints; legs were also plainly shaped. One sometimes finds reeded edges to table tops with matching reeded pillars and legs. There was no frieze to any section of the top.
Variations
Above: breakfast table, c.1800.
Below: nineteenth-century table with reeded edge and clumsy thick bearers.
The method of construction demanded the use of expensive mahogany which allowed the extra leaves to be inserted without supporting pillars, and therefore these were expensive tables used only in large houses for large numbers of diners.
Country tables of any size at this period were usually of the draw-leaf variety, descendants of the seventeenth-century draw table, with leaves at either end which slid
out from beneath the table top on bearers. By the end of the eighteenth century the two extending leaves joined in the middle under the table top when they were pushed in, and when pulled out the table top dropped into the well between them.
They were constructed with the traditional square or rectangular frame, with stretchers and plain square legs or minimal decoration.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
Versions came in many forms, often with three-legged pillarand-claw, lion’s paw feet, indicating Victorian Regency revival. Pillars were thicker and more bulbous, with more ring-turning. Legs were curvaceous and cumbersome, with castors set on base of upward-curling feet. Victorian draw-leaf tables sometimes managed a combination of the old solid X-trestle with central stretcher, bulbous in shape and added nothing to construction. Better versions had legs which tapered inward at the top, echoing the old triangular trestle shape.
Whatever the pillar or pedestal, it has to run on castors so that it can be moved about for inserting and removing extra leaves. Thus the triangular, solid-stem of later Victorian `tripod’ based tables were not suitable. The only other period variation during the early nineteenth century was a pillar constructed of three or four pieces, clustered together to form a single support.
Twentieth century
Smaller versions (less than 4 ft wide) are still made today, and are often quite well reproduced, but in poorer-quality woods with machine finishing, sometimes even with rough undersides to the table top.
Price bands
Four-claw, two-pillar table in solid mahogany, George III and Regency, £4,000-6,000.
Three pedestals, two leaves, c.1800, £8,000-10,000.
Four pedestals, three leaves, C.1800, £9,000-11,000.
Single pedestals, rectangular, c.1840, £1,200-1,500.
Circular, c.1840, £850-1,000.
George III style reproduction, £550-750.