TABLES  side, pier and console
We join side, pier and console tables together because they are both rich man’s furniture. Once furniture was treated as part of the architecture of the room, say with Adam and the neo-Classical movement onwards, such tables were used to decorate formal reception rooms.
A console is a piece of furniture, without back legs, which is screwed to the wall. It is not unknown for some suitably flamboyant small Regency table to get sawn in half to make a pair of Regency consoles. A pier table is a rich man’s side table a pier being the gap between two windows  and above it one found the pier glass to help reflect as much light as possible. Again the table had to fit in with the general architectural scheme. They are now fairly rare and expensive pieces. We give a small selection below.
A richly carved mahogany table in the style of William Kent, supporting a heavy marble top which it does without obvious effort though with a considerable show of muscle. Without the charm of the previous table it is, none the less, a most impressive piece and a pair would be very much more desirable.
Faded and finely grained mahogany half-round (or in terms of this sort of furniture semi-elliptical) pier table. Sheraton decoration, good tapering leg. c.1790
A giltwood semi-circular pier table with a gouache painted top of very high quality depicting classical scenes. Slender tapered, reeded legs. The frieze with a simple but impressive line of interlinking circles with flowers inside. Clearly a piece of this kind, which is one of a pair, has to be valued very much in terms of the quality of the painting. c. 1760
Not strictly speaking a console table because it is free standing but often described as such. The scene ‘Dolphin on the Rocks’, is a common one and lends itself to decorative excesses. Carved wood gilded with an important painted hunting scene by a known artist. c. 1740

Tags: Adam, Antique, GILTWOOD, leg, Legs, mahogany table, piece of furniture, Regency, room, Sheraton, Tables

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 6:31 pm and is filed under Side Tables. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.