Antique Sofa Tables
Sofa table
Sofa tables belong to the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first two of the nineteenth, after which they became ‘occasional tables’ without a specific function. They were originally designed for writing or playing games while people sat on a sofa, and as such were usually at least 5 ft long, sometimes as much as 6 ft, and no more than 2 ft 6 in high and 22-24 in wide.
Bearing in mind their function, it is obvious that the extra flaps are extensions of length rather than width, since a flap on the sofa side of the table would make it very uncomfortable for anyone to sit at. In order to give as much legroom as possible, they were of cheval construction, with two end bearers, rather in the manner of the old X-frame trestle table, solidly made and correctly balanced so that they did not sway from side to side. In some, a central stretcher helped stability.
By c.1810, sofa tables were made on the central pillar-and-claw design, usually more ornate, and often with brass stringing inset as decoration on legs and plinth as well as on drawers and surfaces.
Early sofa tables had fairly deep drawers on one full length and matching dummy drawer on each side. Often, drawers were fitted with compartments for games and writing materials. In the later period, c.1820, drawers became shallower as sofa tables began to lose their identity and became merely decorative.
Early versions were not very robust, being intended only for genteel use, and it is uncommon to find one without any repair or restoration.
Signs of authenticity
1. Thick, fine veneers on close-grained red pine or Honduras mahogany.
2. Drawers oak-lined, not pine.
3. Undersides of flap plain veneered – visible when not raised.
4. If with locks, steel levers to brass locks and lock casings –brass levers are post-1840.
5. Two fly brackets to each flap.
6. Three ‘knuckles’ or hinges to each bracket.
7. Underframe frieze inset to take width of closed brackets, allowing flaps to fall flush with cheval supports.
8. Sham drawers on either side to real drawers.
9. Grain running across width, not down length of table.
10. No escutcheons to locks (if fitted) but simple rim escutcheons with rounded bottoms. Squared bottoms to rim escutcheons are post-1840.
11. Cross-cut veneer to edge of tables.
12. Often, cast brass, turned, circular, flat knobs to drawers or lion’s masks with rings.
Likely restoration and repair
13. Cheval supports broken, replaced with central pillar support taken from damaged piece of same period.
14. Cheaper cheval supports taken from mass-produced sofa tables of same period, usually not as long, added to a high quality top. Marks of original bearers, screw-holes, chevals set in too close.
15. Made-up cheval supports from Victorian cheval mirrors. Holes where mirror pivoted, usually in square block in cheval, concealed by a rosette or other decoration, where it has been plugged and stained.
16. If both drawers are on the same side, indicates a recent addition.
17. Veneered in pinkish-coloured birch. Cheap Victorian substitute for satinwood, with wavy grain instead of straight or figured.
18. Grain running length of table suggests new top with suitable inlay made up from larger piece of period furniture.
Sofa tables were made with two different constructions: the cheval and the central pillar support. The cheval type had solid supports dividing into two splayed legs, and was made with or without stretchers. The central pillar-supports often incorporated a half-circle resting on a central plinth with up-curving flattened splayed legs, frequently terminating in lion’s paw feet or square box castors with horizontal fittings.
They were made in a wide variety of woods and veneers: rosewood, mahogany and ‘black’ walnut. There were two drawers, side by side in the width of the table, one sham the other real.
The correct proportions are quite large: 5-6 ft long with the flaps extended, 22-24 in wide and approximately 2 ft 6 in in height. The overall shape is definitely long, lean and sleek, with minimal overhang on either side. When the flaps are down they fall flush with the side supports. The legs splay out in a flattened curve so that they can be pulled close to the sofa, with the legs sliding a little way beneath.
Variations
Sofas were not part of the furnishings of smaller agricultural homes until the age of sprung furniture some time after c.1830. Country versions of the card table fulfilled the same function as a sofa table for writing and playing games. Contemporary, cheaper versions were made, in machine-cut woods, mass-produced with thin veneer and poor quality materials, usually shorter in length than high-quality versions.
Legs of chevals in provincial sofa tables tend to be heavy, or
Detail
Early sofa tables resemble writing furniture more than ornamental pieces, and share their smooth, plain surfaces rather than the more elaborate inlays which might lift and catch on soft fabrics of sleeves and cuffs. Simple decoration, such as cross-banded borders, continued on to the flaps, and some fine examples have fly brackets set at the edge of the frieze so that, when opened, the design carries on from the frieze to the ends of the brackets.
From c.1810 they are found in many veneers, including satinwood, light Cuban mahogany, laburnum, zebrawood, amboyna and rosewood. Between 1810 and 1820 brass inlay was very popular, and from c.1815 the fashionable design of the lyre was incorporated, and lyre-ended tables were made with brass rods to simulate harp strings.
machine-cut with decoration on outer ,surface of chevals only, strengthened with stretchers. Legs would often be chamfered to join the upright, then screwed, glued and clamped before being veneered over the joint to look as though they are correctly made.
The basic idea of a narrow all-purpose drawing table has been used in many variations since sofa tables were first designed by Thomas Sheraton and his contemporaries.
Reproductions
The period of the sofa table’s popularity comes within the age of mass-manufactured furniture. These tables were more often made in cheaper materials, and of meaner proportions for provincial homes, rather than as country pieces. After c.1850 many unattractive versions of long occasional tables were made all over the country, many of them with side-flaps rather than end flaps. Taller versions were used in libraries behind high-backed Victorian and Edwardian settees and sofas for trays of drinks, etc.
In the 1950s a proliferation of copies of the lyre-ended design flooded the market, but since they went out of fashion they have not been seen around in very large numbers.
Price bands
Top-quality Regency, without stretcher, mahogany,
£7,000 + .
Finely veneered satinwood, c.1810, £4,500 5,500.
Central support, fine quality, c.1810, £3,500-4,500.
Rosewood or walnut, fine quality, with stretcher, c.1830, 12,000 3,000.
Poorer quality veneered, £600-900.
Left: turned stretcher and cheval legs have probably been added. Centre: superb early Regency Thomas Hope design.
Below right: fine, early nineteenth-century, on central support with inlaid brass decoration.
Tags: brass locks, central pillar, drawers, eighteenth century, furniture, honduras mahogany, lion, occasional tables, pillar, Side, Sofa, sofa table, Sofa Tables, stretcher, trestle table