TABLES  dining, oak reproductions
A really heavy oak reproduction refectory table with primitive lion-mask carving, on six enormous carved bulbous legs. The sheer quantity of oak involved would make such a table enormously expensive to produce
today, let alone the question of the carved decoration. 1890-1920
A simpler oak ‘draw-leaf’ table on four bulbous carved legs. The stretchers [...]

TABLES  writing
A satinwood ‘Carlton House’ writing table with oval panels in the upper doors. The type appears in Gillow’s cost books for 1796 and is also illustrated in the ‘Cabinet Maker’s Book of Prices’ of 1788. Carlton House was the residence of the Prince Regent. Gillows simply describe the piece as ‘A Ladies’ Drawing and [...]

TABLES  gateleg
The gateleg table was a great favourite of the 17th and 18th centuries. It did not die out in the 19th century but continued in other forms, like the Sutherland (q.v.) table.
During the last quarter of the 19th century, however, it was back to the Good Old Days for gatelegs, as with so many [...]

TABLES  dining, on four legs
A mahogany expanding dining table of a type often thought of as mid- or even late-Victorian but whose legs belie the later dates. Although the constructional form was used later, it originated in the 1830s and 1840s.
These legs are of a bulbous-and-baluster turning with collars, more popular initially in the 1840s [...]

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 [...]