A ‘Chippendale’ Folding Card or Tea Table in Mahogany - A Sheraton Period Satinwood Card Table - Regency Card Table

A ‘Chippendale’ folding card or tea table in mahogany with moulded square legs, serpentine front and elegantly shaped frieze, c.1760-70. Tables of this kind are always higher in value if of the ‘tea’ type, i.e. with solid wood surface on the interior, rather than ‘card’ type with a baize interior.
A very fine quality Chippendale card table c.1770. The edge of the frieze is gadrooned and this effect is followed down the corner edges of the legs. C
The edge of the top is also carved. The wood is mahogany. The legs are chamfered on the inside.
Later Georgian side table of c.1760. The ‘Chippendale’ straight chamfered leg has replaced the earlier pad feet. The top edge still shows a variant of the thumb-nail moulding but is heavier. As well as being chamfered on the inside the legs show a ’scratch’ moulding down the front corner, as seen on chairs, to give a further lightness to the effect. By now, the lock rail is evident under the top and the drawer thus comes below this.
Country versions might still omit the lock rail however and have pegged tenon joints.
A Chippendale mahogany card table, c.1760 with a green baize lined folding top. The edges, frieze and square chamfered legs are fretted in
the Chinese manner, which inexplicably makes this normally rather underpriced piece of furniture double its value.
N.B. Without this fretwork a plain card table of this type is now 50 The ‘tea’ version with polished interior is 60  70.
Later Georgian c.1770 side table similar to the previous example, with elm top and fruitwood legs. Note there is no lock rail under the top. The square Chippendale style legs are chamfered at the back and the front
corners
have the scratch moulding down the edge to lighten them. The drawer front is elm.
A George III, c.1765, country solid walnut side table on tapering legs ending in pad feet. The flap is supported when open by a gate leg. The top and flap are made of several planks.
A Sheraton period (1790 - 1800) satinwood card table cross-banded with rosewood. Note the tapering legs and the medal set in the top panel of the leg.
Value points: Satinwood
A Sheraton period (1790 - 1800) mahogany card table cross-banded with satinwood. Note again the oval medals at the top of the tapering legs and the inlaid stringing lines.
It is to be noted that a pair of identical tables causes the individual piece to be more than doubled. Thus a pair of such tables would be in the 600-700 range.
A mahogany circular folding table of c.1790 with Hepplewhite-cumSheraton influence in the design. A type which could be used as a games or tea table, the latter usually being claimed when the inside is not lined with baize but veneered in the manner of the outside. The stringing lines add considerable elegance as do the oval medallions in the panels at the top of each leg, which ends in a spade foot.
Value, points: Matched figuring of mahogany and stringing …
A George III satinwood and marquetry card table, c.1790, with a folding circular top, cross-banded with rosewood. The inlay consists of urns and flower festoons within a meandering band of anthemion and the frieze is similarly inlaid. The square tapering collared legs with the oval medallions at the top are of a kind generally associated with Shereton designs. These tables were frequently made in pairs.
It would be difficult to find more highly valued tables of this period.
Value points: Quality of decoration .. N.B. Inferior Edwardian copies abound.
A Sheraton period (1790 - 1800) mahogany serpentine fronted side table on tapering legs. An elegant design with interesting enlargement of the
square section added as ornamentation near the bottom of legs.
A mahogany card table of c.1800 in figured veneer with square tapering legs, ending in spade feet. There is a simple boxwood stringing line around the top edges and the frieze which is repeated around the spade foot
top. It is covered in baize inside and is not quite circular when open, although not exaggeratedly oval. Circularity is an important value point, however. This table has the advantage of a double gate, i.e. both back legs open Outwards to support the folding top when open.
Decorative inlays  Satinwood
A fairly typical plain mahogany card table of late Regency or early Victorian period, probably c.1840. The centre pedestal can be either circular in section, often of gunbarrel appearance, or octagonal, and the base
usually reflects this in design. The top swivels and opens to form a baize-lined square surface.
Value points: Rosewood
Figured woods and inlays
Regency period mahogany card table, c.1820, on turned centre column. The hinged folding top pivots on the frame which forms the frieze to provide support when open. Note the fluted square leg forms.
A fairly typical Regency card table of c.1830 on a turned centre pedestal supported by four sabre legs. The fold-over top has a beaded edge moulding and swivels about the centre to allow support from the underframe when open. Inside there is a green baize covering.
Value points: Rosewood  Brass inlays ..
A Regency period  c.1820  rosewood card table, with inlaid stringing and bead-moulded edge decoration. For some reason the semi-elliptical hoop support under the top and above the centre pedestal attracts a higher
price from dealers than other types. A sofa table with a similar support is illustrated in the relevant section. Although the craftsmanship involved in executing this design is undoubtedly high, the overall effect is to
produce a confusion of styles and a weakness of support.
Value points: Rosewood  Brass stringing  Original casters the circular and oval
A Victorian folding walnut card-table, c.1845. Like dining tables of the period, it is thinly veneered in burr walnut and inlaid with marquetry patterns. The base is quite elaborately carved. Inside the
surface is lined with baize.
A late Regency rosewood card table of c.1830. The top is inlaid with a brass border line and swivels across its underframing, which supports it when open. Bead moulding doubly decorates the frieze and the top edge of the base. It is an example of the revived rococo and conflicting designs of the period: paw feet; leaf decoration; turned, reeded and carved column; and a kind of cabochon-and-leaf corner decoration to the frieze, which is also concave.

DRESSING TABLES
Georgian enclosed mahogany on tapering fluted legs with a slide. 1760-1780
Mahogany, shown open with mirror resting on the rack. A fairly simple piece with none too elegant legs. 1760-1780
A mahogany dressing table of Chippendale style, with fretted brackets, slide and tray beneath. 1750-1700
An interesting enclosed dressing table/chest with concave tambour doors and drawers beneath. 1780-1800
A very fine harlequin dressing and writing table in fiddle figured mahogany cross-banded in tulipwood. The back section pushes down against a spring. A tambour concave cupboard beneath, tapered legs and original small leather castors. 1780-1800
more if it can be attributed to a known designer
A fine mahogany dressing table of enclosed type, shown open and closed, with cupboard below and a crossed flat stretcher with rimmed chamber platform. 1790-1810
A painted satinwood dressing table/chest, with Adam-style neo-classical decoration. This type of decoration was much copied in Edwardian furniture. 1780-1800
An interesting mahogany dressing table shown closed and open with hinged top which lifts to reveal its fitments. The oval handles are a replacement. 1790-1810
Late eighteenth century Sheraton type dressing table with the usual fittings. Decorated with shells and using stringing lines to vary the veneered decoration.
Early 19th century
A walnut kneehole of high quality on replacement bracket feet. The pillars in the recessed corners are fluted and the top is quarter veneered and cross-banded. The drawers have a simple, straight crossbanding, with a lip edge moulding. North country with new heavy feet with canted corner decorated with a blind fret. There is a slide under the top and the piece has single serpentine bracket feet. The three previous examples all have ‘double’ bracket feet, i.e. a foot under each front corner both forms are found in this period. 1740-1760

TABLES  folding card and tea, square Chippendale
The fashion for taking tea and other refreshments such as chocolate undoubtedly led to more occasional use of folding side tables, some even being made in pairs, one with baize interior covering for games and one with a polished surface for use when entertaining. These latter are often referred to as tea tables although multipurpose use must have been frequent.
As in the last section we see the shape of the leg altered in sympathy with those of chairs. If you have read the chair section, it hardly needs to be pointed out that variations increased considerably during this period as did the decoration on fine examples. Rococo carving was back in fashion again and the solid, even grain of mahogany made it an ideal medium for the carver, who apart from a few acanthus leaves and some restrained husks and flowers, had been largely unemployed since the excesses of the Restoration.
A high quality mahogany Chippendale treatment with clustered column legs in the ‘Gothic taste’, carved edges and figured veneer on the frieze. The square bases to the legs are scooped underneath so that the fitted castors are not too prominent. Although not clearly discernible in this photograph, the edges of the table are decorated with two motifs, a simple four petal flower and a rounded oblong projection (cabochon) which are used alternately. A typical Chippendale style decoration.
This table also exhibits decorative treatment associated with Chippendale: bas-relief carving (or blind-fretting) in the `Chinese’ taste on all surfaces except the figured top. The castors are more prominent and the convex treatment of the frieze is perhaps a bit heavy. But then the table itself is very foursquare and lacks the grace of the earlier designs.
Notice that here too a number of standard devices are repeated to decorate the edge of the table. c. 1760
This is a much more restrained example with blind-fretting to the front edges of all four legs and fretting to the brackets. This piece looks lighter than the previous example because the insides of the legs are chamfered.
Carving appears on the top edges, the delicately gadrooned edge to the frieze, a pattern that last appeared in the early seventeenth century, and a beaded edge to the simple legs  a nice touch, this. Note the lightening effect of chamfering on the square leg. The carving applied to the frieze is light and rococo. In this table the concertina action for moving the back legs to support the open top is clearly visible on a simple straight-leg mahogany table. Normally one associates this mechanism with earlier examples but, clearly, individual cabinet makers continued to please themselves. The top surface is decorated with an inlaid boxwood and ebony stringing line and star.
This is another good mahogany example with just a remnant of the candlestand in the shaping of the corners. The serpentine top is echoed in the shaped frieze. The legs are chamfered and moulded on the front surfaces. c.1770
A serpentine three-flap example of a games-and-tea table. The legs are moulded in typical Chippendale manner. Interestingly, the leg which moves out to support the table when open is slightly out of place. This suggests that the hinge on which the leg moves is probably loose. c. 1760
A Sheraton form of the highest quality, in satinwood with inlaid ‘fan’ decoration on the top and legs, which are of tapering square section with reeded and fluted front surfaces ending in spade feet. There is a crossbanding of kingwood on the top and the frieze. c.1790
Another late eighteenth century table, made in solid mahogany, with a concave moulded edge to the top. The legs are thicker and less finely tapered. c. 1795