Pembroke table

This slender, elegant table was first made, so it is said, at the request of the Countess of Pembroke, around 1750. It was an all-purpose occasional table
Signs of authenticity
1. Legs always tapered from inside only: outside corners of legs form right angles with floor.
2. Tops of legs continuing up to form side-frame of drawer.
3. Single drawer in frieze – sham matching drawer at opposite end.
4. Bow-fronted end friezes on oval tables, matching curve.
5. Two fly brackets to each flap – three ‘knuckles’ to each hinge.
6. Side frieze inset to take width of closed brackets – flaps falling flush with straight sides of legs.
7. Correct height and proportions – flaps fall one-third the table height and may appear too shallow to the modern eye.
8. On oval Pembrokes, flaps should be generous enough in curve to hide the tops of legs and frieze when not raised.
9. Lock and lock rail to drawer.
10. Undersides of flaps in plain veneer of equal thickness.
11. Narrow overhang of top at either end, not exceeding 12 in.
Likely restoration and repair
12. Most prevalent minor damage is to legs, split and broken on slender extremities. `Collar’ applied to hide and strengthen repair.
13. One or both flaps damaged on hinge near edges, with consequent splitting of flap edge or table top along rule joint –repaired with some impairment to value.
14. Plain-surfaced mahogany veneer cut into with recent decorative panel to increase value. Grain of ground veneer will continue through in same direction.
15. Legs tapering on outsides as well as insides: indicates recent restoration or complete remake.
16. Straight ends to oval topped tables indicates new oval top on original square-shaped frame to increase value. Oval tops are worth more than squared shapes.
which was free-standing, unlike side tables of the period, with the added advantage of two flaps to increase the size of the surface. Its original function is unclear, but it was not destined for anything but ladylike use, being fragile in construction and usually richly decorated and veneered.
Pembroke tables did not really become universally popular until the 1770s, when they became some of the finest, most delicate pieces of furniture ever made in England.
The best Pembroke tables are oval in shape with the two side flaps raised. In this case the frieze of the underframe should be bow-fronted, following the curve of the top. They were also made with serpentine flaps and sides, and squared, with rectangular flaps, often richly decorated with inlay and
veneer. Whatever their shape, Pembroke tables always have slender square-sectioned tapering legs and their flaps, falling one-third of the height of the table, always have two supporting fly brackets on wooden hinges.
The squat, chunky, two-sided flap tables used in Victorian nurseries, passages and even bathrooms, bear no more resemblance to a real Pembroke table than a packing case does to a coffer. Yet they are far too frequently referred to by their antecedent’s illustrious name.
Narrow tables with two flaps supported with a single central pillar-type pedestal, or variations of the pillar-andclaw, or of `cheval’ construction are often also referred to as Pembroke tables. Correctly speaking, they are sofa tables.
Construction and materials
Pembrokes were made in a wide variety of woods and finishes: satinwood, and mahogany veneer inlaid with rosewood, laburnum, harewood, zebrawood, fruitwoods, delicate floral marquetry in swags and festoons as well as medallions, in many-coloured woods and dyed woods.
The frame was of beech or close-grained red or white pine. Fly brackets were often of plane-wood, which is white and harder than beech. With oval Pembroke tables, the flaps should be sufficiently deep in the curve to hide the frieze when not raised, including the tops of legs. The finest ovals also have a bow-fronted frieze. There was a single deep drawer at one end and a sham or dummy drawer to match at the opposite end.
The square-sectioned legs were always tapered on the inner sides, with the outside corners at right-angles to the floor. Each side flap, however small, was supported with two fly brackets, and each bracket had three ‘knuckles’, or hinges.
Detail
Undersides of flaps were in plain veneer of equal thickness to that of the surface. With one flap raised, the underside of the other should be clearly visible. The drawer front was inlaid and decorated as profusely as the top and flaps.
Height 2 ft 4 in including castors –Pembrokes were often on small cast-brass box castors. The proportions are narrow: the top being just over twice as long as the width, the flaps one-third its total height.
Variations
The ubiquitous two-flap, narrow table with one or two drawers, one either end of the frieze, has been made in a variety of solid woods since the end of the eighteenth century. Square, chamfered legs are sturdy versions of the delicate tapering legs, and in their component parts these little tables may sound similar in description, but they do not in any way add up to the fragile little ladies’ tables used in bedrooms, morning rooms for breakfasts, letter-writing and
Below: French: influencedserpentine version, c.1800.
mirror-gazing. The country way of life precluded such luxuries. Made of oak, elm, fruitwood, occasionally Virginia walnut, they were seldom if ever veneered but sometimes had boxwood stringing. Some country side tables with frieze drawers were made with two flaps extending on either side, but not all small two-flapped tables are Pembrokes. It is the narrowness and slenderness of line which distinguishes one from the other.
Reproductions
There are two main periods of reproductions: the Victorian Regency revival, during which reproductions were extremely well-made with proportions very nearly right, usually in darker toned West Indian satinwood veneer; and the Edwardian period where the tables were usually emasculated, thinned down to spindly pieces of furniture with no more use than to hold a bowl of flowers and a silver salver for cards. Better were the flapped tables – small square tables with triangular flaps opening out to larger squares.
Above: Sheraton-style, nineteenth-century reproduction.
Price bands
Rectangular, satinwood, inlaid and finely veneered, c.1790, £5,000+.
Bow-front, satinwood, high quality, c.1790, £6,000.
With fine veneers, c.1790, £2,000-3,000.
Plain, with little decoration, c.1790, £1,250-1,850.
Serpentine ‘French’, c.1800, £3,500-5,000.
Plain mahogany, nineteenth century,$300-450.

Side table

1. Grain running from side to side of table top.
2. On solid woods, considerable figuring where timber was split rather than sawn.
3. Back edge of table top sometimes unfinished, with no overhang.
4. Drawers of oak, carcase wood of oak. Pine drawers or other parts of carcase in period piece indicate Dutch origins.
5. Where there is
featherbanding and herringbone inlay, `arrows’ always go clockwise.
6. Simple lip moulding to three sides of table top.
7. Beam moulding to drawer edges made from a single strip with wood grain continuing through each bead.
8. On walnut tables, signs of worm boreholes in solid timbers — walnut is particularly susceptible to worm.
9. Good patination on sides. and top edges of drawer where it has been pulled out and handled constantly.
10. No lock or lock rail to drawer frame.
Likely restoration and repair
11. Legs restored, replaced where worm damage has ruined originals.
12. Original veneer planed down to the oak carcase beneath: no depth of patination on surface woods.
13. Solid walnut tops replaced: signs of worm-tracks indicate timber planed down from thicker piece of different origin —wormholes only show on surface of wood.
14. Solid walnut with little patination, wrong construction: may be Victorian copy
`distressed’ to look older.
15. Made up from larger table in bad state of repair. No
patination on overhang of table top — oddly placed boreholes and marks on underside.
16. Legs repaired or replaced: grain will break on the join —quite often concealed by ring turning.
Historical background
By the beginning of the seventeenth century there was much more ’standing’ furniture in most houses. In particular, side tables came into use for many different functions. They stood in spaces between windows, against walls with side chairs, and were used as an early version of the ‘dressing table’.
The art of twist turning came to England from Spain and the Spanish Netherlands, together with the fashion for embellishing cabinets and the edges of drawers with ’string of beads’ mouldings in ebony or ebony-coloured woods. Sometimes legs of small decorative tables were of a much darker wood than the rest of the piece.
The cup-and-cover shape of table and cabinet stand legs, although principally associated with the arrival of William of Orange in England, had been used for several decades before, from the furniture imported from Holland. At about the same time the art of veneering transformed both the construction and the appearance of English furniture. Side tables span this revolutionary change, being made first in solid woods with twist-turned legs, and later in quartered veneer with serpentine stretchers. Stuart side tables frequently had one full-width drawer in the frieze.
Construction and materials
Side tables, being small pieces of furniture, were made in a much wider variety of woods than large tables. They are found in oak, fruitwood, plane and, occasionally, Cyprus. At a later date they were made in solid walnut, and in walnut veneer on an oak carcase and underframe.
Most side tables had a single drawer in the frieze, with one or two handles. Drawers were either plain-fronted or with small fielded or coffered panels, contemporary with chest of drawers of the period. Their construction was still based on the solid frame, with stretchers between all four legs, either decorative or plain.
Around 1680 the cup and cover shape of legs with serpentine stretchers, similar to those on stands for chests, were quite common. There is always a good overhang on three sides of the table top, and the back edge will be narrower, for side tables were made to stand against walls and in
Variations
These traditional ‘occasional’ tables were made in a variety of shapes, woods and finishes for 100 years or more and the differences in construction, woods and finish rather than stylistic change are the guide to period. Characteristic country-made versions may be of plain oak with square stretchers and no carving or decoration. Others had a semi-circular flap and a plain gateleg on a wooden hinge, opening to an elongated half-circle. Some are found in plain oak with a simple frieze and no drawer. Nice examples can be found in fruitwood, sometimes with a small drawer in the frieze which does not recesses, and the back stretcher is plain, undecorated and flush with the edge of the back.
The timber of the legs continues up to form the side frame of the frieze drawer and the corners of the frieze. All joints were simple mortise-and-tenon, secured with pegs or dowels. The drawers had through-dovetails or stop-dovetails, with the bottom boards running from front to back in more than one piece. The bottom boards were nailed to the sides with clout nails and a simple rebate joint.
Detail
Early walnut veneer was usually quarter-cut and framed in a broad band of cross-cut veneer, sometimes edged with feather-banding or herringbone with mitred edges.
Drop handles usually had rosette-shaped backplates fixed to the drawer fronts with two steel shafts driven through and splayed and flattened on the inside.
run the full width of the piece. Dutch side tables, imported during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were veneered or decorated with marquetry and had double-twist legs. Generally they were more elaborate than those in the English style and were usually made on a pine carcase with pine drawers.
Left: plain oak table of the late seventeenth century.
Centre: William and Mary oak table with pierced decorative frieze.
Right: an elaborately decorated table of the Stuart period.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
The most common ones on the market today are of Victorian oak, recognizable by decoration such as carving on the frieze, twist turning, polished and darkened to age the wood.
There are also solid walnut copies, stained and bleached where the stain has rubbed off or faded. Many reproductions are in oak, elm, and Virginia walnut, with straight legs or later machine-turned balusters, bobbins or twists and flat stretchers, from almost any date from c.1830. They were made as little side tables for use in passages, halls and dining rooms.
Spanish, Portuguese and Italian tables with ebonized legs, string-of-beads moulding around the drawers, simulating the style of tortoiseshell and ebony chests and cabinets, were imported in large numbers during the mid-Victorian period.
Price bands
Stuart oak, with frieze drawer and good turned detail, £1,900-2,200.
William and Mary oak with good detail, i1,500–1,800.
Country, period, oak or fruitwood, c.1700, £500-800.
Nineteenth-century oak copies, 050-500.

Refectory table

There was remarkably little furniture of any sort until the sixteenth century in England, apart from chests to hold valuables and clothes, benches and stools to sit on, and a rough `boorde’ or table for eating from. Tables in ‘refectories’ or halls were dismantled at night and used by knights and squires to sleep on – hence the description ‘table dormant’.
At first, tables were of roughhewn planks mounted on two or
more trestles. A stretcher was added for stability, but as the table was destined to be covered with layers of napery its appearance did not matter very much until Elizabethan days when surfaces of polished wood. became fashionable. The trestle developed into two solid end-pieces on massive feet, joined by a substantial stretcher, and a top which slotted into the two end-bearers. A tusk-shaped tenon on the outer side of the end-piece, knocked into a hole
15    5,14
in the protruding end of the stretcher, held the table rigid. The alternative method of construction for tables was a basic frame made up of legs, low stretchers on all four sides and a top frame on which the table top rested. From these came the ,melon-bulbed’ tables of Elizabethan and Jacobean days, so loved and copied by makers of reproduction furniture from the late Victorian days and early years of this century.

Signs of authenticity
1. Some graining, and figuring on all wood where it has been split and not sawn.
2. Timbers shrunk along the grain making them narrower than the cleats or clamps.
3. All timbers, including low bottom stretchers, of same aged wood, patination and colour.
4. Heavy wear on bottom stretchers.
5. Width of two planks only. Some are made from a single plank. From c.1660 these were sometimes framed with cleating on all four sides with mitred corners.
6. In ‘frame’ construction, dowels sunk or slightly loose, not protruding. Green wood was
used so that dowels would not be pushed out by shrinkage of main timbers.
7. ‘Bolection moulding’ deeply incised, secured to legs with pegs or dowels.
8. Hand-cut dowels and pegs of uneven size and shape.
9. Thick patination on undersurface of table tops where it overhangs and has been handled continuously.
10. Feet blocks are worn, rotted or ‘frayed’ by damp and constant use on stone floors.
Likely restoration and repair
11. Bottom stretchers on frame construction tables replaced - often entire bottom frame including bases of square-sectioned legs.
12. Planks of table top fitting flush with clamps, no shrinkage, indicates new top or replaced clamps or both.
13. Saw marks on underside of table top or any part of straight timbers means recent replacement.
14. New tops made up from old floorboards with right grain but not much patination. Signs of nail heads where floorboards were nailed to joists.
15. It can safely be said that no table of this age on the market today has survived completely intact without repairs and replacement timbers at some time in its life.
Construction and materials
Most of these solid, heavy and important tables were made in oak. Some were made with elm tops and oak frames, and some of fruitwood for smaller tables if the girth of the tree was big enough for planking. The wood was not sawn, but riven and split into planks and then cleaned off with an adze until a smooth surface was obtained.
Whether made of trestle or frame construction, the table was no more than two planks wide — broad tables were not needed, since the nobility sat on one side of the table only, facing down the hall. The planks were clamped or cleated at either end to finish the raw ends of the wood and reduce warping and bending. The entire frame of a refectory table is held together with mortise-and-tenon joints and thick, handcut pegs or dowels. The uprights on a trestle table were slotted into two cross-bearers fixed to the underside of the table top,
and into two long flat plinths or feet at the bottom. One or two stretchers ran between the uprights and were slotted through and tenoned with a large tusk-shaped wedge to secure them. These wedges could easily be knocked out when the table was dismantled. On tables with frame construction, the base was made up of four thick stretchers, like the bottom of a box, tenoned into the bottoms of the square-sectioned legs very near the ground. The tops of the legs were dowelled into the underframe of the’ table top.
Detail
Bolection moulding for the swelling melon bulbs was common by Elizabethan times. In order to minimize the girth of timber needed for the legs, the swelling bulbs were added to straight, square-sectioned legs which were then carved and turned above and below the joins.
Variations
If there was little furniture to be seen in grand houses and manors, there was none in peasants’ dwellings. Refectory tables were only used in wealthy households, monasteries, and large manor houses.
Some crude side tables were made, usually known as ‘harvest tables’, for harvest suppers, as well
as some basic X-frame tables of elm, but they were rough and unfinished and very few have survived. Smaller trestle-type tables of applewood and other fruitwoods were also made for farmhouses, but most of the long, scrubbed farmhouse tables date from the end of the eighteenth century, if not considerably later.
Above: single plank harvest table, or ‘boorde’, constructed on the trestle principle, with an arcaded, chip-carved frieze. Left: seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century double plank frame table, with rushlight and candle drawer.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
Massive melon-bulbed tables were made for the ‘Jacobethan’ revival of the Victorian age, using traditional methods of construction, but the planks for tops were sawn, not split, pegs and dowels were machine-made and of even size, machine-
carving was shallow and not smoothly rounded with use.
Twentieth century London-made reproductions from c.1900 by furniture-makers employing highly skilled craftsmen are also recognizable for the exaggerated proportions of bulbs and bolection
mouldings. Dutch versions of a later period have distinctive pear or acorn-shaped legs, and not straight-sided ‘melons’. Later, baluster-turned legs from large tables were combined with frame tops, new stretchers and surfaces.
From c.1925, one finds mass-produced ‘refectory’ tables with solid end-pieces and square tenons to secure central stretchers, often with knots in planks, usually three planks wide to accommodate people on both sides of the table, now warping and splitting because of unseasoned saw-cut timbers.
Tables of very recent date are often made from old floorboards, usually elm, sometimes oak, correctly split, but without deep patination and with none on the overhang of the table top. Bleached oak versions, mass-produced, greyish in colour, have undersurfaces furry with saw marks where timbers have been sawn as standard planking and then made up.
Price bands
Draw leaf or fixed-top refectory, c.1600, £8,000+.
Seventeenth-century frame table, trestle-type, £4,500-5,500.
Eighteenth- or nineteenth-century reproduction, £1,200-2,000.
(All prices for period tables assume some restoration.)

Late XVIII Century Tables

18th Century tables, although not described as such in Chippendale’s Director, were a new type of table. During the first half of the 18th century, people tended to sit at small tables to eat, arranged in groups in a dedicated eating room.
Around the 1750s, people began to eat at longer tables. Quite often, these consisted of a central, rectangular gateleg table to which two D-ends were joined to make one long piece. When not assembled as such, the D-ends might be used as pier tables.
For the most part, these dining tables were plain, with either square or tapering legs. This began to change from around 1780, when tables were often supported by pedestals.
Early examples of dining tables, such as those supplied by Chippendale in 1770, had half-round ends and deep, rectangular drop leaves. These were supported, when raised, on gate legs and secured using stirrup clips.
Table legs were influenced by Neoclassical style and became more slender and tapering in shape as the century progressed.
As the passion for games and gambling now pervaded every level of society, large numbers of games tables
were made, particularly in England and the American colonies, and these gained popularity in Europe towards the end of the century.
Many games tables had a top that folded back to reveal a baize-lined surface or an inlaid games board, and one or two legs that swung back to support the open top. When not in use, the table would usually be stored
against the wall, so the side facing the wall was generally left undecorated.
Pembroke tables were multi-purpose, and could be used for dining, games, or as worktables, depending on the occasion. Being small and on casters, they could be moved around a room as required.
Like other occasional tables, Pembroke tables were usually highly decorative. Those made of satinwood or mahogany were often inlaid with Neoclassical designs, although painted decoration was also popular.
Marquetry remained fashionable throughout the period.
Dressing tables were often designed like deep tables with drawers. These usually featured ingenious mechanical fittings such as dressing mirrors that rose and fell in slots.
The escutcheons and handles are made of brass.
Carved acanthus adorns the knees of the table.
ENGLISH GAMES TABLE
Made from mahogany, this games table has a rectangular top that folds back to reveal a baize-lined playing surface. The concave corners hold counters.
c.1760.
The protruding, square corners are also functional, as their concave insides hold counters.
Metal hinges hold the two top sections together.
The rear legs do not have claw-and-ball feet. as the table was not designed to be seen from all sides.
ENGLISH CARD TABLE
This mahogany, D-shaped card table has a fold-over top and baize-lined interior. It is veneered with satinwood banding, with ebony and boxwood string inlay. c.1785.
ENGLISH PEMBROKE TABLE
This small mahogany table is intricately inlaid with various woods, including harewood, a veneer from the sycamore tree that is stained to produce a brown-green colour similar to khaki. c.1780.
SCANDINAVIAN TABLES
ade of satin birchwood, each table has a demi-lune top placed at an angle on a frae above three square-section, tapered legs. The D-shape or demi lunge is often associated with card tables that were designed to be placed
against a wall when not in use. However, these tables are more likely to have been used as side tables because they are too tall to sit at. c.1790. W87cm(34%in). L&T 3
SWEDISH PIER TABLE
This table is made of painted and gilded softwood, with a faux-marble top and plinth. Gilt balls top each turned, tapered leg, below which are carved and gilded acanthus leaves and gilt supports.
FRENCH TABLE
Made of mahogany, this rectangular table has a single frieze drawer. The square, tapering legs have brass terminals and casters, which allowed the occasional table to be moved easily. c.1785.
ENGLISH FOLD-OVER TEA TABLE
This mahogany tea table is made in the French Hepplewhite style. The serpentine top has a moulded edge and rests on a serpentine frieze, which is raised on cabriole legs. The legs are carved at the top of the knees
with stylized anthemia. c.1770.
ITALIAN PIER TABLE
This imposing table has a rectangular faux-marble top. The frame is painted and decorated with applied gilt scrolls and rosettes. The circular, tapered legs are also painted. Gilding is applied to the concave sections of
the stop-fluted legs. c. 1780.
ENGLISH DRUM TABLE
This table has an inset-leather surface, four frieze drawers, one of which is fitted with an adjustable writing slope, and four dummy drawers. The table revolves on a turned central column, which is set above four inlaid sabre legs with brass lion’s paw casters. c.1800.
DUTCH OCCASIONAL TABLE
The top of this demilune-shaped piece is decorated with an inlaid urn surrounded by crossbanding. Tambour doors slide sideways to open. It stands on three square-section, tapering legs decorated with boxwood and ebony stringing. c.1790.
FRENCH DROP-LEAF DINING TABLE
This Cuban mahogany table has a rounded, rectangular top with two D-shaped leaves. It has a plain frieze and six squared, tapered legs with brass caps and casters. The legs move out to support the open leaves and
additional leaves. Signed Jean-Antoine Brunel. c.1795.
SWEDISH CARD TABLE
This demi-lune-shaped table has a frieze and squared legs. It is very similar to an English card table, apart from the two legs, which are awkwardly bunched together. One of them swings back to support the top when opened. c.1780.
ENGLISH OVAL TABLE
This is one of a pair of French-style tables decorated with marquetry and parquetry. The oval top has a central panel with an inlaid spray of flowers and ribbons and the frieze has a floral inlay. The table has capriole legs. c.1785.
ENGLISH PIER TABLE
The top of this demi-line table is inlaid with satinwood, rosewood, ebony, and boxwood. The marquetry features a fan, echoing the shape of the table. Inlaid paterae are inserted at the tops of the square, tapering legs, which terminate in spade feet. c.1790.
SWISS GAMES TABLE
This walnut and cherrywood table has a heavy, hinged, fold-over top, with rounded corners and a brown, gilt-leather inner surface. The shaped table skirt is carved and the capriole legs are carved at the knees and
tips. The rear leg swings back to support the open top. c.1780.