A Queen Anne period dressing table - A George III mahogany dressing table - country dressing table in walnut and fruitwood

Towards the end of the seventeenth century the small tables in walnut and oak or country woods specifically designed as dressing tables made their appearance. Before that it seems to have been the practice to use a
small side table with perhaps a small desk with sloping lid or mirror on it.
Since they were designed to be decorative as well as functional, dressing-tables have produced some of the most sophisticated and pleasant pieces of their periods. Their natural appeal to women of a much later
period than those of that for which they were designed has always kept them to the forefront of demand.
Dressing tables of the walnut period exhibit all the most desirable features of walnut veneered furniture: quartered tops with herringbone crossbandings; cross-grained mouldings; turned legs with early forms and
stretchers or, later , cabriole legs with scrolls, and so on. As a microcosm of period features and because of their small size, they have become very sought after and hence very expensive.
The later eighteenth century dressing tables in mahogany and country woods make no less ideal collectors pieces and hence are also greatly in demand. So far Victorian examples have not followed the analogy of
chairs and dining tables perhaps because the Victorians tended towards larger dressing tables without the same appeal.
Value points: The followingvalue points apply to the examples illustrated.
1. Top Surface. As with other tables, the condition, patina and figuring of the top surface are important. The more perfect and decorative the appearance, the more the .. factor will apply.
2. Structural Condition. This is again assumed to be good.
3. Legs. Depending on the period, the design,and always the proportion,of the legs is an important factor. Legs are always liable to damage and their condition and originality constitute a  factor if good.
A Queen Anne period dressing table and mirror set of c.1710 which are japanned in a light background with flower decoration. The table shows the typical arch shaping of the frieze and there are two acorn pendants
on the centre arch. The octagonal legs taper down to turned shaping and bun feet. The X stretcher with its scroll shaping has a central circular pedestal for a bowl. Note that the table top has a thumb-nail edge
moulding and there is a half-round or ‘D’ moulding on the front around each drawer. The mirror is described in the Toilet Mirror section.
Small walnut William and Mary period dressing table, c.1690. The top would be veneered in walnut, quartered to give a symmetrical pattern from the figure, and with a’herringbone’ or ‘feather’ inlay around it, inside the
cross-banding. The thumb-nail moulding around the top edge and indeed the decoration of the top is similar to chests of drawers of the period. A half-round moulding around the drawers is also typical. In the frieze it is usual to find a shallow centre drawer and two deep ones on either side, or two short drawers. The arched shaping of the frieze is typical. Drawer pulls are of peardrop shape in brass and on a circular or star-shaped plate, the handle being linked to a double strip of brass or iron which was passed through a small hole in the drawer front, parted, pressed down and pinned into the wood. The inverted cup form on the legs, as mentioned earlier, shows the Dutch influence, and the bun feet and shaped veneered stretchers are also typical.
Value Points: Decoration of top  Proportion of legs
Queen Anne walnut dressing table, c.1710. Note that the turned legs of the William and Mary period have now changed to cabrioles although the shaping of the frieze remains similar. The top edge moulding, veneers and drawer arrangement are still in the earlier style.
Quality of carbriole legs  Original handles
Oak dressing table of c.1740. The square section cabriole legs are still of slender shape but not the most desirable form, particularly if heavy. The shaping of the frieze has become much more sophisticated. Note the top edge moulding.
Value Points: Walnut  Fruitwood
A George III mahogany dressing table with square legs chamfered at the back, c.1770. An unpretentious table whose origins are clear from previous illustrations and of a type increasingly popular. The top edge still retains a moulding derived from the thumb-nail but now more sophisticated with an ogee curve.
Walnut dressing table, c.1720. The rather deep full top drawer gives a slightly top-heavy effect since the cabriole legs are rather slender. The top edge moulding is a refined thumb-nail type. The top veneer is quartered and cross-banded-, the drawers are edged with cock-beading and have a feather or herringbone cross banding. The handles are not original. A poor photograph which makes the piece out of proportion.
A later Georgian c.1780, country dressing table in oak. The frieze is shaped, but the slightly tapered legs hint at Hepplewhite influence. The drawers are cock-beaded and the top edge has a rather refined moulding.
Tapering legs tend to be a later feature.
George I period dressing table in fruitwood, c.1725. The arched shaping of the frieze is similar to that of earlier periods, with the projecting lip moulding or cock-bead around it. The heavy thumb-nail top edge moulding of the earlier period is now more refined. The tapering legs ending in pad feet are simpler than the cabriole but retain an elegance and proportion of design in a particularly English leg form. The handles are not original.
Later Georgian, c.1770, country dressing table in walnut and fruitwood. The three drawers in the frieze are cross-banded in fruitwood like the top, which is veneered in plain straight grained walnut. The legs are elm.
A satinwood dressing table of Sheraton period, c.1795, with mirror which folds flat to lie under the folding top. Similar designs for shaving tables and lady’s cabinet dressing tables of involved character are to be found, but this is one of the more popular designs of the period.
Value Points: Satinwood ….
Original Mirror
A mahogany dressing table of c.1820, with replacement handles. The square tapering legs and rectangularity of design reflect a Sheraton influence. The black stringing lines around the top and the drawers and frieze
are often identified with this period. Useful also as occasional writing tables, these pieces are understandably popular, as well as having a simplicity of design which allows them to blend easily with modern decor.

Oak Table of Refectory Type - Late Seventeenth Century Oak Gate-Leg Table - George I Period Mahogany Drop-Leaf Gate-Leg Dining Table

An early oak table of refectory type, c.1600. The large turned legs are connected almost at floor level with heavy stretchers. The main under frame is tenoned into the square tops of the legs and the table top consists of three or four massive oak planks. The main under frame provided a frieze for decoration and was often richly carved. The top was held in position either by under battens or oak dowels driven through the top into the under frame.
Depending on decoration and size. Larger tables are in the higher range.
A slightly more developed small oak table of the early seventeenth century, c.1630. The turned legs are less bulbous than those seen on earlier tables and the frieze provided by the under frame is panelled, to allow for
decoration. The fluting of the legs started to replace the bulb type in late Jacobean times and remained in use until after the Restoration.
Quality of carving and reeding of legs.
Mid-seventeenth century oak table  c.1650 - with column turned legs, (sometimes called gunbarrel type). The floor-level stretchers are still evident and the top is made of three thick solid planks. The frieze is quite
plain.
Late seventeenth century oak gate-leg table  c.1690  of fairly small dimensions, which could seat four people. Note the bun-shaped feet and the more developed turning of the legs.
Value points: Quality of turning on legs.
Size:  again larger tables to seat more people gain value probably following:- 6 people,8 people,12 people.
N.B. This criterion does not apply to very small gate-leg tables for side use, which command a high premium.
George III period oak gate-leg table with tapering legs ending in pad feet, c.1765. A type of table made for a considerable period throughout the mid and late eighteenth century. This example is exceptional in size and
therefore the centre section is particularly wide.
George I period mahogany drop-leaf gate-leg dining table, c.1725. The scrolled cabriole legs show the hoof foot with which the cabriole leg was originally associated, being derived from an animal form. Tables of this
type, with less refined form of leg, leading to the square ‘Chippendale’ type as with chair development, continued to be made well on towards the end of the eighteenth century.
Small oak gate-leg table of c.1670, with column turned legs but ending in square feet with a slight outward splay instead of the turned feet of our other examples. This is a simple table with plain, square section
stretchers between the legs. The joint between the flaps and centre section is of the tongued and grooved type which was superseded in the eighteenth century by the rule joint.
George III period square drop-flap mahogany gate-leg table, c.1760, with scrolled cabriole legs ending in ball and claw feet. The moulded edge of the table top is unusual and is similar to that found on some Victorian tables, with the exception that this is bolder but still detracts from the appearance.
Mid-Georgian drop-leaf table in mahogany of the gate-leg type, c.1760. The solid mahogany tapering legs end in pad feet. The main frame was often made from pine or else from oak and the centre flap secured to it by screws let in at an angle from underneath. A particular weakness with these tables is at the ends of the rule joints between flaps and centre, where part of the joint tends to split off. They make useful dining tables for the small modern home, since they can be folded away but their one defect is that of all gate-leg tables; there tend to be too many legs under the table when in use.
Late seventeenth century gate-leg table in walnut, c.1690. Note the unusual features of turned stretchers and different turning of gates and centre section legs.

Georgian side table - George I mahogany card table - George III mahogany gate-leg table

A George I mahogany card table, showing the candle stands and cups for counters similar to the walnut tables of an earlier period. The bold cabriole legs end in ball and claw feet and the shaped frieze has an echo of the shell motif about it. Tables of this kind in mahogany continued to be made into the second quarter of the 18th century.
George I period mahogany drop-leaf gate-leg dining table. The scrolled cabriole legs show the hoof foot with which the cabriole leg was originally associated, being derived from an animal form. Tables of this type, with less refined form of leg, leading to the square ‘Chippendale’ type as with chair development, continued to be made well on towards the end of the 18th century.
George I period table in oak, the tapering legs ending in pad feet.
A side table which could be put to use for cards or other occasional use. The space behind the frieze is used for storage.
George I period dressing table in fruitwood. The arched shaping of the frieze is similar to that of earlier periods, with the projecting lip moulding or cock bead around it. The heavy thumb-nail top edge moulding of the earlier period is now more refined. The tapering legs ending in pad feet are simpler than the cabriole but retain an elegance and proportion of design in a particularly English leg form.
George III period square drop-flap mahogany gate-leg table with scrolled cabriole legs ending in ball and claw feet. The moulded edge of the table top is unusual and is similar to that found on some Victorian tables, with the exception that this is bolder but still detracts from the appearance.
Value points: Quality of legs  Seating capacity 4.
A George II mahogany side table elaborately carved on the frieze with a lion mask and acanthus leaves. The cabriole legs have lion masks carved on the knees with ribboned flower heads and terminate in paw and ball
feet. The top is a marble slab.
Oak dressing table of c. 1740. The square section cabriole legs are still of slender shape but not the most desirable form, particularly if heavy. The shaping of the frieze has become much more sophisticated. Note the top edge moulding.
George III period oak gate-leg table with tapering legs ending in pad feet. A type of table made for a considerable period throughout the mid and late 18th century. This example is exceptional in size and therefore the centre section is particularly wide.
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 later Georgian country dressing table in oak. The frieze is shaped, but the slightly tapered legs hint at Hepplewhite influence. The drawers are cock-beaded and the top edge has a rather refined moulding. Tapering legs tend to be a later feature.
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.
Later Georgian - c. 1770 - country dressing table in walnut and fruitwood. The three drawers in the frieze are cross banded in fruitwood like the top, which is veneered in plain straight grained walnut. The legs are elm.
Mid-Georgian drop-leaf table in mahogany of gate-leg type. The solid mahogany tapering legs end in pad feet. The main frame was often made from pine or else from oak and the centre flap secured to it by screws let in at an angle from underneath. A particular weakness with these tables is at the ends of the rule joints between flaps and centre, where part of the joint tends to split off. They make useful dining tables for the small modern home, since they can be folded awaybut their one defect is that of all gate-leg tables; there tend to be too many legs under the table when in use.
A George III 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 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. The edge of the top is also carved. The wood is mahogany.
A fine Adam circular table possibly for a centre or library use. The rosewood top has a wide satinwood cross banding inlaid with flower heads and cables. A large circular medallion in the centre is similarly inlaid. The
four round tapering fluted legs support the table, which has a frieze finely inlaid with satinwood urns, oval medallions and swags.
Value points: Quality of decoration

TABLES  side, early, single drawer
We have separated out lowboys or dressing tables and have defined them as having three or four drawers, while side tables are defined as having one or at most two drawers.
The types are clearly related but side or centre tables are found well back into the early seventeenth century. However, for collecting purposes (i.e. availability) they start towards the end of the seventeenth century.
A charming fruitwood side table from the end of the seventeenth century with the typical column-shaped turnings that one associates with the mid-century. The square stretchers and thick top are also part of this design. However, the ogee fretted frieze indicates a later date. c. 1680
A superb olivewood oyster veneered side table with walnut spiral twist turned legs. The wavy stretcher is veneered on the top and the facing edge. This is a classic piece of the period. Note how the design is nearly identical to that for a chest on stand, and indeed one does see well-turned side tables with very poor tops (i.e. disposed stands often partly rebuilt), but this superb geometrically laid pattern could never have been intended for anything else than a side table top. c.1680
Moving on a decade, this marquetry piece with well-turned legs shows a later form of stretcher arrangement, one that country makers seemed to prefer to the last example; at any event it was widely copied. Note the inverted acorn in the turning near the bottom of the leg. The quality of the marquetry  of green stained bone and other warm colours  is important. c. 1690
Perhaps the country variant of the twists, though attractive, are only mere imitations of the original. c. 1700
An oak variation of 841. One is tempted to say country, but the turnings are excellent quality, bold and imaginative: only the earlier type of moulding round the drawer front suggests that it was made out of the fashionable area. c. 1700
An exuberant bobbin-turned stretcher structure derived from earlier pieces, c.1660, but the thick top with shallow moulding is of later date. A very popular design. c. 1690
A William and Mary design of crossover stretcher with slightly less interesting (though by no means bad) turning. One feels that the maker got into a mess at the bottom of the last round and didn’t quite see what to do so left it. He could perfectly well have repeated the top pattern at the bottom if he had measured correctly before he started. Thick moulding on top and below drawer. c. 1710
A much simpler fruitwood version of 845. Here the stretchers are of the normal type. The top and mouldings are very much the same and so is the date. c. 1690
Shows a delightful walnut table of very high quality both in design and execution, with cabriole legs of exceptional form in which the feet are ’stepped’ and the top contained within a fold backed by a scrolled shoulder under the frieze. The drawer is inlaid with an ebony and boxwood stringing line and cross-banded in cherrywood. c. 1710
An oak table cross-banded in walnut on the top and drawer front. The cabrioles are very pronounced and end on pointed feet. The shoulder pieces fit in well and the piece has a strong sturdy look without being over muscular. c. 1740
Shows a simpler, but still very high quality, version in cherrywood throughout, with cabriole front legs ending in pad feet and having a scrolled carving inside the knee. The drawer has an ovolo lip moulding and the back legs are the straight pad-footed type. A simple cross-band, also in cherry, decorates the edge of the drawer and top. c. 1720
A high quality example in dark Cuban mahogany. Notice how the cabrioles are just that bit more
restrained when compared with the last example. (By comparison with which, incidentally, it will weigh more than half as much again). The C scroll is well designed and executed and small carved decoration is
appearing above it. Notice the quarter round moulding we saw in the lowboy section on walnut, early for mahogany. The frieze could be more exciting. c. 1740
The introduction of the cabriole leg affected all furniture and, as we have seen with the lowboys, many interesting and very collectable examples were made. The development in design is predictable and clearly seen.
A country elm piece which fails to excite. The legs are chamfered and the moulding is a broad quarter-round which is repeated on the outside of the leg. In burr elm with a good deep rich colour one might treble the price.
A pad foot example with frieze, the drawer is scratched around the edge to look like cockbeading which suggests a date a shade later than the piece might otherwise be. c.1740
New classical elegance, serpentine front and tapered legs. A reasonable quality example, almost Hepplewhite  see the small square near the bottom of the leg which is a typical feature. c. 1780
Clearly from the restrained turned legs and the moulding a product of the early nineteenth century. In this design restraint is still the keynote; is there, one wonders, just the slightest hint in the tulip-shaped top of the leg that ‘things’ might soon be happening. c. 1800

TABLES - occasional gateleg - Willian and Mary fruitwood small side tables - oak occasional table - French country rococo table - Regency carved wood - jacobian gate leg - walnut baroque gateleg table with drawers

First an example of a fruitwood  gateleg table. It has a main turned support at each end, showing baluster and bobbin forms, joined usually by a wide stretcher, which in this case is divided into two square sections for lightness of appearance. There is a wide sledge-shaped foot at each end for stability. The gates which open to support the flaps are flat with a fretted lower stretcher. Late 17th century Willian and Mary period.
Novelty gatelegs might be a better title for these small side tables which sometimes have slightly unusual methods of supporting the flaps, shaping of the legs, or are just good quality. Quite apart from being attractive, these little tables are very useful as they can be folded and put away when not in use. For this reason they command a good price, especially when that glorious white or black colour, which age and polishing (i.e. patination) can confer, is present.
In this oak jacobian occasional table the main columns are flat and fretted. There is a wider foot than in the previous example and again, two flatter stretchers. The flat carved wood gates with drawers are shaped to
echo the end supports.
A charming oak single flap clawfoot table, almost only a stand, in which the same constructional system is used but all uprights are turned with baluster forms. Third quarter 17th century Regency period
A really rare and charming ash ‘coaching’ antique wooden table in which the gates are on a pivot so that the whole top can be folded vertically. It was probably taken in a coach for use on picnic stops. End of 17th
century( c. 1680)
A conventional but charming walnut baroque occasional gateleg table with carefully graded bobbin turning and a small thick rectangular top. c. 1660
Small English Victorian mahogany occasional gateleg with the typical lion foot. The long square sections to the legs height. The small turned stretcher iand a claw feet are exellent in quality.

An antique British little bobbin turned fruitwood example with the additionally attractive feature of bobbin stretchers as well. The drawer with lock is a long one and is supported underneath by a central stretcher which runs the length of  the carcase. Made in Britain in the XVII century.

A simple version of an French country walnut gateleg table in ebony colour and white marble top with claw foot,  though the six claw legs are not as  good. The base is a single piece and it is generally more wormy but it makes an interesting comparison. Made in France in the 18th century and is a good example of antique Louis XVI style that you can easily identify.

Tripod table

1. Made of heavy, dense mahogany.
2. Carving, dishing, piecrust or scalloping integral with table top, standing proud of the surface.
3. Grain of stem running from top to bottom without a break.
4. Proportions correct: when tilt top is vertical the sweep of the curve should not cut into the baluster, carving or decoration, or leave too much showing.
5. Measurements of top should not be precisely circular - timber shrinks along the grain and circle will be slightly flattened.
6. Never veneered - always in the same solid wood, for the top, stem and feet.
Likely restoration and repair
7. Metal brackets pinning underside of tripod or knees where wood has split and been repaired.
8. Wrong proportions - tops too large or small. The eye can judge better when the top is vertical not horizontal.
9. Line of joined timber at collar at base of stem: block added, into which legs have been fitted.
10. Dishing on top surface without corresponding tapering of outer edge of undersurface suggests later copy or dished out from undecorated table.
11. Grain not running in unbroken line up the shaft indicates stem from another piece of furniture with
additional piece to give extra height.
12. Tripods of dumb waiters, fire-screens, torcheres, teapot’s, suitable posts from four-poster beds, inverted legs of dining tables - all these give an idea of suitable beginnings and replacements for stems and tripods. Many period trays are used for tops.
13. bullish, reddish-coloured walnut, not mahogany -nineteenth-century copy.
14. Lighter-weight mahogany, shallow carving - also nineteenth-century copy.
Historical background
The antecedent of this small table is the candlestand of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, standing on three splayed feet. Small tables on central stems and three scrolled feet were made in ‘black’ Virginia walnut from the late seventeenth century onwards, and in the first two decades of the eighteenth century. But the tripod table did not really come into its own until mahogany had become readily available. Its construction demanded a strong, close-grained timber which would not easily split, and which could be cut in a single piece for the table top.
Of all tripod tables the piecrust’ is the best known and has been ceaselessly copied in a recognizable, although emasculated form. Genuine piecrust’ tripod tables are far more massive: the tripod legs are a version of the cabriole leg, with acanthus, scallop or lions mask carving on the knee, which has a pronounced spring. The stem is carved with foliage or cupped leaves around the bulb of the base which rises in a slender, fluted stem. The piecrust’ itself is carved from the solid timber, and the thickness reduced to a minimum beneath the carving so that in outline the top itself is slightly dished.
Construction and materials
These are important little tables in terms of construction, so apparently simple that a great deal of detail must be absorbed to be sure that the piece in question really is genuine.
The base is made in four pieces: the central stem, cut from a single piece of wood, and three separate legs, secured to the base of the stem with a wedge dovetail, the tops of the joints concealed by the swell of the bulb, or by a circular ring-turned boss below the collar of the baluster.
The top is cut in a single piece with the grain running across it from side to side, and the carving of the rim is integral with the original thickness of the top. On the underside of the rim the wood is tapered so that from the side the shape is slightly dished. The tilt-top construction consists of two parallel cross bearers attached to the underside of the table top, which fit on either side of a small square block mounted on top of the stem, with a pivot running through it into the cross bearers on either
side. The top is secured by a brass spring catch to hold it firmly in place when horizontal. On very early, rare tripod tables, the tops were fixed to the stems with a central threaded wooden collar secured to the underside of the top into which the stem was screwed. Revolving tilt tops were mounted on a ‘bird cage’ gallery, rare to find intact. The top of the stem was enclosed in an open box with wooden columns to all four sides, which revolved, and which fitted neatly into the two parallel cross bearers mounted on the underside of the table, and locked into position.
Detail
Plain-topped or dished tops were mounted on plain baluster stems, sometimes with spiral decoration, with pad feet, or scrolled feet on flat ’shoes’ to give stability. The knees of the legs should be high to give the tripod base a good grip. From c.1780 the legs are flattened into soft S-curves, more spread-eagled and sprawling.
Variations
Period country versions were made in fruitwood, yew wood and in mixed woods with oak tops. The construction of the base demanded a close-grained wood which would not split on the dovetail joints of stem and feet, and oak was not suitable.
Sometimes walnut was used, but rarely.
If fruitwood and yew wood were used the tops were often of more than one piece owing to the lack of girth of the trees. Simple column turning and baluster turning to stems were characteristic as are plain pad feet on a small rectangular ’shoe’. Rims were undecorated, with no carving on knees of tripod legs. Tops were larger than mahogany versions -tilt tops were used for more practical purposes in the country and small tops were less useful.
Right: mahogany syllabub or supper table, a Chippendale design which was revived in the nineteenth century.
Right: nineteenth-century reproduction with typical sprawling cabriole legs and weak ball-and-claw feet.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
Although the tripod is often called ‘pillar-and-claw’ this is a variation, with flattened curve and flowing unbroken line from tripod base to stem, and denotes a characteristic Regency design of the ‘Sheraton’ peri
legs were often reed later, curved above the central boss of the stem. Inlaid brass decoration and stringing exaggerated the form of these upward-curving legs, which were joined to a square plinth base from which the stem rose. The tops of these tables were often square or octagonal.
The monopodium pedestal also traces its origins from the tripod base and characterizes a wide variety of Victorian tilt-top tables, usually larger than the eighteenth century tripod table. It is to be hoped that the foregoing points of construction, authenticity, restoration and faking will guide the buyer quickly away from any of the countless reproduction ‘piecrust’ tables to be found in any department store or general furnishing store. Apart from anything else, the lightest push will tip them over.
Price bands
Eighteenth-century piecrust, £2,500-3,500.
Eighteenth century, with bird cage, £3,000-4,000.
Chippendale-style supper table, £500-850.
Nineteenth-century reproductions, £.200–350.

Library table

In its most general meaning, a library table is simply a table used for writing or reading in the library of a grand house. The term covers a wide variety of tables, from the slender eighteenth century writing table derived from the French bureau plat, to the solid drum-shaped tables which were smaller versions of the rent tables used in the offices of large estates. All were leather-topped, all had drawers in the frieze to hold writing materials and were 2 ft 6 in to 2 ft 8 in high.
For immediate identification only the derivations of the French bureau plat will be considered in detail: a writing table with a leather-covered surface and three drawers in the frieze. French bureaux plats are similar to the English lowboy, having two deeper drawers on either side of a shallower drawer, but the `kneehole’ is less pronounced and they are much longer. English library tables have a straight frieze, are free-standing
and have drawers on both sides, often three to one side and two to the other. Often there is a pull-out writing slide which can be lifted to make an easel over the centre drawer. Sometimes the whole central leather-covered panel lifts to rest on easel struts as a bookrest or `architect’s table’. Regency libraries were equipped with library tables and, from that period onwards, designs of all sorts were made. The Regency archetype is the design described below.
Signs of authenticity
1. Solid, close-grained dense woods with good figuring.
2. Tops of legs continue to form end pieces of drawer frieze, set proud, rounded or square.
3. Minimal lip above frieze, usually less than 1 in.
4. Legs terminating in simple peg foot below a turned collar.
5. Drawers lined with oak.
6. Underside well patinated where knees have rubbed.
7. Underside of drawers enclosed with pine or mahogany with strengtheners and corner pieces.
8. Good patination on inside front of drawer and drawer sides where they have been handled.
9. Lock escutcheons set centrally above handles on single-handled drawers.
10. Lock and lock rail.
11. Drawers are usually same width.
Likely restoration and repair
12. New leather inset panel.
13. New top with panel planed out of damaged solid surface and inset leather panel added. Grain will continue through in one direction.
14. Legs broken at frieze level: break in grain on point of join, often concealed by ring turning.
15. Top section of small pedestal desk mounted on legs. Grain of
all legs will stop short at frieze level, underside of drawers with new wood, or patched and stained where tops of pedestal were originally.
16. Library table tops reset on cheval supports – could have been altered during Victorian period, but more likely to be a recent event.
17. Cut down from more massive Victorian piece: drawers of equal width where centre drawer has been reduced. Tell-tale crack on underside of small overhang beneath veneered top edging where width and length have been reduced.
Construction and materials
Library tables were made in solid mahogany, or mahogany veneer on a mahogany carcase, and in rosewood or Brazil wood (closely resembling mahogany but of a redder, more chestnut colour). Library tables are distinctive and differ from all other tables. The legs were set out from the frieze, giving unusual lobed corners. The same is true of the French bureau plat where the legs are usually squared and set slightly proud of the frieze. The English favoured a smoother line, with rounded corners, undecorated except for a thin line of double stringing, framing and emphasizing the curve.
Detail
Drawers were oak lined, outlined in double stringing, often with squared handles on cast brass bolt heads with rosettes, octagonal or circular small backplates on either side of the handle. Legs were always elegantly turned and reeded or fluted, terminating in plain peg feet. The table edges were never carved or decorated, and there is almost no lip or overhang above the frieze drawers. Usually the edge of the table was decorated with two single thick reeds, continuing round the lobed corners. The drawers were usually edged with thin cockbeading or half-round beading, and the leather writing surface is inset and edged with cross-cut veneer.
Variations
Most common are circular rent tables used in the offices of large estates, with small drawers in the circumference of the frieze. Plain oak or oak-and-elm tables of solid construction often had drawers set in the ends as opposed to along the length and square chamfered legs. Country versions should be wider than a side table and may have plain square stretchers for extra stability.
Below: a late Regency design, probably provincial.
Above: drum or rent table.
Reproductions
Victorian
Variations are legion: octagonal leather-topped tables set on pedestals with drawers; drum tables set on central pedestals with bow-fronted drawers set fairly far apart (usually four on a small drum table, and not tapering in shape towards the centre); leather-topped tables on almost Davenport-type pedestals with two flaps, one on either side. Also popular were ,architect’s tables’ with tops lifting on easel supports. Victorian versions of the bureau plat had ornate, over-curvaceous serpentine lines, often with mass-produced mock-ormolu embellishments. ‘Gothic’ Victorian library tables with pillared legs on square plinth feet had carved edges to tops and applied or shallow machine-cut decoration on side friezes.
Twentieth century
Edwardian library tables were well-made and often quite well-proportioned but of mahogany veneer which was darker than earlier veneer. They often have a bigger overhang and lip moulding, and the grain of the veneer running vertical and not horizontal on frieze and drawer fronts, which can cause wrinkling, chipping or splitting.
From the turn of the century, there was a plethora of mass-produced reading/writing tables for public libraries, hotel
reading rooms and public institutions. Many library tables have been made up’ from other pieces of furniture, so it is particularly important to
examine similar-shaped pieces and styles with great care, and to scrutinize materials, detail and construction of the piece under consideration.
Price bands
Fine quality, c.1790, £3,000-4,000.
Later versions with less detail, £1,500-2,000.
Drum or rent table, c.1790, £900-1,200.

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.

Gate-leg table

Coinciding more or less with the Commonwealth period, an increasing number of households began to furnish their houses with relatively sophisticated furniture by comparison with the rather basic pieces of earlier periods. One of the most typical was the gate-leg table, made for the houses of yeomen farmers, manor houses and wealthier households whose whole way of life was changing. The old Great Hall had more or less disappeared by this time and the parlour and dining room had become common in most houses of any size.
The gate-leg table developed from the small side table with a semi-circular flap supported on a single gate-leg, and from the writing box on stand with two gate-legs. Free-standing gate-leg tables first made their appearance at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but were not made in any quantity until after 1648. In the main,
gate-legged tables made in England were round or oval, while those made by the Dutch were often square or rectangular.
Legs and stretchers were simple and square until lathe-turning was mastered by English carpenters and joiners between 1640 and 1660, when simple column legs, bobbins, twists and then balusters were all used to make more decorative legs. Gate-legged tables were made in all shapes and sizes, from small ones seating four people to very large 12-seaters, usually with four gate-legs to hold the massive flaps.
Signs of authenticity
1. Underframe of same timber as legs, stretchers and gates.
2. Each flap made of a single piece of timber, with the fixed table top also made in a single piece.
3. Signs of wear on framing stretchers where feet have kicked and worn.
4. Legs and legs of gates with grain running right up to underside of table top, with ,gates’ tenoned into swinging underframe.
5. Timbers of tops, flaps, and underframe of slightly different thicknesses – hand-cut timber was never of even thickness.
6. Good figuring, grain, speckling, of wood, split not sawn.
7. Flaps overhanging gate legs by several inches when raised.
8. Flaps falling to a line just above stretchers when dropped.
9. Good patination, scratch and groove marks where gates have been swung in and out, flaps and gates have been constantly handled.
10. Feet showing signs of fraying from stone floors, damp and wear.
11. Worn, polished sockets to pivots of gate legs from constant use.
12. Flaps hanging flush with closed gates when dropped.
13. No signs of saw marks, or circular saw cuts on underside of any part of timbers.
14. Gates and legs battered, split and chipped in places. Pristine tables are suspicious.
Likely restoration and repair
15. Replaced flap with commercial thickness of timber –genuine period table tops were at least a full inch thick.
16. Cut down from larger sizes –if well done, only the grander turning and decoration on a small supposedly ‘country’ table will provide the clue.
17. If poorly done, joins, framing and gates will all be out of scale.
18. Old flaps cut down from larger sizes, added to smaller fixed top and frame. Thumb moulding may only be at either end of original top. If new thumb moulding has been cut, there will be no patination in the groove or join.
19. Wood split from hinge to edge and repaired – new hinges and break in grain will show up weakness.
Construction and materials
Like most furniture up to the end of the seventeenth century, gate-leg tables were principally made in oak, or oak with elm tops. At the end of the seventeenth century some fine quality tables were made in solid walnut.
They were built on a rectangular frame construction, with an underframe, four legs with stretchers and two swinging gate-legs on either side of the frame. Until c.1700 the tops were pegged to the underframe with wooden dowels; glue was often used and the pieces were clamped together until they were solid and secure. The gate legs were rudimentary, and swivelled on pivots fixed into the underframe and bottom stretchers.
Until c.1670 the flaps and fixed table top had tongue and groove joins with steel hinges fixed with nails. After c.1690 finer tables had rule joins with thumb moulding which carried round the edge of the
table top as well as on the flaps. Hinges were sometimes brass, sometimes steel, and fixed with hand-cut screws.
Gate-leg tables were made in many different sizes, and the larger ones often had an arched or simple decorative frieze at either end, or a small single drawer, supported on a single bearer, usually without side bottom runners.
Detail
Legs were squared or simple turned columns until c. 1690, after which decoration was more elaborate with twist-turned, reel and bobbin and baluster-turned legs, but always the joints were made on square-sectioned blocks between decorative turning. Tables with decoratively-turned legs usually had bun or ball feet, unturned square-sectioned legs or simple columns usually terminated in solid block feet.
Variations
The only difference between
`country’ and grander versions is the quality and craftsmanship in early versions, until the drop-leaf table with wooden hinges developed in mahogany in the eighteenth century and the gate-legged table became more of a country piece.
Country tables continued the simpler, more rudimentary methods of construction long after grander ones had improved with, for example, rule joints, thumb moulding, turned legs and
stretchers. Country versions were more frequently in oak and elm rather than oak only, although this cannot be taken as a rule. Column-turned legs with block feet were more common than ball or bun feet on country versions. Unturned stretchers and less elaborate turning to the legs continued to be the rule for country gate-leg tables. Country versions were often smaller to fit the room sizes in a farmer’s house compared with larger provincial houses
Left: typical style, c.1670, except for small bun feet which were added at a later date.
Reproductions
Eighteenth century
Two eighteenth-century reproductions are: the plain country drop-leaf or modified gate-leg table of more simple form with hinged bearers to support the flaps, and the early Georgian drop-ieaf mahogany gate-leg with curved cabriolestyle legs or plain legs, tapering to a neat pad foot. Gate-legged tables continued to be made with modifications in construction right through to the beginning of the twentieth century, when their cumbersome design and awkward leg arrangements made them unpopular.
Nineteenth century
Victorian ‘rustic’ versions have over-elaborate turning to legs and gates, machine-cut and uniformly regular. They were also made in solid Virginia walnut, a wood that darkens with age and will not take a high polish but remains shallow and dead-looking.
Twentieth century Straight-legged ‘country’ gate-legs entirely in elm are almost certainly of recent manufacture. Copies are made in French walnut, more highly figured than English walnut. French walnut was only used as a veneer in England until c.1720 and not as a solid wood. Mass-produced coarse-grained oak flap or drop-leaf tables were made from the early nineteenth century until the 1930s.
Price bands
Fine, twist-turned oak, c.1670, £4,000-6,000.
Simple turning in oak, or oak and elm, c.1670, $1,200-2,500.
Elaborate bobbin-turned and Continental, c.1700, $1,800-3,000.
Nineteenth-century machine-turned, £400-800.
(Prices are for 6-seater tables with rounded flaps.)

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.)