TABLES  sofa, pillar supports
The final group of sofa tables is the one in which there is a central pedestal. These pieces are therefore linked with pedestal dining tables, for the same type of base was often used.
In mahogany and remarkably similar to a design in zebrawood which can be dated exactly to 1810. The pillars are well turned and the decoration of split beading lines (fine around the drawers, slightly greater round the platform) is restrained. White stringing line is also used. The table edge is reeded and there is a thin line of crossbanding on the top. c.1810
Another example with four pillar turning in which the knee has moved towards the peculiarly high Regency form. The piece is in rosewood and the pillars are well turned. A small amount of split beaded decoration and metal mounts on the leg. More cramped and not quite the quality of the first example. c. 1815
An example which illustrates the desire for show at not too much extra cost, and a type that became an obsession later on. Simply cut on a band-saw these solid mahogany supports are reeded to match the feet. The top, too, has the customary reeding around the edge and is cross-banded in the same wood. Not as good as it looks at first sight. c. 1830
Down to two pillars. The same ringed decoration marks the place where the top of the legs don’t pierce the platform. The turning on the pillars is getting somewhat aimless  a series of rings and the odd bulge, not like the careful baluster form of the first two examples. c. 1830
Equivalent to the previous example with a straight-sided pillar. Again plenty of brass inlay and some ebony in the leg which turns with the characteristic sharpness of the period.
As can be seen, it has high decorative quality, but the drawback is its being mahogany.
When restored
A very simple example where the decoration is confined to a modest black stringing line on the side of the legs and a broader band on the top of the legs and the table itself. The two unimaginative rectangular pieces supporting the top affect the value. c. 1825
A bit of light relief. The vast base, heavily gadrooned, is supported by an equally substantial humanised version of the ball-and-. One would expect the top to be about 8ft. long, but in fact it is a normal sized sofa table, again gadrooned in calamander wood. The misalliance is condoned by two very elegant and beautifully reeded vase-shaped pillars with rims. It was sold at auction by a very knowledgeable specialist firm, so it must be right. Early 19th century
A robust turned and heavily carved centre pillar rosewood table. Plenty of brass inlay and a Regency knee with good stylised design. The edges of the table have a very refined beading. Rich effect without undue ostentation.

Pillar-and-claw table

1. Matching tops and pillar-andclaw supports – reeded edges to all pieces of table top including leaves, with reeded feet, legs and pillars.
2. Plain edges to table tops and leaves, with plain pillars, sometimes octagonal or polygonal, plain legs and feet.
3. Squared cast-brass shoes, plain swivelling castors with horizontal sockets more common on period tables than lion’s paw, which is often a sign of Victorian Regency revival.
4. Four legs and not three to each pillar for the best examples.
5. No cross-bearers visible near edge of table tops – always chamfered so that they could not be seen.
6. Squared tops to pillars in same timber as the rest.
7. Patination, particularly on leaves, the depth of a hand on undersurface of table top where table and leaves have been handled.
8. Grain of tops and leaves running parallel with rule
joints, not down the length of the table in any part.
9. Ring turning on pillars above leg joints.
10. Height of table, 2 ft 4 in.
Likely restoration and repair
11. Mismatched tops and pillars: reeded with plain, or vice versa, means a marriage of more than one table. Even if correct period, worth considerably less.
12. Replaced pillars from later bulbous Victorian shapes, cut down and reeded. Reeding will be rough, no patination in grooves.
13. Replaced legs and feet: ring turning may be directly above leg joints where wedge dovetail has been recut.
14. Bearers visible too near edge of table: top cut down from
larger size.
15. Bearers not chamfered indicates new top or replacement.
16. Edge moulding rough, no patination indicates Victorian machine-carving cut away.
17. Carved edges to tops and leaves indicates later Victorian table tops. Period tables were undecorated except for reeding or thumb moulding.
Historical background
The method of supporting table tops with one or more central columns on splayed legs was the natural development of the tripod table, combined with the great strength of mahogany. The greatest innovation in the design was that an extra leaf could be supported on the rule-join of the two endpieces, with nothing more than bolt-and-fork fastenings and no supporting pillar beneath it. This had obvious advantages for seating arrangements, as legs and chairs did not have to contend with a forest of uprights below the table.
The best examples of the pillar-and-claw construction are those with pillars terminating in four splayed legs rather than three. The square base of four legs suited the more symmetrical style of the Regency period and the whole appearance of these tables is characteristic of the ‘Sheraton period’ of simple, undecorated,
glossy mahogany, with smooth tapering lines and restrained reeded decoration. Dining tables of this period were designed to set off the quantities of silver, crystal and porcelain reflecting light from chandeliers and table candles –hence the emphasis on richly veneered surfaces.
Brass shoes and castors are an integral part of the design of pillar-and-claw tables –sometimes with lion’s paw feet but more often a simple squared shoe was preferred, with the castor horizontally beneath it.
Pillar-and-claw tables are sometimes known as pedestal tables, but strictly speaking the pedestal was a solid affair without separate splayed feet and belongs to a later period. No pillar-and-claw table measures less than 4 ft across and their height is always 2 ft 4 in. The smallest pillar-andclaw table measures about 9 ft long with the extra leaf inserted.
Construction and materials
The function of the table demanded a massive, heavy mahogany. San Domingo or Cuban mahogany was also used and is nearly always darkened from rich chestnut brown to deep gloss with age and polishing. Each piece of table top was cut from a single piece of timber, planed and rubbed with brick dust or sand until perfectly smooth, and then oiled and polished with beeswax until it shone like silk.
Legs fitted into the pillar on the same principle as the tripod table construction – each curving splayed leg dovetailed into the base of the pillar with a wedge dovetail, glued and clamped for extra strength.
Pillars ended in a square platform of the same piece of timber, and were mounted between chamfered bearers under the table top. There was a hairline join between the two halves, a fixed top
and extra leaves, with rule joint and bolt-and-fork fastenings below the table top on either side. Large spans had additional bolt-and-fork fastenings further towards the centre. With all extensions, the progression of numbers is: two pillars with one extra leaf, three pillars and two extra leaves, four pillars and three extra leaves or five pillars and four extra leaves.
Detail
The tables were always solid –never veneered – because of the potential damage from spillages and hot dishes, which could lift veneer. The edges to tops were plain, as were the circular pillars with their narrow band of ring-turning above the leg joints; legs were also plainly shaped. One sometimes finds reeded edges to table tops with matching reeded pillars and legs. There was no frieze to any section of the top.
Variations
Above: breakfast table, c.1800.
Below: nineteenth-century table with reeded edge and clumsy thick bearers.
The method of construction demanded the use of expensive mahogany which allowed the extra leaves to be inserted without supporting pillars, and therefore these were expensive tables used only in large houses for large numbers of diners.
Country tables of any size at this period were usually of the draw-leaf variety, descendants of the seventeenth-century draw table, with leaves at either end which slid
out from beneath the table top on bearers. By the end of the eighteenth century the two extending leaves joined in the middle under the table top when they were pushed in, and when pulled out the table top dropped into the well between them.
They were constructed with the traditional square or rectangular frame, with stretchers and plain square legs or minimal decoration.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
Versions came in many forms, often with three-legged pillarand-claw, lion’s paw feet, indicating Victorian Regency revival. Pillars were thicker and more bulbous, with more ring-turning. Legs were curvaceous and cumbersome, with castors set on base of upward-curling feet. Victorian draw-leaf tables sometimes managed a combination of the old solid X-trestle with central stretcher, bulbous in shape and added nothing to construction. Better versions had legs which tapered inward at the top, echoing the old triangular trestle shape.
Whatever the pillar or pedestal, it has to run on castors so that it can be moved about for inserting and removing extra leaves. Thus the triangular, solid-stem of later Victorian `tripod’ based tables were not suitable. The only other period variation during the early nineteenth century was a pillar constructed of three or four pieces, clustered together to form a single support.
Twentieth century
Smaller versions (less than 4 ft wide) are still made today, and are often quite well reproduced, but in poorer-quality woods with machine finishing, sometimes even with rough undersides to the table top.
Price bands
Four-claw, two-pillar table in solid mahogany, George III and Regency, £4,000-6,000.
Three pedestals, two leaves, c.1800, £8,000-10,000.
Four pedestals, three leaves, C.1800, £9,000-11,000.
Single pedestals, rectangular, c.1840, £1,200-1,500.
Circular, c.1840, £850-1,000.
George III style reproduction, £550-750.

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.)