Antique Work Table - A Regency Work Table in Mahogany - A Victorian Walnut Work Table

Work tables for use by ladies, with space for needlework materials in a well below were a later 18th century phenomenon and were made in a variety of forms. We have illustrated some typical examples and have
included a number without the silk bag but with small drawers instead. It can be mentioned that Sheraton illustrated some designs, as did Gillows. In the Regency period and after, some very elaborately decorated
designs appeared in a variety of styles; the later Victorian type of octagonal form, with tapering well, supported on a tripod base, have recentlybecome popular and are being sold in a range from 15-25 depending on the veneered surface decoration.
A Regency work table in burr walnut with side drop flaps and three drawers, on Disneyesque paw feetwithreeded scrolls. Under the lowest drawer a slide acts as a drawer frame for the pleated silk bag.
Value points: Burr walnut
A Regency mahogany work table with drop flaps and a centre drawer with work bag sliding beneath. The end supports consist of two turned columns on raised feet and a turned stretcher, in the style of the columns
connects the two.
Figured woods and inlays  Quality of turning
A Regency yew wood work table on a turned baluster stem and four carved feet ending in brass paw casters. An unusually circular piece, which, had it been in any other wood than yew, should not have been priced at
more than 50.
An early Victorian mahogany work table with folding top, two drawers and silk bag on slide. Supported on an octagonal centre column on shaped platform on turned flat bun feet.
A late Georgian mahogany work table with three shallow drawers, inlaid with boxwood stringing. Note here again the slightly ‘bamboo’ effect in the turning of the tapering legs.
Choice of figured woods and inlays Quality of leg turning
A simpler mahogany work table of the later Georgian or Regency period. The turned legs are simply executed and the mahogany is not greatly figured. The casters are original.
Figured woods and inlays … Quality of leg turning
A Regency period work table on tripod stand, in mahogany. There are two flaps, Pembroke table style, which can be supported on brackets, to give greater surface area to the top. The two drawers open at the visible
end; on the other end two mock drawer surfaces are included to give balance.
Elegance of tripod stand  Choice of figured woods and inlays
A Regency work table in mahogany with three drawers veneered in figured wood. The centre column is turned and carved with leaf pattern. The four carved legs end in paw feet on casters. Note that the drawer fronts are cross banded.
A japanned and painted work table of c.1840. It is constructed on the Pembroke table principle with two side flaps which are supported by small hinged wooded brackets. The drawers are cock-beaded.
Quality of painted decoration …
Mother of pearl inlays
A Victorian walnut work table of c.1860 date. The octagonal top lifts to give access to a compartmented interior and the tapering central column is hollow to allow for storage of wools. It is raised on carved cabriole legs. Usually the tops of such pieces are veneered with a thin sheet of decorative burr, but mahogany and rosewood examples with variations exist. Marquetry inlaid tops are also fairly common in the walnut varieties.
The lids usually made of cheap pine on to which the mahogany was veneered, often warped and, therefore, do not close properly.

17th century oak gate-leg table -  William and Mary period side table - Walnut side table - William and Mary period carved wood table

One of the chief innovations of the Stuart and Commonwealth period (1603-60) was the gate-leg table. It appeared in Jacobean times but was perhaps not fully developed until after 1650. The turned leg was
predominantlya Commonwealth innovationand the plain column turning shown in the example above is typical of the period although the design continued for many years. Early Gate-leg tables were
made of oak, walnut or oak with elm tops. The example above is the latter. There are about twelve different types known, some being very rare. The number of legs varied from four to twelve and size from verysmall
side tables to fully-blown diningtables to seat twelve people. The stretchers on many were left square, as above, with the two top edges relieved by a slight bead mould. On other and richer examples the stretchers
were turned, not always to match the legs. All framing joints are mortice and tenon, with oak dowel pegs: in the mahogany gate-leg tables of the 18th century the joints were not pegged, as glue was then used and
framing was cramped while it set. If design and size permitted a drawer was fitted set in the under framing, having a special carriage and runner made of a horizontal slat of oak, fixed longitudinally in the drawer
space. The bottom of the drawer then slid on this; side bottom runners are known, but are rare. The top centre section was held on by oak or walnut dowels until the 18th century, when screws were put through the underside of the framing to secure it.
Value points: 6 seater  8 seater  12 seater
Late 17th century oak gate-leg table, of fairly small dimensions, which could seat four people. Note the bun-shaped feet and the more developed turning of the legs.
Size: - again larger tables to seat more people gain value probably following:-
4 people 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.
Small oak side table c. 1675. The simple column turning of the legs and the stretchers is of the same type as the gate-leg table illustrated earlier. The top is fixed to the framing with oak dowel pegs. The two drawers
fit tight under the top without a lock rail in the framing. Note that there are now simple bun-like feet under the square leg-stretcher joints, which lift the stretchers slightly higher off the floor. On original undisturbed
pieces the dowels protrude abovethe level of the surface (stand proud).
A William and Mary period side table, of a type generally found in walnut, but also frequently decorated with marquetry. The serpentine X stretcher is also found on earlier tables, but the inverted cup form on the turned
legs is more generally associated with William who brought over Dutchcraftsmen from whom this form originates. The legs would be in solid walnut whereas the top, sides, drawer front and stretcher would be
veneered.
Price Range: Marquetry
Walnut side table of the post ‘Restoration’ period c. 1680. The twist turning so popular to the Restoration period continued to be used on the legs and stretchers of tables though simple turning ’still persisted. Walnut was by far the most favourite wood though oak by no means went out of use. While the legs and bun feet are solid walnut, the top and drawer fronts are veneered. The veneered stretcher is Y shaped at each end,
connected by an oval widening - intended for a bowl. It is more common to have one drawer only and the best examples would be inlaid with marquetry panels.
A William III side table inlaid with seaweed marquetry. The thumDnail moulding is ebonised. The double-scroll legs of square section are particular to this period and not to everyone’s taste, but the stretcher form and flat bun feet are typical. Seaweed marquetry of this quality demanded a high degree of skill and such pieces are
increasingly rare.
William and Mary period with arched A solid walnut side table of drawer. The X-shaped stretcher is shaping of the frieze below the
well illustrated and the heavy turning and bun feet are typical. Note the thumb-nail top edge moulding.
Value points: Proportion and quality of leg turning  Shaping of frieze
William and Mary period. The baluster turning of the legs shows later characteristics but the country maker has retained the square stretchers and construction from an earlier period. Note the drawer fitting tight under the lock rail and the square, pegged tenon joints. This type of table was made well on into the late 18th century.
Value points: Walnut  Fruitwood
William and Mary period carved wood table,decorated with gilt and gesso. The decoration of furniture by gesso was done in order to economise in carving by giving a pattern in slight relief without the need to carve it. It was a rich man’s style and comparatively small quantities were made, chiefly small tables and mirror frames. The style appears to have had a relatively short duration, from 1700 to 1735.
A William III Walnut Card Table,the oval folding top veneered outside and inside with burr -walnut, cross banded and with herringbone lines, the shaped frieze with three small drawers, on six tapering octagonal legs including two rear gate-legs, united by stretchers, and with turned feet.

TABLES  dining, mahogany gateleg, shaped foot, 1735-1760
Just as the stretchers disappeared from chairs in the early part of the eighteenth century, so mahogany dining tables rid themselves of stretchers at much the same time. Perhaps it was the strength of mahogany or simply the desire to refine. Whatever the reason, some superb tables emerged. Good quality examples are perhaps current738 (opposite page, top left) Elegant use of the pied-debiche foot from which the cabriole originated, decorated with the ram’s head. The cabriole is beautifully executed. The top pieces, each
of one plank, are without warp or twist. The rule joints are in immaculate condition. Heavy Cuban mahogany at its best.
Another example with pied-de-biche foot and the little projection behind it, but with a simple decoration on the knee and a small scroll either side. The top has the same thumb-nail mould but each flap is made up of two planks. All features which, together with smaller size, reduce the price. c. 1740
Conventional cabrioles with ball-and-claw again. Well executed but looking almost clumsy against 738. In fact by itself an elegant table. A walnut style carried on into mahogany. 1730-1740
Without the panache of 738, but undeniably elegant in dark, almost figureless Cuban or Spanish mahogany. These pieces are enduringly made and, when this book was first written in 1978, were undervalued, but the price has since doubled. Shown both closed and open to make the point that such a table fulfils the dual purpose of elegant side table and comfortable dining table for four to six people. Appears to have glorious patination.
With gently curved cabrioles, which like the previous example have a simple C scroll at the top, this table could be walnut period but is in fact mahogany. The moulding is slightly unusual with only a very shallow depression and a very wide flat curve almost like a Victorian slope. Rectangular flaps are not as popular as oval. c. 1750
The more simple pad foot version on a straight leg of tapering circular section which, in comparison with 741, gives the unfortunate impression that the weight of the flap is proving exhausting. Nevertheless, very English in concept and clearly related to its country cousin in oak.
Quite literally the oak version of 743. Interesting to see the heavy structure beneath as though the maker would have preferred the old oak method. c. 1760

Sofa table

Sofa tables belong to the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first two of the nineteenth, after which they became ‘occasional tables’ without a specific function. They were originally designed for writing or playing games while people sat on a sofa, and as such were usually at least 5 ft long, sometimes as much as 6 ft, and no more than 2 ft 6 in high and 22-24 in wide.
Bearing in mind their function, it is obvious that the extra flaps are extensions of length rather than width, since a flap on the sofa side of the table would make it very uncomfortable for anyone to sit at. In order to give as much legroom as possible, they were of cheval construction, with two end bearers, rather in the manner of the old X-frame trestle table, solidly made and correctly balanced so that they did not sway from side to side. In some, a central stretcher helped stability.
By c.1810, sofa tables were made on the central pillar-and-claw design, usually more ornate, and often with brass stringing inset as decoration on legs and plinth as  well as on drawers and surfaces.
Early sofa tables had fairly deep drawers on one full length and matching dummy drawer on each side. Often, drawers were fitted with compartments for games and writing materials. In the later period, c.1820, drawers became shallower as sofa tables began to lose their identity and became merely decorative.
Early versions were not very robust, being intended only for genteel use, and it is uncommon to find one without any repair or restoration.
Signs of authenticity
1. Thick, fine veneers on close-grained red pine or Honduras mahogany.
2. Drawers oak-lined, not pine.
3. Undersides of flap plain veneered – visible when not raised.
4. If with locks, steel levers to brass locks and lock casings –brass levers are post-1840.
5. Two fly brackets to each flap.
6. Three ‘knuckles’ or hinges to each bracket.
7. Underframe frieze inset to take width of closed brackets, allowing flaps to fall flush with cheval supports.
8. Sham drawers on either side to real drawers.
9. Grain running across width, not down length of table.
10. No escutcheons to locks (if fitted) but simple rim escutcheons with rounded bottoms. Squared bottoms to rim escutcheons are post-1840.
11. Cross-cut veneer to edge of tables.
12. Often, cast brass, turned, circular, flat knobs to drawers or lion’s masks with rings.
Likely restoration and repair
13. Cheval supports broken, replaced with central pillar support taken from damaged piece of same period.
14. Cheaper cheval supports taken from mass-produced sofa tables of same period, usually not as long, added to a high quality top. Marks of original bearers, screw-holes, chevals set in too close.
15. Made-up cheval supports from Victorian cheval mirrors. Holes where mirror pivoted, usually in square block in cheval, concealed by a rosette or other decoration, where it has been plugged and stained.
16. If both drawers are on the same side, indicates a recent addition.
17. Veneered in pinkish-coloured birch. Cheap Victorian substitute for satinwood, with wavy grain instead of straight or figured.
18. Grain running length of table suggests new top with suitable inlay made up from larger piece of period furniture.
Sofa tables were made with two different constructions: the cheval and the central pillar support. The cheval type had solid supports dividing into two splayed legs, and was made with or without stretchers. The central pillar-supports often incorporated a half-circle resting on a central plinth with up-curving flattened splayed legs, frequently terminating in lion’s paw feet or square box castors with horizontal fittings.
They were made in a wide variety of woods and veneers: rosewood, mahogany and ‘black’ walnut. There were two drawers, side by side in the width of the table, one sham the other real.
The correct proportions are quite large: 5-6 ft long with the flaps extended, 22-24 in wide and approximately 2 ft 6 in in height. The overall shape is definitely long, lean and sleek, with minimal overhang on either side. When the flaps are down they fall flush with the side supports. The legs splay out in a flattened curve so that they can be pulled close to the sofa, with the legs sliding a little way beneath.
Variations
Sofas were not part of the furnishings of smaller agricultural homes until the age of sprung furniture some time after c.1830. Country versions of the card table fulfilled the same function as a sofa table for writing and playing games. Contemporary, cheaper versions were made, in machine-cut woods, mass-produced with thin veneer and poor quality materials, usually shorter in length than high-quality versions.
Legs of chevals in provincial sofa tables tend to be heavy, or
Detail
Early sofa tables resemble writing furniture more than ornamental pieces, and share their smooth, plain surfaces rather than the more elaborate inlays which might lift and catch on soft fabrics of sleeves and cuffs. Simple decoration, such as cross-banded borders, continued on to the flaps, and some fine examples have fly brackets set at the edge of the frieze so that, when opened, the design carries on from the frieze to the ends of the brackets.
From c.1810 they are found in many veneers, including satinwood, light Cuban mahogany, laburnum, zebrawood, amboyna and rosewood. Between 1810 and 1820 brass inlay was very popular, and from c.1815 the fashionable design of the lyre was incorporated, and lyre-ended tables were made with brass rods to simulate harp strings.
machine-cut with decoration on outer ,surface of chevals only, strengthened with stretchers. Legs would often be chamfered to join the upright, then screwed, glued and clamped before being veneered over the joint to look as though they are correctly made.
The basic idea of a narrow all-purpose drawing table has been used in many variations since sofa tables were first designed by Thomas Sheraton and his contemporaries.
Reproductions
The period of the sofa table’s popularity comes within the age of mass-manufactured furniture. These tables were more often made in cheaper materials, and of meaner proportions for provincial homes, rather than as country pieces. After c.1850 many unattractive versions of long occasional tables were made all over the country, many of them with side-flaps rather than end flaps. Taller versions were used in libraries behind high-backed Victorian and Edwardian settees and sofas for trays of drinks, etc.
In the 1950s a proliferation of copies of the lyre-ended design flooded the market, but since they went out of fashion they have not been seen around in very large numbers.
Price bands
Top-quality Regency, without stretcher, mahogany,
£7,000 + .
Finely veneered satinwood, c.1810, £4,500 5,500.
Central support, fine quality, c.1810, £3,500-4,500.
Rosewood or walnut, fine quality, with stretcher, c.1830, 12,000 3,000.
Poorer quality veneered, £600-900.
Left: turned stretcher and cheval legs have probably been added. Centre: superb early Regency Thomas Hope design.
Below right: fine, early nineteenth-century, on central support with inlaid brass decoration.

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.