Posts Tagged ‘century pembroke’

Cupboards, Wardrobes and Small Hanging
Cupboards
Evolution of the cupboard—development from a chest form—the Gothic hutch or livery cupboard—origin of the “cup board” or buffet—the court cupboard and press—lasting popularity in Wales of the deuddarn and tridarn—armoires, cloak cupboards and the linen press—later appearance of the wardrobe—hanging dole and medicine cupboards—various fronts of the corner cupboard—painted interiors—Victorian buffets antique porcelain tea pot made in france .
The cupboard may have evolved from a chest form because a chest, when placed on its end, would serve as a narrow cupboard or locker sabino marks . Again, the chest on legs with an overhanging top and hinged doors beneath, like the counter mentioned in Chapter 3, could also have been an ancestor of the cupboard gateleg table imperial furniture .
The counter was sometimes referred to as a hutch in old documents but nowadays the latter name is usually only given to a wired cage for tame rabbits value of antique rectangular drop leaf pedestal dining . In the Gothic period the hutch was a small planked cupboard used chiefly as a food larder antique harlequin figure . The door and front were perforated with frets of an architectural character to allow air to circulate and so keep the food fresh cheap art neuvou side tables . Pieces of loosely woven horse-hair were nailed to the inside of the frets to keep flies and insects away from the contents art deco chairs mahogany . While the horse-hair has long since perished the remains of the small nails which held it in position are sometimes still to be seen antique oak drawleaf trestle table .
Many books on antique furniture show an illustration of Prince Arthur’s Cupboard, which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum antique glass “la granja” . It dates from around 1500 and is one of the finest pieces of English Gothic furniture in existence the most expensive silver tray . It is unique and the chances of discovering a similar piece are negligible king george 1v furniture . However, it is possible that the smaller planked hutch, although very rare, may still be found by the discerning seeker after antique oak peter behrens side chair . I know of one in the possession of a Cotswold antique dealer but he says that f1,000 would not buy it satsuma pottery thousand flower . On the other hand, there are a considerable number of hutches at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire l shaped sideboard . In that part of the house open to public view I have counted nearly a score, so it is not beyond a reasonable possibility that there are hutches lying in old barns and attics elsewhere which might turn up one day and offer themselves to a knowing buyer inlaid moorish bone .
Apparently, it was a custom in the Middle Ages to keep a small supply of food in private rooms for use at any time antique epergnes . This would be stored in hutches which in time came to be referred to as livery cupboards lusterware made in czecho-slovakia . This term was in use until a few years ago and I remember an inn near my home where there was a painted notice over the entrance to the inn-yard, now given over to car parking, which bore the legend “livery and bait” french style porcelain gilded weight driven clock . This indicated that change of horses and refreshments for the journey were always readily available italian spider leg table .
Aumbry is another old name for a hutch or livery cupboard 16th century spanish trunk . There are some antiquaries, however, who maintain that the aumbry was not a standing cupboard but was essentially a recess in a wall which was enclosed by a door in a frame antique drop leaf side table furniture makers mark england . It may be that in different times the word was used to describe several types of cupboard 18th century rococo copper candlesticks .
The “cup board” proper was originally a side table or buffet which was a fitment with two or three shelves made to stand against the wall in the proximity of the dining table aimone mfg co new york . On this were kept the wooden trenchers or platters for use at meal times antique austrian furniture . In the 16th century and later it was used to display the silver or pewter table-ware, according to the opulence of the household georgian kneehole cabinet .
Early buffets vary in the amount of decoration, some being merely a set of shelves with some simple carving on the rails supporting the shelves classic furniture drawing . Others were larger and more elaborate with bulbous turnings on the front uprights and sometimes the centre and top rails concealed long shallow drawers which fitted under the shelves chippendale gateleg table . These were used for storing spoons and knives only as forks had not been adopted for table use at this time cheap art neuvou side tables .
Towards the end of the Elizabethan period it became the practice to construct buffets with the upper staging enclosed with panels and doors old antique sofa tables . This piece of furniture was known as a court cupboard from the French word court, meaning short or low origins art deco . Eventually, the lower stage of the court cupboard was enclosed as well during the early years of the 17th century and the cupboard form became really established from then onward chippendale style coffee table tilt value . In recent years the term court cupboard has been quite often misapplied to these completely enclosed cupboards late 1920s patek winged lugs . The late R american made ceramic french figurine . W christian mayer furniture . Symonds, who was probably one of the most authoritative furniture historians of the 20th century, has been able to confirm by much diligent research into old house inventories and wills that the correct name is actually a press renaisance design dining table made .
The press was invariably made in oak and a considerable
number were produced during the 17th century gate leg table 17thc . They were
built as a rule with three tiers of cupboard doors showing
on the front, two doors being on each of the top and
middle tiers and one on the bottom antique bread rack . The rails were decora-
ted with low-relief strapwork carving and ornamental
mouldings were sometimes applied to the panels and
door frames dining habit tendency . Carved initials of the owner and his wife,
together with a date to commemorate some family hap-
pening, were favourite additions to the design napoleon leather and steel campaign chair . Many of
these cupboards had large pendant turnings on either
side of the overhanging top george 3 style . These were the vestiges of the original bulbous turnings used on the front uprights of the buffet and court cupboard collectors glasgow school of art . The small doors are, for the most part, found with wrought-iron butterfly hinges but early presses had upper doors which turned on wooden dowel pins dutch plate family dining . Small turned wooden knobs were used as handles on the door frames cantagalli marks .
The early press was essentially a cupboard for storing food and table-ware and should not be confused with the linen press of the following century, details of which will be given later in the chapter antique tea set - rh macy . For the most part it was of fairly large size being 6 to 8 feet in length and would have been found in the dining or living rooms of the more prosperous Stuart and Commonwealth farmers dressing a tea table . Consequently, it can seldom be accommodated in a present-day house myott,son&co. .
However, there are smaller and rather attractive versions of the press which were made in Wales and enjoyed a degree of popularity during the 18th century, although the press in England had been superseded by the dresser mother of pearl coffe table fake antique egypt . These Welsh pieces were of two very similar types and were known as the deuddarn and tridarn, the former being constructed with two tiers or stages only while the latter had three pictures of 5 drawer antique library desks and tables . The top tier of the tridarn is seldom a fixture and can usually be lifted off, should this be necessary louis sue . These small press-type cupboards are seldom ornate but being comparatively small, often only 4 to 412 feet in length, the breaking up of the front surface with doors and panelling permits the mellowness of the old oak to be appreciated to the full new york city 18th century pembroke tables . In the deuddarn, drawers are sometimes included between the lower and upper tiers vases ceramic antique carved figures on front .
Tall cupboards for hanging clothes had been in use on the continent since the early 16th century chicken coops shelves . There they were referred to as armoires and it is thought that they were probably used for storing armour and weapons as well as clothes 17th century dutch silver . The few early armoires to be found in Britain are nearly always of French or Flemish origin, and cupboards designed for holding garments were rarely to be found in these islands until the beginning of the 18th century kneehole dressing table styles .
Hitherto, the accepted method of storing gowns and suits of clothes was to use a chest or a large chest of drawers “perspectiva cabinet” . Now a large cupboard with double doors was adopted for the purpose antiques furniture,josef hoffmann . It was mounted on a chest of drawers but a closer examination of the two top drawers will show them to be merely false fronts which do not open antique centre pieces for dining table . Behind them the space is used to afford greater hanging room for the clothes in the cupboard above art deco candle sticks . The lower drawers were made to function in the normal way oak draw refectory table . Before the invention of clothes hangers the contents of the cloak cupboard or clothes press were hung on a series of wooden pegs placed along the back and sides of the cupboard interior 18th century knife boxes .
Sometimes, the cupboard space above the drawers was fitted with wide trays for the storage of linen large rectangle dropleaf table . Although the exterior would be identical to that of a cloak cupboard, the article in this case would be called a linen press and the top drawers would be real ones as a deeper hanging space for clothes would not be necessary candelabrum .
Taller wardrobes without dummy drawers were pro-
duced by Chippendale, Hepplewhite and other cabinet-
makers type of wood used for roman furniture . These were very elegant in appearance with
finely veneered doors and sometimes with bow-fronts 18th century mahogany drop leaf table cabriole legs .
In mid-Victorian times some huge wardrobes were con-
structed in three or four separate sections kashgai carpet . These were
screwed together when assembled in position and included
bays for hanging clothes, long dressing mirrors and sections
with trays for keeping linen wear drop leaf table with spiral legs . Today, these well-made
mahogany and satinwood edifices are indeed white
elephants for they are much too large ever to go into a
modern house or flat royal staffordshire by clarice cliff nancy . Usually they are bought very
cheaply and then taken apart so that the fine wood in them can be used in the manufacture of reproduction pieces, sometimes advertised as “made from genuine old wood”  . I suppose that if one cannot acquire the authentic article then these are the next best thing five legs two leaf oak antique dining table .
Since the late 16th century, small hanging cupboards have always appeared among the more usual furnishings george speight porcelain . Towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth I and in early Stuart times wall cupboards with, fretted fronts or with the door frames filled with rows of baluster shaped spindles were in general use barley sugar twist pillars timber . Nowadays they are referred to as dole, or food, cupboards and were once hung inside churches to contain the bread doles provided by charity bequests antique 19th century nesting tables birds-eye maple . They were probably used as food larders in the kitchens of private houses as well art deco writing sets . Although this cupboard form is rarely found as an antique in England these days it is not an uncommon discovery in Wales social origins of art deco .
In the 17th and 18th centuries when doctors and apothecaries were few and far between, every housewife kept a store of medicinal herbs and remedies for administering to her family in times of sickness care of antique tortoiseshell . These were preserved in small cupboards which hung on the wall or stood on a chest of drawers and contained a number of pigeon-holes and small drawers for separating the various herbs antique paper mache trays . I always regret having failed to acquire one of these little spice or herb cupboards which a dealer friend of mine had in the shop meissen figures dating . Other dealers had passed it by, saying that it was only an old top from a grandfather clock which had been converted into a little cupboard vintage wooden card table . Actually, it was a genuine Queen Anne medicine cupboard with a finely panelled door and a neat compartment of drawers inside maccasar modernism france . However, the question had then arisen, as it does for all collectors sooner or later, of just where it was going to fit in with all the other things, and the opportunity had to be missed the revival of the games in the 19th century .
Corner cupboards, like tripod tables, are probably more numerous than any other type of antique furniture and are still to be had very reasonably antique table footed clock . They were in general use throughout the Georgian period and served many purposes antique dutch coffee table 17th century . Nowadays a corner cupboard with the doors left open makes an attractive setting fora small collection of china or Staffordshire chimney ornaments antique sideboard with built-in pendulum clock . Oak corner cupboards are usually flat-fronted with canted corners but occasionally they are found with bow-fronts patek philippe, 1930s, rectangular, hinged back . This is the pattern which was more often adopted for the mahogany cupboard and with an inlaid frieze at the top and a couple of small drawers beneath, this would make a very desirable acquisition to any modest collection of antique furniture antique dressers yorkshire .
Some flat fronted corner cupboards have glazed, astragal doors, that is with little panes of glass set into a framework of thin bars or beads robinson and leadbeater figure . These are usually original but a door with a single sheet of glass in it has probably had the wooden panel removed and glass substituted for the display of china or silver oak draw leaf table 18. th . Do not be in a hurry to strip or paint over if the interior of your cupboard is decorated in a faded olive green colour american antique slant front desk . This is probably the original finish as the Georgians were very fond of green linings to their cupboards and cabinets and a little toilet soap and warm water will most likely restore the paintwork very nearly to its original condition decoupage on veneer .
Finally, some mention should be made of the reappearance of the buffet in mid-Victorian dining rooms late 1800’s dining table european . Much lighter in design than its Tudor counterpart, it usually consisted of three quite deep shelves supported on four slim mahogany, turned corner uprights renaissance dining tables . These buffets, like the 17th-century press, are often too large for the modern house moser, austrian furniture designer . Occasionally they are to be seen, laden with dish covers, cutlery and cruets, in the spacious dining rooms of those old-fashioned but comfortable coaching inns which have survived into the day of the motor car art deco dresser inlaid wood .
Beds, Day-beds and Cradies
Early beds—rest for the rich and not-so-rich—misnomer of the “four-poster”—characteristics of 17th-century bed construction—development of the tester—beds of the mid-Georgian era—foreign influences on late 18th-century bed design—truckle and folding beds—origin of the day-bed—Restoration and early 18th-century types—Regency elegance of the chaise-longue—the Victorian sofa—cots and cradles padded antique library wood arm chair .
Early beds were looked upon as the most important items in any household 18 century porcelain placks louis xvi . They were handed down from father to son and were always mentioned with some degree of pride of possession czechoslovakia porclian . They were often very heavy, monumental constructions and the occupants depended for their comfort on enormously thick, feather mattresses 19th century parian busts . These were laid either on a network of ropes which passed through holes in the framework or on a foundation of wooden slats scroll planter table y chair .
There must have been a general fear of draughts and fresh air at night or the bedrooms were very cold and draughty because it was the practice to enclose the beds with panelling or heavy curtains until the end of the 18th century antique tea caddies, penwork . It is hardly likely that many people nowadays would sleep in a 17th or 18th-century bed for choice, although I have an old collector friend who nightly repairs to his Georgian four-poster neo classic bookcase maple tuscany . I should add that it has been fitted with a box-spring mattress of the latest slumber-inducing design antique half leaf table .
In medieval times the wealthy slept on free standing
frame beds overhung by a tent-like canopy which was suspended from the ceiling 19th century desk cabinet . Servants and attendants slept on the floor or on straw palliasses antique oak dressing table with mirror . For information about beds in the time of Elizabeth 1, we look again at William Harrison’s Description of England narrow entryway chest of drawers . In it he wrote: “Our fathers have lain full often upon straw pallets, on rough mats covered with a sheet and a good round log under their heads for a pillow 18 century wooden novelty pipes . If the goodman of the house had purchased a mattress or flock bed, and thereto a sack of chaff to rest his head upon, he thought himself to be as well lodged as the lord of the town, that peradventure lay seldom in a bed of down or whole feathers charles neo classism boulle . As for servants, if they had any sheet above them, it was well, for seldom had they any under their bodies to keep them from the pricking straws that ran oft through the canvas of the pallet and rased their hardened hides inexpensive french desks furniture .”
The “four-poster” bed of antiquity is a well-known term but few have stopped to think that the four-poster, at any rate until the early Georgian period, was in fact only a two-poster, the back or bed-head which supported the top, or tester, being a panelled framework without posts dressoir antique . In the 17th century these beds were known as tester or posted beds staffordshire porcelain rococo revival period . Medieval beds are so rare as to be almost non-existent but there are a number of beds with testers which can be dated from the late 16th century 18th century boulle cabinet . Some of these were excessively large like the Great Bed of Ware, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum antique sideboard styles and makers . It was made about 1595 and is 10 feet 9 inches wide antique gate legged side table . The great majority of beds, however, were between 5 and 6 feet in width art nouveau dresser .
Posted beds all followed a similar pattern, having a strong rectangular frame to carry the mattress and at the head a panelled screen, often elaborately decorated with carving and inlaid woods antique american tilt top pedestal table . This screen and two turned pillars at the foot of the bed supported a panelled ceiling or tester from which hung the curtains, to be drawn at night are william and mary chest of drawers rare? . The pillars at the bed-end were usually incorporated in the bed framework and acted as feet for the mattress franl;ng characteristics of english medieval gateleg table . On larger beds, however, the framing would have separate feet and the posts supporting the tester would be freestanding on rectangular pedestal bases period art nouveau galle bronze table lamp .
Some smaller beds were made with panelled screens erected at the bottom end as well as at the head so that they formed, in effect, large panelled boxes with curtained sides american spoonback armchair . They must have been very stuffy and altogether unhealthy japanned bracket clocks . Whether it was a reaction against the unhygienic properties of the enclosed bed or just a simplification for economy’s sake, a plainer type of bed appeared about the middle of the 17th century 19th century lacquered japanese cabinet with paintings . It consisted merely of a framework on short legs and a low panelled bed-head deco porcelain spanish dancers female . It is usually referred to as a farm-house bed victorian renaissance revival credenza . For those who have an ambition to equip their homes with antique furniture entirely, this type of bed, with a box-spring mattress fitted, can be quite an interesting acquisition wileman/shelley vases . They are not uncommon and I have seen them from time to time in several sale-rooms drop leaf table oak uk antique .
The tester undoubtedly developed from the tent-like covering of the medieval bed and during the 16th and 17th centuries was a very heavy structure which demanded a strong supporting bed-framework cupboard design for keeping cockery . During the time of William and Mary and Queen Anne it became fashionable in the noble households to install beds which were most luxuriously appointed antique chairs 1600 s all wood carved . In keeping with the tendency to build houses with higher ceilings to the rooms, these beds were also very high with elaborately decorated testers and the entire framework upholstered with quilted silk and velvet george jones majolica ware . Such beds were usually installed to commemorate the stay of some royal visitor antique chamber cabinet .
Beds of the mid-18th century became altogether lighter in construction and appearance and although in some cases the bed-head screen to support the tester was retained, the more ordinary run of beds had lower bed-heads and four posts to support the tester arabic style lambrequins . By this time the tester consisted only of four curtain poles placed across the tops of the posts with a light covering of material stretched Over them antique telescopic dining tables . Thomas Chippendale made a bed for the Duke of Beaufort about 1750 in the Chinese taste draw leaf tables . It has a pagoda-like top with flying dragons a6 the corners and, finished in black japan and gold, has a very attractive appearance carved oak draw-leaf refectory table . Another bed, painted in the Chinese manner, was made for David Garrick about 1770 antique oak drop leaf table american . It also has a light wooden tester with embroidered silk curtains and like the bed of the Duke of Beaufort indicates the tendency for greater delicacy in construction of furniture during the second half of the 18th century myott son & co hanley 1880 .
For some time during the 18th-century Italian and French beds were imported into the British Isles and although the numbers were small they influenced the design of the English type considerably regency mahogany settee hairy paw . The Italians seem to have been the first to do away with the tester and its hangings sheraton gateleg card table . Probably in a warm climate common sense overruled fashion and tradition maggiolini furniture . French patterns of the late 18th century were very elaborate in the decoration of bed-heads and here also the tester seems to have been abandoned entirely antique dutch desk . Only in England, and the climate was probably the chief reason for its retention, did the use of the tester linger on into the 19th century end tables tall spindle leg antique . Wooden canopies, from which side curtains were hung, were still being fitted over the bed-head about 1850 19th century english sideboard .
Lightly constructed beds, rather like the folding kind used for camping today, became fairly common during the Georgian period red delft tiles religious 17th century value . They were small enough to be kept under th;, posted beds when not required and were used by nurses or servants attending sick people or as extra accommodation for an unexpected visitor bone handled fork converted to knive . I have seen small chests of drawers with dummy fronts which swung open like a cupboard door antiquegames writing table . Inside were folding beds which could be pulled out when wanted heals pair oak tables . All these lighter types were generally known as truckle beds and were fitted with small wheels or castors so that they could easily be moved around dutch marquetry sutherland table .
I have already mentioned in a previous chapter how chests were used as seats in early times and it is evident that the larger ones also served as beds or couches porcelain wincanton . Some years ago in a sale-room I saw a panelled oak chest with raised ends antique porclean handled sheffeld flatware . Although I did not realise it at the time I had come across an archebanc couchette, probably of early French design which had been made to serve both as a chest and a couch inlay antique serving trays . I have never seen another since and only hope that one day the opportunity to acquire such a rarity might present itself again 17 century dining tables .
From these bed-chests probably developed the more lightly constructed single bed or day-bed which appeared towards the end of the 16th century etruscan pottery oriental . Shakespeare has referred to them in his plays and, by the Restoration, day-beds had reached a pleasing standard of design meissen porcelain antic . They were made in walnut with six or eight legs and had an adjustable end frame which, together with the main framework of the bed, was equipped with woven splitcanework to give some resilience to the overlay cushions types of table legs 19 century . Day-beds with double ends are found occasionally but they are very rare antique perpetual calendar .
The day-bed continued in use throughout the 18th century conforming to the fashionable characteristics of the time, but it is rather difficult to separate its development into that form known as the chaise-longue from that of the settee, couch or sofa corbusier furniture vintage . Although all these types were used for lying or for sitting upon, I think it should be remembered that the day-bed was designed primarily for resting during the day-time while the settee or sofa was made to enable a number of people to sit together on the same seat mahogany kommode . Perhaps the best way to remember the difference is that the day-bed or chaise-longue was never made with a back like a couch or a settee kilian brothers carved fruit and bird inlaid table . In its later form, as used in the 19th and 20th centuries, it has become known as the divan having neither end supports nor back antique table drop leaf raise .
The chaise-longue of the late Georgian and Regency periods became the symbol of elegant repose, typified perhaps by Jacques Louis David’s portrait of Madame Wcamier fauteuil art deco brandt . The beautiful piece of furniture with its gracefully curving ends was said to have been designed by the artist himself value of gateleg tables . It was in all probability among the finest of the adaptations by the late 18th and early 19th-century designers from the sources of classical Greece and Rome sideboard turns into dining table . A shorter form of seat which is often identical in appearance to the chaise-longue is the window seat bassano maiolica . Like the former, it has no back but is too short for reclining upon and as its name implies was just a small seat made to fit into a low window bay without obscuring the view causes of the reign of terror in france .
The type of Victorian sofa which has just the one scrolled end and a short back-piece running only half its length is really in the tradition of the day-bed rather than that of the couch or settee antique bread making cabinet . Those made in walnut about 1850 with small cabriole legs are attractive pieces of furniture and become increasingly rare as time goes on sheffield shovels .
Children’s cots and cradles are really among the few antiques which are not normally put to their original use and would hardly be considered suitable for the modern baby regency waterfall bookcase . Nowadays, babies are put to bed and left to sleep or lie awake as they will but in olden times an essential of all cot and cradle design was that they should be able to be rocked 1930s antique square table . The two swinging cots illustrated have basically the same structure although they are separated by more than 300 years dressoir timber . The Gothic cot is just an oak box suspended from a well-made stand while the late Georgian version, dating from around 1820, is a much finer affair in turned and needed mahogany pollard elm furniture . It has a clockwork mechanism incorporated in the suspension of the cot which will actually cause it to rock for nearly an hour lusterware made in czechoslovakia . It might be that the steady ticking of the clockwork also acted as a further soporific josef originals+ballerinas+value .
The more homely cradle of the farmhouse and cottage had a small hood at one end century furniture chinoiserie dining table chair credenza . It was mounted on a pair of rockers so that the mother could rock the baby to sleep with her foot while her hands were busy with some sewing or the preparation of food metal plates and trays from iran .

OCCASIONAL TABLES
THE SMALL-SCALE OCCASIONAL table
truly stands out. Many examples were also portable and could be moved around a room to serve a variety of functions, although often they had a specific use. In this case, a table could be brought out when required and then moved back to the walls or out of the room. Because occasional tables might be seen from all sides, they were usually veneered on the back, unlike side tables.
Occasional tables are often associated with leisure or with ladies’ activities. Worktables, for example, were given considerable attention by Sheraton and were largely an invention of this period.
Intended to hold sewing apparatus, worktables often have a silk work bag which slides out from beneath the upper surface. Others have a rising lid
with compartments. Some are even fitted with a rising screen for use in front of the fire. Small and fragile, worktables are often made in exotic wood, either with marquetry or
painted details.
Other types include those for gaming (often with a marquetry chess and backgammon board) and reading stands. These were known from the mid 18th century and had a ratcheted slope, sometimes inset with leather if the table was also to be used for drawing. Small, circular gueridons in France were often used to hold candelabra or perfume burners. Quartette, or nests-of-tables, were also an invention of the period. Elaborate examples with cut-brass decoration and exotic wood were made by George Oakley, and others with ring-turned supports and veneers by Gillows.

SWEDISH SIDE TABLE
This fine-quality, giltwood side table has an inset table top made of white marble, which is set above a giltwood frieze carved with laurel leaves and with recessed panels incorporating black and gold verve 6glomis6 vignettes. There
are additional panels above the legs and at the centre of the frieze. The turned, tapering legs are carved with low-relief laurel above a band of Greek key pattern, and then carved with spiral flutes below. The legs terminate in baluster feet. c.1810.

INLAID STAND
This stand is from the southern states of America and has a rectangular top with rounded corners and a band of double string inlay. It is raised on
inlaid, tapered legs below bird’s-eye maple panels. The single drawer has three interior compartments.
CONSOLE TABLE
Made in Franken, Germany, this console table s veneered in mahogany. It has a rectangular Warble table top above a frieze drawer and stands on square, tapering legs.
SHERATON GAMES TABLE
This mahogany games and worktable has a rectangular top with chamfered corners and a chessboard inlaid in its surface. It stands on square, tapering legs. c.1790.
REGENCY WRITING BOX
This bird’s-eye maple and ebony string writing box has a hinged slope with a leather inset, a drawer, and dummy drawer. The ring-turned, ebonized legs are joined by a C-scroll stretcher. c.1810.
BIEDERMEIER SIDE TABLE
This solid beech and beech-veneered side table has a round frieze with an overhanging circular top. It is raised on three sabre legs, joined lower down by an additional, circular shelf. 1820.

SWEDISH SIDE TABLE
This gilt-metal, mounted, mahogany side table by Karl Johan has a circular top above a frieze. The circular stem ends in a tripartite base with scrolled feet.
OCCASIONAL TABLE
Inlaid with brass, this French Empire mahogany table has a circular top featuring an inset marble and pierced-brass gallery. It has a fluted column support ending on a tripod base. Early 19th century.
SOUTH AFRICAN TEA TABLE
This stinkwood tea table has a rectangular top with rounded corners, a plain frieze, decorative contrasting inlays, and slightly tapering legs. 1790-1810.
ITALIAN BEDSIDE COMMODE
Made of olive wood and tulipwood, this crossbanded, bedside commode has a lift-up lid above a fall front and fitted interior. It has square, tapering legs.
BIEDERMEIER SEWING TABLE
This sewing table from Weimar is veneered in cherry wood with ebony stringing. The overhanging table top has rounded corners. The rounded case has two drawers and sabre legs. c.1830.
FEDERAL WORKSTAND
This figured mahogany workstand has a rectangular-shaped top supported by half-round colonettes and two drawers. It stands on rounded, tapering, ring-turned legs ending in ball feet. c.1820.

PATTERN BOOKS
THE VOGUE FOR SMALL, OCCASIONAL TABLES WAS ENCOURAGED BY VARIOUS PATTERN BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE LATE 18TH AND EARLY 19TH CENTURIES.
The use of pattern books by furniture makers was well-established by the end of the 18th century, when Thomas Sheraton published The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book. Hugely significant in disseminating the Neoclassical Regency style in England and America, this book included many designs for occasional tables, from pot cupboards to urn stands. Although this was not particularly new – Chippendale and Ince arid Mayhew had included such objects in their pattern books of the 1750s and 60s – the lightness and variety of Sheratons examples was innovative.
Sheraton’s next book was his Cabinet Dictionary, published 1803, which, possibly influenced by Thomas Hope, included some Egyptian designs. The influence of French furniture is also evident in the inclusion of the small writing desk known as a bonheur-du-jour. Sheraton never completed his final massive volume, The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer, and General Artist’s Encyclopaedia, although it was published, incomplete, in 1805. in this late title, contemporary developments in France, notably the post-revolutionary styles, were particularly evident.

ITALIAN TABLE
This Neoclassical inlaid fruitwood table en chiffoniers has a three-quarter gallery, two drawers with chevron banding, and square-section, tapering legs. Early 19th century.
WORKSTAND
This Massachusetts Sheraton mahogany workstand has a rectangular top with cut corners and two compartmented drawers. The ringed pilasters lead into tapering, reeled legs with ringed cuffs.

The great success of Meissen encouraged other European rulers to set up their own factories in the 1740s and 1750s. By the 1770s there were almost 20 factories in Europe producing hard-paste porcelain, often imitating the wares first produced at Meissen. The most significant are discussed below, although there were also several less important factories in the Saxon province of Thuringia producing high-quality wares on a much smaller basis, including those at Gotha (1756-1834), Kloster-Veilsdorf (est. 1760), Wallendorf (est. 1764), and Limbach (est. 1772).
HOCHSTIn
1746 the Elector of Mainz granted a privilege to Adam Friedrich von Lowenfink (1714-54) to establish a faience factory in Hochst, near Mainz. The factory manufactured porcelain only after the arrival of the arcanist Josef Jakob Ringlet ( 1730-1804) in 1750. Hochst became well known for its porcelain figures modelled by several notable craftsmen, such as Simon Feilner (1726-98), who modelled a dramatic set of commedia dell’arte figures and a few elaborate Rococo figures, Johann Friedrich Luck ( 1727-97), his brother Karl Gottlob Luck (c.1730-75), and Johann Peter Melchior (1742-1825), who became master modeller in 1767. Although Melchior’s figures often have a stiff or stylized appearance, there is much careful detailing in such features as the folds of clothes. One of the most characteristic elements of Melchior’s figures is the mound base, with either grass and earth, or rockwork detailed in green and brown.
The range of wares included trembleuse cups and saucers with plain surfaces and small modelled details such as animal or scrollwork spouts and wishbone handles. Wares were painted with landscape vignettes With figures, most frequently peasants or rustic scenes in the style of Dutch paintings, surrounded by small, scattered flowers. Polychrome decoration was common, but a distinctive palette of puce or green monochrome was also used.
The factory’s financial situation was always precarious, and it closed in 1796. The moulds of the Melchior models were sold to the Damm Pottery (est. 1827) in Aschaffenburg, where the designs were reproduced in faience from c.1830, although most existing pieces date from the mid-19th century. These arc often very similar to the porcelain originals and are highly collectable in their own right.
FRANKENTHAL
From 1752 Paul Antoine Hannong (1700-60) manufactured porcelain at his father’s faience factory (est. 1721) in Strasbourg with the help of Ringlet, who had previously worked at Hochst. In 1754 Louis XV banned the production of porcelain at Strasbourg in order to protect Vincennes from competition, and Hannong moved the factory to Frankenthal near Mannheim in the German Palatinate; production of hard-paste porcelain started the following year.
Frankenthal is noted for its figures, of which 800 different subjects have been identified. Among the finest are pastoral couples beneath elaborate Rococo arbours characterized by rather stiff modelling. The first modeller, Johann Wilhelm Lanz (active 1755-61), introduced scrolled Rococo bases. In 1762 Karl Theodor, the Elector Palatine, bought the factory and appointed Konrad Linck (1730-93) as chief modeller. Linck modified the style of the figures, enhancing the sculptural qualities of such features as drapery, and adding yellow and green grass or moss to the bases; he also introduced the first elements of Neo-classicism to the factory’s style. Johann Peter Melchior joined the factory from Hochst in 1779 and continued to make his distinctive models of children, often in biscuit porcelain.
Frankenthal produced a typical range of tableware, the forms of which were for the most part fairly simple with few sculptural details; plates, dishes, and large tea and coffee vessels often have moulded or pierced basketwork runs. Decoration of these wares was in a typical palette of strong, dark colours. The most common subject was naturalistic sprays of large flowers. loosely painted and surrounded by scattered smaller flowers. Jakob Osterspey (c.1730-82) specialized in mythological figures and musicians in idealized landscapes, after paintings by Watteau and Boucher. Also popular was trompe l`oeil decoration imitating grained wood, while in the 1770s to 1880s crimson and gold flowers over gilt-striped grounds were common.
When the Elector succeeded to the title of Elector of Bavaria in 1777 he moved to Munich, and without his support the factory went into decline. After French troops occupied the Palatinate in 1794 the factory was requisitioned, finally closing in 1799.
NYMPHENBURGIn
1753 the Elector of Bavaria established a porcelain factory in Neudeck, and in 1761 the factory was moved near to the Elector’s palace at Nymphenburg. The most outstanding products made at this factory are indisputably the figures by Franz Anton Bustelli
( 1722-63), one of the greatest exponents of the Rococo style. His forms are sty lized and gently twisting, often Slightly elongated, with simple, curvaceous forms. Many figures and groups were left unpainted or were painted with broad pastel washes. In t797 the modeller Johann Peter Melchior joined the factory from Frankenthal and produced Neo-classical biscuit figures. Tablewares include teapots that often have characteristic double-scroll handles and long spouts in the form of a swan’s head. The most popular type of decoration during the Rococo period was loose bouquets of flowers. Landscapes were either left untrained, half enclosed by rocaille frames, or framed by gilt cartouches.
LUDWIGSBURG
This factory was established by the Duke of Wurtemberg in 1758-9. The poor quality of the Ludwigsburg paste compared with some other German factories meant that it was more suitable for figures than for plain or sparsely decorated tableware. Under the direction of Gottlieb Friedrich Riedel the factory produced a variety of figures that appear rather stiff and very simplified, especially when compared with some of the more sophisticated work of such factories as Nymphenburg. The decoration is restrained, and the painting, most often in pastel colours, is precise. A series of miniatures made in the 1760s is among the most celebrated of the Ludwigsburg figures; representing market traders as well as courtiers, the figures were intended to form a miniature scene of an annual fair in Ludwigsburg. Teapots are generally bullet-shaped, often with fruit knops and bird’s-head spouts. Saucers are flared, as opposed to the rounded shape made elsewhere in Germany. Plates, dishes, tureens, and bowls typically feature a band of moulded and sectioned basketwork around the rims. Typical painted decoration includes unframed landscapes and scattered flowers. When the court moved to Stuttgart in the 1770x, the factory went into decline, arid it finally closed in 1824.
Hochst (1746-96)
• BODY hard-paste porcelain; opaque creamy white; generally flawless
• DECORATION landscape Vii usually of peasants Or rustic scenes in the manner of David Terriers (1610-90) with large figures; chinoiserie figures; naturalistic flower sprays
• tenses mound bases with grass and earth, or rockwork detailed in bright green and brown
Marks
Underglaze blue mark used from c.1750
Frankenthal (1755-99)
• Bony hard-paste porcelain; creamy off-white with a thin glaze but can tend toward greyish off-white, with tiny black specks of ash, or opaque white
• STYLE simple forms, plates, dishes, and large tea and Coffee vessels, often with moulded and sectioned or
pierced basketwork rims
• PALEI Fr. rich green, grey, carmine, brown, puce
• DI CORA I ION naturalistic flower sprays in style of Strasbourg; chinoiserie scenes with large figures; large birds in wooded landscapes
• FIGURES stiff modelling of a variable (often high)
quality; pastoral couples; some in biscuit porcelain
• BASES elaborate, with undulating and arched Rococo scrollwork, and often tufts of green moss
Marks
Underglaze blue Mark used during the period when Elector Karl Theodor owned the factory (1761-93)
Nymphenburg (est. 1753)BODY
• hard-paste porcelain; slightly creamy off-white,a dense with a wet-looking glaze, with greenish tone where it collects in hollows and corners
• STYLE characteristic double-scroll handle; simple “U”-shape for coffee-CLIPS and sugar-bowls
• PALETTE ochre, puce, mushroom-pink, brown, red
• DECORATION very skilful naturalistic flower-painting; landscapes with Classical ruins, statues, and small figures; large single figures
• FIGURES stylized, slightly elongated and curvaceous forms; later, stiffer Louis XVI-sty le figures; coloured deep pink and orange/tomato red in flat washes
• Bases on Bustelli figures these appear integral to the figure – flat, edged with asymmetrical scrollwork; also stepped pedestals
Marks
Impressed on wares made during the “Bustelli” period ( 1754-65)
Ludwigsburg (1727-1824)
• BODY hard-paste porcelain; greyish white and close-grained with distinctive smoky glaze, tends to be green where pooled
• FORMS bullet-shaped teapots; saucers with flared rims; Spouts in the form of birds or dragons, “C”-shaped scroll handles with shell or feather thumb-pieces
• PALETTE russet, puce, dark brown, green, yellow
• DECORATION naturalistic flower sprays; realistic figures after Watteau; fruit and flowers in Meissen style; landscapes with two or three tufts of foliage at the base
• FIGURES stiff with crisp modelling; coloured greyish puce, cobalt, yellow
• BASES grass and rockwork mounds or slabs, Rococo
FORSTENBERG
Charles I, Duke of Brunswick, established a factory at Furstenberg in 1747, but attempts to manufacture porcelain were unsuccessful until the arrival of Johann Kilian Benckgraff (1708-58) from Hochst in 1753. The factory encountered many technical problems, and early wares and figures often have flaws, such as black specks of ash in the body, or are slightly misshapen or cracked.
Many of the figures produced at Furstenberg imitated those produced at Meissen, Hochst, and Berlin. The most important modeller was Simon Feilner (1726-98) from Hochst, who became chief modeller in 1754; his work included a fine series of miners (1757-8) and, most notably, characters from the commedia dell’arte (C.1754). During the Neo-classical period the factory made Classical figures, including a series of biscuit busts of Classical poets and philosophers on pedestals. Copies of figures from 18th-century moulds were made in the 19th century, but can be distinguished from the originals by the clumsier decoration and harsher colours.
Early Fiirstenberg tablewares are particularly distinctive as they are often decorated with elaborate moulded Rococo scrollwork to disguise the flaws in the paste. Early decoration included flower sprays, sometimes in a green monochrome that indicates the influence of the Hochst craftsmen working at Fiirstenberg. Landscapes with buildings were generally left unframed and were painted in predominantly dark greens and browns. One of the factory’s most easily identifiable decorative themes is finely detailed poultry and other domestic birds perched on fences or branches.
BERLIN
The first porcelain factory at Berlin was founded by Wilhelm Kaspar Wegely in 1752. Some figures were copied directly from Meissen or from prints, and a series of small putti with large heads and limbs, dressed as members of various trades and professions, was also made. Tablewares and vases were painted in the style of Meissen, with naturalistic flowers, landscapes, and figures in the
manner of the French pastoral painter Antoine Watteau. Moulded flowers and foliage, and basketwork rims, were specialities of Wegely, and a range of moulded baskets was also made. The factory closed in 1757 because of financial problems during the Seven Years War.
In 1761 the merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky set up another factory with craftsmen who had worked at Wegely’s factory, but it went bankrupt and was bought in 1763 63 by Frederick the Great. The new factory, which was known as the Royal Porcelain Factory, produced
wares in a distinctive late Rococo style. Tablewares were embellished with trelliswork, pierced rims, and flowers entwined in basketwork patterns. Painted decoration included scale-ground borders and naturalistic flowers, animals, and birds. The modeller Wilhelm Christoph Meyer (1723-85) produced the series “Cries of Berlin” as well as allegorical and Classical figures characterized by elongated forms and small heads. They are set on small, square bases and painted in salmon pink, puce, and black. Neo-classical wares introduced in the 1770s include vases and cylindrical cups. The decoration was sumptuous, with gilded Neo-classical motifs, views of Berlin, and monochrome portrait medallions. During the 1780s figures set on high pedestal or rocky bases imitated Neo-classical sculpture.
Furstenberg (1753-c.1800)
• BODY hard-paste porcelain; generally whitish with a glassy glaze, early paste often had flaws
• STYLE “C”-scroll handles; early pieces sometimes have moulded scrollwork or frames
• PALETTE dominated by greens and browns; also monochrome green or purple; figures often left white
• DECORATION unframed landscapes; birds or fowl; portrait medallions
• FIGURES Feilner’s miners were both painted and unpainted; Neo-classical biscuit figures are typical; skin is often highly coloured
• BASES simple mound or pad
Marks
Underglaze-blue mark used during the early period of production
Berlin: Wegely factory (1752-7)
• BODY creamy white, similar to Meissen but with a thinner glaze lending an opaque look
• GLAZE very glassy, similar to Meissen
• PALETTE white or painted in puce, iron red, or black
• DECORATION moulded flowers, trailing foliage, and basket rims; naturalistic flower-painting

Dressers.
The name dresser is derived from the French dressoir, a medieval piece of furniture used either as a sideboard for displaying plate and for serving wine, or in the service quarters for preparing and serving food, and for storing dishes and utensils. The ceremonial functions of the dressoir were transferred during the 16th and 17th centuries to the buffet or court cupboard. Enclosing the space between the middle and the top shelf with doors established the cupboard as we know it. The later type of court cupboard has an open lower stage and recessed cupboards in the upper section, or is a combination piece with cupboards, drawers, and display shelves –the now familiar dresser.
OPEN DRESSERS
The typical South Wales dresser, with an open rack and an open base below the potboard,
is simply a side table with a rack. Similar “open” types evolved in south-west Britain, where the dresser seems to have been established by the mid-18th century. Early 19th-century Cornish examples can be particularly elegant, with bowed cornices in the Regency fashion. Dressers from Devon, whether designed for parlour or dairy, were usually of oak or elm, and plain in style. Those for use in the dairy had open bases. The type with cupboards in the base evolved into the fully enclosed dresser with glazed upper shelves in the early 19th cent.
Most Somerset dressers were classically  simple. One 19th-century type has a boarded back to the upper stage, which generally consists of three shelves, and a pair of drawers surmounting cupboards in the base; elm and/or pine are the usual timbers. Late 18th-century dressers from the Bridgwater area consist of open shelves throughout, with side supports of continuous planks.
EARLY DRESSERS
The early dresser consisted simply of a side table with drawers supported on turned legs. Some examples had stretchers, and from the late 17th century this base structure became the framework for a “potboard”, or shelf. From the early 17th century these low dressers were also made with cupboards below the drawers and, later, with additional drawers between two cupboards. With the fashion for tin-glazed earthenware after c.1650 the “delft rack” – a set of shelves on which to display delftware – was introduced. It was not long before such racks were set up on dresser bases to form an integrated item of furniture – the dresser with a superstructure.
The medieval dressoir, combining usefulness and display, was thus re-invented c.1790 for the homes of the middle classes, particularly in the rural northern and western areas of Britain.
The dresser flourished as an important item of furniture, most particularly in Wales, but also in the north-west and south-west of England, with each type having strong regional characteristics. The dresser was a country type, distinct from fashionable metropolitan furniture, and the object of desire of the well-to-do farmer. Designs were therefore traditional and conservative rather than modish, which makes dating them difficult.
CLOSED DRESSERS
Dressers from north Wales and northern England (Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire) are nearly always closed, with boards behind the shelves in the upper part. A distinctive early type from the Caernarvon area in north-west Wales has a pair of spice cupboards set into the rack, and such cupboards also appear in dressers from northern and western England. Small spice drawers placed in varying parts of the upper stages are features of many 18th-century dressers from northern Britain. The “dog-kennel” dresser, with its cupboards flanking a central open space in the base, originated in the Carmarthen area, but was later made in other parts of Wales, and in England.
Sonic mid-Wales dressers combine the “northern” and “southern” forms, having potboards below and racks boarded at the back. A version of this pattern is the Montgomery dresser, characterized by its broad proportions and pilaster cupboards flanking the shelves in the rack. The Shropshire dresser has cabriole legs, some resting on potboards, while others are freestanding. Either way their broadness is emphasized by square cupboards in the upper section, in contrast to the slender pilaster cupboards of the Montgomery dresser.
TIMBER AND DECORATION
Most dressers were made from oak, but fine examples in elm, ash, fruitwood, yew, chestnut, and walnut exist. Pine dressers were made in Scotland, Ireland, and Southwest England, and many of them were painted. While they too can be identified by their regional characteristics, these dressers were primarily utilitarian, in contrast to those made in Wales, the West Midlands, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and the north-west of England, which were important showpieces, handed down from generation to generation.
Decorative motifs as well as patterns of construction sometimes spread far beyond their areas of origin. The inlaid floral motif, sometimes known as “line and berry”, familiar on dressers from around Swansea, appears on dressers from the eastern coastal areas of North America. Oak furniture with inlaid decoration or mahogany crossbanding on drawers suggests a West Yorkshire, Lancashire, or Cheshire origin.
In the 19th century many dressers were decorated with grained paintwork or stains. In Ireland the dresser, which hardly appeared before the 19th century, had a vigorously fretted and often pierced cornice with pilasters flanking the rack, and shaped sides projecting forward to enclose the sides of the working surface. The bases of some arc open and may have been curtained, while others have chicken coops in the base. Scottish dressers also typically have upstanding lips at either end of the boards; some have sloping tops to the racks to accommodate the low, angled roofs of crofters’ cottages. The so-called hen coop in the centre of sonic Scottish dresser bases was actually a slat-fronted food cupboard.

MADE-UP DRESSERS during the 19th century dressers
were made from recycled timbers, or as reproductions although from new timbers; with over 100 years of patination, many of these look 18th century MARRIAGES Often bases and racks arc put together; some low dressers may have had racks added to them.
• ALTERATIONS backboards have often been added to open racks; repairs to the feet are inevitable because of the ravages of wear, damp floors, and woodworm; shaped aprons and carved friezes have often been added to “improve” plain dressers.

Pembroke and sofa tables
The elegant dropleaf table known as the Pembroke table, so called, according to Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) in his pattern-book The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), “from the name of the lady who first gave orders for one of them”, was part of the evolution of the breakfast table. The Pembroke table was eventually replaced in the fashionable drawing-room by the sofa table, an extended version of the type, v developed in the last years of the 18th and the first decade of the 19th century.
Pembroke table
This English mahogany serpentine Pembroke table is an elegant example of its type. It has square-tapered legs, brass feet, and casters, which are all typical features of Pembroke tables of this period.
PEMBROKE TABLES
Recorded in accounts from the 1750s, Pembroke tables were placed in the drawing-room and the boudoir where they were used for taking meals, playing cards, writing, and needlework. By the 1770s this elegant, useful form was well established, and was often a vehicle for the finest cabinet-making of the Neo-classical period. The basic structure, with its two side flaps supported on hinged brackets, lent itself to almost limitless variations. The opened table may form a rectangle or a square, an oval or an octagon; it can be straight or bow-fronted, with rounded, serpentine, or D-shaped flaps; the wood can be plain or crossbanded, with marquetry, painting, or carved decoration; and the legs may be of cabriole or straight-tapered shape, of round or square section.
A drawer in the frieze is usual, but some examples have sliding sections concealing compartments, while the rare “harlequin” type includes a mechanism to raise and lower compartments of drawers and pigeon holes within the centre. Most 18th-century Pembroke tables are Supported on their four legs without understretchers, while others have decorated base supports or small platforms. Appropriately for a highly mobile piece of furniture, nearly every example is fitted with casters.
While examples are known in the Gothic and Chinese tastes of the 1760s, those produced between 1770 and 1800 reflect the Neo-classical taste at its most refined.
Veneers are of mahogany, satinwood,
or other luxurious woods; lines
are simple, proportions carefully
considered, and ornament is of the greatest delicacy. The examples illustrated by George Hepplewhite (4.1786) in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94) are typical of those available to the gentry during the last quarter of the 18th century. Pembroke tables with tapering legs of attenuated cabriole form, ending in the thinnest of scroll feet, were the result of French influence toward the end of the 18th century. Some had finely chiselled gilt-brass mounts.
Decoration took the form of plain stringing or crossbanding, or marquetry borders of anthemion, husks, guilloche, or scrolling acanthus, with such
embellishments as shells, medallions, or florets. These could also he painted, although garlands, beribboned swags, or tapering trails were the most usual.
The proportions of late 18th-century Pembroke tables are crucial; the side flaps are usually (but not always) equal to half the width of the central section, and should be one-third of the table height in their fall postion. There should be a frieze drawer at one end with a dummy drawer oil the opposite end. An oval table usually also displays bow-fronted end friezes to match the curve of the top. Each flap should have one or two fly-bracket Supports, opening sideways on wooden hinges. The legs should be tapered and the tops of the legs should continue upward to form the side frame of the drawer.
Pembroke tables continued to be made in the 19th century, the most advanced design having a central column with splayed legs (called a pillar and claw), which Sheraton illustrated in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1791-1802). A slightly later variant was the platform base. Pembroke tables of the 1820s and 1830s are of characteristically squat proportions, with turned tapered legs, and often have two frieze drawers, one above the other.
A Pembroke table
The top of this British oval Pembroke table is set with segmented satinwood veneers and decorated with marquetry The large oval paten medallion in the centre of the top is surrounded by a band of sycamore set with scrolling plants and flowerheads, with similar decoration on the outer moulded border. Its delicate construction and graceful appearance give it especially feminine associations. As with many tables of this type, this sofa table has a real and an opposing dummy drawer; the legs are decorated with pendent husks typical of late 13th-century Neo-classical ornament.
SOFA TABLES
The sofa table was as varied as the Pembroke table in the details of its design and decoration and, like its predecessor, it followed a defining form. According to Sheraton in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), the sofa table was specifically for use “before a sofa” where “the Ladies chiefly occupy them to draw, write or read upon
Sofa tables are usually between 1.52m (5ft) and 1.83m (6ft) long, when fully extended, and 61cm (24m) wide. The flaps, supported on fly brackets, are each about one-quarter of the width of the central section. Some examples have sliding-topped compartments in the middle for games, or rising desks for writing and drawing, but the majority have one long or two short drawers on one side of the frieze, with corresponding dummy drawers on the opposite side.
The edges of sofa-table tops are always straight, and the corners of the flaps rounded, or chamfered to form “octagon corners”, but the bases are hugely varied and closely reflect the evolving design styles of the Regency period. The top may be set on end supports, with or
without stretchers across the middle, or central supports rising from a platform base. The legs are so designed that the feet can fit a little way under a sofa, allowing the table to be pulled close to the sitter. They arc nearly always on casters.
The plainest sofa tables have plank-shaped supports dividing into splayed tapered or sabre legs with brass cappings and casters. Alternatively after c.1810, rectangular plinths were set at right angles to the uprights, often with scrolls in the angles and with scrolled feet. For more luxurious sofa tables lyre-shaped end supports or patterns of decorative spindles were favoured, and while the lion monopodia that were advocated by George Smith (active c.1786-1828) in A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808) were rarely executed, the lion mask often appears on the decorative brass drawer handles. “Hipped” sabre or cabriole legs were also popular; they appear often on sofa tables with central supports. All of these shapes could be embellished with reeding, lines of inlaid wood or brass, or strategically placed carved paterae or leaves. Cross-stretchers provided many, opportunities for decorative turnings. Inlaid brass decoration on the table top and frieze was sometimes matched on the legs, and/or on the fronts of the fly brackets.
The timbers used for sofa tables range from plain mahogany or more fashionable timbers such as rosewood to exotic woods including calamander; lightly coloured woods such as satinwood for veneering were now no longer in vogue in the 19th century, except for crossbandings as a foil to the dark woods now in favour; common timbers such as beech could be stained or ebonized to simulate these. By c.1815 brass inlays in the manner advocated by George Bullock (c.1777-1818) were generally used to create decorative contrasts; the most lavish examples have ormolu mounts as well as inlaid brass. A rare but significant form of surface decoration on sofa tables was black and white penwork, painted by ladies to imitate inlaid ivory decoration.
Because they have been highly desirable for a long time many sofa tables have been “improved” or even fabricated beyond acceptable levels of repair and restoration. As well as “marriages” between tops and associated bases, decoration such as crossbandings or brass inlays may have been added to tops to enhance the commercial value. Bases may have been legitimately repaired, but many sofa tables have been “made up” with the trestle supports from old (and much less expensive) cheval mirrors. These arc liable to look somewhat flimsy in proportion to the table tops. Wood grain running the length of a sofa-table top, rather than across it, may indicate a top made up from another larger piece of old furniture.
• PEMBROKE TABLES beside the genuine repairs that may be necessary in the course of time, collectors should beware of later restorations and alterations to Pembroke tables: these include substituting an oval top for a (less valuable) square or rectangular one; inserting decorative veneers or crossbandings into a plain surface to increase the value, or later painting, on a previously undecorated table – usually identifiable by the quality
• SOFA TABLES those tables that have low stretchers are generally less popular than those with higher stretchers, which allow more leg room; sometimes lower stretchers have been moved, and the scars that are left should be visible, although often these areas have been re-veneered to hide them; satinwood or rosewood tables are more desirable than mahogany, and end-support tables more sought after than those with central pedestals; the best sofa tables have cedar-lined drawers
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