Posts Tagged ‘pier tables’

Art Deco Tables: DINING TABLE, MAPLE CONSOLE TABLE, BRITISH DRUM TABLE, FRENCH MAHOGANY TABLE, BRITISH DINING TABLE

ART DECO TABLES
AFTER WORLD WAR I, designers working
in the Art Deco style created tables of extraordinary richness and originality. continuing the Art Nouveau tradition in a less flamboyant manner.
TRADITIONAL FORMS
Many Art Deco furniture designers based their designs on traditional table forms, such as the early oak trestle table and the drop-leaf designs of the 18th century. They used richly figured timbers, such as walnut, yew, and mahogany, and decorated their tables with crossbanding in exotic woods, such as ebony and tulip wood.
Emile-Jacques Ruhimann and Jules Leleu created writing tables, dressing tables, and pier tables that echoed the forms favoured by the French ehenistes of the l8th and I 9th centuries. They used exotic materials, such as lacquer and expensive wood veneers, and their tables often featured decorative details, such as drawer pulls of ivory, slender legs terminating in sabots of gilded bronze, and table tops covered with leather, sharkskin, or marble.
The Irish-born designer Eileen Gray designed finely crafted and exquisitely lacquered tables whose abstract shapes
were frequently defined by different-coloured lacquers and costly inlays of foil and mother-of-pearl.
BOLD INNOVATIONS
The furniture designers who followed a more Modernist Art Deco path, such as Marcel Coard and Pierre Chateau in France, and Donald Deskey in the United States, made tables for a wide variety of uses in bold geometric shapes, such as cubes, cylinders, and pyramids. They used innovative materials characteristic of the machine age, including mirror glass, chrome, and tubular steel, and interpreted traditional forms, such as the tilt-top table with great ingenuity.
Pierre Legrain combined luxurious and machine-age materials with severity of form in a striking low table entitled “Python”, which he designed in 1928 for Pierre Meyer. Made entirely of wood, the long, rectangular top and two supports are entirely sheathed in snakeskin. The supports fit into a rectangular base, which is the mirror image of the top, but is veneered in nickel plate. Two nickel-plated ovoid discs encircle the square supports, completing the symmetry of the design.
The stepped top of the table is a distinctive Art Deco feature.
The octagonal shape of the table top is innovative and striking.
The substantial apron adds strength to the table design.

BRITISH DINING TABLE
This solid, architectural table is from a table and six chair set designed by H&L Epstein. Made from walnut, the table top is octagonal in shape, with black-lacquered banding running around the edge. Two rectangular block legs
with block feet, connected to each other by a rectangular panel, support the table top. The crossbanding around the edge and the thick inlaid band of crossbanding across the table top add a subtle but decorative touch to the distinctive markings of the walnut veneer.
c.1935.
The overhanging top is reminiscent of early trestle and refectory tables.
The two box-shaped table legs replace the usual four
supports at either end
The central support links the two table legs.

FRENCH SIDE TABLE
This rosewood side table, designed by Michel Dufet, is composed of geometric forms, which are characteristic of the Art Deco style. The circular rosewood surface has a glass top, and is placed on two rectangular supports. The
whole table is supported on a lipped tray base. Furniture designers who favoured the Modernist thread of the Art Deco style created all kinds of tables with strong geometric outlines, including interlocking circles, triangles, and cubes. c.1930.
This 12-sided table is decorated all over with mirrors to create an unusual, completely mirrored surface. The table top is supported by slightly tapering square legs. c.1930.
This geometric occasional table is made from walnut and has an octagonal, crossbanded top that is raised on a rectangular column. The column is centred on a square, spreading base.
This Lucie Renaudot rosewood, mahogany, and ivory-inlaid side table, has a circular top with ivory dentil edging. The stepped, square-section legs are united by a square undertier. c.1925.
This table is made from walnut and has a circular top, attached to tapering square legs that support the whole table. The table top is covered with a mirrored surface. c.1930.
OCCASIONAL TABLE
WALNUT TABLE
Maker’s label
FRENCH MAHOGANY TABLE
MIRROR TABLE

BELGIAN COFFEE TABLE
FRENCH U-SHAPED TABLE
Designed by De Coene Freres, this Belgian lyre console table stands on a lipped tray base. The base supports a highly polished lyre-shaped frame, a popular feature of the Art Deco style. The frame in turn supports a narrow, rectangular table top. c 1930.
This rosewood coffee table, designed by De Coene Freres, is veneered in walnut and has two legs made of chrome tubing. Two crossed, lipped tray bases support the U-shaped structure. The chrome tubular legs reinforce the rectangular table top, which has rounded corners. c.1930.
This graceful French side table has a rectangular top with a stepped edge. It is supported by a tulip-shaped structure, rather than conventional legs, with decorative chrome detailing at the base. The table has been restored and piano varnished, hence its glossy black appearance. c.1930.
BELGIAN LYRE CONSOLE TABLE

BRITISH DRUM TABLE
This sturdy oak drum occasional table is designed in the style of Betty Joel. A broad central oak cylinder supports three circular table tops, each arranged one above the other. c.1935.
BRITISH QUARTETTO TABLE
The quartette table is designed by H&L Epstein and is made from burr maple. The set of four small tables of graduated size nest together and are supported on square legs. c.1930.
CHROMIUM TABLE
This chromium-plated occasional table has a circular top inset with a black glass panel above three curved supports. The supports are attached to a circular ebonized base on flattened bun feet.
MAPLE CONSOLE TABLE
This console table has a maple top with a moulded mahogany edge, and a single drawer at the front. The two U-shaped supports are united by a stretcher beneath and have arched feet.
AMERICAN DINING TABLE
This extension dining table, designed by Paul Frankl, has a white rectangular gesso top with gently bowed edges and two 30.5cm- (12in-) long leaves that rest on two curved mahogany supports. Each of the mahogany supports
incorporates three V-shaped slats. The robust, architectural nature of this piece is typical of Paul Frankl’s furniture designs, which reflected trends in contemporary architecture. The chevron pattern of the supports is reminiscent of key design elements on the Chrysler Building.
DINING TABLE
This elegant dining table is part of a table and eight chair set. The table has a simple rectangular top, with pull-out extensions. A pedestal base, with two C-shaped supports, carries the solid table top. The eight chairs
that accompany the dining table have solid backs with upholstered seats. The graceful interaction of interlocking arcs and rectangles adds a powerful three-dimensional and
distinctively avant-garde element to the shape of the conventional rectangular dining table.

19th Century Mirrors. Wall Mirrors, Picture Frames. ENGLISH WALL MIRROR, ENGLISH GILTWOOD MIRROR, AMERICAN GIRANDOLE

EARLY 19TH CENTURY MIRRORS
MIRRORS, LIKE PICTURE FRAMES, are decorative so are rarely subjected to much wear. As a result, they are often gessoed and gilded. Painted examples from this period also exist, as well as Empire pier glasses, which often have mahogany frames and ormolu mounts.
From the late 18th century larger plates became available, so early 19th-century mirrors with a divided plate became less common. Although not new, convex plates became especially fashionable in Britain and the United States, and were used in dining rooms to give servants an all-round view of the table. The convex mirror plate was usually framed by an ebonized and needed slip with a gilt frame echoing the shape of the mirror. The frame
The acanthus leaves are pierced and scroll-carved.
was often surmounted with an eagle or similar motif and frequently had candle arms attached to it.
Also fashionable was the use of verrc eglomise in which glass was back-painted in black and then engraved with a design before gilding. Verne eglomise plates were frequently inserted above normal plates. Mirrors with a more rectilinear design were also popular, particularly those intended to stand above pier tables between windows. From the late 1820s, revival styles led to the reintroduction of Chippendale-style mirrors in Britain; these are often difficult to distinguish from the 18th-century originals. In Florence, boldly carved foliate frames were introduced in imitation of the Baroque originals.
The guilloche motif is stylized.

ITALIAN WALL MIRROR
This rectangular giltwood wall mirror has a carved softwood frame featuring guilloche and stylized, scrolling acanthus leaves. The whole frame has been covered in white gesso and then given an undercoat of red paint, before
being gilded. The ornate, sculptural form of the mirror frame is reminiscent of the Baroque style of the 17th century, and harks back to the designs of Andrea Brustolon and the work of the Genoese carver, Filippo Parodi.

REGENCY MIRROR
This giltwood mirror has a moulded cornice with ball decoration above a panel with a shell cresting flanked by latticework. Columns flank both sides of the mirror. Early 19th century.
ENGLISH PIER GLASS
With a concave cornice above a ring-and-leaf frieze, this giltwood and gesso pier glass has 11 plates of varying sizes divided by astragals and flanked by half columns.

AMERICAN LOOKING GLASS
This simple, late Neoclassical maple looking glass has a rectangular mirror plate set within a relatively unadorned rectangular frame. The top and sides of the mirror frame have corner blocks joined by half-section balusters with
gilded and moulded ends. Like the mirror above, this type of overmantel mirror is sometimes erroneously referred to as “Adam”, perhaps because of its rectilinear Neoclassical styling, or perhaps because such mirrors frequently featured in Robert Adam interiors. c.1835.

This giltwood and ebonized girandole has a convex mirror plate with a reeded slip. The frame is decorated with carved leaves, has four candle arms, and is surmounted by the Federal eagle. c.1825.
The circular, mirrored plate sits within a reeded ebonized slip and a ball-moulded frame. The frame is surmounted by a dragon flanked by two sea serpents. Below is a leaf-carved apron. c.1815.
This mirror is set within a moulded gadrooned frame, surmounted by a painted figure of Neptune. At the base is a giltwood figure of Triton, and foliate arms that end in candle nozzles.
This simple Regency giltwood mirror has a convex mirror plate within a circular leaf-moulded and reeded border. It might originally have had candle arms or cresting. Early 19th century. Diarn:58cm
ENGLISH WALL MIRROR
ENGLISH GILTWOOD MIRROR
OVAL MIRROR
AMERICAN GIRANDOLE

AMERICAN LOOKING GLASS
This tall, narrow, carved mahogany looking glass frame has a moulded cornice above a veneered frieze. The mirror plate is flanked by projecting blocks linked by carved urns and slender pilasters. c.1825.
AMERICAN LOOKING GLASS
The moulded cornice of this giltwood mirror is hung with ball decoration above a wreath-andacanthus moulded frieze. Below this is a tablet. The colonnettes are rope-turned. c.1800.
IRISH OVAL MIRROR
This oval mirror, one of a pair, has its original plate set within a copper frame, which is decorated with applied, alternating blue and clear crystal facets. Late 18th–early 19th century.
BIEDERMEIER PIER GLASS
The rosewood-veneered frame of this southern German pier glass has an architectural pediment above an ebonized panel depicting the Goddess Diana in gilded brass. c.1820.
AMERICAN LOOKING GLASS
This Classical mahogany and carved giltwood looking glass has an architectural pediment above a carved eagle tablet and a mirror plate flanked by colonettes. Early 19th century.
This carved and gilded looking glass has a moulded, projecting cornice above a carved frieze, with a verre tablet, and reeled pilasters. Early 19th century.
AMERICAN GILTWOOD MIRROR
This Federal mirror has a broken pediment with ball decoration above a verre eglomise panel depicting Hope with an anchor, flanked with festoons. The columns have spiral beading.

MID 19TH CENTURY TABLES

AN ABUNDANCE OF table types, each
designed for a specific use, was made in the mid 19th century Many of these were suited to popular pastimes of the period, such as playing cards. The general trend was for smaller, more portable tables in greater numbers.
TABLES FOR EVERY PURPOSE Pier tables, originally used as early as the 16th century, became popular again as householders sought to fill their homes with more furniture than ever before. The card table was another popular addition to many homes; unobtrusive when not in use, when required for playing cards, the top of the table was opened to reveal a baize-lined playing surface. The worktable, designed to store needlework accoutrements or writing utensils, frequently incorporated a hanging bag as was previously the fashion. Despite the introduction of gas and oil lighting,
Scrolling brasswork is inlaid on a red tortoiseshell ground.
the torchere remained a very popular fixture on which to stand candlesticks.
A MIXTURE OF STYLES
Tables of all kinds were produced in a wide range of historical and cultural styles. Tables in the Rococo style were covered with extravagant –C” and “S” scrolls and rested on cabriole legs, whereas fluted, tapering legs were found on Classical- or Renaissance style tables. A softening and rounding of contours was expressed in the West by the use of serpentine shapes and undulating mouldings, but Oriental forms remained steadfastly rectilinear.
French and Italian console tables often had marble tops, a fashion
that was exported to many countries, especially Britain and the United States. Centre and side tables often had tripod legs. Such tables frequently featured foldaway tops so that they could be put away easily when not in use.
Each cabriole leg features a gilt bronze mount at its head.
The serpentine platform base has a red tortoiseshell ground.
Acanthus and scroll mounts Bun feet support the
decorate the base of each leg. shaped undertier.
FRENCH CONSOLE TABLE
This Louis XV-style boullework and ebonized serpentine console table is decorated with gilt-metal mounts, which are similar to the earlier Regence style in appearance. All the surfaces of the table are inlaid with scrolling brasswork
on a red tortoiseshell ground. The table top has a shaped apron and is supported on cabriole legs headed by putti and acanthus leaves. The legs are joined by a shaped undertier, below which are bun feet. The table probably had an elaborate mirror in similar style above it originally. c.1860.
CONSOLE TABLES
This pair of Louis XVI console tables is possibly Italian. Each one is gilded and has a shaped, mottled brown-black a-id white marble top with canted corners and coved sides set above a similarly shaped base. The bowed front of each table is decorated with a frieze hung with leafy
swags on either side of a Classical figural medallion. Each table is supported on Neoclassical-style fluted, tapering legs carved with leaves and drapery. The tables were probably designed to stand in piers – the spaces between two windows – possibly with matching gilded mirrors hung immediately above them.
CHINESE LOW TABLE
This rectangular low table is made of huanghuali wood (rosewood). It has a cleated top, which is positioned above an ornate frieze carved with stylized scroll motifs. The table top is supported on straight legs with angular, scroll-carved terminals. 1880.
CHINESE SIDE TABLE
This beech wood side table originates from the Shuzhou province. It has a rectangular top positioned above three drawers and an apron carved with simple roundels. The table top is raised on square-section legs, with carved bracket supports and terminates in spade feet. The back of the table is left undecorated as the piece is designed to stand against a wall. c.1850.
ENGLISH JARDINIERE
This Victorian amboyna and ebony jardiniere is rectangular in form with rounded ends. The top lifts off to reveal a well for plants. The table top has metal-beaded borders and simulated ivory inlay, with a moulded edge above a frieze set with green jasper type round plaques with Classical figures. The case is supported on fluted, turned, tapering legs with ceramic casters joined by a shaped cross-stretcher centred with a turned finial. 1860.
AMERICAN PIER TABLE
This is one of a pair of Classical, marble-top pier tables. It has a rectangular, ogee-moulded top on a conforming apron above scrolled supports, which are painted with acanthus leaves and ornamented with applied giltwood gadrooning. The
rectangular base has a sloping, gadrooned skirt with a mirror back. It sits on claw feet. Late 19th century.
BRITISH TRIPOD TABLE
The marquetry-decorated circular top of this tripod table has a carved, moulded edge and is raised on a fluted, turned, and carved stem supported on three acanthus decorated legs with scroll toes and original brass casters.
BRITISH TEAPOY
The moulded-edge, hinged lid of this early Victorian rosewood teapot’ has canted corners over a deep, ogee-moulded frieze, and is raised on a baluster upright, with a spiral-turned knop, on double C-scroll supports with brass casters.
ENGLISH WORKTABLE
This Sheraton-revival, painted satinwood worktable has an oval, hinged top decorated with putti, flowers, ribbons, and bows above a drawer on turned, tapering legs, which are joined by a cross-stretcher. 1900.
GERMAN TRIPOD TABLE
This carved walnut and inlaid tripod table is from the Black Forest. The shaped oval top is inlaid with oval panels of stags and is raised on a turned column support, ending in three foliate carved cabriole legs. c.1860.
ITALIAN TORCHERE
This elegant, carved, walnut torch&e stand is one of a pair crafted in Renaissance-revival style. It has a shaped square top resting on a columnar carved support in the shape of a winged caryatid. The torch6re is raised on a carved, scrolling tripod base. 1880. S1 3
This is one of a pair of Venetian torcheres, which were painted some years after they were originally made. The scrolling support of this one incorporates a male Blackamoor torso and is raised on a white overpainted and gilt tripod base.
MONGOLIAN TABLE
This low, Asian-style table is made from wood decorated with polychrome. It has a brightly decorated rectangular top above a moulded and carved apron and two carved end flaps. The table top is supported on four
circular-section legs, which are joined by a straight central stretcher. The table is decorated with a broad geometric border and 18th-century designs. Originally, this piece would probably have been used as a dining or occasional table. Mid 19th century.

Oriental Persian Carpets.

Persian Carpets before 1800.

The origins of pile weaving are obscure, but that it is an ancient skill is proven by a hand-knotted rug found in Pazyryk, southern Siberia, dating from between the 3rd and 5th centuries BC. Fragments of piled weavings (3rd-6th centuries AD) have been found in Xinjiang (eastern Turkestan); others dating mainly from the 13th century have been uncovered at Fostat in Cairo.
By the 13th century rug-weaving was well established it Anatolia and by at least the 15th century pile carpets were mad, in Egypt. Persian carpets are mentioned in 10th-century Aral records, by Marco Polo in the 13th century, and by the 14th-century explorer Ibn Batuta. Paintings of the 14th an( 15th centuries depict weavings similar to early Turkish carpets.
SAFAVID WEAVING
The great trade artery, the Silk Route, ran from Beijing in the east, through eastern and western Turkestan, Persia (Iran), and Turkey, to Europe. Under Timurid rule (1370-1506) Persia established strong links with China, and motifs such as cloudbands, cranes, phoenixes, and dragons were introduced to the Timurid court artists via Chinese textiles and pottery.
The Safavids (1501-1732) conquered Persia in 1501. Tahmasp, the second shah, established royal workshops for weaving carpets and textiles in Kashan, Kirman, Isfahan (now Esfahan), and Tabriz, ushering in the classic age of Persian carpet-weaving. These cities grew into the four great centres of production.
The earliest carpets, from the late 15th to early 16th century, are associated with Tabriz in north-west Persia. They have a large medallion often shaped like a lotus flower with cusped lobes, edged in stylized clouds. cloudbands and arabesques fill the field. As this design developed, the medallion acquired pendants, and animals in combat appeared in the field. Countless variations on this theme are found in 19th- and 20th-century carpets.
The hunting motifs of a magnificent 16th-century silk carpet from the silk-weaving centre Kashan were much borrowed in the 19th and 20th centuries in Tehran, Kirman, Isfahan, and Kashan. The design was popular with mid-20th-century weavers in Qom. Small silk rugs woven in Kashan in the mid-16th century, with a medallion and spandrel design, gave rise to countless modern imitations, many woven in the same city between c.1900 and 1930. In the 17th century, the great Islamic cultural centre of Isfahan in central Persia, under Shah Abbas, produced carpets with all-over designs of vine
tendrils supporting huge palmettes, curled “sickle” or saz leaves (shaped like a scythe blade with a serrated edge), and bold borders. Such designs are often on a strong red ground.
Certain carpets believed to be from Kirman are known as “vase” carpets. Made from the mid-16th to the late 17th century, some pieces depict Chinese-style vases on a trelliswork of vines, palmettes, and leaves. These carpets have a double layer of cotton warps, and three shoots of weft, the middle one silk. All carpets with this unusual structure are called “vase” carpets, even where the vase pattern does not appear. This trellis, palmetto, and leaf pattern was widely copied in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Many classical Persian carpets were exported to the West, and a great number can now be seen in museums. Wool carpets from Isfahan were popular, as were the silk Polonaise, or Polish, rugs originally thought to come from Poland, but in fact from 17th-century Isfahan. They are woven in bright green, blue, red, and ivory, with brocaded areas in silver or gilt metal (a thin strip of metal was wound around a white or yellow silk thread). Early 20th-century rugs from the Kum Kapi district of Istanbul were inspired by these rugs; modern silk and metal thread rugs from Hereke in Turkey are their distant cousins.
• MAIN CENTRES OF PRODUCTION Kashan, Kirman,
Tabriz, and Isfahan
• SCALE most examples are large carpets, although some small rugs were also produced
• WEAVE most are woven in wool or silk, sometimes with metal thread details; some are woven in silk on a silk and cotton foundation
• DESIGNS early Persian carpets were based on cartoons, many of which were drawn by court artists; the designs of these carpets form the basis of most later Persian weaving patterns
• MOTIFS these include cloudbands, hunting motifs, vegetation (palmettes, vines, lotus-flower-shaped designs, and leaves), cranes, phoenixes, and dragons

Persian Carpets after 1800.

The quality and quantity of Persian weaving declined greatly in the 18th and early 19th centuries compared to the fine traditions established in the 16th and 17th centuries. However, from the mid-19th century there was a revival of interest, mainly generated by a renewed Western fashion for Eastern products. Demand was accelerated by easier travel and trade links together with a new awareness which was to a large degree generated by British colonialism. Two distinct styles of carpet production emerged in Persia, both firmly based on earlier traditions: the city and town workshop style, and the tribal and village style. Associated with these were the more commercial carpets created to feed the new Western market.
TOWN AND CITY PRODUCTION
Certain towns and cities are synonymous with carpet weaving in Persia. Tabriz in the north-west, Mashad in the north-east, Isfahan (now Esfahan) and Kashan in central Persia, and Kirman in the south-east are of particular importance. Although there are regional
variations in the uses of colour and in the presentation of the subject-matter, there are several important characteristics in this group that identify the style.
Based on the designs of the earlier classic era (16th-to 17th-century Safavid weavings), the pattern details are essentially curvilinear in form, with particular emphasis on floral design elements. Flower-heads, palmettos (vertically split flowers), and associated vines and foliage are the predominant features, naturalistically drawn to create an image of a colourful garden. Variations on this theme may sometimes include people TRIBAL AND VILLAGE PRODUCTION
Tribal rugs are woven by the various nomadic groups during migrations with their flocks, and have been subject to few outside influences. The tribal tradition of rug-weaving is quite different from that of town manufacture: designs are woven from memory, with patterns passed down from generation to generation, or adapted from other products seen by the weavers on their travels; designs are therefore often highly original. The designs of tribal rugs are always geometric, and represent stylized versions of the more naturalistic drawing seen in town rugs. The geometric patterns are mainly determined by the use of the Turkish knot, which is suited to creating angular lines. Tribal products are woven with a wool pile on wool foundation; being a thick material, wool does not allow for such intricate detail as is possible on the cotton or silk foundations of products made in the towns.
Floral motifs abound and are often highly stylized. Animals, birds, and humans are also often depicted, although they are sometimes barely recognizable. Persian tribal rugs tend to be more densely decorated than their northerly Caucasian neighbours, whose designs are bolder and even more rigidly rectilinear.
The best-known Persian tribal groups are the
Kashgai, the Khamseh, and the Afshar, all of which
use wonderful, jewel-like colours – blues, reds, yellows, greens, and ivory – in all tones. Their work includes all-over designs and medallion formats, and they occasionally produce prayer-rugs. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the products of these three tribes, since they often borrow each other’s ideas.
Technical quality in tribal work can vary enormously, from extremely coarse to extremely fine depending on the experience or competence of the weaver. It is important to note that the value of a piece is not necessarily based on technical fineness, but may also depend on its visual appeal or its individuality. As well as rugs, artifacts such as bags and animal trappings are woven. Carpets are rarely seen, although in some villages around the main marketing towns settled tribespeople weave large-scale pieces.
WESTERN INFLUENCE
In 1882 Ziegler & Co., a British/Swiss firm exporting Persian goods to the West, set up carpet workshops in Sultanabad (now Arak) in north-west Persia. Traditional designs were adapted for the Western market, incorporating bold floral motifs linked by lattice vines and framed within wide borders. Such carpets are highly popular and valuable, although central-medallion carpets of this type are less sought after. A particular Western-led innovation was the employment of the human figure as the main, pictorial element of a design.
• MAIN CENTRES OF PRODUCTION Tabriz, Mashad,
Isfahan, Kashan, Kirman, Heriz, and Senneh
• MAIN TRIBES the Kashgai, the Khamseh, and the Afshar
• TYPES town and city production: mostly rugs and carpets; tribal and village production: smaller wares –rugs and artifacts such as bags and animal trappings are typical; carpets are rare
• WEAVES town and city rugs and carpets are generally finely woven with either wool on a cotton foundation or, sometimes, silk pile on a silk foundation; tribal and village designs are mostly woven in wool on wool
• COLOURS these vary enormously from the broad range of pastels and bright colours used in towns and cities to the bold, jewel-like colours typical of tribal production
• DESIGNS town and city pieces are based on cartoons; curvilinear designs, typically featuring floral motifs, are common; tribal and village rugs and carpets are woven from memory, so no two examples are exactly alike; design and colouring have often been governed by the export market – the use of the human figure as the principal design was mainly inspired by Western tastes
• COLLECTING avoid pieces in shades of orange and garish shades of red; tribal rugs made before 1900 are prized by collectors; modern 20th-century examples are likely to be well made and attractive but lack the individuality in colour and design of older 19th-century pieces; fine tribal weaves can be very valuable

Dressing tables.
The term “dressing table” was used as early as the 17th century to describe a small table designed and fitted for a lady or gentleman’s toilet. Such tables became increasingly elaborate and ingenious fiat design during the 18th century, when they were also known as “toilet tables”. Dressing tables were often multipurpose and were also used as desks, with added writing slides, or as small side tables.
BEFORE 1800
In the 17th century, the dressing table was generally small and fitted with two or three drawers, with a shallower drawer in the centre to allow for knee room. During the 18th century a free-standing looking or toilet glass, sometimes with uprights fitted into a box base with drawers, would be stood upon the table surface. A looking glass soon became an essential part of the table, either in a fixed easel frame or in increasingly ingenious mechanical designs in which the glass sank or folded into the table when not in use. By the mid-18th 8th century dressing tables with kneeholes or pedestals that could be used both for the toilet and for writing were produced. Elaborate examples in such woods as
THE PHILADELPHIA STYLE
The Rococo style was embraced in Philadelphia, the largest and most prosperous city in North America, from the mid-18th century. Although the political climate discouraged the importing of goods from England, London cabinet-makers came to work in the city, one of the most important being Thomas Affleck (1740-95). He arrived in Philadelphia in 1763 with a copy of Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754-62). This design book influenced the development of the style, which is sometimes called Philadelphia Chippendale”. More important than design books were the carvers such as James Reynolds (c.1736-94), Hercules Courtertay (c.1744-84), and Nicholas Bernard and Martin jugicz, who were in partnership between 1763 and 1786 and were responsible for some of the best Rococo work. While the Rococo style continued during the early 1780s, it soon gave to the Federal style of the new Republic.
Burr-walnut included a cupboard at the back of the kneehole section, sets of drawers on either side, and a top that lifted to reveal a mirror and fixed compartments for storing toilet accessories; alternatively, mirrors and storage compartments might be concealed in end drawers that swung out, or mirrors simply folded down when not in use. There were equally elaborate designs for dressing tables with mirrors fixed on carved supports on tables with four legs and decorative draperies. By the mid- I 8th century the dressing table was established as part of leading designers’ repertoire. The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director ( 1754-62) by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) contains a design for such a “toilet table”, and a variation of this design, known as a toiletta, was shown in another contemporary book of furniture design, The Universal System of Household Furniture ( 1762) by John Mayhew (1736-181 1 ) and William Ince (c.1738-1804). George Hepplewhite (d.1786) included dressing-table designs in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide ( 1788-94), and Thomas Sheraton ( 17,51-1806) designed elegant Neo-classical dressing tables with domed tops, and is credited with the development of the popular kidney-shaped dressing table.
An alternative tradition was the small table that was transformed into a dressing table by the addition of a free-standing mirror. The term lowboy was used for this as such tables were clearly based on the lower part of the tallboy (or chest-on-stand). Early 18th-century lowboys were designed, and known, as dressing tables, and are classic examples of early 18th-century English furniture. They were generally made of walnut veneer (oak and mahogany were used on later Georgian examples), with walnut stretcher less cabriole legs with pad feet. The form usually included a centre drawer flanked by two side drawers, a shaped and carved apron, and a flat veneered top on which a free-standing toilet mirror could be placed. The fashion for the Queen Anne period lowboys in North America began 20 years later than in England but lasted longer. Walnut was the preferred wood, cherry and maple were used in New England, and mahogany was in use from the 1740s.
AFTER 1800
Before c.1820 mahogany dressing tables were produced in the style of contemporary sideboards and may well have doubled up as small side tables. A small gallery along the top of such a table may be the only clue to the dual function. Kneehole dressing tables with foldaway mirrors were also produced, but in the restrained forms typical of the period, often with bow fronts and square tapering legs. In France, dressing tables in the Empire style were characterized by simple lines, minimal carving, and ormolu mounts. They were usually made of mahogany and often incorporated marble tops.
During the Victorian period there was a rapid increase in furniture production, and dressing tables for both men and women were made in large numbers, often as parts of bedroom suites.

Console, side, and pier tables
Tables conceived to stand against walls were first recorded in the 15rh century and served as both serving tables and sideboards. It was not until the 17th century that purely ornamental pier tables came into fashion. Invariably executed in giltwood, often by a specialist carver or sculptor, the finest Roman side tables of the 1670s and 1680s are characterized by their thick, marble slabs supported by boldly scrolled foliage, acanthus, and mythological figures. Not to be outdone Louis XIV had pier tables designed for him with caryatid, putto, and scrolled dolphin supports, and side tables, usually gilded, with thick marble tops; legs draped withlain1hrccluins and foliage, are either figurative or of tapered licrin form, joined by a waved and scrolled X-shaped stretcher.
THE 18TH CENTURY
The general pattern of the Louis XIV side table was inspirational to cabinet-makers throughout Europe and following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), when Huguenot craftsmen settled in England, English side tables became increasingly elaborate and sophisticated, with oyster-veneered parquetry, marquetry, or even inlay in the style of Charles-Andre Boulle (1642-1732).
Lord Burlington (1694-1753) and the architect William Kent (c.1685-1748) returned from the Grand Tour in 1719. Kent revolutionized the design of English side tables bringing to them a Baroque magnificence. Usually of giltwood or mahogany, his tables arc characterized by their architectural design and grandeur, embellished mainly with Vitrux-ian -scroll, guilloche, or Greek-key fret mouldings.
Defined 1w their bracket construction and designed to be affixed to the wall, console tables arc first recorded Ili the late 17th century. Kent is credited with the design of consoles supported by the splayed wings of Jupiter’s eagle, arguably the most celebrated George II pattern. The luxurious tradition of Louis XIV consoles, usually of giltwood, oak, or walnut, survived during the Regence (1715-23). Principally designed as stands to support expensive and exotically figured marble tops, they are usually serpentine-fronted and supported by tapering, double C-scroll front legs, perhaps headed by espagnolette masks or dragons, while the X-shaped stretchers are often centred by gadrooncd finials or urns. Louis XV consoles arc closely related in form to their way to a taste for or the exotic and Oriental, particularly
giving chinoiserie and Turkish motifs, before finally in to Neo-classicism in the 1760s.
Ili England the architects Sir William Chambers 1723-96) and Robert Adam ( 1728-92) revolutionized the design of English side, pier, and console tables during the late 18th century. Side tables were often gilded or of carved mahogany; pier tables tend to be either rectangular or semi-ch ptical, their panelled friezes perhaps fluted or centred by breakfront tablets, and
the legs either tapered or turned and fluted, possibly even headed by Neo-classical urnsand standing oil stepped block feet. From the I770s the tops of ornamental pier tables were frequently decorated with marquetry. Plainer examples, often in satinwood and inlaid with fans, flutes, husks, and richly figured woods, were also supplied in pairs. During the 1780s
there was a fashion for semi-elliptical pier tables that were painted, often on satinwood, with flowers, Musical trophies and Classical vignettes. A loading influence in the late 1780s was the Prince of Wales (later George IV) who, with his architect Henry Holland (1745-1806), 45-1806), promoted the fashion for tables in the elegant Louis XVI style. Often of “white and gold”, although those of satinwood and mahogany often inlaid with shells or simply crossbanded still found favour, late Georgian tables are light and delicate fit form.
The fashion for Neo-classical marquetry side tables was reflected throughout Europe and North America, perhaps nowhere more prolifically than in Italy, where the name of the Milanese cabinet-maker Giuseppe Nlaggiolilii (1738-1814) has since become synonymous With furniture decorated with magnificent arabesque marquetry, sphinxes, and mythological trophies. However, cabinet-makers such as David Roentgen (1743-1807) fit Germany, Georg Haupt (1741-84) Ili Sweden, and Thomas Seymour (1;’71-1848) in North America were also keen exponents of - marquetry Ili the Neo-classical style.
THE 19TH CENTURY
The console table represents arguably the purest expression of the Empire style. Inspired by the architectural schemes proposed by Napoleon I’s architects, Pierre Fontaine (c.1762-1853) and Charles Percier (1764-1838), in their Reciueil de decorations interieures (1801), as well as by the publication of Aventures damps /,7 passe et la haute Egypte (1802) by Baron Vivant Derion (1747-1825), Empire consoles are usually rectangular in form. Their overhanging marble slab tops supported by Egyptian winged perm-caryatids, griffins, and sphinxes, arc designed to be reflected by their mirrored backs often mounted with superb chased and burnished ormolu, the burnished areas often deliberately contrasted with “antique” urigildcd bronze elements. Although they are usually executed in the finest figured mahogany, the British blockade of 1806 pushed the prices up prohibitively and forced ebeizistes (cabinet-makers) to resort to such indigenous woods as maple, ash, elm, and walnut. The Empire style was embraced in Germany by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (17811841) of Berlin, and in Britain Thomas Hope (1769-1831) included several designs for console and side tables with winged griffin and sphinx supports in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration Executed from Designs 1)), Thomas Hope ( 1807). The mounts of Regency mahogany tables were more restrained and sparse, their “Grecian” ornaments – wreaths, palmettos, patcrae, sphinxes, and lion-masks – often being carved.
From c.1815, side tables and consoles became increasingly elaborate in both form and decoration. The Buhl revival of the 1820s, as well as the fashion under the French King Charles X (1824-30) for furniture en hoist Clair (pale wood), gradually gave way to the Gothic Revival of the 1820s and 1830s, a style in England identified with William Beckford ( 1760-1844) and subsequently A.W.N. Pugin (1812-52). From c.1830, consoles in the Louis XV or Rococo Revival taste again became fashionable; these were gradually superceded by an enthusiasm for all things Italian – particularly of Baroque and, subsequently, Renaissance design including the Milanese ebony side tables inlaid with ivory and copied by the English firm of Gillow (est.
c.1730) of Lancaster.
• REGARDING the fashion for regilding in the 18th and 19th centuries often results in less crisp detailing, as the carved decoration becomes obscured under lavers of gesso and gilding; it is not uncommon to find 18th-century furniture with four or five layers of gilding or gold-painted decoration; the commercial value of a piece of giltwood furniture is affected by the quality and condition of the giltwood surface.
• FAKES many giltwood console tables in the style of Kent have been faked; the provenance of the piece is therefore important
• COLLECTING the variety of tables is huge and usually there is something available for every pocket; many console tables were made as vehicles for the expensive marble that topped them, and those examples that retain their original tops will command a premium; pier tables were usually made in pairs, and the value is considerably more.