Tables

Primarily, the purpose of a table is a practical one; it must be easy to sit at and/or performs the function you require it for.

Thereafter, the proportion, colour and general art of the table as an object is what you look for. The degree to which the table has these factors dictates the price – that is, the more boxes it ticks, the more expensive it is likely to be.

Although superficially two elm tripod tables may appear to be very similar to the untrained eye – one may be worth £500 and other £5000. There is, in fact a world of difference between these two tables: one is an ordinary, ugly-stemmed, meanly proportioned, flat-legged, elm tripod table. The other is beautifully-stemmed, perfectly proportioned with rounded, voluptuous legs and with the colour and patina of sun-kissed honey.

Dining / Farm Tables

Here are the main factors to consider when buying a dining table:

It’s imperative that the table is easy to sit at; that is, the height from floor to the bottom of the frieze must be at least 23 inches (59cms) and anything below 22 inches (56cms) is simply not viable.

Obviously you have to decide how many people you want to be able to seat at the table – this usually follows, six, eight, ten, twelve and so on. A six-seater, generally speaking, is five foot long and you go up a foot and a half to two feet per two people thereafter. (This will depend on the size of chairs that you put with the table. Large chairs are 22 inches (56cms) wide and small chairs are 14 inches (36cms) wide.)

With a table less than 28 inches (71cms) wide, you cannot easily fit a plate on each side and have food in the middle. Therefore, to make a workable solution, you will either need to buy a table longer than you require to create the space for food, or consider having a serving table. 

You need to decide how you want to live. Are you a formal person – do you dress for dinner and eat in a dining room? Do you like to entertain? Do you prefer to eat a kitchen supper – informally, farmhouse style? Do you need something that is robust enough for family life?  These are the sorts of considerations to make before committing to a table.

If you like to sit a large number of people from time to time (i.e. Christmas / family invasions) but usually only require, say a six or eight-seater, you should consider an extending table.

Another important consideration is the size and shape of room in which the table will live – a square room is better suited to a round or oval table and a long room to a rectangular table.

Really good farm/dining tables are of a good proportion: the wider the planks the better and the thicker the top the better. On formal dining tables, single plank leaves would be considered the best and of course not to be under-estimated is colour and patina.

Tripod / Cricket Tables

Tripod tables (i.e. those with three legs) are very useful dotted around a drawing room to take lamps, photos and of course, glasses of wine and whiskey!

A less formal three-legged variety is the cricket table (named after the three stumps of the sport), which perform exactly the same function as its more formal counterpart. Being three-legged both would always have every leg touching the ground and therefore be stable.

Tripods come in all shapes and sizes: the very small ones were originally candle stands; larges ones were used in exactly the same way as we use them today.

Really good tripods usually have a single-planked top – figured or burr wood, a very well-drawn stem, rounded cabriole legs and of course, fabulous colour and patina.

Chairs

The primary purpose of a chair is to be comfortable to sit on – nothing is worse than fidgety guests!

Thereafter, proportion is extremely important: a beautifully drawn, mid 18th century wing armchair with curved out-swept wings and generous, padded scrolled arms, a camel-back top and a very good rake (the angle of the back) above well drawn legs and stretchers is infinitely preferable to a straight-backed, mean armed, hard seated version above clumsy legs. This, of course, would apply to all types of chairs – dining, Windsors and so on.

Wing Chairs

Wing chairs first came into existence in the late 17th century and the wrap-around nature of them was to make those sitting on them more comfortable and protected from draughts. The upholstered luxury of them followed the restoration of Charles II in 1680 after which, furniture reflected society’s desire to be more opulent and less puritanical.

Formal wing chairs are covered in silks and needlepoint with less formal ones being covered in re-used tapestry, kelim or even linen. They can add a wealth of colour to a drawing room, or additional comfort to a bedroom.

Armchairs

Generally, armchairs grew out of 16th and 17th century Wainscot chairs (oak panelled, wooden-seated chairs with arms).

In the 18th century, in line with the desire for more comfort, seats and backs became upholstered with needlework, silks and tapestry, and arms and legs became more elegant.

With the opening of the colonies, more exotic, imported woods – American walnut, mahogany, satinwood and so on – were used. Beech was primarily used from the late 17th century for any chairs that were to be painted. What developed was a range of varieties: some simulated exotic woods for those who could not afford or acquire the real thing and others were gilded and painted to match their interiors – in stone hues, for instance, for Adam interiors. An explosion in the use of imported lacquers from the Far East resulted in inferior, attempted copies of Chinese lacquering techniques being done in this country. Original painted surfaces from this period are really very rare.

Sets of Chairs

Generally, sets of chairs (usually dining) start with six – four singles and two carvers (armchairs) for the head of the table – and go upwards.

A matched set means they are identical; harlequin is a collected set of very similar chairs, both in terms of period and type. Formal sets are generally in mahogany and walnut, and provincial sets in country timbers – yew, fruitwood (cherry, apple and so on), oak, elm, ash etc.

Seat height ideally ranges from 16-18 inches (41-46 cms). Formal chairs were designed by the great 18th and19th century cabinet makers and designers – Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Adam – and built around the country. Early 18th century walnut cabriole leg chairs derived from the Chinese taste but with British cabinet-making excellence. These are ideal for the formal dining room.

Country chairs, much more often harlequin, also originated from cabinet-makers and designers. In addition, there developed chairs peculiar to certain districts i.e. Windsors (many varieties around the country), ladderbacks, East Anglian and so on. These types are best in country house dining rooms and kitchens.

Cabinet Furniture

Up until the late 17th century, the chest of drawers had not developed. Before then, people were using buffets and court cupboards for food; coffers for storing blankets, and large cupboards for clothes – invariably of panel construction.

With the development of the chest of drawers in the late 17th century, out of which grew ‘tallboys’ (chest on chests or stands) came a new era in construction – dove-tailed joints as opposed to peg and tenon, which allowed flat surfaces that could then be veneered and this affected the design of all cabinet furniture in the 18th century and after. Therefore what evolved was a range of veneered furniture, which inspired all sorts of decorative styles ranging from marquetry (fretted layers of veneer to create patterns and pictures on wood), to cross banded and feather banded surfaces. This also allowed for a use of exotic timbers from the colonies, which meant that furniture got much more colourful and decorative in its appearance.

In the case of oak and country furniture, dressers developed, as means of storing food and crockery. With the Age of Elegance in the 18th century, they became much more refined and developed a range of district styles.

Chest of Drawers

Although their original purpose was often specific i.e. for storing clothes, blankets and so on, in a modern setting the chest of drawers and associated tallboy (chest on chest or stand) are extremely versatile and can often make a very good focal point in a room.

As such they sit very well in the drawing room, dining room, bedroom or kitchen and prove to be extremely useful for storage.

Dressers

Dressers, in the modern sense of the word, came into existence in the late 17th century and usually come in oak and more rarely in fruitwood.

There are four basic types: serving (without a rack); cupboard base (with rack); open-base usually with drawers above (and rack) – a good example is a south Welsh potboard dresser and rack; finally, is the  all-drawers dresser, which is extremely unusual.

Dressers are wonderful in a country house kitchen or dining room but equally there are elegant forms that would look very smart in a more formal setting.

Armoires

These are large single, or usually double, door French provincial storage cupboards, often very traceable to a region, mostly on country timbers such as chestnut, cherry, ash etc.

They make brilliant storage for clothes with plenty of room for hanging garments and also space for shelves. They can also be used in the kitchen as food, crockery and glass storage solutions. Another excellent use is to house televisions and stereos so they can be hidden behind closed doors when not in use.

Buffets

A buffet is the French equivalent of a dresser and come in country timbers – cherry, chestnut, ash and so on.

They are invariably cupboarded – two doors with drawers above. The longer version with maybe four cupboards is called an ‘enfilade’.

Buffets were for originally designed for food and crockery storage and this remains the ideal purpose for them and so they’re great in kitchens or dining rooms.

Cupboards

Cupboards come in all shapes and sizes – from the small, hanging, wall-mounted variety to large clothes storage wardrobes and presses. When buying, the key defining factors are patina, colour and proportion.

Corner cupboards, both full-standing and hanging come in glazed and unglazed forms and started in the William and Mary period (1690). They were often built into houses as architectural features and were usually for storage of glass and crockery. Often painted, it can be very exciting to very carefully scrape back through layers of paint to reveal the original 18th century paintwork. They also came in veneered, mirrored and lacquered forms too.

Boxes

It’s hard to speak in general terms about boxes. The term covers a panoply of objects, which come in all sorts of shapes and sizes from the earliest medieval planked chests or dugout coffers to the finest tortoiseshell caddy.

For the purposes of this site, they are categorised into coffers, blanket chests, arks, caddys and other boxes! Which ever category they come in, they are both useful and beautiful.