19th Century Drop Leaf Table.

[John15]

I bought a drop leaf table at auction recently with the idea of recycling the wood, and thought it may be of interest to members. The catalogue description was 'Early 19th century mahogany drop leaf table.' It cost me £25. The three sections of the top are 975mm x 500mm x 20mm thick each and one complete board wide. The centre board is flat but the two leaves are bowed. The substructure was in a poor state. The wooden hinges look interesting - there is a steel rod through the centres. I have thoughts of making a coffee table from the centre section.

John

 

[adidat]

Wow nice bit of wood there!

It's called a knuckle joint btw, I had them on my box I made back in college, simple enough to make. just have to very carefully drill out the middles.

Adidat

 

[Phil Pascoe]

When I was 13 or 14 my mother used to buy me Victorian mahogany dining tables - as long as she didn't have to pay more than ten shillings (50p, for you young whippersnappers) :shock: at auction. I used to break them and sell on what I didn't need, which always covered the cost of the bits I did.

 

[dickm]

Thank goodness the original maker of that table is long dead - that's an insulting price for what had been a quality item. I wonder if in 200 year's time the work of folk like Makepeace, Alan Peters and the like will be similarly despised?

 

[rafezetter]

Thank goodness the original maker of that table is long dead - that's an insulting price for what had been a quality item. I wonder if in 200 year's time the work of folk like Makepeace, Alan Peters and the like will be similarly despised?

Maybe, maybe not. The world in general seems to be going back towards the "make and mend" mentality, albeit very slowly, as a larger portion of the population become ever more aware of the dwindling resources of the things needed to make up cheap furniture, like the oil needed to make the plastic, that covers the chipboard, for a chest of drawers that maybe only lasts 10 years if that.

There's also the fact that solid wooden furniture such as this was churned out by the tens of thousands, and it turns up pretty much everywhere - not as good quality as this of course, but even an item with wide mahogany boards is seen as another bit of "ghastly brown furniture" as a snooty friend of my father calls it.

I'm curious to know if the grain pattern flows at each end of the sections as if this was cut from one long plank, because if so - having a flowing grain pattern up the sides, along the top, then down again would look stunning for a coffee table.

 

[John15]

I'm afraid I didn't have any control over the price I paid. There were good pieces of old furniture there for sale and they went for high prices but this table was in such poor condition that there was little interest in it, in fact parts of the sub-frame were held together with cut-nails. I did feel some guilt in taking it apart and wondered who might have sat at it in the early 1800's.

I've looked at the grain and I don't think the three boards came from the same plank. From the photo of the end grain am I right in saying it is quarter sawn?

The two leaves that are badly cupped will have to be ripped into narrower boards before they can be used. The tapered legs are much redder than the top, more of a sapele colour.

John