59/2005

Furniture

Draw-leaf table made from oak with carved friezes, made in England c.1600-1650.

table

59/2005

On Display

c.1600-1650 (manufactured)

England (manufactured)

Tudor (1485-1603)
Stuart (1603-1714)

oak

tenoned
turned
joined
pegged

Oak draw leaf table with a rectangular top and a draw leaf to each end. The frame has rails decorated with a frieze of alternate rectangular and circular bosses in shallow relief and with scrolled brackets or spandrels to each corner. The table has stout bulbous legs joined by a peripheral stretcher with a convex moulded top edge and stands on block feet.

The principal top has a relatively even mid- to dark brown colour on the upper surface around the edge of the mitred frame there are numerous small nail holes with associated ferrous staining. On the underside these nails are also visible, and several have been chiselled out to prevent them scoring the surface of the leaves on which they rest. The mitred frame of the top has a slightly convex edge on three side; on the fourth (long) side it is square, and there are nail holes suggesting something has been nailed to this edge. One board of the top appears original, it is quarter sawn with prominent kerf marks (marks left by a saw) and natural patination. Along the edge where it butts against the adjacent board there are three empty dowel holes just visible, indicating it was once cross-dowelled to its neighbour, however, there are no corresponding holes in the adjacent board. This latter board and the next are tangentially sawn and covered with an ochre-coloured wash. The upper surfaces of these two boards have been stained and distressed to match the first.

The undersides of the leaves have the same ochre stain as on two boards of the primary top. The mitres have been reinforced with nails across the corners and there has been considerable shrinkage in the boards and the resulting gaps have been filled and stained.

The frame is a dark oak colour with relatively even patination, which is heavier in unexposed areas. On three sides of the frieze the sunk areas of moulding and carved bosses on the rails and scrolled brackets appear to have been painted black at one time, although much of the paint has worn off. There are also traces of paint on the legs, particularly on the inside surfaces and at the tops of the legs there are witness-marks of applied, diamond-shaped bosses which are now lost. The short rails have been crudely cut to receive the bearers of the draw leaves, cutting into the mortise-and-tenon joints and even into the pegs. There are nail holes and the remains of nails all around the top of the rails and tops of the legs, corresponding to the nail holes in the primary top. The central batten into which the top is located appears modern; it is covered with an ochre stain and is fixed by three plugged screws at each side. The pegs to the stretchers have almost certainly been replaced, and the dowel holes for the pegs securing the long stretchers show considerable wear, as if the pegs and been replaced often. The feet have been reduced in height.

The object was physically marked with its Object number on 08/02/2010. Marked on the horizontal panel of the table top.

Height: 81cm
Length: 155cm
Length: 292cm
Depth: 83cm

Decoration and furnishings
furniture
tables
dining furniture

Label text for 1630 Period Room (Room 1), Geffrye Museum, 2010:
Draw-leaf table and stools
A draw-leaf table combined with a set of stools was a standard part of the furnishings of the hall for nearly a hundred years, from at least 1580 to 1660. The table would have been the main surface for many of the household’s activities, where people sat down to read, write, sew and eat dinner, and play games such as backgammon. The ‘draw-leaves’ sit underneath the main part of the tabletop and can be pulled out to extend it.
Table, oak, c1620; stools, oak, c1600.