Gillows Regency Mahogany Imperial Extending Dining Table

No: 412Q

Gillows Regency Mahogany Imperial Extending Dining Table with leaf cabinet.

An extremely rare and important Regency Period Mahogany Extending Imperial Dining Table comprising 2 end sections with rounded corners and a telescopic underframe with five intermediate leaves with fastening brass forks and the whole raised on eight ring turned reeded legs terminating in Brass cups and castors. The table is accompanied by the original Mahogany and baize lined leaf cabinet for storing the leaves when not in use. With the five original leaves between the two ends this shows a spectacular run of solid mahogany when opened

The first Gillows design for the Imperial model of table was made in 1804 and follows on from the patent granted in 1800 for an extending dining table with a rotating centre leaf. The object of the patent no. 2396 was “calculated to reduce the number of legs and pillars and claws in the construction of dining and other tables, and to facilitate and render easy their enlargement and reduction in size”.

All the patent dining tables illustrated in the Gillows records in the early 19th. century have either plain turned or reeded legs. Reeding was sometimes called cabling by Gillows and was a characteristic first introduced into their furniture in the 1790s. By 1800 it had replaced fluting on dining table legs which had become out of fashion because “flutes harbour dust” which was less likely to happen with convex reeds rather than the hollows made by gouging out flutes.

The table extends to157.5” (400cm) Height:29”,(73.5cm) Depth 58½”,(148.5cm)

Each end measures 29”,(73.5cm)

Circa 1810 Price: £35.000-

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The thought that went into making this piece is quite exceptional and typical of the very best that Gillows could produce.

The whole is held together with twelve metal forks, making it entirely rigid when fully extended. Another refinement which is also visible in the photographs is that the legs are set well in from the edges of the table and don’t obstruct the legroom of the guests or require chairs to be set in specific places.

Note: See Susan Stuart, “Gillows of Lancaster & London 1730-1840” Vol I pp.240-247, Plates:234-245.