Victorian Pine Farmhouse Coffee Table with Drawer, 1860s

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Description

A wonderfully characterful 19th-century pine farmhouse table, later sympathetically reduced in height for use as a coffee table.

Dating to … Read more A wonderfully characterful 19th-century pine farmhouse table, later sympathetically reduced in height for use as a coffee table.

Dating to the Victorian period, circa 1860–1890, the table retains the substantial construction and honest simplicity associated with traditional English country furniture. It features a generously proportioned plank top with softly rounded edges, a single wide drawer to the front and four substantial turned pine legs.

The drawer is traditionally constructed with hand-cut dovetail joints, while the timber throughout displays the rich variation, knots, old marks and irregularities expected from a piece that has been used for well over a century.

The top is particularly attractive, with a beautifully mellowed warm pine colour and an abundance of genuine surface character including scratches, knocks, old nail marks and variations in tone. Rather than detracting from the piece, these details give the table the relaxed, timeworn appearance increasingly sought after in antique country furniture.

Originally constructed as a taller farmhouse or work table, the legs have been shortened at some point in its history to create the present low coffee-table proportions. This conversion makes it particularly suited to contemporary interiors while retaining the materials and craftsmanship of the original Victorian table.

A very usable antique with enough presence to anchor a sitting room without feeling overly formal. See less