'credence'-type table
Category
Furniture
Date
Unknown
Materials
Oak
Measurements
76 x 85 x 40 cm
Order this imageCollection
Westwood Manor, Wiltshire
NT 222431
Summary
Oak 'gate-leg' table, mid 19th Century. § The folding-over top above an arcaded frieze with a single drawer and incised lunette decoration is supported on columnar legs with astragals joined at floor level by stretchers with incised decoration. When opened onto its single gate the top forms an octagon. § Experiments, with the construction of tables to allow for expansion or contraction of the top as occasion demanded are documented from the first half of the 16th Century as the use of smaller rooms became more commonplace. 'The gate leg' form, to support 'falling' (hanging down) or 'folding' (as here) leaves, was developed by 1600 and innumerable variations followed. Examples of this type, with its hexagonal or octagonal framing and usually a top to match (occasionally circular), survive from the early 17th Century. They are often termed 'Credence' tables, a reference to their sometime ecclesiastical use in the 19th Century as the table next to the altar on which was placed the bread and wine before consecration. Later top.
Provenance
E.G. Lister collection