Description
A 17th century oak dresser base/ serving table. Ca. 1690.
With an unusual arrangement of a double bank of working drawers flanked by carved open strapwork panels.
Raised on turned baluster legs united by matching turned stretchers.
Nb. This antique serving/ hall table has evidence of historic internal strengthening to the carcass, including replacement backboards. Now in excellent condition and ready to use.
These are very useful as serving or hall tables particularly when not too deep front-to-back.
Nnb. Turned uniting stretchers matching the supports are seldom encountered in this design of dresser base, but are occasionally seen in 17th century gate-leg tables.
See Percy Macquoid ill. 33 p. 34 in his ‘Age of Oak and Walnut’, Vol. 1. Macquoid dates this turning to circa 1675.
For similar baluster supports on a dresser base of more usual design, but without stretchers and only a single bank of drawers, see Ralph Edwards CBE, FSA ‘The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture’, p. 308, ill. 5, Hamlyn Publ, Fourth Impression, 1972.
Lit:
‘The Dictionary of English Furniture’ revised by Ralph Edwards CBE, FSA, p. 221, illustrates a comparable dresser base.
Furthermore Edwards illustrates a similar dresser base (ca. 1665) in ‘The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture’, Ralph Edwards CBE, FSA, Hamlyn publ., London, 4th impression 1972, p. 308.
