19th Century Thuya Wood Card Games Table, 1840

An Extremely Unusual Mid 19th Century Thuya Wood Veneered Rectangular Card Table, Retaining Good Colour And Surface Throughout, Having Superbly Figured Rectangular Foldover Top, Rotating To Reveal Storage Well And Old Embossed Baize Playing Surface, Raised On Elegant Silhouette End Supports, with Wavy Cross Stretcher And Four Scrolling Legs.

This mid 19th century card table has some really interesting features, which make it different from the norm and quite a standout piece.

It is of course veneered throughout in the beautiful wood, Thuya. Thuya wood originates from the Thuya tree, a small confifer like tree which is almost exclusively found growing of the Atlas mountains of Morocco. It was actually mentioned in the Bible, one of the few woods to have featured. Generally the part of the tree which we find featured in antique furniture is the burl, or burr, and this creates a beuatiful swirled veneer of rich colour with distinctive black dots contained within. It always has been, and still is, one of the most desirable and therefore expensive woods to purchase and therefore it very often only features in smaller decorative items, or larger items made by the top workshops of their time.

Also rather unusually from a construction point of view the top, which already rotates and folds, can be entirely removed and carried around independently of the base. This appears to be perfectly original and deliberate and is something which we find very interesting. In fact overall the design of the table is quite unusual, relatively minimalistic, perhaps with the intention of allowing the beautiful thuya wood veneers to take centre stage.

Contained within the top when folded open is a very old and very interesting embossed baize top. It has a striking pattern and is really rather nice. However this can be easily changed for a more standard green baize should one wish to do so.

As with all items which we offer for sale this card table has been inspected buy our highly skilled, trained antique furniture restorers and received a natural wax polish, to ensure that it is in its absolute best possible condition before being offered for sale, meaning that it is ready for immediate placement.

Circa 1840.

Height 30in.
Width 31.5in.
Depth 15.5in.