19th Century Victorian Mahogany Hall Console Table

This is a gorgeous antique English Victorian mahogany console table, circa 1860 in date. This graceful console table has a useful frieze drawer and an elegant moulded edge above a superb quality frieze. The front legs with carved scroll supports and finely carved foliate decoration, terminating with a distinctive scroll foot on a plinth base with elegant canted corners. The back has an exquisite upholstered panelled back in light green and gold fabric, which adds a resplendent look to this luxury item of furniture. This splendid console table will instantly enhance the style of one special room in your home and is sure to receive the maximum amount of attention wherever it is placed. The item is not CITES pursuant. Condition: In excellent condition having been beautifully cleaned and polished in our workshops, please see photos for confirmation. Dimensions in cm: Height 91 x width 80 x depth 46 Dimensions in inches: Height 35.8 x width 31.5 x depth 18.1 Mahogany is probably one of the largest ‘families’ of hardwood, having many different varieties within its own species. Mahogany has been used for centuries in ship building, house building, furniture making etc and is the core structure of just about every 19th century vanity box, dressing case or jewellery box. It became more of a Victorian trend to dress mahogany with these decorative veneers, such as Kingwood, Burr Walnut and Coromandel, so that the actual mahogany was almost hidden from view. Mahogany itself is a rich reddish brown wood that can range from being plain in appearance to something that is so vibrant, figured and almost three dimensional in effect. Although mahogany was most often used in its solid form, it also provided some beautifully figured varieties of veneer like ‘Flame’ mahogany and ‘Fiddleback’ mahogany (named after its preferred use in the manufacture of fine musical instruments). Cuban mahogany was so sought after, that by the late 1850s, this particular variety became all but extinct.