EXPERT COMMENT David Harvey
Waxing lyrical Evolving from the Pembroke, sofa tables were all the rage in Regency interiors. David Harvey considers what they were and what you look for
W
hile the first sofa tables date from the end of the 18th century, it was Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) who first wrote about them in his The Cabinet Dictionary published in 1803. They are a variant of the Pembroke table, which he described as “a name given to a kind of breakfast table from the name of the lady who first gave orders for one of them.” But there is a difference: a Pembroke table has drop leaves on its longer sides, whereas a sofa table has the leaves on the shorter sides.
SHERATON’S DESCRIPTION Later in his dictionary, Sheraton describes a sofa table as: “Those used before a sofa and are generally made between 5 and 6 feet long and from 22
24 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
Above Unlike a Pembroke, the sofa table has the leaves on the shorter sides Right A sofa table on
plate 74 of Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet Dictionary
(inches) to 2 feet broad; the frame is divided into two drawers as shewn in plate 74 where is also the design of a sofa that a stranger may more clearly see the use of such tables. The ladies chiefly occupy them to draw, write or read upon.” Whereas Sheraton has the sofa table in front of the sofa, a century later it had become the habit to place the table behind the sofa. This could be the result of a change in our way of living since the Georgian period – while the fireplace may still be a room’s focal point, it may no longer be the only source of heat and light in a room. It is also interesting to see, in the version above, two frieze drawers. These are presumably false drawers as any lady seated on the sofa would want to be able to access the ‘real’ drawers on her side of the table.
