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A MAGNIFICENT LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY CIRCULAR EXTENDING OAK DINING TABLE IN THE EARLY AESTHETIC MANNER. POSSIBLY MADE BY DOVESTON BIRD & HULL TO THE DESIGNS OF ALFRED WATERHOUSE
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English, circa 1870’s
Dimensions: 29” (74 cm) high
77” (196 cm) wide
111” (282 cm) maximum extension
THE MASSIVE TOP WITH A HEAVILY MOULDED EDGE CARRYING FOUR EXTENDING LEAVES EACH OF WHICH WITH A LOCKING PIN STAMPED COLLINSON & LOCK SUPPORTED OVER INTEGRAL LOPERS MOUNTED WITH GILT HANDLES. THE FIVE-COLUMN BASE STANDS ON SIMPLE CRUCIFORM LEGS WITH DIFFERING PATERAE TO THE FEET.
We are in the process of carrying out further research, with the help of the chief archivist of Manchester Town Hall; what can be certain is that this commission must have been carried out by a well known and highly regarded maker, to the designs of a variety of mid-nineteenth century taste-makers.
The table bears the hallmarks of Alfred Waterhouse, the architect responsible for the Natural History Museum and a number of important provincial commissions. Furniture by Waterhouse is still used at various institutions, including the University of Liverpool, where the furniture is designed specifically to mimic and therefore enhance the building itself. At Liverpool a number of tables bear a resemblance to the offered piece in their architectural boldness; particularly the heavy moulding of the tops and the massive bulk of the column legs, however this dining table goes a step further with the addition of carving, turning and applied gilt metal mounts.
Waterhouse’s best-regarded commission was that of Manchester Town Hall. It was here that Doveston Bird & Hull combined their manufacturing skills with Waterhouse’s designs to best effect and with a high degree of similarity to the piece offered here. A dining table, still in the Town Hall’s collection, bears remarkable similarities in the carved paterae, the numerous turnings in the legs and in the heavily moulded oak top and these details are repeated in the accompanying serving tables. During the late 1970’s the local County Council sold off a large quantity of the contents of the Town Hall, including the contents of the Banqueting Hall, it is in this space that we believe the offered table may well once have stood; both the decoration of the interior of the Hall and the unusual shape of the room back this up.
Unfortunately the trading records of both Collinson & Lock and Doveston Bird & Hull have been lost making positive attribution exceptionally difficult.
The table has had very light restoration work to the under-frame and leaves (removal of later metal plates) and a good waxing.
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