The furniture style known as Eastlake was created and manufactured roughly from 1870 to 1885, fifteen years of complicated designs and geometric skill-saw work. Rounds and squares on the same piece. Usually mahogany but not oak. Oak obsession will come later.
Eastlake tables such as this beauty held parlor lamps, a live fern ( marble tops are good for live plants) , an over sized vase filled with two dozen ostrich feathers, or maybe a bronze artwork. The pretty marble might be covered in frilled table scarves. Maybe two, maybe three. The furniture peeked out from beneath.
So what's the problem? The problem is, Eastlake won't sell very well as Eastlake. As an antique trader, I avoid it entirely. I won't buy it ; no one here buys it unless it is dirt cheap. So ,what can be done to make an Eastlake table marketable? ( Besides painting it white or turquoise and then distressing it )
The answer: saw the pedestal off and turn it into a coffee table.
THERE WERE NO VICTORIAN COFFEE TABLES. That concept ( idea) didn't develop until the 1920's. Any piece of furniture in any form, any wood, any style, any color being sold as a coffee table with claims of being around before World War I is a fake, a phony, a fraud, and a creation of fantasy.
Eastlake ( or any other lake) coffee tables are nothing more than a pitiful piece of furniture with its middle part sawed off.
It's not just Eastlake, by the way. Here is an Empire Revival table in oak, ca. 1910, with its two pedestal bases sawed off. Do you see a coffee table? I see a library table with 12" of oak missing.
Tragic. A Rococo turtle-top table posing as a coffee table. Probably a repro. It can't be an 1860 original condition. If not a repro "coffee table", then it also has lost about 12" of support.
A fantasy piece. A coffee table from the 1940's /50's made in Victorian style.
 |
Once beautiful and valuable brown marble top Eastlake table. |
 |
| Another one. They are everywhere in the auction world. |
Another 1950's creation. These were sold all over the country with the couches and chairs with carved roses on them ( not cheap when they were on the market in the 1940's-1970's ). They were sold as new Victorian ( no one was being fooled ) but few realized that the concept of a coffee table was unknown in the 1850's.
Almost can't believe it. An "Empire Coffee Table".....cut down from 1830 original game table. Shameful.
Another "Empire Coffee Table" Totally destroyed in value. This center table would bring $500 for what it was; now, maybe it would retail for $150.
Found another tragedy. A Renaissance Revival 1860 parlor table cut down to coffee table size, retaining its original marble top.
Found another on line today. Renaissance Revival cut down. About 1860. Would have been worth $500+ before the slaughter.
They are just everywhere.
Now here is a beautiful example of what can be done to an Eastlake table without destroying it. Add some paint; don't cut the supports off, and it will enhance any modern home. This is the way to do it, in my opinion. The color can be taken off in 30 years.
 |
| Found another one for sale at auction December 2018. No end in sight for these. |
 |
| What a tragedy! A 19th century bronze mounted center table made of mahogany cut down to make a coffee table! The auction house was asking $150. |
Repurposed or redesigned are well known and accepted ideas today...but , in the case of the poor Eastlake parlor tables...the "fix" cannot be un-fixed when the pedestal is sawed off and thrown away.
Absolute travesty. 1830 Empire Marble Top table cut down to 18 1/2 inches.
Now in 2020 let's saw the pedestal off and chalk paint over the burled mahogany. A real shame.
Footnote: While I'm on the subject of redoing, here is an 1830 burled mahogany couch, recovered in French linen and painted Scandinavian pink, with new lucite wheels, at a cost of two thousand dollars.
September 2022. They are still destroying them. Here is a marble top Eastlake, with its pedestal sawed off. RUINED !
OK I am confessing. I don't own any, but I love Eastlake.He made some beautiful furniture. If I didn't love my southern pieces and pure country pieces, that is what I would have.Are you surprised. "Mother" is looking at me rather shocked.lol
ReplyDeleteOH I had the library table once mine had the legs sawed off to make it a coffee tale I used it for years then it went in a yard sale for $12.00 !!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI loved all the marble top tables and wanted them all back in my victorian collecting days
I love Eastlake furniture. I feel the same way you do. Yes, I am the proud owner of a small walnut Eastlake coffee table, purchased at a garage sale for a small price. It still had remnants of white paint in the grain. I scrubbed it out, refininshed it and 20 years later I still have it. I would love to have it at its original height, it would fit beautifully in front of my long cottage window, with a plant, a lamp, and family photos. And yes, it would be better to paint it than cut the base off. I spent 20 years refinishing antique furniture, removing layers of white paint, to expose beautiful wood. I did a lot of work for two elderly sisters that had an antique shop. I asked one of them why everything was painted white, and her comment was "during the depression, no one could afford new furniture, so they painted everything white to make it look new and fresh. That has stuck with me for over 3 decades, and I completely understand. Adding paint of any color is easier to remove than cutting down the height of a table.
ReplyDelete