Antique Etagere Tables
A small tiered occasional table, two or three open shelves held between corner uprights or a brass frame, made to stand beside a chair and carry books, tea things or a lamp.
What Is An Etagere Table?
The étagère started as a French set of open shelves and was adapted in the 19th century into a small tiered table for drawing-room use, standing at side- or lamp-table height. The tiered occasional table and the related whatnot were made in quantity through the Victorian and Edwardian periods.
The version you're most likely to meet is a mahogany two-tier table of later 19th- or early 20th-century date. Mahogany is named in a quarter of titles on Sellingantiques, which makes it the default timber, and two tiers are stated more often than three.
The heading answers to several names. Ten of forty listings call the piece an occasional table and nine a side table, with whatnot and display or tray table used in place of etagere elsewhere, so a search on the one word misses a good deal of the category. Brass appears in a fifth of titles, either as a full frame carrying the tiers or as mounts on a timber piece.
Dates run from 1800 to 1930, but the weight sits late: where a decade is given, the 1900s, 1880s and 1870s lead. Nine listings are dated only to "19th Century". France is the one stated non-British origin of any weight, named in six titles, with a single Italian marquetry example as the outlier.
Range And Decoration
Surface decoration does most of the separating. Plain mahogany tiered tables sit at the bottom of the range, and the marquetry and parquetry pieces, several of them French, sit at the top. Inlay is the clearest dividing line in the archive.
Timber follows the same pattern. Kingwood, burr walnut, satinwood and rosewood turn up in the upper half, while mahogany dominates the lower. Brass framing and brass mounts push a piece upward too, and the one ormolu-mounted example belongs with them.
Pairs are the rarity, three in forty listings, and they take the very top, the highest being a pair of marquetry side or console tables. A title citing a retailer, a designer or a signature, or describing a piece as in the manner of someone, also sits above the plain examples.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for etagere tables, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Dealers on Sellingantiques call them by four names: etagere, occasional table, side table and whatnot. Occasional table and side table are used nearly as often as etagere.
The Antique Etagere Tables Glossary
- Étagère
- A small table or stand of two or more open tiers, used interchangeably with occasional table in these titles.
- Tier
- One of the stacked open shelves. "Two tier" and "3 tier" are the counts you'll read.
- Occasional table
- A light movable table for no fixed purpose, and the most common alternative name in this archive.
- Whatnot
- A tiered stand of shelves, used as an alternative heading in several listings.
- Tray top
- A top with a raised gallery edge, so it can be lifted or used as a tray.
- Metamorphic
- Made to change form or configuration, as in the one three-tier example of that kind.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many tiers do these tables have?
Two or three. Two is stated more often than three in the titles on Sellingantiques, and the three-tier pieces are the smaller group.
The tiers are usually held between corner uprights, or carried within a brass frame.
What wood are they usually made from?
Mahogany is named in exactly a quarter of titles, which makes it the default timber for the category.
Kingwood, burr walnut, satinwood, rosewood and oak each appear only a handful of times, and those timbers tend to belong to the higher-priced end.
Are brass ones common?
Brass appears in a fifth of titles, either as a full frame carrying the tiers or as mounts on a timber piece.
The brass-framed examples cluster in the upper half of the range. A group of 1930s listings share the same lacquered brass and tooled leather design.
One oval brass-and-rosewood table turns up once and nowhere else.
What period do most of them date from?
The dated field runs from 1800 to 1930, with twenty-two of forty listings carrying a clean year. Where a decade is given, the weight sits late, led by the 1900s, then the 1880s and 1870s.
Nine listings are dated only to "19th Century", so around a quarter of the archive is placed no more precisely than a hundred-year span.
Do French examples turn up?
France is the only stated non-British origin of any weight, named in six titles. Those pieces bring the marquetry, parquetry and kingwood cross-banding that sit high in the range.
One Italian marquetry example is the outlier.
Why are pairs so much more expensive?
Pairs are the rarity, three in forty listings, and they occupy the very top of the range.
The highest of all is a pair of marquetry side or console tables. A Continental painted and gilt pair of tiers is another of the three.