Is a pier table the same as a console table?

On Sellingantiques the two words describe the same wall-facing form. Console appears in 346 of 440 titles, and many titles run both words together as "console or pier table". Historically the pier table was the table for the wall between two windows and the console a shallow table supported against the wall. The types merged through the 18th and 19th centuries.

Why are so many sold as pairs?

They were made to flank windows or face each other across a hall, so two matching tables were often ordered together. Nearly one listing in five is a pair. That is unusual among table forms, and pairs cluster in the upper reaches of the range.

What wood do they usually turn up in?

Mahogany leads, in 119 titles, with rosewood a smaller thread at 22. Satinwood, inlay and figured or flame timber appear in a scatter of titles further up the range. Giltwood and painted frames make up a separate strand, mostly French and Italian, with parcel gilt covering the partly gilded examples.

What kinds of marble appear on the tops?

Marble is named in 97 titles. The stones actually specified include carrara, breccia, sienna, portoro, granite, fossil and faux porphyry, plus unspecified "specimen" tops made of several contrasting stones. The evidence doesn't say which slabs are original to their frames and which are later.

How old are the tables on the site?

The dealers' own dating runs from 1700 to 1930. Only 139 listings carry a clean year; 146 are dated no more precisely than "19th Century" and 48 to the 18th. Named reigns are used freely, Regency in 28 titles and Georgian in 17, alongside decade labels like 1880s and 1920s. Revival pieces sit in the same population as period ones, so the bracket isn't precise.

Where were they made?

English work dominates, with Regency, George III and William IV pier and serving tables the largest single group. Irish George II, George III and Victorian examples run as a persistent minor thread across the range. France and Italy account for the bulk of the continental material, French in 69 titles and Italian in 34. Sweden, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Biedermeier work, Anglo-Indian and Chinese Qing workshops each appear once or twice.