Why are tea and card tables sold together?

They share a body. A hinged fold-over top on a swing leg suits cards as readily as a tea tray, and dealers describe the same table both ways. Card appears in 404 titles, fold in 185, games in 118. Many listings run tea, card and console together in a single line.

What wood are most of them?

Mahogany, by a distance. It is named in 1,147 titles, very nearly half the category. Walnut follows at 296, then rosewood at 214, oak at 86 and satinwood at 70. Burr walnut alone accounts for 118 titles.

How old is a Georgian tea table likely to be?

Less precisely dated than the word suggests. Georgian, 19th Century and 18th Century are the three largest date buckets on Sellingantiques, and none of them is a year. Where listings do carry a clean year, and 732 of 2,458 do, the span runs from 1735 to 1940. Regency, Victorian and Edwardian tags follow the big three, alongside decade labels like 1900s, 1880s and 1920s.

Are non-British tea tables common?

They form a persistent minority rather than a footnote. Indian titles number 57, Chinese 54 and French 53. Among them turn up Hoshiarpur bone-inlaid work, Anglo-Indian padouk, Moorish and Japanese cloisonné pieces, Swedish alder root and Danish burr walnut.

Do these tables come in pairs?

Yes, and pairs matter. Seventy titles offer two or more, and paired card, console and tea tables take up much of the top of the range. Nests of three or four are the other multiple, recurring at the lower end in mahogany, burr walnut and Chinese hardwood.

What unusual forms turn up in this category?

Plenty, though only once or twice each. A Manx table, a tea caddy table, a kettle stand, a violin table and a credence table have all passed through. Also a coaching table, a penwork table, an ink-work table and a Berber folding tray stand. Around 273 tables are listed a year, and 321 different dealers have handled them.

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Antique Tea Tables

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A small table made to carry the tea things, from Georgian fold-over tops on swing legs to tilting tripods that stood flat against the wall when the pot was cleared.