Victorian Tables
Nineteenth-century British domestic tables in mahogany and walnut, running from screw-action extending dining tables down to the small side, lamp and occasional pieces that furnished a Victorian parlour.
What You're Looking At
The heading covers the tables of the 19th-century British house, made when a growing middle class kept separate rooms for dining, drawing and writing. Two woods dominate: mahogany names 2,504 titles and walnut 2,272, with oak, rosewood and pine behind them. Titles are short and descriptive, so the wood and the form are usually all you get.
The most likely piece is a small one. Side and occasional tables together account for a large block of listings, joined by lamp, wine and tripod tables, tilt-tops and gypsy tables on bobbin or barley-twist legs. Alongside them sits burr walnut, named in one title in six, which attaches to centre, loo, coffee, card, Sutherland, work and lamp tables alike.
The other clearly defined group is the extending dining table, roughly a sixth of the category. Titles count seats and leaves and quote lengths, from four-seaters up to oak tables described at 15ft with six leaves and 20ft with seven, seating eighteen. Writing, library and desk tables make up about a tenth, and country pine and oak kitchen and farmhouse tables rather less.
Dating is loose. Of 8,076 listings, 3,705 say only "Victorian" and 990 only "19th Century", and fewer than three thousand carry a clean year. Where a decade is given it tends to fall mid-century, the 1860s ahead of the 1880s and 1850s, and dealers use "Victorian" and a decade interchangeably, so read the decade as an estimate.
Range And Grade
Timber does most of the work. Plain mahogany and walnut form the body of the category, while figured surfaces sit above them: burr walnut, flame and curl mahogany, plum pudding, pollard oak, amboyna, kingwood and satinwood cluster in the upper part of the range. Country pine and small oak side tables occupy the cheaper end, with painted pieces among them.
Decoration on the top separates the rest. Inlay is named in 750 titles, carving in 368 and marquetry in 255, and the far top of the range belongs to specimen, chess, parquetry, pietra dura and Killarney marquetry tops. An Irish Killarney marquetry inlaid yew wood centre table sits at the very top of what has passed through.
On dining tables it comes down to length. A plain two-leaf extending table is ordinary furniture; tables quoting ten, twelve or sixteen to twenty seats, or 8ft, 15ft and 20ft lengths with three to seven leaves, sit well above it. A named cabinetmaker or retailer in the title lifts a piece too, though such names are scarce in a category this size.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for victorian 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.
Victorian is the period label used most on Sellingantiques for these tables, with 19th Century next and the 1860s third.
Gillows·Heal & Son·Edwards & Roberts·James Shoolbred·Holland & Sons·Maple & Co·Hindley & Sons·Howard & Sons·Collinson & Lock·James Winter of Wardour Street·Liberty & Co
The Victorian Tables Glossary
- Extending or wind-out
- A dining table whose top pulls apart on a screw or slide so leaves can be dropped in. Both words turn up in titles.
- Leaf
- An insert added to an extending table. Titles count them, and two or three are common while six or seven are the extreme end.
- Burr walnut
- Figured veneer cut from a burr growth on the tree. Named in one title in six, and the defining surface of the small parlour tables.
- Loo table
- A large round or oval tilt-top centre table, named after the card game. Tilt top, or snap top, means the top hinges up so it stands vertical against a wall.
- Sutherland table
- A narrow drop-leaf table with hinged flaps and gate supports. "Baby" in the title means the small version.
- Scrub top
- A pine or deal top left unpolished and scrubbed, standard on the kitchen and farmhouse tables at the country end.
Frequently Asked Questions
What wood are Victorian tables usually made from?
Mahogany and walnut between them account for well over half of all titles, at 2,504 and 2,272. Oak follows at 712, then rosewood at 608 and pine at 438.
Burr walnut is called out separately in 1,303 titles. It runs across the small forms: centre, loo, coffee, card, Sutherland, work and lamp tables.
How many leaves do extending dining tables have?
Titles routinely count them, and two or three leaves is the common case. Seat counts run from four upward.
At the far end, the archive has held oak extending dining tables described at 15ft with six leaves and 20ft with seven, seating eighteen, and a mahogany one quoted as seating 16 to 20.
Are named makers common in this category?
No. Across 8,076 listings, Gillows leads with 22 mentions from 12 dealers, and nothing else clears a dozen mentions.
Where a name does appear it sits at the upper end of the range. Heal & Son, Edwards & Roberts, James Shoolbred, Holland & Sons and Maple & Co each turn up across a handful of dealers.
Why do so many listings just say Victorian?
The dated field is categorical more often than precise. Of the 8,076 listings, 3,705 say only "Victorian" and 990 only "19th Century".
Fewer than three thousand carry a clean year. Where decades are given they cluster mid-century, with the 1860s ahead of the 1880s and 1850s, and the 1890s and 1900s thinner.
Which small table forms turn up?
Side and occasional tables dominate the small end, with lamp, wine and tripod tables and tilt-tops behind them.
Beyond those, gypsy tables on bobbin or barley-twist legs, cricket tables, coaching and folding picnic tables, duet and adjustable reading tables, bijouterie display tables and nests of three or four all recur in ones and twos.
What sits at the top of the range?
Exhibition-grade marquetry centre tables and very long extending dining tables occupy it almost entirely.
The unusual pieces pass through singly. An Irish Killarney marquetry inlaid yew wood centre table sits at the very top, and Killarney arbutus, pietra dura specimen marble, papier mâché, Sorrento ware, birds-eye maple, thuyawood, zebrawood and padauk each appear once or twice.