How to clean a Victorian mahogany table?

Dusting with a dry cloth deals with most daily dirt. A damp cloth can wipe away sticky marks, provided you dry the surface immediately afterwards. Avoid modern silicone spray polishes. They leave a stubborn film that obscures the grain and ruins the finish over time. A good beeswax polish applied twice a year keeps the timber fed.

What is a Victorian loo table?

It is a round or oval centre table mounted on a pedestal. People used them to play a popular nineteenth-century card game called loo. The tops tilt upright to save space.

I inherited a large dining table with big chunky legs and several extra leaves, how should I go about storing the extra pieces safely?

Keep the extra leaves flat in a dry room with a stable temperature. Storing them upright against a wall often causes the wood to warp over time. Avoid sliding them under a bed where heating pipes run. The dry heat pulls moisture from the timber, causing the joints to shrink and crack.

My writing table has a leather top that is peeling at the edges and looks very dry, can I feed it with something or just leave it alone?

Old leather eventually dries out and loses its natural oils. You can apply a specialist leather dressing with a soft cloth to restore some suppleness to the surface. Do not try to glue peeling edges down with strong modern adhesives. A professional restorer can lift the leather and re-lay it using traditional hide glue without damaging the wood.

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Victorian Tables

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Victorian tables encompass a massive range of functional domestic furniture produced between 1837 and 1901, varying from heavy mahogany dining extensions built to seat extended families to slight papier-mâché occasional pieces meant for holding a single teacup.