What is a parlour table?

A parlour table is a nineteenth-century domestic surface used for entertaining guests, holding tea, or displaying ornamental objects in the principal reception room. These pieces reflect the social rituals of Victorian homes, where furniture was arranged to facilitate conversation and leisure activities.

How do I use one today?

These tables adapt easily to modern rooms as coffee tables, lamp tables, or display surfaces in a hallway or sitting room. Their rich timbers and turned legs add warmth and historic character to contemporary interior schemes.

A loo table is a large round or oval table featuring a tilting top mechanism. They gained popularity for nineteenth-century card games. When not in use, the top tilts vertically so the table can rest flat against a wall to save floor space.

How do I tell Victorian from Edwardian?

Victorian tables tend to use darker, heavier timbers like rosewood and burr walnut with deep carving and robust pedestal bases. Edwardian examples often feature lighter mahogany and refined inlay work inspired by earlier eighteenth-century designs. Proportions became lighter and airier as interior tastes shifted toward the end of the nineteenth century.