How do I identify a seventeenth-century geometric table?

Seventeenth-century pieces typically rely on solid oak construction featuring applied mitred mouldings on drawer fronts to create rectilinear geometric panels. These early examples emphasise joinery and natural wood grain rather than the colourful multi-wood veneers seen in later centuries.

What is the difference between parquetry and marquetry?

Parquetry strictly uses geometric shapes like triangles and squares to build repeating mathematical patterns across a wooden surface. Marquetry allows for curvilinear and pictorial designs, utilising varied veneers to picture scenes or botanical motifs.

Where should I place a geometric side table?

These tables function effectively beside sofas, armchairs, or beds where their patterned surfaces can be viewed from above. Smaller nesting versions and octagonal lamp tables allow for flexible placement around a sitting room depending on daily needs.

How do Art Deco geometric tables differ from older ones?

Art Deco pieces from the twentieth century favour streamlined modernism, utilising blonde oak, walnut, and mirrored glass alongside birds-eye maple. Older nineteenth and seventeenth-century variants lean heavily on traditional timbers like heavy oak, mahogany, and dense specimen wood mosaics.