Wooden Magazine Table
A wooden magazine table combines utility with period craftsmanship, offering a tidy surface for reading material in a living space.
Wooden Magazine Table
A wooden magazine table is most commonly represented on this page by Victorian canuterburys, side tables, and library book troughs. These pieces range from the early nineteenth century through the Edwardian era and into the 1930s.
The selection includes forms such as occasional tables, music stands, and coffee tables with integrated magazine racks. Origins span English, French, and Burmese workshops, utilising varied timber traditions.
Buyers searching for a wooden magazine table encounter a strong showing of nineteenth-century walnut and mahogany examples, alongside specific stylistic revivals like French Regence and Arts and Crafts.
How they were made
Cabinet makers constructed these tables using dense hardwoods such as mahogany, walnut, burr walnut, and rosewood, often enhanced with figured veneers or marquetry inlay. Oak and teak appear in specific regional or later pieces.
Detailing involves carved woodwork, brass castors or mounts, and occasionally porcelain elements or gilt highlights. Structural forms range from turned supports on canterburys to folding book racks and carved window seats adapted for coffee table use.
Burmese teak meets Victorian club lounging in a folding book rack that travels better than most.
What varies in quality
Quality in a wooden magazine table is driven by the choice of timber, such as highly figured burr walnut against plain mahogany, and the crispness of the cabinet work. The depth and definition of hand carving separate standard production pieces from finer workshop commissions.
Heal’s
The Wooden Magazine Table Glossary
- Canterbury
- A low, open wooden stand historically used for holding sheet music, newspapers, or periodicals. They typically feature slatted dividers and often incorporate a drawer below.
- Whatnot
- A piece of open shelving furniture with multiple tiers supported by pillars or columns, frequently combined with a canterbury base in nineteenth-century designs.
- Burr Walnut
- A specialised timber cut from the burl growth of a walnut tree, prized for its swirling, highly decorative grain patterns used on tabletops and fronts.
- Library Book Trough
- A tabletop or floor-standing trough designed to hold books upright for easy selection, usually constructed in mahogany or oak.
Wooden Magazine Table: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a wooden magazine table?
A wooden magazine table is a functional piece of furniture designed to hold periodicals, books, or newspapers while serving as an occasional or side table.
The listings show these are predominantly nineteenth-century canterburys, book troughs, and low tables made from timbers like walnut and mahogany.
How do I date a wooden magazine table?
Dating relies on identifying the prevailing style, timber choices, and construction methods characteristic of periods like the Victorian, Edwardian, or Regency eras.
Evidence on this page points to specific design markers, such as French Regence carving or Art Deco lines, alongside nineteenth-century cabinet-making techniques.
Where were these tables made?
The pieces originate from various regions including English, French, and Burmese workshops, reflecting local timber preferences of their respective periods.
English examples often feature mahogany and walnut, while French pieces show distinct carving styles and rosewood construction.
Can these tables be used as coffee tables?
Many low tables and adapted window seats from the inventory function well as coffee tables while retaining book or magazine storage.
Victorian canterburys and twentieth-century low tables provide surface space alongside compartments suitable for modern living rooms.