{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O372375"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O372375/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HR3334/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HR3334/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2015HR3334","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O372375/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O372375","accessionNumber":"W.45-1914","objectType":"Table","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"On loan to Ordsall Hall Museum, Salford ","physicalDescription":"Carved in front with conventional floral ornament, the six bulbous legs, which are joined by stretchers, being carved with floral designs. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"}],"techniques":[{"text":"turning","id":"AAT53158"},{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oak, turned and carved","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[{"text":"gothic","id":"AAT20783"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2015HR3334"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"ORDS (LOAN)","id":"THES50002"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Table","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Bury","id":"x44127"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Based on the table's provenance to a farm house near Bury, Manchester."}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1630-1650","earliest":"1630-01-01","latest":"1650-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"322.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"86.36","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"88.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from departmental catalogue - not checked on object.","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bought from Henry Cross, 51 Mosley St, Manchester for £250, 'Rubbed and cracked' (registered file RF 1914/2440M, MA/1/C3330). Mr. Cross stated that the table came from a farm near Whitefield (Bury), Lancs. and that he had known it in the farm for 25 years.\r\n\nAt the time of acquisition, the museum declined from Mr Cross an oak bedstead dated 1635 with panelled back and top, 'much carved in a quiet restrained manner … Every reason to believe the bed genuine… £50',  which had also belonged to C.H. Nevil before purchase by Henry Cross.\r\n\r\n22 April 1914 memo by E.F. Strange: 'While I was away on leave at Manchester, I had the opportunity through the kindness of Mr C.H. Nevill of Bramall Hall Cheshire of seeing what is reputed to be a fine carved Tudor table. The present possessor Mr Henry Cross, art dealer, 51 Mosley Street, Manchester obtained it after considerable difficulty from a farmhouse in the vicinity. The dimensions of the table are L 10‘6“ X W 2‘10“. Height 2‘11“. The frieze is L 8‘6“. Depth 10 1/2 inches &amp; is carved with floral and scroll work with winged dragon-like creatures at each end. The back &amp; sides of table are panelled. The accompanying sketch will give a rough idea of table and carving. The price required is £250. Mr. Cross will send photos if desired and is prepared to retain for a reasonable time.'\r\n\r\nIn his report of May 1914 E.F. Strange writes’ of the North country type &amp; is in practically perfect condition.… The table is supported on six pair shaped legs, well carved of an unusual shape &amp; the upper face of it panelled. The carving is ... in my opinion, thoroughly sound work for students of wood carving to study.… The construction has not been tampered with; &amp;, but for age, the table is quite sound. We have no example of this important type of one of the best known classes of English furniture. This is not only representative, but, in my opinion, is of such importance as to be worthy of the museum collection. The owner has,… A perfectly genuine offer of £300 for the table; but is prepared for a reasonable time, to stand by the price quoted to us, of £250.'\n\r\nA report on the table was provided by Percy MacQuoid: 'Dear Mr. Strange, I consider the oak table … a fine specimen of its type and it is rare to find so untouched an example, undisputedly genuine throughout. You possess no table of this design at the museum and therefore it will fill one of the many gaps in our English furniture there, a section in which we are so lamentably deficient. The vase shaped legs are rare and a great relief from the ordinary type. The price is also advantageous for such tables are rapidly rising in value &amp; of late have been realising at Christies a much higher figure.' [Another file memo suggest that he suggested a valuation of £450.]\r\n\r\nIn March 1916 Oliver brackett added a memo:\r\n'When in Manchester last week I called on Mr Cross in order to obtain, if possible, definite details of the history and province of this table. Mr. Cross told me that the table was considered quite a historical specimen in Lancashire. It came from a farmhouse near Whitefield, Bury, Lancs. From the same farmhouse was brought a well-known table belonging to Mr Behrens of Manchester; this was sold at Christies for £1050. In Christies catalogue of sale of Behrens' Coll., Dec 2 1913 table (lot 103) described ‘Formally the property of the Unsworth family at Goshen, near Bury, Lancs, in whose possession it remained until towards the end of the 19th century. Vide ‘ The Pictorial history of the county of Lancashire, 1844.’ p.257'\n\nShortly afterwards, Mr. Cross wrote to Brackett apologising that he had been unable to find a published reference to the table, and could not remember the name of the family 20 years earlier. 'I understand that they were going to America or they would not have sold it. Unfortunately, Mr. Behrens is dead or I would have got all the information from him.'\r\n\r\nIn a 1919 memo to the museum Director, Oliver Bracket suggests that ‘in view of present shortage of space’ the ‘table be temporarily transferred to Bethnal Green Museum, in order particularly to find room for another table just given by Mr AG Ross’. The director declined this request.\r\n\r\nOn long-term loan to Ordsall Hall Museum, Salford, since 1982.","historicalContext":"<u>Comparable tables</u>\r\nOak table from Earl Stonham Church, Suffolk, c.1630-40 L. 3' x H. 2' 6\" [cut down from a larger table]\nin Herbert Cescinsky &amp; Ernest Gribble, <i>Early English Furniture &amp; Woodwork</i>. Vol. II (London, 1922), fig. 136\n'In this example, From Earl Stonham the bulb-legs, with the graceful vase form of the lower section, are in the finest east Anglian Manor of the first half of the 17th century. This tapered bulb is one of the few details in leg turning which appear to have been confined, exclusively, to Norfolk and Suffolk. The Earl Stonham table is an early example of the form, the legs here being carved, whereas, towards the end of the 17th century, carving was nearly always omitted, decorative use being made of rings either of simple bead or astragal section.'p.117","briefDescription":"Oak, carved, English, c1600-50, 79/321","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Murray Adams-Acton, Domestic Architecture and Old Furniture (1929), p.53 and fig.93\r\n'...beautifully-carved refectory tables are conspicuous features of this period' [Elizabethan and Early Seventeenth Century]"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"flowers","id":"AAT132399"},{"text":"serpents","id":"x36090"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["W.45-1914"],"accessionNumberNum":"45","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1914,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-10-13","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":false}}