{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O53178"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O53178/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HP3685/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HP3685/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2015HP3685","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KN4625","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O53178/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O53178","accessionNumber":"W.34-1962","objectType":"Dining table","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Until the middle of the eighteenth century, the concept of a dining-room was almost unknown in England.  Most households, even the grandest, took their meals off simple tables that were brought into parlours or saloons for the time that they were needed. Gate-leg constructions was a clever invention to allow large tables to be stored in smaller spaces when not in use.","physicalDescription":"Oval dining-table of gate-leg form, in mahogany, the four cabriole legs carved with downward-scrolling acanthus on the knees, issuing from five-petalled flower heads, the legs terminating in lion paw feet. The leaves of the table are undecorated except for a rounded shaping on the upper edges.  The frame supporting the table is of oak, the main elements tenoned into the blocks at the top of the legs, with a wooden knuckle hinge cut in the centre of each long cross rail, so that one end of the rail is fixed, the other forming part of the gate structure, tenoned into a block at the top of the gate legs, the blog cut away on the inside edge to locate with the outer edge of the frame when the table is closed. The shorter rails of the frame, visible when the table is closed, are of mahogany, each tenoned into a block at one end and jointed with dovetails at the opposite end into a thinner plank of oak, which runs back behind the hinges of the long rails and is nailed to the inside of the fixed half of the rail, completing the box structure of the frame.  The leaves of the top are each set with iron strap hinges underneath, and fold with rule joints.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"mahogany","id":"AAT12221"},{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"},{"text":"iron","id":"AAT11002"}],"techniques":[{"text":"joinery","id":"x36614"},{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Mahogany and oak, joined and carved","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2015HP3685","2017KN4625"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"V","id":"THES390211"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Dining table","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1740-60","earliest":"1735-01-01","latest":"1760-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by C. D. Rotch","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"72","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"135","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"across centre section, open","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"142","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"at right angles to centre section, open","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"42.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"closed","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Checked on the object 28/01/2010","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bequeathed by Claude Rotch RF 61/3157c\n\nOn loan to Tamworth Castle, Staffordshire from 11/05/1983 to February 2026\n\nHistorical Significance: The mahogany used for this table was most likely West Indian (Swietenia mahogoni). Between 1722 and 1763, over 90% of the mahogany imported into England came from Jamaica, with most of the remainder sourced from the Bahamas. Following the Seven Years’ War, Jamaica’s share fell to about 78%, though it remained England’s primary supplier until the early 1770s (Anderson, Mahogany: The Cost of Luxury in Early America, 2012, p.65).\r\n\r\nMahogany was a plantation product, directly linked to the expansion of the transatlantic slave trade and the forced displacement and enslavement of Africans throughout the Caribbean, Central, and South American region. \r\nUnlike in the Bay of Honduras where economic activity was primarily driven by timber cutting, the West Indian mahogany trade was the precursor to agricultural expansion of sugar plantations. In both instances, these gruelling, laborious tasks were undertaken by enslaved people. The timber trade employed numerous names for West Indian mahogany, and as sources diversified in the middle to late eighteenth century, terms such as “Jamaica wood” became marketing devices or buzzwords that appealed to consumer expectations rather than accurately indicating the timber’s origin. (Bowett, Woods in British Furniture-Making 1400-1900).\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Dining-table of oval, gate-leg form, in mahogany, the legs carved with acanthus on the knees and with hairy paw feet.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"acanthus","id":"AAT164902"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"DINING TABLE\r\nENGLISH; about 1745\r\nMahogany\r\n\r\nBequeathed by Mr. Claude Rotch.","date":{"text":"pre October 2000","earliest":null,"latest":"2000-09-30"}}],"partNumbers":["W.34-1962"],"accessionNumberNum":"34","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1962,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-09-17","recordCreationDate":"2001-01-26","availableToBook":false}}