A Regency mahogany 'Wilkinson Patent' concertina-action extending dining table by Thomas and William Wilkinson


Circa 1805, the rounded rectangular top on eight ring turned baluster legs, with four legs headed by roundels, above an end frieze centred by a roundel, terminating in brass cappings and castors, with two original leaves and one later leaf, the action stamped several times: 'WILKINSON PATENT, MOORFIELDS' and '350', two leaves also stamped: '350', 255cm wide x 130cm deep x 73cm high, (100in wide x 51in deep x 28 1/2in high)
|An identical dining table to the offered lot is illustrated in C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture, 1700-1840, 1996, Leeds, fig. 957, p. 471. This latter example featured as a lot, Sotheby's, 11 November 1988. Also both models bear the same 'Wilkinson Patent' stamps.Thomas and William Wilkinson were cousins who ran a cabinet making firm at No.'s 9 & 10, Broker's Row in Moorfields, London during the period 1790-1808. They were most renowned for the specialist production of patent tables, and extending dining tables in particular, which in their own words could occupy 'a space considerable smaller than is necessary for the standing of any other dining table now in use'.The Wilkinson partnership ceased in 1808 when William left the firm in order to set up his own company at 14 Ludgate Hill while Thomas continued to operate in the same capacity, albeit on his own, until 1828. Other than the aforementioned stamps, a number of tables the joint Wilkinson business produced also have brass plaques which are typically engraved: 'WILKINSON, MOORFIELDS, LONDON PATENT'. Some tables, such as the present model, are even also impressed with an actual patent number, C. Gilbert, Ibid, p. 55.