News »  Large Antique Dining Tables 3, 4, 5, 6 metres Long

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Historically there have been some fantastically wealthy families and although in England during the 18^th Century this would have been relatively a handful of rich land owners, merchants and hereditary piers the 19^th Century exploded with the Industrial Revolution and capitalism. Great Britain had pretty much colonised two thirds of the World to create an Empire. In terms of this growth the huge wealth distributed to create the middle classes and this all manifested itself into a nation building wonderful infrastructure, housing and of course magnificent furniture. Different from today the societies and communities gathered together and the period dramas, such as Downton Abbey depict this very well, showing large dinner parties around what we might consider to be the very large antique dining tables surviving today.

To our ancestors, albeit a beautiful piece of furniture, the dining table was a functional focal piece of their daily lives and hence they paid highly for skilled craftsmen, using well seasoned timbers to produce qualities that are unrivalled today. As example of the value, a classic 3 metre antique extending table, professionally restored and hand finished might set you back around £3000 but to make the equivalent table today the cost using properly seasoned timbers (if you could find them) and a skilled cabinet maker would be at least £10,000 and arguably more. So its not just that a quality period dining table would look right in your period dining room, it would be something to treasure and admire with the knowledge that you have also made a very smart financial decision indeed.