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debodun

Antique drop-leaf gate-leg table

debodun
5 years ago

What would be a fair market value for this drop-leaf, gate-leg table. It's 28.5" tall, 44" long and the top is 21" wide when folded and just over 60" when opened. Also, what wood is it? And that's not dust on the top, they're scuffs.






Comments (16)

  • colleenoz
    5 years ago

    I can’t tell you a price, but I would say not to get your hopes up. That mended bit in the middle of one side will be a big turn off for most buyers.

  • lindac92
    5 years ago

    It's a wonderful old solid walnut table, sometimes referred to as a Pembroke table.
    It appears one leaf has split and been poorly repaired. if if is repaired with proper glue it might bring as much as $200 mainly because of the amazing size of those solid walnut boards. Measure the thickness of those boards. I'll bet they are a true inch or maybe even more....milled by hand not with a circular saw.


  • debodun
    Original Author
    5 years ago

    It was not mended - it's the same way on the other side.

  • debodun
    Original Author
    5 years ago

    Thanks for the info on Pembroke tables.


  • User
    5 years ago

    I would wonder what the side away from the split looks like. The wood looks nice but the table with that strap is ringing bells.

  • lindac92
    5 years ago

    It may look the same on the other side, because those leaves split...both split...hence the reinforcement.


  • User
    5 years ago

    My thought was if the other side did not have the reinforcing perhaps someone reversed the top. If the straps are on the top only the weight of the boards could eventually pull away from the straps.


    My parents knew all kinds of wierdos including one that "did repairs" to make things look older. He purchased things cheap when people were cleaning out houses. While he might have recognized that that wide of boards meant it was old he did damage several things that were more valuable before his "repairs" which did include putting metal reinforcing where it was not needed. He then would romanticize what he was selling.

  • colleenoz
    5 years ago

    The strap is not normal- in fact I’ve never seen a table with such a thing. And it’s unattractive.

    I have an almost identical table which was my great-grandfather’s, without the straps.

  • debodun
    Original Author
    5 years ago

    More photos: a view underneath where one of the metal pieces is, a photo from a more elevated position showing the metal on both sides, and a close-up of one of the metal rectangles.



  • lindac92
    5 years ago

    What a shame! It's obvious seeing the grain that the leaves were big boards that either split naturally or were split on purpose and then glued together and reinforced with that cleat. I have seen other tables of that sort reinforced with one wooden cleat on the bottom of the leaf.
    Thinking that perhaps the boards were split and reversed to lessen the tendency to warp?

  • User
    5 years ago

    The picture from the bottom does not show the cleat but only some nasty glue work. My urban legend take on this is someone was asked to repair the table. The glue job did not meet with wife's approval. Rather than doing it over or simply refinishing the probably drunken mind decided that since there was probably a table covering why not just sink a strap. Wife would still not be pleased but she could use the table.

    Given the color differences between the legs and top I am still not convinced that this was not a marriage at sometime in the past based on the color differences in the third picture from the top. The leg that swings has an attached board that is much darker than the board that it would swing against when closed. The leg on the far left matches the color of the table but the leg in the center and the far right do not. Even stranger to my eye is that the leg in the back the bottom portion of the leg matches the table but the upper portion does not. Some of the differences could be from sun bleaching.

  • debodun
    Original Author
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    That's also what I thought after looking at the photos all together - someone cobbled together an antique-looking top and stuck it onto another set of table legs. The legs are lighter and perhaps different wood and look more modern (lathed). It's that I never paid much attention to it. It's probably been sitting in the same place for at least 40 years. There are deep impressions in the carpet where the leg ends rested. Since mt parents bought it, they might only have been interested in it as an "accent" piece to look like an antique in their new Victorian house. I've been advertising it on FB and Craig's List for $300, but no nibbles yet. I thought I may have been asking too much. Things that sold for hundreds of dollars 40 years ago, you can't give away nowadays. Evidenced by my mother's Depression glass collection.

  • colleenoz
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    Seriously, with those strap things, I would only pay like $20 to have a potting table or similar use. It’s not a display piece.

    The Depression glass , though...it’s a pity we’re on different continents.

  • lindac92
    5 years ago

    I have been to too many farm and household sales over the past 50 and a few years not to believe that the table is original...,made with walnut boards off of the wood lot likely by a local woodworker. That squared off leg and the inclusion of the sapwood all speak to midwestern rural stuff. someone didn't know how to reinforce that huge leaf and thought a cleat was the best way.
    I would cut out the part with the cleat and put the boards together again and have a table with shorter leaves.


  • maddielee
    5 years ago

    Yes, you are asking too much at $300.00. Research what antique tables in excellent condition are selling for near where you live. Here in Central Florida your table might sell at $45.00.

    It really doesn't matter what someone paid for it 40 or 50 years ago. It's all about the value when you want to sell it. Most furniture was never sold to be an 'investment' that would appreciate in value,