Rectangular card table, with concertina action, the legs tapering, above pad feet, the front edges with rounded, outset corners, the veneers in a dark and light-coloured reddish wood, showing both dark heartwood and light sapwood, in stripes (possibly plum). When opened, the table shows a border of similar cross-banding, with the central area covered in baize.

Rectangular card table, with concertina action, the rectangular top with rounded, outset corners, above tapering legs on pad feet. The table is veneered in a dark and light-coloured reddish wood, showing both dark heartwood and light sapwood (cocus wood or possibly plum). The veneer is arranged to present vertical stripes on the frieze, and with a saltire shape on the top, the edges of the tops cross-banded in the same wood. When opened, the table shows a border of similar cross-banding, with the central area covered in baize. The legs, which are turned from the solid, also show both sapwood and heartwood and the tops of the legs are carved with lappets. The carcase wood is pine

Bequeathed by C. D. Rotch

This table appears to have belonged to M. Harris & Sons in 1941 (see label).

Bequeathed to the Museum in 1962 by Claude Rotch (Registered File 61/3157c)

Object sampling carried out by Jo Darrah, V&A Science; drawer/slide reference 4/22.

A number of very similarly veneered tables have been through the salerooms over the years. One of the most recent was one sold by Bonhams, 18th November 2009, lot 57, which is described as 'yew wood and plum'. Adam Bowett (2019) believes that this is in fact cocus, despite the rather light, pink tone.

Card playing was an essential element of social life in polite society in the eighteenth century, and the equipment for it, from card tables to boxes for gaming counters, was often ambitiously decorated. The table, which may have been made as one of a pair, is veneered in a wood with strongly contrasting sapwood (light) and heartwood (dark). The most expensive tables decorated in this manner were veneered with cocus wood, also known as Jamaican ebony (see a similar table, W. 51-1937) but this wood, which is pinker in tone, and shows less contrast, may be plum wood, although no scientific analysis has been made.

W.64-1962