Mahogany folding table, English, 1768-1780

Folding mahogany table with four legs in two sections, hinged together, and a fall flap. Square topped when open.

Bequeathed by Lt. Col. G. B. Croft-Lyons FSA

A specification for a portable table and chair was granted to Anthony George Eckhardt (1740-1810) in 1771 (no. 995). A copy was part of the Croft-Lyons bequest to the V&A, together with the table. A partial transcript of the patent can be found below.

Anthony George Eckhardt and his brother Francis Frederick came to London from the Hague. Anthony Eckhardt, who was elected to the Royal Society of Arts in about 1774 took out fifteen patents between 1771 and 1809 for a wide range of inventions including collapsible furniture, time regulators for musical performances and fire grate improvements. His brother Francis took out a patent in 1793 for printing and silvering paper for use as wallpaper. From the 1780s or 1790s the brothers produced wallpapers commercially, from premises in Chelsea, London. (E.A. Entwistle, '18th Century London Paperstainers' The Eckhardt Brothers of Chelsea', 1959.

Transcript of the 1771 patent:

'TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, Antony George Eckhardt, of London, Gentleman, sends greeting.

WHEREAS the said Anthony George Eckhardt did, by his petičon, humbly represent unto His most excellen Majesty King George the Thurd, that he had by long study and pains found out and invented "A NEW PORTABLE TABLE, WITH DOUBLE OR SINGLE FOLDING FLAPS AND FOLDING FEET, AND ALSO A NEW PORTABLE CHAIR, SO CONTRIVED AS TO ANSWER ALL THE PURPOSES OF THE COMMON TABLES AND CHAIRS, AND AT THE SAME TIME TO LAY IN THE COMPASS OF A SMALL BOX", which would be of the greatest use to His said Majesty's navy and army, and to all seafaring people, as well as to his Măty's subjects in general; and thereby prayed His Majesty to grant unto him His Letter Patent for the sole making and vending the said new Portable Table and Chair: And His said Majesty being please to condescend to his request, did, by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of July in the eleventh year of His reign, give and grant unto the said Anthony George Eckhardt.....during the term of fourteen year therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend his said Invention .......'

The table is described in the specification as 'a square folding frame of a table ...... as is commonly used.. for card tables, with this difference, that as the frame is to fold in such manner as to bring the opposite leggs... it will be necessary to have two joints in the direct middle of each side of the frame....and one joint at the insertion of each of the four leggs....; at the outer extremities of this frame are hung two flapps....so contrived that they might hang down at right angles to the frame when it is first opened, and be capable of turning in such manner as to bring them to fold over and meet in the center of the frame which is their support, and to which they are fastened by two snap locks; when this frame is finished in the manner above described it will constitute a compleat usefull table which may be made of any form or proportion; and in order to make it take up as little room as the solid contents of the materials alone will admit of, the legs are also contrived to fold in two by means of a hinge fixed to each.... so applyed as that each of the legs may turn inwards when folded up... and to render the legs more steady and give them greater strength when the table is opened and in use, a bolt is provided to each,..... which when the table is folded up, is contained in the upper joint, and when opened falls by its own weight across the joint to give the necessary strength. One advantage peculiar to this construction, added to the smallspace it is capable of being folded up in, is the facitily of changing the sides of the flaps at pleasure, the one of which being of any beautifull wood, and the other covered with green cloth, it will then occasionally serve either as a tea table or as a card or writing table. The stools or chairs are in every respect similar in their contsruction with the tables, with this difference, that the seat is contrived with a double folding joint....whereas the table consists of two flapps; and as a further improvement, little drawers or boxes may be made to fold up therewith to hold pens, ink, paper, and small instruments of any sort.

In witness whereof, the said Anthony George Eckhardt hath hereunto set his hand and seat, this twenty-eigth day of November, in the twelfth year of the reign of our Soveriegn Lord George the Third, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,King, Defender of the Faith, &c., and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and seventy-one.

A. G. (L.S.) Eckhardt.

Sealed and delivered (being first duly stampt) in the presence of GEO. BURSEY.'

This folding table, by an unknown maker, is based on a patent taken out by George Eckhardt. It is extremely unstable when set up, because the folding legs cannot be held in place securely by the catches used, which vary from the peg arrangement specified in the patent. The idea of making the legs fold is not a success, and indeed most other folding furniture has solid legs that can be unscrewed or folded down in one piece. The table top has mahogany veneer on one side and baize on the other, but in practice cannot be reversed, nor is it clear from the patent how the table top was intended to be detached and turned over. George Eckhardt took out many patents for a wide variety of things, and it must be assumed that his patent for the folding table was not a success.

W.76:1-1926