Table designed by Charles Edward Horton and made by James Lamb, Manchester. Mahogany, made about 1887.

Mahogany table with incised top and six flaring legs

The first example of this table, originally described as a tea table, was designed by Charles Edward Horton, a Manchester architect, for James Lamb's stand of a drawing room at the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition in 1887.

This V&A table is one of at least four examples of this design. Of the others, one is in Manchester City Art Gallery, a second was formerly with the Fine Art Society, London (with a foliate design inlaid into the top and the firm's label; acquired from Phillips, London, 25/09/2001, lot 5), and a third was offered by Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, 03/06/2009, lot 189.

The firm of James Lamb exhibited a drawing room at the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition of 1887 which included a tea table of the same design as W.9-1986. The exhibit was praised and illustrated in The Art Journal, 1887, p. 381, 'Furniture in The Manchester Exhibition', 'The tea-table, by Mr. James Lamb, does not of course adequately illustrate the capabilities of a firm which has long held a distinguished position in the north of England. The carved wood panels which were reproduced in our Jubilee Number gave, however, a fair idea of their most ambitious and distinguished work, and the tea-table is worth reproducing for its successful solution of a familiar problem, and its combination of lightness with strength.'

W.9-1986