#masterclass The timeless beauty of a 17th Century Oak Table

When I saw this table it just said one thing to me and one thing alone and it said it repeatedly patina patina patina This was made at the end of the 17th century possibly early into the 18th century so 1690 William and Mary period it's oak it's a piece of vernacular furniture and what you're looking at is something exactly as I bought it but just very gently waxed to clean some of the grime off it and that leaves you with the most wonderful patina. What do we mean by patina? It's the accretion of dust of soil of grime of coal dust of soot of tar from people smoking in rooms and it just puts a layer on there and gradually more and more dirt crews to it but what you also get is you get the stains of living and the stains of living on the top of this as you can see it's faded in a couple of areas you've got the two boards that are the top of the piece and you can see where the join is and they're ever so slightly cupped that is to say slightly boned and then you've got these marks on there from people sitting there for over 300 years writing reading having their lunch or their breakfast or dinner off there being used living and then the edge of it it's a little bit damaged and bashed about but look at the dark area there and again a dark area there and there these are all things that we look for when looking at a piece like this to see its originality but the patina goes a lot further because as you can see the further down the piece you go the darker it gets but you get these dark areas and you get the areas where it's got highlights from being wax polished over the years the stretches uniting the legs which have got wear on there from someone sitting there rubbing their feet at it and you've got the lovely dark areas and warmer areas as you come up the legs and what you'll also notice when you look closely at a piece like this is that the wooden pegs that are the joints that hold the piece together all stand ever so slightly proud and that's absolutely as it should be because the timber that was used for these pegs would have shrunk in the opposite direction to the timber of the wood they're hammered into meaning that as the base wood shrinks the pegs don't forcing them to stand proud ever so slightly and you have that on the sides as well on the back all the way around and then we have the drawer a single drawer which is retaining the original brass handles on there that are probably slightly more agricultural than you would see on a piece of refined walnut furniture of that period they're probably made by a blacksmith rather than a brass founder but it is all of that that adds to the character of a piece like this whether you're looking at the sides the back the bottom the top it just has so much going for it and it's a pleasure and a joy to see a piece that's 320 330 years old in what i would consider to be lovely condition showing all the wear and the patina that i would expect on a piece of vernacular furniture of that time and as i say when i unloaded this from the car it was dirty and just a little bit of wax just brought it back to life and got rid of some of the surface dirt and leaves it with a nice sort of sheen on there that just feels nice it feels right when you run your hand over it and that's why so often at an antiques fair or when you go into an antique shop you see people just go that's nice and rubbing their hand over it just to feel what that feels like i hope you've enjoyed viewing this short video we certainly enjoyed making it if you want to keep up to date with what's happening here at harvest with details of freshly acquired stock and news about fairs and exhibitions that we'll be showing at you can subscribe to our email newsletter which comes out regularly from the link below until next time thank you