Burroughes & Watts Unusual Table

[100-uper]

Billiard tables don't get much better than this in my opinion. Made by Orme for the Royal Jubilee Exhibition at Manchester which ran from May to November 1887. The panels apparently depict the stability of the monarchy by showing historical succession round the billiard table connecting Queen Victoria with William the Conqueror. Not sure why he was considered the starting point, but I suppose they had limited space available. It was all "height of the Empire" sycophantic stuff, but very impressive nonetheless. It was apparently dubbed the "Queen" table during the course of the exhibition.

[dmorley85]

Thanks for the replies everyone, very interesting. So it seems like a bit of a mystery as to who actually made the table and when it dates back from. Does anybody know what the carving is supposed to represent? I thought it looks a bit like cocoa pods on the third picture that are carved into the wood but I don't think that's what they are!

[Geoff Large]

It could be cocoa pods , there are also berry's or beans on the leaf part and a round design at each end maybe the head of a grinder tool or grid .
if it is cocoa pods then it may well be made for an main importer or processor of Cocoa beans for chocolate , so the table may well have been in a boardroom or large country house for a chocolate factory owner
this points to Nestle or Cadburys or Bournerville or any prominent chocolate manufacturer .
the spiral reed design of the lower leg is unusual , the carved frame more or less confirms the cushions are not original to the frame , the cushions may have had carved back panels or even edge of upper capping carved .

one thing I will point out is to get them to take those rest hooks off the table , X rest end nibble is causing damage to the carvings .
they require round cue racks to keep the rests in , any highly polished table or carved table it is best not to fit rest hooks to the table , you will damage the table when you place the x rest back on you bang the wood with the brass head , this marks and over a few thousand placements you are through the polish and wearing away the wood as in this case .

[andy carson]

Thanks for the replies everyone, very interesting. So it seems like a bit of a mystery as to who actually made the table and when it dates back from. Does anybody know what the carving is supposed to represent? I thought it looks a bit like cocoa pods on the third picture that are carved into the wood but I don't think that's what they are!

with the location of the table i would suggest they might be cotton plants. Bury, Rammy, Blackburn & the Irwell valley was one of the main production areas of cotton based products during the industrial revolution. (the first mill to be built in all those areas is now apartments in summerseat next to where the waterside was before the floods - that itself was part of the mill originally)

*edit*

just to add a piece of work I did last year on the industry not far from radvegas

https://acarsonucbcphoto.wordpress.c...ingwater-mill/

[100-uper]

I'd have said that the carving was supposed to represent the pomegranate. That would certainly give rise to an interesting number of allegorical options. I'd be pretty confident that the frame was somewhere in the 1880s. Probably towards the early part of that decade. This type of carving became very popular from around that date, and if it was done after 1890 I doubt they would have felt compelled to replace the cushions.