{"product_id":"antique-french-oak-draw-leaf-dining-table","title":"Antique French Oak Draw Leaf Dining Table","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThere is a particular kind of table that solves a problem most dining rooms have. Closed, this one is a generous but manageable seventy-seven inches, the size you live with on a Tuesday. Pull the leaves and it opens to nearly twelve feet, seating twelve or more without a single loose leaf to haul up from the basement. The draw leaf mechanism is the oldest extending system in European furniture, in use since the sixteenth century: two leaves stacked beneath the main top on tapered runners, and when you draw them out, the top itself drops into the gap and lands flush. It gets tighter under weight, not looser.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe oak is quarter sawn, cut that way for stability, and the figure that came with it runs in silver flecks across the apron and legs. The apron is shaped in a long serpentine scallop along both sides, cut by hand, following the curve of the cabriole legs beneath it. It is a restrained version of the Louis XV country vocabulary, no carved shells at the knee, no scrolled feet, just the shape itself doing the work. The legs join the frame with pegged mortise and tenon, and the pegs still stand slightly proud where the oak has shrunk around them over the last century and more.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe two leaves are lighter in color than the main top. This is how draw leaf tables have always aged, and in the nineteenth century it was intentional, since tables were used under cloth and the hidden leaves were never meant to match. When you extend it, you see the difference. I have come to think of it as the table showing you its own history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eProvincial workshops built tables like this for houses where the dining table was also the work surface, and where it needed to grow twice a year for the people who came home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e[d]Period | Circa 1880\u003cbr\u003e[d]Origin | France\u003cbr\u003e[d]Style | Louis XV, French Provincial\u003cbr\u003e[d]Primary Wood | Solid quarter sawn oak\u003cbr\u003e[d]Construction | Pegged mortise and tenon, framed plank top, hand-cut apron\u003cbr\u003e[d]Mechanism | Draw leaf, two leaves, à l'italienne\u003cbr\u003e[d]Dimensions Closed | 31\" H x 77\" W x 32.5\" D\u003cbr\u003e[d]Dimensions Extended | 31\" H x 142\" W x 32.5\" D\u003cbr\u003e[d]Seating | Ten closed, fourteen extended\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e[condition]\u003cbr\u003eThe table is structurally sound and the draw leaf mechanism operates. The main top carries scattered surface scratches and light denting from use, most visible in raking light. There are two small dark knots in the top planks and one small filled void. The plank seams have opened slightly with normal oak shrinkage, which is expected in a table of this age and construction. The two draw leaves are noticeably lighter in color than the main top and there is visible wear and light abrasion along the pull edges of both leaves. One leg block carries a slotted screw alongside the wood pegs, a later reinforcement. The date given is a construction-based estimate rather than a maker's mark or dated stamp, drawn from the pegged and draw-bored joinery, the hand-planed secondary surfaces, and the hand-cut apron, none of which show machine working.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e#142\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Austyn Marie Design","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51482662273302,"sku":"AMD-03581","price":5500.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0896\/4623\/5926\/files\/Belgium_France_Inventory_Continued-7104.jpg?v=1784912556","url":"https:\/\/austyn-marie.myshopify.com\/products\/antique-french-oak-draw-leaf-dining-table","provider":"Austyn Marie Design","version":"1.0","type":"link"}