Regency Mahogany Pembroke “Deception” Table

A magnificent small antique Regency Pembroke “deception” table in beautifully figured mahogany dating from circa 1820. The “deceptive” front flap, dressed as two cock-beaded drawers with turned knobs and escutcheon, drops down to reveal a vacant interior – ideal as a work table, pot cupboard or lamp table with storage. With a dummy drawer to the opposite side, it can be placed in the centre of a room if desired. The table is raised on four elegantly turned legs terminating in their original brass cup castors. In good condition, this piece would grace any room; it could be used as a laptop table or would work equally well as a lamp table. Thomas Sheraton in his Cabinet Dictionary of 1803 stated that the function of a deception Pembroke table was ‘to answer the purpose of a pot cupboard, or any other secret use which we would hide from the eye of a stranger’. It is believed to have originated with the firm of Gillows, as a design for a deception table appears in the Gillow Estimate Sketch Books for June/July 1787 (Westminster City Archives 94/44-5). Construction/Wood:- Mahogany