A wine table is a small, light occasional table intended to hold a glass of wine, a decanter or a small plate beside a chair. The term is used for small tripod tables and, more specifically, for the horseshoe-shaped tables made in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries for drinkers seated around the fire.
The typical English wine table of the Georgian period has a round, oval or square top on a turned column with three splayed legs, often in mahogany, and is closely related to the tripod tea table and candlestand. Some have tilting tops, raised galleries or pie-crust edges. The rarer horseshoe or hunt table, designed to sit in front of the hearth, sometimes incorporated a hinged bottle carrier or swinging coasters to pass decanters. Victorian makers continued the small occasional table in walnut, rosewood and oak, and many reproductions followed in the twentieth century. Collectors examine the top and base carefully to ensure they belong together, look for good colour, original finish and well-carved feet, and check repairs to the legs where they join the column. Wine tables remain extremely useful beside armchairs and sofas.
