Adjustable furniture is furniture that can be altered in height, angle or shape to suit different uses or users, by means of ratchets, rising mechanisms, hinged supports, sliding parts or screws. It includes reading tables, music stands, invalid chairs, reclining armchairs, rising bed tables, piano stools and adjustable library and drawing tables.
Interest in ingenious mechanical furniture grew during the eighteenth century, when cabinetmakers and patentees devised tables with ratcheted tops for reading or drawing, and chairs with reclining backs and extendable footrests. The Regency period was especially inventive, with makers producing patent furniture for libraries, travelling and the sickroom. Victorian manufacturers added cast iron and brass mechanisms, and many surviving adjustable reading tables, invalid chairs and duet stools date from the nineteenth century. Collectors value adjustable furniture for its combination of craftsmanship and engineering, and pieces bearing a maker's name or patent stamp are of particular interest. Mechanisms should operate smoothly and retain their original fittings, as replacements can be difficult to source. Today such pieces appeal both as practical furniture for reading, writing and working and as conversation pieces in libraries and studies.
