Art Deco Revival Hall Table, Bird's-Eye Maple, Late 20th Century

Nobody can grow bird's-eye maple on purpose. The little swirling eyes are a growth defect in the sugar maple, the cause of them is still not settled, and there is no way of knowing a tree has it until the tree is already down, which is why it became the prestige veneer of the deco years and why it comes back every time deco does.

A hall table is a harder thing to build than it looks. It has to be long, it has to be shallow enough to walk past, and it has to not move when somebody drops keys on one end of it. This one carries 140 centimetres on two swept supports instead of four legs, which is the choice that makes it look light and the same choice that makes it difficult.

The figure is not spread evenly, and that is the decision worth noticing. Bird's-eye is scarce and it comes in whatever width the log allows, so here it is laid as a border framing a black lacquered field, and the two big sweeping supports underneath are plain. The eyes sit along the one surface anybody stands over and looks down at. Everything else is kept quiet, which is how you spend a timber you cannot order more of.

Specifications

• Art Deco revival, late 20th century
• Unsigned, maker unknown; no label found
• A bird's-eye maple border framing a black lacquered top panel, with black edge banding; canted corners
• The two swept end supports and the lower shelf in plain maple, without the eye figure
• Two curved splayed end supports in place of legs, over a full-width lower shelf
• 140 cm wide, 42 cm deep, 70 cm high
• Cleaned and waxed
• Honest age: a pale rub-through patch 40 to 50 mm on one support outer face, a fine 60 to 80 mm scratch above it, small dark nicks in the inner curve, hazy burnished patches, and an approx 20 mm red mark on the top border