console
A console table is a table whose top surface is supported by corbels or brackets rather than by the usual four legs. It is thus similar to a supported shelf and is not designed to serve as a stand-alone surface. It is frequently used as pier table (which may have legs of any variety), to abut a pier wall. • Illustration — Self-supporting form of the console table.
Also recorded as console table
console
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- table · shelf
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wikidata · Q7887380 · wikipedia · Console table
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The bracket supports are frequently highly decorative • Illustration — Console tables serving as pier tables underneath pier glasses, Denmark The term console derives from the compound Latin verb consolor "to alleviate, lighten", from the verb solor, "to assuage, soothe, relieve, mitigate", plus the preposition con/com/cum, "with". A console shelf is a shelf fulfilling the same function as a console table.
Low console: Positioned at table height, or sometimes slightly higher, with its flat side against the wall. The front may be rounded or straight, depending on the period and style. Its support may consist of a single or double base, with the top attached to the wall; four legs curved inward in scrolls in the Empire style; or four straight legs in the modern style. High console: A small shelf placed at about standing height, once used to hold a small lamp, a candle, or similar object. From the 18th century onward, the term console came to refer to a small movable piece of furniture, previously known as the “foot” or “base” of a trumeau mirror or painting. It consists of a top supported by two or four legs joined by an ornamental strut.
console, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Marie-Josèphe de Saxe et le duc de Bourgogne, 1761
Maurice Quentin de La Tour · http: New=T SubE=2C6NU0SO8JA7
French console table, mid 18th century, wood, gesso, polychrome and gilding with marble top, Honolulu Academy of Arts
Hiart
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Console table, revision 1345801471 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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- 1.Furniture historian Edgar G. Miller differentiates the console table and the pier table. Pier tables are designed with a flat edge to be against the wall, whereas a console table may have any edge against the wall or be freestanding. Miller, Edgar George (1937). American Antique Furniture: A Book for Amateurs. New York: Barrows, p.830
- 2.Cassell's Latin Dictionary, Marchant, J. R. V, & Charles, Joseph F., (Eds.), Revised Edition, 1928
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