Victorian "Chinese-Style" Tables

 Recently I came across these tables in an antique store near my house...........

Aren't they just lovely???  As you can see, they are sitting in my parlour in this photo, so yes.....they have found a home here at Le Beau Paon Victorien!  On April 27th, Erik and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. To mark our very first "special" anniversary, I wanted to buy him something special and I wanted it to be wood, since the traditional 5th anniversary gift is wood. These tables fit the bill perfectly.

 Both the large table and the small table have rose marble tops. When I saw the pair, I knew I wanted both of them and didn't want to split them up. The price for both of them was a little out of my budget range, so I tried talking to someone at the store to see if the dealer would be willing to negotiate with me. At first they weren't helpful....the person at the store was a little bit short with me and I went away feeling annoyed, but not ready to give up. I kept stopping back in over the next few weeks and checking on them....finally this last weekend I lucked out! The antique store is moving and many of the vendors were having sales in their booths to try and move merchandise so they wouldn't have to haul it all to the new location, which is across town. This dealer was offering 20% off, but even at 20% off the price was still a little steep.

 When I stopped in last week Friday I bought a vintage lace tablecloth for my dining room and then talked up the tables with the lady at the counter. It was a different woman than the one I had tried to talk to last time and this one was very willing to call the dealer to see what he'd take for the tables. Apparently there had been a lot of interest in them, but nobody was taking the bait. I dangled a price, I left my name and number. He must have thought about it for an hour or two, then decided he didn't want to have to lug them to the new place and that they'd have a good home with me ( I made sure to mention that we have a 1886 Queen Anne Victorian and that we are trying to recreate and decorate in the Victorian style and have a number of antique pieces), because he called me and let me have them for the price I wanted. Score!

In some past posts I have mentioned that our house has five bedrooms; one we use as an office, one is a guest room, one is our room and two others are unused. One of the larger unused rooms we plan on turning into a Victorian "man-cave" for Erik. He is very excited about the project, which we hope to do at some point in the next year if possible. In the meantime, we have been keeping our eyes peeled for things that we can put in his "Victorian gentleman's study". These tables I thought would be perfect for his room, which is where they will eventually go.  The dealer told us they are probably late Victorian period, c.1890s-1900-ish. They came from a very large house on Lake Drive in Milwaukee which is where all the big old Victorian mansions are. They are "Chinese-Style" tables, made for the American Victorian market, which during the later part of the 19th century was obsessed with Turkish, Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese-style decor elements. Having a "Turkish Room" or a "Chinese Room" was all the rage at that time, or "all the crack", to use the popular slang of the time.

Thanks for stopping by! 

I will be joining up with Coloradolady

for Vintage Thingie Thursday!