Antique Sofa Tables Styles and Types
The antique sofa table varies in details of its design and decoration. Sofa tables are usually 5 and 6 foot wide when fully extended and the flaps are supported by fly brackets (swing brackets), they are usually each about a quarter of the width of the central section. Some unusual sofa tables have sliding-topped compartments in the middle, or rising desks for writing but the most have one long or two short drawers on one side of the frieze, and faux drawers on the opposite side. The edges of sofa table tops are straight, and the corners of the flaps rounded, or canted in the corners. The tops are usually set on end supports, with stretchers across the middle. The legs are designed so that the feet can fit a little way under a sofa, and that allows the table to be pulled close to the person and they are usually always on castors. A sofa table is a useful and beautiful piece of antique furniture
According to the famous furniture designer Sheraton in ‘The cabintet dictonary’ , the sofa table was specifically for use ‘before a sofa’ where’ the ladies chiefly occupy them to draw, write or read upon’.
