NEW ARRIVAL-Regency Mahogany Drum Table with Green Gold-Tooled Leather Top, c.1820

The centrepiece of every great English library — and every great room.

The drum table is one of the defining achievements of English Regency furniture design — and this magnificent example, with its deep mahogany drum, sweeping quadruped base, and exquisite green gold-tooled leather top, is a piece of rare quality and presence.

Crafted in the finest mahogany with a richly crossbanded edge, the circular top is inset with a superb panel of sage green leather, hand-embossed with an intricate all-over scrollwork pattern and bordered by a gleaming gilt foliate band — the very same tradition of craftsmanship that adorned the great libraries of Regency England. Run your fingers across it and you feel the work of a craftsman who took genuine pride in every detail.

The deep cylindrical frieze — almost certainly fitted with the characteristic alternating real and dummy drawers of the period — rests on a boldly turned central column, itself supported by four elegantly outswept legs terminating in the original brass castors. It moves as gracefully as it looks.

Place it at the centre of a sitting room, beside a leather Chesterfield, or in a study surrounded by books. Wherever it goes, it commands the room with the quiet authority of two centuries of English taste.

One of the great forms of English furniture — in an example of exceptional quality.