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The fire table
  • The fire table
  • The fire table
  • The fire table
  • The fire table
  • The fire table
  • The fire table
  • The fire table
  • The fire table
  • The fire table
  • The fire table
The fire table

The fire table

A recreation of a late 18th-century cast iron hearth table, possibly Coalbrookdale. England, c1760. From our studies series of designs.

I bought the original table at auction over twenty years ago, and paid nearly three times the price I'd intended - because I'd never seen anything quite like it before.

It's primitive in appearance, with heavily dinted and richly patinated surfaces...and it's beautiful. It's a utilitarian piece, domestic I believe, and probably part of a large, well-equipped kitchen belonging to a fashionable home. 

Cooking and heating were the first areas of life to be transformed by the groundbreaking foundry at Coalbrookdale, which later fanned the flames of the Industrial Revolution. So this rare little table is a relic of the moment and method by which we left our past behind, and began to forge the modern world.

Our fire table is cast from and made in precisely the same way as the 18th-century original, with sand-cast components brought together by mortise and tenon joints.

Price starting from:

£5,225
+ vat
More details

Given its scale and evolved patina, the fire table works well flanking a large sofa or bed, or singly by a favourite chair.

The fire table
Pricing
£5,225
+ vat
Dimensions
  • 420mm square x 540mm high
Materials
  • Cast iron
Diagram

Please enquire for a dxf file

Current lead time - 14 weeks

STUDIES

The fire table is part our Studies series, where we undertake to follow in the footsteps of pioneers; recreating seminal works and sharing the inspirational stories around them.

INSPIRATION

18th century Britain changed the world; moving us away from the harsh realities of our reliance on the natural world, towards a more stable existence.

Key to this development was the work undertaken by Abraham Darby and Abraham Darby the younger at their foundry in Coalbrookdale. Here they laid the groundwork for the giant leap in iron manufacture, that drove the Industrial Revolution in the later half of the 18th century.

Earlier, in the 1720s and 1730s, their patented casting process helped them to corner the market in cast iron cooking pots. This led to the development of early kitchenware, which became the first domestic market for the first mass-produced products.

DESIGN

Abraham Darby's patented process created cast iron products not only faster, but also thinner, lighter and stronger than before.

Utility pieces that were previously not possible or available, or too brittle or ungainly, began to acquire the elegance of high craft – this lowly hearth table reflecting the Queen Anne fashion for classically inspired, cabriole legs.

OTHER TABLES FROM THE EDITION