Object Description
This large mahogany imperial action dining table has rounded ends each housing the telescopic action that extends the table to varying lengths, three extra leaves and eight brass clips. It is supported on six turned tapering and reeded legs with brass caps and castors, each end with large brass handle engraved ‘Patent Morgan & Sanders Inventors & Manufacturers, 16 & 17 Catherine Street Strand London‘. English, circa 1815.
Height: 28¾ in (73 cm) Length closed: 74in (188 cm) Extended 13ft 4in (406 cm)
Width: 59½ in (151 cm)
Literature: Nicholas A. Brawer, British Campaign Furniture – Elegance under Canvas, 1740-1914, New York, 2001, pp.192-193, pls.D50-D52 for a very similar dining table.
Morgan & Sanders was established in 1800 by Thomas Morgan & Joseph Sanders, both of whom had worked for the cabinetmaker Thomas Butler at 13–14 Catherine Street, London. Initially, they produced campaign furniture, that is, furniture which could be easily knocked down and packed fairly flat, for the use of officers in military service. The Napoleonic War required an ever-expanding British Army and Navy, thus also increasing the demand for all types of campaign furniture, from collapsible beds and chairs to portable camp chests and dining tables. The latter were dining tables which, when closed, might seat only four to six people, but could accommodate up to twenty people when fully extended. Admiral Lord Nelson purchased some of this collapsible furniture for his cabin aboard HMS Victory as can be seen in the photograph below. Morgan & Sanders designed an ‘imperial’ action dining table and matching sideboard for Merton Place, Nelson’s country house in Surrey. Two of their best sellers were the ‘Nelson Sideboard’ and the ‘Trafalgar Chair’ a metamorphic library chair. After the autumn of 1805, Morgan & Sanders renamed their premises Trafalgar House, in honour of that resounding victory.