Object Description
An Unusual Bath Cabinet Makers Co (BCM) Patent Adap-Table Conservatory Trolley Table c.1935 This unusual design combines the patent BCM (Bath Cabinet Makers Company) Adap-table system with heavy-duty castors and slatted teak sections for drainage, all demonstrating that this particular variant on the standard design was made for use in a grand conservatory or garden house rather than than a typical interior setting. The table retains its original label to the underside, listing the patent and registered design numbers relating to the adap-table mechanism which was designed to allow the top on this series of tables to be raised on a metal frame and held in place at a variety of different heights. Tables designed with this mechanism were made as tea trolley/coffee tables, as movable bookcases with tray tops and, as in the present example, as garden furniture as well. The table top can be manipulated to form one large surface and thereee shelves when upright
The Bath Cabinet Makers Company
Founded in 1892, BCM was a highly successful British company that traded in its original form until 1959, primarily under the management of the Richter family who also acted as chief designers for much of that period. Unlike many of their competitors, they did not have one set style, working in a vast variety of cabinetmaking styles from tributes to the makers of the 18th century in England and Europe more widely to modernism and Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Amongst the firm’s many notable contracts were those to fit out the Cunard liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
The firm won many prizes at international exhibitions in its long history and its pieces were always of a high standard. The firm’s work ranged from veneered items to those made in the solid.
A real feather in the firm’s cap was its widespread acceptance by the luxury retailers of the day. One of its major stockists was Harrods, a 1932 advert showing some of the firm’s furniture in that store being reproduced below.
When upright as three shelves.
Height 46 inches Width 31 inches Depth 15 inches
When down as flat surface.
Height 31 inches Width 45 inches Depth 27 inches
Each shelf is 27 inches x 15 inches