Object Description
This is a fabulous high quality antique Victorian mahogany metamorphic triple top games table for cards and roulette, circa 1870 in date.
The hinged triple top opens to reveal the original red baize lined gaming interior for playing cards with counter recesses, and opens again to reveal a further panel with roulette wheel, counter wells with counters and green baize marked scoring panel.
The table sits on solid mahogany fluted square tapered legs, headed with horizontal fluted panels, terminating in spade feet with brass castors.
It is an elegant piece which will enhance a special room in your home.
Condition:
In excellent condition having been beautifully cleaned, polished and waxed in our workshops, the Roulette baize is original, please see photos for confirmation.
Dimensions in cm:
Height 80 x Width 94 x Depth 56 – Closed
Height 78 x Width 112 x Depth 112 – open
Dimensions in inches:
Height 31.5 x Width 37.0 x Depth 22.0 – Closed
Height 30.7 x Width 44.1 x Depth 44.1 – open
Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even.
The game has been played in its present form since as early as 1796 in Paris. An early description of the roulette game in its current form is found in a French novel La Roulette, ou le Jour by Jaques Lablee, which describes a roulette wheel in the Palais Royal in Paris in 1796. The description included the house pockets, “There are exactly two slots reserved for the bank, whence it derives its sole mathematical advantage.” It then goes on to describe the layout with, “…two betting spaces containing the bank’s two numbers, zero and double zero”. The book was published in 1801. An even earlier reference to a game of this name was published in regulations for New France (Québec) in 1758, which banned the games of “dice, hoca, faro, and roulette”.
The roulette wheels used in the casinos of Paris in the late 1790s had red for the single zero and black for the double zero. To avoid confusion, the color green was selected for the zeros in roulette wheels starting in the 1800s.
Mahogany
is probably one of the largest ‘families’ of hardwood, having many different varieties within its own species.
Mahogany has been used for centuries in ship building, house building, furniture making etc and is the core structure of just about every 19th century vanity box, dressing case or jewellery box. It became more of a Victorian trend to dress Mahogany with these decorative veneers, such as Rosewood, Kingwood, Burr Walnut and Coromandel, so that the actual Mahogany was almost hidden from view.
Mahogany itself is a rich reddish brown wood that can range from being plain in appearance to something that is so vibrant, figured and almost three dimensional in effect.
Although Mahogany was most often used in its solid form, it also provided some beautifully figured varieties of veneer like ‘Flame’ Mahogany and ‘Fiddleback’ Mahogany (named after its preferred use in the manufacture of fine musical instruments).
Cuban Mahogany was so sought after, that by the late 1850′s, this particular variety became all but extinct.
Our reference: A1493