Victorian Gillows Centre Table with Foliate Carvings

• Serpentine - Resembling a serpent, in the form of an elongated 'S'. A serpentine front is similar to a bow front, except that the curve is shallow at each end, swelling towards the middle. The term presumably derives from its similarity to a moving snake or serpent. Serpentine fronts are usually veneered, with the carcase either being cut and shaped from a solid piece of timber, or built in the 'brick' method.
• Foliate - Decorated with leaves or leaf-like forms.
• Stretcher - A horizontal rail which connects the legs of stools, chairs, tables and stands, to provide stabilisation of the legs. A stretcher table is any table with a stretcher base. The term is usually applied to substantial farmhouse tables, although many cabinetmaker's pieces, such as sofa tables, also have turned stretchers.
• Castors - Wheels, fitted especially to chair legs, couches, tables and some smaller pieces of furniture, to enable them to be easily moved about. The earliest castors were of brass, with shanks fitting into the base of the leg, and the wheels often made of leather. In the late 18th century, brass 'bucket' or 'cup' castors were introduced, either rounded or square, fitting directly over the end of the leg and held in place with screws. The wheels were generally solid brass. Bucket/cup castors continued in use throughout the 19th century and indeed are still made today. In the later 19th century wheels were sometimes made of wood, china, either white or brown, and sometimes of steel.
• Attributed - A cataloguing term where the item in the opinion of the cataloguers, is a of the period of the artist, craftsman or designer, and which probably in whole or part is the work of that person.
• Victorian Period - The Victorian period of furniture and decorative arts design covers the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. There was not one dominant style of furniture in the Victorian period. Designers used and modified many historical styles such as Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, Neoclassical and others, although use of some styles, such as English Rococo and Gothic tended to dominate the furniture manufacture of the period.
  
  The Victorian period was preceded by the Regency and William IV periods, and followed by the Edwardian period, named for Edward VII (1841 ? 1910) who was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India for the brief period from 1901 until his death in 1910.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• Gillows of Lancaster (England) - furniture, designers and makers 68
• tables, purpose or type - centre 562