The Home Beautiful: The John Jones Table, 1870

Center Table
c. 1870
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Celebrated for its beautiful hardstone work, this narrow, rectangular center table is supported by four tapering legs and is veneered in Mozambique rosewood and ebony on a structure of oak. The sides are set with plaques of hardstone and with one plaque of porcelain. The whole is adorned with mounts of gilt bronze


John Jones, an avid British collector of French 18th-century furniture and porcelain, bought this table between about 1870 and 1880, thinking that the table was already an antique. But, inspection of the table has proven otherwise. This table is narrower than most Eighteenth-Century tables. Furthermore, the combination of hardstones (pietre dure) with owed more to the tastes of the 1870s than the 1770s.

The table was most likely made shortly before John Jones purchased it. However, the hardstone panels of Marble, Alabaster, Chalcedony, Agate, Carnelian, Lapis-lazuli, Amethyst, Jasper, Carrara marble, Sainte Ann marble, and Belgium marble were probably made in Florence between about 1660 and 1690. So, at least a portion of it was antique. Nevertheless, Jones was quite proud of the table, and, if you wait long enough, anything can be an antique.