Antique Extendable Walnut Dining Table | French Demi-lune, 19th Century

• Structurally restored
• Treated against wood-boring insects and borer-free
• Furniture ready for use

A dining room is used in two ways. On normal days, with two or three people. And the four times a year when everyone needs to be seated.

This antique French walnut extendable dining table was made in the mid-19th century to solve exactly that. It's a demi-lune à volets: two half-moon tables that stand separately against the wall, like consoles, and join together with two iron hooks to form a round table. With the two extensions inserted into the runners, it becomes oval. It came from a bourgeois country house.

The walnut is present throughout the structure: skirts with the wavy grain of French walnut, turned fuseau legs with a collar at the top, and the tops with their drop-leaves, made of several glued planks. The extensions are pine, as was customary then: they went under the tablecloth and no one looked at them.

Eight legs, and all eight end in brass casters with cups. The hinges of the drop-leaves are made of iron plates, with screws with off-center slots, cut by hand. The joining hooks are forged.

The top shows marks. Scratches, some rings, old inactive woodworm holes. It was cleaned and left as is. This table has fed several generations, and we didn't feel the need to erase that history.

146 × 62 × 79 cm for each console, closed. 146 × 122 × 79 cm joined, for six. 220 × 146.5 × 79 cm with the two extensions, for ten. It's a table for a house with a real dining room, or for a large living room where the two consoles occupy the wall during the week and the center when needed.

WHAT IS NOT MADE TODAY

→ The entire mechanism. Two consoles, two drop-leaves, two extensions, wooden runners, and two forged hooks. Three tables in one, without a single modern fitting. Finding both halves together, with their extensions and their eight casters, is what makes this typology difficult to find.

→ The screws. The slot of each hinge screw is off-center because it was cut by hand, one by one. It's the table's date written in the iron.

→ The brass casters. Eight cups with their casters, to move the consoles to the wall or to the center without lifting fifty kilos of walnut.

→ The washed walnut. Without varnish or stain. What you see is the color of the walnut after more than a century and a half, with its corresponding marks.

RESTORED IN OUR WORKSHOP IN NAVALCARNERO, MADRID

The complete structure was checked: the plumb of the eight legs, the seating of the drop-leaves on their hinges, the movement of the runners, and the fit of the two extensions. The joining hooks and the eight casters were checked. The wood was hand-washed, without reducing the surface, and the table was treated against woodworm.

The walnut is in its natural tone, without varnish or workshop color. The top retains its marks of use, which are declared and visible in the photographs. The drop-leaves go up and down, the extensions fit, and the two halves close perfectly level.

Style: Louis Philippe provincial (France)
Material: Solid walnut; pine extenders
Technique: Turned (fuseau legs with collar); glued panel tops; demi-lune à volets system with wooden slides
Finish: Hand-washed walnut, natural, no varnish or stain
Hardware: Iron strap hinges with hand-cut screws, two forged connecting hooks, eight brass caster wheels with sockets
Configuration: Two demi-lune consoles with drop leaves and two extension extenders
Measurements: Closed (each console) 146 × 62 × 79 cm · Open round 146 × 122 × 79 cm · Extended 220 × 146.5 × 79 cm
Condition: Firm structure; top with visible signs of use and inactive old woodworm holes; mechanism in working order
Period: Mid-19th century (c. 1830–1860)

Closed (each console): 146 cm (Width) × 62 cm (Depth) × 79 cm (Height)
Open round: 146 cm (Width) × 122 cm (Depth) × 79 cm (Height)
Extended with two extensions: 220 cm (Width) × 146.5 cm (Depth) × 79 cm (Height)

Free shipping to mainland Spain. Includes indoor delivery with packaging removal.