Jupe Dining Table
In 1835 Robert Jupe was granted British Patent No. 6788 for an expanding table. The original Jupe expanding table includes a table top that is divided into a number of sections. Each section is connected to an underlying frame structure, such that when the table top is rotated, the sections move radially outward, increasing the effective size of the table top. Once the table top has been rotated to move the table top sections outward, leaves are inserted between the sections, so as to fill in the spaces created by the outward movement of the sections. Because the table top sections diverge and move radially outward from a central point, the Jupe table top retains its shape in its expanded configuration.
The Jupe table has now become one of the most valuable and sought after antiques. Original Jupe tables in good condition may sell for up to $350,000 at the time of writing. However, despite its popularity, the Jupe table has been very difficult to mass produce, because its workings are both extremely complex and entirely handcrafted.
For example, the frame structure that supports the table top sections in the Jupe table is comprised of many individual beam structures that are secured together to form the frame. Each of those beams must be individually made and assembled to exacting tolerances in order to ensure that the table top sections will move freely and mate in the center of the table top to form a substantially contiguous table surface in both the contracted and expanded configurations. The manufacture of such a structure is time-consuming and is not conducive to rapid production.
Other aspects of the Jupe table design also make the design difficult to implement. For example, in at least some of the existing examples of functioning Jupe tables, the pivot for the table top is a threaded rod that runs the entire length of the table pedestal. That is an extremely difficult and time-consuming configuration to replicate.
Arthur Brett
Arthur Brett’s roots in furniture date back five generations as far as the early nineteenth century with chairmaker John Brett, born in Norfolk in 1815. In 1870, his son Jonathan T. Brett founded the company making and selling furniture with his six sons. One of them, Arthur, an antiques dealer, gradually expanded into reproductions, setting up as Arthur Brett in the 1920s with elegant showrooms in St Giles Street, Norwich.
The company’s experience in restoring priceless antiques gave Arthur and his team of craftsmen the expertise to create authentic and museum-standard reproductions. This tradition of quality and craftsmanship continues to the present day.
Over the years, the firm has established its reputation for making the finest English furniture, with their committed teams of craftsmen, most of whom have served the firm for decades. They have passed down to successive generations the traditional skills and techniques of which any 18th century cabinetmaker would be proud. With this wealth of history and experience Arthur Brett can offer the finest hand crafted bespoke furniture for 21st century living.
Arthur Brett and Arthur Brett Architectural, now make up part of a family of superb traditional furniture brands which represent the best of English fine furniture-making; gracing the finest homes, financial institutions, hotels and Royal residences internationally.
Flame Mahogany
Thomas Sheraton - 18th-century furniture designer, once characterized mahogany as "best suited to furniture where strength is demanded as well as a wood that works up easily, has a beautiful figure and polishes so well that it is an ornament to any room in which it may be placed." Matching his words to his work, Sheraton designed much mahogany furniture. The qualities that impressed Sheraton are particularly evident in a distinctive pattern of wood called "flame mahogany."
The flame figure in the wood is revealed by slicing through the face of the branch at the point where it joins another element of the tree.
Lockerley Hall
In the fifteenth century the land on which Lockerley Hall now stands was part of the estate of the manor of East Tytherley of Tytherley and Lockerley. In 1654 the manor was sold to Francis Rolle, remaining in the Rolle family until 1801. Purchased by the Wakeford family, the lands were subsequently acquired by, and later divided between, Isaac Goldsmid, who took the Tytherley side of the estate and Francis Baily, who took the Lockerley side. Baily’s side was sold after his death to William Fothergill Cooke, joint inventor of the electric telegraph, who, in 1849, erected Oaklands House, a substantial house with conservatory attached, stabling and two large kitchen gardens. The lawn, pleasure grounds and shrubberies contained specimen trees, including Wellingtonia, araucaria, rhododendrons and cypresses. Oaklands House was sold in 1856 to Frederick Gonnerman Dalgety, founder of Dalgety and Co. Born in Canada, he had become one of Australia’s eminent entrepreneurs. Dalgety razed Oaklands in 1868 and built Lockerley Hall on the site. The house was completed in 1871 in a neo-Elizabethan style by William Burn, of the firm Burn, McVicar and Anderson. The original Oaklands’ kitchen gardens and hothouses were retained, as were specimen trees. New building in the grounds included a stable block, conservatory, a gas works and an ice well beneath the game larder. Belief that William Eden Nesfield may have been involved in either the house or the garden design cannot be substantiated, though Nesfield was working at Broadlands at the time and designed Romsey National Boys’ School (now the Library) in 1872. Remodelling of the earlier gardens was extensive and there are references to a pine house, extensions to the glasshouses, vineries and a peach house. Photos of the gardens in the later nineteenth century show terracing and parterres typical of the period. Between 1930 and 1932 the north wing of the house was demolished and the southern part of the estate sold. The house was purchased from the Dalgety family in 1983 by Roger Croft who began an extensive restoration as by this time the original planting had been lost, much of the garden had been laid to lawn and the shrubberies, rose garden and pond garden were overgrown. Under the aegis of Jim Buckland the walled gardens, parterres and approach planting were restored and a new maze was laid out. By 1990 restoration was well under way and the gardens opened to the public for a few days. In 1993 the estate was sold and new owners have developed Lockerley Hall farm, establishing a notable herd of Aberdeen Angus. The orchard and walled garden were converted to paddocks for ménage and polo use.
