Artisans in Bespoke
Established 1983
Queen Anne Style Card Table
Queen Anne Card Table
Queen Anne style card table handmade by John Beavan.
In the 1700s card playing was considered a desirable social skill and constituted the main evening activity when lighting was often too poor to allow for reading after dark. Cards were used for instruction in a wide range of subjects and knowledge of the rules of fashionable games was taught in the mid-18th century by gaming masters.
Game and cards tables were important items of furnishings and would have been folded up and kept as a side table for much of the time, to be brought out for use when guests were entertained or for family amusements. Four players could comfortably sit with their legs under the table and play cards without revealing their hands to each other.
Many card tables were designed to fold in half for storage against the wall. They had supportive corner cabriole legs thus doing away with the need for stretchers between the legs and creating more room for the seated players. The small sunken well on each side of the table could house the coins won by each player.
The design and form of games tables changed very little from around 1711 to 1750 fortunes weakened to decay.
Earlier forms of games and card tables, with gate leg action, were an untidy mess of legs and stretchers which the players would be forever getting their legs tangled up in. The new type was hinged half-way down the side and was opened with a concertina action whereby when the table was both open or closed there was a leg at each corner. When the concertina frame had been extended, the top could be folded down onto it to reveal a baize playing service with handy wells for coin storage like the one John has recreated here.
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Country Home Tour 3-7 Sep 2023, Kyre Park
We are a small team of cabinet makers, making and designing unique pieces, using hand selected, luxurious materials with a combination of modern machinery with traditional techniques.
As our work is all bespoke, it would be an on-going task to update catalogues, so we direct all architects and designers to our website, which shows up-to-date examples of our work, also, if required we can send high resolution images, should you need these for mood boards.
Working with national and international architects and interior designers and some amazing private clients, who have all given us stunning commissions to include in our portfolio.
For over 40 years, John and his team of highly trained dedicated, skilled cabinetmakers have built a reputation for quality, creativity, and a high level of customer satisfaction.
Our large, fully equipped workshop area includes adequate individual areas for each cabinetmaker to work in. This is impractical for larger manufacturers, who depend on volume and robotic processes and mac
We are incredibly sensitive to our environment and do our utmost to conserve and protect our planet, our workshops are given light from low energy LED lighting, our roof is fitted with solar panels, giving us some of the electricity we use and at present have saved 1,544.02kg in emissions the equivalent of planting 70.68 trees since November 2021, as we use trees, we also love to plant trees and to date we have planted a variety of 150 native trees, we control our waste by using our wood shavings to heat our workshop with our biomass boiler and we do our utmost to shop local using local suppliers for sheet/timbers, saving fuel miles and local skilled trades
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John Beavan Ltd., Parsons Hall, Kyre, Tenbury Wells, Worc WR15 8RW
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