A hayrake table is a distinct pattern of

table Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table data ...

produced as part of the English Arts and Crafts movement in the early part of the twentieth century. Its distinctive feature is the arrangement of the lower

stretcher A stretcher, gurney, litter, or pram is an apparatus used for moving patients who require medical care. A basic type (cot or litter) must be carried by two or more people. A wheeled stretcher (known as a gurney, trolley, bed or cart) is often ...

between the legs as a double-ended Y-shape. The shape of each end, and their

joinery Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining pieces of wood, engineered lumber, or synthetic substitutes (such as laminate), to produce more complex items. Some woodworking joints employ mechanical fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, ...

, was based on traditional English craft woodworking and the construction of wooden

hay rake A hay rake is an agricultural rake used to collect cut hay or straw into windrows for later collection (e.g. by a baler or a loader wagon). It is also designed to fluff up the hay and turn it over so that it may dry. It is also used in the even ...

s. The stretcher is not merely a simple Y shape, but its junction is braced by a T-shaped joint, as was needed for the work of a rake. Some modern reproductions simplify this to a plain Y, abandoning the design's original roots. These tables are best known as the work of

Ernest Gimson Ernest William Gimson (; 21 December 1864 – 12 August 1919) was an English furniture designer and architect. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". Today his reputatio ...

and his associates the

Barnsley brothers Ernest (born Arthur Ernest Barnsley (1863 –1926) but known as Ernest Barnsley) and Sidney Howard Barnsley (25 February 1865 – 25 September 1926) were Arts and Crafts movement master builders, furniture designers and makers associated with Erne ...

and

Peter Waals Peter Waals (30 January 1870 – May 1937), born Pieter van der Waals, was a Dutch cabinet maker associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. Arts and Crafts Born in The Hague to Jan van der Waals and Lena Alida Maria Loorij, Peter Waals was ...

at their Daneway workshops in

Sapperton, Gloucestershire Sapperton is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire in England, about west of Cirencester. It is most famous for Sapperton canal tunnel The Sapperton Canal Tunnel is a tunnel on the Thames and Severn Cana ...

. Other Arts and Crafts designers of the period also produced them, particularly those in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

such as Gordon Russell Timber used in their construction was, as for other Arts and Crafts work, locally grown English hardwoods. Most were produced in

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

although some, like the original hay rakes, were made in

ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

. The design varies between makers, mostly in its details. Gimson's tables are considered the finest and the canonical example of the design. Their edges are heavily

chamfer A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...

ed, a typically Gimson feature, which is derived from the finishing of the original agricultural tools. This chamfer also has the practical benefit for a table stretcher of reduced wear from feet on an otherwise sharp edge. Gimson's distinctive use of gentle stopped chamfers evokes the framing of Gloucestershire wagons. Gimson's tables also have their edges finished with bands of

chip carving Chip carving or chip-carving, ''kerbschnitt'' in German, is a style of carving in which knives or chisels are used to remove small chips of the material from a flat surface in a single piece. The style became important in Migration Period metalw ...

or sometimes with inlaid bands of light

holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

and dark

bog oak Bog-wood (also spelled bogwood or bog wood), also known as abonos and, especially amongst pipe smokers, as morta, is a material from trees that have been buried in peat bogs and preserved from decay by the acidic and anaerobic bog conditions, some ...

. Peter Waals produced the tables for some time after the death of Gimson and, as with many of his pieces, updated their Arts and Crafts detailing to follow the post-war fashions of

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

. Although less well-known than some other iconic Arts and Crafts pieces, the hayrake table remains a popular design to this day. They are produced both commercially and as plans for hobbyists.

References

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External links

Style Guide: Arts & Crafts
Victoria and Albert Museum Arts and Crafts movement Tables (furniture) Woodworking