A rare Regency mahogany deception table

A rare Regency mahogany deception table, inlaid with ebonised stringing, one flap hinges, the other with a brass catch and on an easel revealing a vacant interior, on ring turned tapering legs, 73.4cm high, 33cm wide, 48.3cm deep.

Thomas Sheraton in his Cabinet Dictionary of 1803 stated that the function of a deception Pembroke table was 'to answer the purpose of a pot cupboard, or any other secret use which we would hide from the eye of a stranger'. It is believed to have originated with the firm of Gillows, as a design for a deception table appears in the Gillow Estimate Sketch Books for June/July 1787 (Westminster City Archives 94/44-5).