Pad Foot, is a rounded foot resting on a circular base. The Pad Foot is similar to the Club Foot but sometimes without the disc at the bottom. The Pad Foot was mainly used with the cabriole leg on furniture from the early 1700´s onwards.

Pad Foot

Pad Foot Cabriole Leg

Gate leg tables, mainly of oak and elm, were made throughout the 1700´s, chiefly for the homes of farmers and the more prosperous country people. Their place at the forefront of fashion was taken from c.1720 by the drop-leaf table: a type of flap table with a pivoting leg to support the extended leaf but without the under stretchers of the gate-form under framing. Both types of table reflect the increasingly comfortable and civilised surroundings and activities of the 1700´s middle classes – dining, tea drinking, card playing, doing needlework and conversing in small groups.

Pad Foot Table

As with the design of chairs at this time, the under stretcher was relinquished. By the end of Queen Anne’s reign (1714) both table and chairs were usually supported on cabriole legs without under stretchers. The under framing of the table was now confined to the underside of the top, and the moving supports. The supports consisted of legs joined at right angles to sturdy rails, pivoted outward on wooden knuckle hinges set into the central under frame. The flaps were generally secured to the central-section of the top with brass rule hinges countersunk into the underside.

Pad Foot Table

Some drop-leaf tables were made of oak or walnut but fashionable mahogany was the choice for most after c.1730. The drop-leaf table like the gate leg, continued to be widely made and used, particularly in provincial districts where both types could be considered traditional rather than fashionable pieces of furniture. Examples still exist made from such locally available timbers such as fruitwood, ash, elm, yew and oak, as well as mahogany. As with most regional furniture of enduring design, it is very difficult to attribute anything more than a vague date to them.

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