Console table

A console table is a table whose top surface is supported by corbels or brackets rather than by the usual four legs.[1] It is thus similar to a supported shelf and is not designed to serve as a stand-alone surface. It is frequently used as pier table (which may have legs of any variety), to abut a pier wall.

Basic form of the console table. The bracket supports are frequently highly decorative
Console tables serving as pier tables underneath pier glasses, Denmark

The term console derives from the compound Latin verb consolor "to alleviate, lighten", from the verb solor, "to assuage, soothe, relieve, mitigate", plus the preposition con/com/cum, "with".[2]

References
  1. Furniture historian Edgar G. Miller differentiates the console table and the pier table. Pier tables are designed with a flat edge to be against the wall, whereas a console table may have any edge against the wall or be freestanding. Miller, Edgar George (1937). American Antique Furniture: A Book for Amateurs. New York: Barrows, p.830
  2. Cassell's Latin Dictionary, Marchant, J. R. V, & Charles, Joseph F., (Eds.), Revised Edition, 1928
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