Pier table

A pier table is a table designed to be placed against a wall, either between two windows^[1] or between two columns.^[2] It is also known as a console table (French: console, "support bracket"), although furniture historians differentiate the two types, not always consistently.^[3][a]

Pier tables (console form) with pier glasses above, Gyldenholm

A pier table made in Boston, Massachusetts, between 1815 and 1825.

Above the table there was very often a tall pier glass on the wall, the two typically made to match.^[4]

The pier table takes its English name from the "pier wall", the space between windows.^[1][3] The table was developed in continental Europe in the 1500s and 1600s, and became popular in England in the last quarter of the 1600s.^[1] The pier table became known in North America in the mid-1700s, and was a popular item into the mid to late 1800s.^[1] It was common for the space between the rear legs of the pier table to contain a mirror to help hide the wall.^[3] Later pier tables were designed to stand in any niche in a room.^[2][5]

The pier table may often be semicircular, the flat edge against the wall.^[2] Pier tables from later periods are often large and quite ornate.^[2] Well-known designers such as Duncan Phyfe,^[1] Robert Adam, George Hepplewhite, and Thomas Sheraton all designed and manufactured notable examples of pier tables.^[2]

Over time, the pier table evolved into the sideboard.^[1]