Pier table
# Pier table

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

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

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

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

Over time, the pier table evolved into the sideboard.

