Exploring Metamorphic Tables: The Elegant Dual-Use Furniture of the Regency Era
Have you ever heard of metamorphic furniture? Metamorphic or dual-purpose furniture rose to popularity in Georgian England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Metamorphic furniture means the piece appears to have a single function, but converts to another appearance and use. There’s a mechanism to transform the piece into two completely different furniture forms—and it's an easy transition between the two.
As neoclassical designs were popular, so too was an interest in mechanical innovations in the wake of the industrial revolution. The functionality of these dual-use pieces likely stemmed from a combination of their practical function and the amusing nature of their innovative designs.
This is a contemporary engraving of a metamorphic library chair. It’s a mahogany armchair with scrolling arms and curved saber-shaped legs. It highlights the mechanism made by the elite London firm Morgan and Sanders, showing how the chair unlatches and hinges forward to invert into a four-step library ladder. This image is from The Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions, Etc., Plate 29, Vol. 6 (July 1811).
Here’s a short video showing how a similar chair would convert from stepladder to chair.
The library steps-to-chair piece was a common one. Morgan and Sanders offerings also included other such as sofa-bed, sideboard-table, globe-desk, globe-sewing table, and chair-library steps pieces.
It was designer Thomas Sheraton popularized the table-to-ladder design. Alongside Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite, Sheraton is considered one of the masters of Georgian furniture style. In his influential book, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book, Sheraton published standardized blueprints for a "Library Table-Steps" mechanism. His configuration allowed the steps to be fully enclosed within a standard mahogany table frame and unlatched or stored away quickly.
This is the style of piece I had in mind when I put a metamorphic table in Her Affections and Wishes. It is held by the Smithsonian and is a metamorphic library table that turns into a stepladder ca. 1795. It was designed by Thomas Sheraton. It’s a four-legged rectangular table made in mahogany with brass handles.
To open it, there are probably two latches at the bottom of the end of the table, if it's like other contemporary ones. Once unlocked, lift the top of the table, and once the tabletop is raised all the way, there would be latches on the hand railings of the ladder which can be pulled down to lock the railings in place, and then you pull out the ladder.
What do you think of these ingenious pieces? I think they’re clever and lovely and just had to put one in Her Affections and Wishes. It’s a cool piece of scenery, but it also has a small role to play in the plot.
Rudolph Ackermann, "Metamorphic Library Chair" (1811), via Brooklyn Museum Open Collection. Public Domain.
The Furniture Designs of Thomas Sheraton: The 1910 compilation arranged by J. Munro Bell with an introduction by Arthur Hayden.
The Metamorphic Furniture of Morgan and Sanders https://bringbackthehandtools.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-metamorphic-furniture-of-morgan-and.html
I've always enjoyed the ingenuity of this type of furniture.