Thanks all!
It looks to be 80's to me, very usable table & probable better made than some of the current offerings. The legs will be solid wood for sure, the top almost certainly will be veneered board with a 10-15mm solid wood lipping around the perimeter.
In this picture, you can see the lipping on the edges of the table centre section.
View attachment 768122
Thanks - I thought similar about the era and was tryting to get my head around the lipping on the centre bit. Sems that the deep sections around the edges have been stuck on to conceal the core material; one can only assume that the sides on the centre section are also verneered perhaps unlike those on the ends as they'd be harder to construct in that way due to their shape..?
Other option is to get yourself to your local auction house and have a sniff around the furniture offered in a general sale. If it's a leaf table you're after, then you can pick up an early 20th Century one for not a lot of money. And it will be solid wood.
Cheers - while in principle I'm happy to buy old sturdy furniture for a lot of money, in practice as usual I'm a bit of a tart for what I want and am not keen on the aesthetic of more traditional stuff as it won't really suit the rest of the flat.
I have been given a few hot tips about reclamation yards / charity shops / antique shops in the area so it's no big chore to pay regular visits to these on the bike while the weather holds out
I don't know much about table making but I'd buy it, looks a nice solid table. Probably is veneer but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Antiques worth tens of thousands are often veneer. It's not going to be chipboard underneath.
Nice blog post here:
https://retrovintageonline.co.uk/vintage-dining-tables-veneer-or-solid-wood
Thanks; a fair point about verneer. In my defense, I dislike things created to look like something other than what they are, while I find solid stuff to be more hardwearing (especially if oil finished). Finally I think the real hatred for verneer has stemmed legitimately from experiences of really modern stuff which is basically plastic-coated chipboard - the irredeemibly horrible nature of which is a hill I'm happy to die on
May I say that is an excellent way of testing the quality of a table?
lol - I'm not sure sellers might be so keen on such potentially destructive methods of testing
It looks like a G Plan to me. My Gran had one very similar - if it's less than £100 I'd go for it. How much are they asking?
Yeah, definitely that style but I think a later immitation. They were asking a ton which (in light of the probably construction) I thought was a bit steep... although the ad's now gone so I assume someone thought otherwise!
Thanks - I'm aware of many brands associated with the stuff I'm after, but am yet to find much that ticks all of the boxes..
So, after all that it looks like it's sold - tbh I'm still unsure about exactly which way I want to go with furnishing so the whole thing remains a bit chicken-and-egg... while it'd be nice to have an alternative to eating dinner sat cross-legged on the floor, it's not super-urgent and after the rush of buying other bits it would be nice just to take it steady and let a proper plan form in my head before buying owt else..