It’s a very funny thing, one man’s idea of classy will inevitably be vastly different to another’s, yet essentially we all like to have good quality furniture and effects around us. I have been invited to two Afternoon Teas recently, both were at friend’s houses rather than in cafes or restaurant settings. Each was set in the garden and involved over twenty other colleagues. The similarity ended there. The first event was out in the countryside in a village that none of us had been to apart from our very busy hostess. She had inherited the house when her parents died and had kept everything exactly as it was when she took over. The garden was large, had lots of little areas for sitting, hidden amongst shrubs and trees. It was absolutely delightful as her tables and chairs were all jumbled up from various sets that she had found lurking in the garage. They were all oak though and very comfortable. Each garden armchair had cushions on them and to keep the sun from ruining the woodwork, they sported coverlets made by some of the previous owners in fabulous rainbow shades of wool. The matching tables were covered with table linen to match the chairs and included very sweet napkins and bread roll baskets etc. It was so enchanting. The food was just as lovely, though somewhat haphazard in delivery. As always with a group activity, there was lots of enthusiasm but not as much organisation. Whereas we were anticipating plates of various sandwiches, mini pies, sausage rolls and cakes, we ended up with hundreds of sandwiches and far too many cakes for the number of guests. But the wonderful array of tables wer man enough for it all.

The second event was held in a neat suburban back garden on the lawn that was an exact square. The tables were all glass & metal patio sets with some being long narrow tables and others round ones seating 6. These latter required some ingenuity with the table cloth arrangements, but to be fair they did well. The food was not in anyway left to the whims of the donor. Everything was fantastically organised with each of the six tables having its own platter of sandwiches followed by cake stands with mini pies and cocktail sausages and then when we were groaning, out came the cakes. The garden looked lovely with patio umbrellas. The china and cutlery were sparkling and what we lacked in wooden splendour, we got in practical excellence!

The majority of the oak furniture coming in to and being supplied in the UK comes from European oaks. These originate from England, France and Germany. There is a massive supply of white oak to be sourced from eastern United States but this timber is not generally used for UK supplied furniture.

Great oak forests of ancient England are thought of very fondly – oak has a very special place in the collective UK heart. There is an old saying that England was built on oak. The tradition of using oak as preferred timber goes back centuries and it was always the case that the Christmas yule log was an oak log suitably decorated with mistletoe and holly. There were swathes of oak forests covering much of the land and our ancestors would carry oak acorns for luck and to ward off any illnesses. The Romans, Greeks, Druids & Celts all professed the oak tree to be magical. In fact Roman soldiers went as far as to wear oak leaf crowns when celebrating victories. Before we got to the point we’re at now, where to have a genuine British oak barn, summer house, conservatory or any number of suites of top class furniture, there has been hundreds of years of our exploitation of this magnificent tree.

The English Oak is actually a memer of the beech family. It is still our national tree due to its extraordinary height, the venerable age it can reach; legendary strength and just general acceptance that it is truly the king of the trees in UK. Oak trees have in fact been here far longer than human beings and remnants have been dated to about 300,000 years ago. Fortunately it is still the commonest tree and every so often we feel the love and make a big fuss of our oak trees. After all the ship building that commenced in the 17th C, some might wonder if there were any oaks left here but those oaks were grown for that purpose. Furniture made from 14th C oak is still available today, but at an extra high premium, as you would expect. The antiques today were just what was left – families used to break up and torch surplus items – seems criminal now, doesn’t it!

Featured image credit: Photo by Tiana Borcherding.