French Oak Nightstand

A small table like this stood beside the bed and held the whole end of the day, the candle, the book, the glass of water no one drank. Found in Avignon, this French oak nightstand dates to the late 19th century, a galleried top over a single drawer with a small brass pull, standing on four finely turned legs joined by a shaped cross-stretcher with a turned finial at the center. The raised gallery around the top was there to stop anything sliding off in the dark, a detail that turns up again and again on bedside furniture of the period. Sylvie keeps it beside the bed with a candle and whatever she is reading, the drawer holding the things that only get used after dark.