About this objectMedium wooden kitchen table with 4 turned legs. Table is well used and many marks, scratches and cuts from daily use. Table was used as a kitchen table at the family home “Cherry Tree Hill” at East Guyong and then at “Bloomfield” at Orange from 1850’s till 1960’s.
As told by John Milne (1930-2008) to his daughter Sue Milne (around 1990’s). The table belonged to George Milne who migrated from Scotland in 1848 with his young family to work on the Mt Pleasant Estate near Bathurst. The family moved to Guyong in 1851 where they built their home. George was a wheelwright and built this house and the furniture that would have included the table.
It is very similar to other kitchen table of the late 1800’s early 1900’s. Simple pieced tops with turned legs with some decorative grooves. Edge timbers seem to be of rough sawn timbers.
The table is well used and marked from use. Many cuts exist long the edges. The top has cracked and been screwed down again. There are many knife marks, burn/scorched marks and stains across the entire table. Donated to the Orange Historical Society (ODHS) by John Milne. Returned to family in 2014/2015 after a large deaccession event at ODHS and donated to the Molong Historical Society by Sue Milne in 2014/2015.
The Kitchen table was often the centre of family life, where the family met and caught up with each other’s activities. Family meals and food preparation, butchering meat, making butter, cheese and milk products.
Many homes were centred around the kitchen table. It was used for all purposes from preparing the food, folding the laundry, washing the babies, first aid, sewing and everything in between. A good table was often located in a separate dining room (the good room) which was hardly used. Sue recalls never going into the ‘good room’.
The table is not rare but very representative of kitchen tables in a used state. Shows it working clothes! It has good interpretive capacity for kitchen display areas like where it is currently. The table is well provenanced to local family and is of significant value to the local area.
