Pembroke Table
Hepplewhite described pembroke tables as the most useful tables of their class and certainly this is borne out by the literature of the time. In Jane Austen's 'Emma' the heroine talks about her father taking his meals on one. Jane Austen also wrote to her sister when some new furniture was delivered to Steventon, that her mother kept all her papers in a pembroke table and further sources mention ladies doing their embroidery at these tables.
Considering the popularity of the pembroke table it is not suprising that an ingenious variety termed 'harlequin pembroke table' appears towards the end of the century. The distinctive feature being a box-like structure, fitted with small drawers and pigeon holes which is concealed in the body of the table and by means of weights rises up above the top.
