Jubilee Oak Table awarded Bespoke Guild Mark

The Jubilee Oak Table, a stunning 13m long table created from a 5,000-year-old sub fossilised black oak tree discovered in the fens, has been awarded the Bespoke Guild Mark.

The Bespoke Guild Mark recognises excellence in design, materials, craftsmanship and function for exquisite pieces of furniture made as single items or a limited run of up to 12. It is awarded to beautifully crafted pieces of bespoke furniture and, since its launch in 1958, has been the apex of distinctions for UK designer-makers.

The Jubilee Oak Table was a project 10 years in the making that saw a team of furniture makers, led by project leader Hamish Low, lead designer Mauro Dell’Orco and craftsman Steve Cook, collaborate on an inimitable ‘table for the nation’.

This unique example of black oak – one of the rarest forms of timber in the world – was first discovered in 2012, the year of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, during routine cultivations on a farm in the Wissington Fens of south-west Norfolk.

Following the unique discovery, a team of specialist craftspeople successfully milled and dried 10 breathtakingly beautiful, consecutive planks unlike anything ever seen before.

The Jubilee Oak Table was designed to display the jaw dropping length of those planks, to illustrate and evoke the sense of wonder at the scale of the ancient high forests.

This effect was achieved by reducing the visual impact of the under-structure: the table has only two pairs of narrowly shaped pedestals joined by a long and slender curved spine which cantilevers by more than three meters each end. Fourteen ribs are fixed each side of the spine to support the planks. The material is bronze, chosen for its embodied permanence and archaeologists refer to this period in history as transitional between the stone and Bronze Age’s.

The bridge construction is both functional, to support the top with the minimum number of parts, and metaphorical, to cross 5000 years of history. To mitigate the liability of size, the two outer planks can be folded down reducing the width of the table to just 900mm. Twelve sets of casters positioned under the pedestals allow it to be moved silently and by just two people.

The design of the top has remained sympathetic to the integrity of the Jubilee Oak. The planks have been retained full length and techniques developed to enable their individual shapes to be highlighted.

The project was completed in 2022, the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, and unveiled at Ely Cathedral by HRH The Princess Royal on 17 May 2022. It will remain on display at Ely Cathedral until 28th February 2023, the table will then have a year’s residency at Rochester Cathedral, Kent from the 3 March 2023.

Daniel Hopwood, Bespoke Guild Mark chairman, said: “The Jubilee Oak Table is such an incredible achievement and such a fitting celebration of Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee, we are proud to award a Bespoke Guild Mark for such exemplary work.”

Project leader Hamish Low said: “This unique project is a collaboration between independent designer makers trying to save an extraordinary example of a finite resource while, at the same time, create a work of art. This Bespoke Guild Mark is the recognition of all their expertise and their hugely generous contributions.”

Pieces awarded a Bespoke Guild Mark are recognisably items of quality and distinction, and to substantiate and promote this accolade, Bespoke Guild Mark holders receive a certificate of authentication, PR opportunities, permission to use the Bespoke Guild Mark branding in communication materials and automatic consideration for the annual Claxton Stevens Prize – a £1,000 prize awarded to the best Bespoke Guild Mark awarded piece of the year.

In addition to celebrating the creativity, skilled craftsmanship and technical ability of Britain’s established designer-makers who win an award, the Bespoke Guild Mark provides invaluable expertise and insight to unsuccessful applicants to further improve their craft for the future.