Virginia Woolf table sells for thousands

A table thought to have been owned by Bloomsbury Group favourite and modernist writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), author of To the Lighthouse, Orlando and Mrs Dalloway, made a total of £10,080 at Chiswick Auctions’ Books and Works on Paper auction on August 22.  

The simple pine side table with barley twist legs was set to the top with a floral embroidery under glass that by repute was sewn by Virginia Woolf following a design by her sister, the artist Vanessa Bell. 

The table was offered together with a pencil sketch of the table in a bedroom by Trekkie Ritchie Parsons (1902-95), the artist who became Leonard Woolf’s lover after Virginia Woolf’s suicide.  

Three letters of provenance from Parsons’ goddaughter Virginia K Lindley also mention the table and the suggestion it may have been at the Woolfs’ apartment at 52 Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury where they lived between 1924-40.