Export ban to keep Dickens table in UK

CHARLES DICKENS’ study table has been made the subject of a temporary export ban after the Government launched a bid to keep it in Britain.

The temporary bar has been placed on the William IV mahogany table in an effort to find a British purchaser able to meet the £67,600 asking price.

Made around 1835, it was used by the novelist at his London home at Devonshire Terrace; then his offices on Wellington Street and finally in the library at Gad’s Hill Place in Higham, Kent, where he died in 1870.

Michael Ellis, the arts minister, said: “It is only right for there to be great expectations on us to protect Dickens’ study table for the benefit of the nation.”

The export bar lasts until Oct 26 but could be extended until Jan 26 2019.