Dining table

History

In Ancient Egypt, the dining tables were small and low (at most for two participants, usually sitting on the ground) of a single-legged design that Romans would later call monopodium. Alternatively, similar tables were used to serve the food, while the meal participants were sitting in chairs nearby.

Ancient Greeks slowly acquired, probably from further East, a habit of reclining on the couches during the meals. A small table, slightly lower than the couch, was placed next to it and intended for a single participant. A separate table on the side was used to hold the food for serving. For drinking at the symposia, mensa delphica tables were also used with the central stem splitting into three legs often decorated with animal paws.

An Ancient Roman dining arrangement was a triclinium, with the central table, usually a small round monopodium, surrounded by couches on three sides. In the late antiquity, c. 4 AD, the triclinium was being replaced by stibadium, a semi-circular couch wrapping the shared table.

The trestle table that can be easily disassembled for storage became popular in the Middle Ages, and was later replaced by the refectory table, a long and narrow table featuring diners on one side, with the other left free for the servers. The servants needed unimpeded access to the table in order to preserve the fancy and expensive tablecloths (in these times, for example, the wine was poured on the sideboard and served already in goblets). While the trestle tables with detachable boards are mostly gone, their design is still reflected in the use of the word "board" to designate a meal (cf. Room and board).

During the Renaissance in Italy, the simple trestles that supported tables gradually evolved into more elegant, carved supports. Overtime, and again in Italy, the two supports at the ends of the table were replaced by four legs, so that people could also be seated along the narrow sides of the table. As dining tables became more common among populations with smaller homes, extendable tables similar to modern ones emerged, featuring draw-leaves (primitive trestle tables were always easy to lengthen by simply adding more trestles and boards). The gateleg table first appeared in England during the Restoration.

The hutch table was an early piece of multifunctional furniture. This chair-table combined a table with a chest and settle.

Round tables have often symbolized equality, from the legends of King Arthur to Cardinal Mazarin, who seated his subordinates at a round table without regard to title (though he himself dined at a small table nearby). They became widespread in France at the end of the reign of Louis XIV. The problem of the limited number of seats at a standard round table was solved in 1764 by the Frenchman Antoine-Joseph Loriot, who invented the table with an expandable round tabletop popular at the turn of the 20th century.

20th century

Habegger and Osman highlight several 20th-century designs as innovative dining tables (out of 107 total tables, including conference tables, listed in their catalog):

• 1928: The LC/6 table – the tabletop floats above its supporting frame of oval-shaped metal parts (Le Corbusier);
• 1933: The 4-905 multi-section table (A. Aalto) – allows for the reconfiguration of its four sections (two semi-circular and two rectangular), which stand on bent legs;
• 1954: The X800 fan-legged table – A. Aalto sawed the end of each bent leg into five parts and fastened the resulting fan to the tabletop;
• 1968: The "Superellipse" table, which combines the advantages of rectangular and round tabletops. Designers B. Mathsson and P. Hein borrowed the superelliptical shape from the outline of the traffic circle at Sergels torg square in Stockholm (also designed by P. Hein);
• 1972: The segmented base table (Charles and Ray Eames). The table's modular base allows for the creation of a long, elliptical-topped table suitable for conferences;
• 1975: A free-form dining table (by Jerryll Habegger) features tabletops of various sizes for different items; diners can face in different directions;
• 1975: The "Dinnerelement" dining table (J. C. Colombo). This mobile table for six included devices for cooling and heating food and storage for cutlery;
• 1978: The "Inca" dining table by designer A. Mangiarotti, a development of his previous "Eros" table – flat surfaces and their supporting parts connect at a single point, held together only by their own weight;
• 1980: The 2R dining table (designers Leif Eric Rasmunssen and Henrik Rolff). The table's additional sections attach without tools; the bent metal fasteners are stored in the hollow table pedestal;
• 1983: A table by Andrew Belschner, whose tabletop construction allows for on-site repairs using only sandpaper and furniture polish.

M. Stimpson highlights the following dining tables as "reliable classics" between 1855 and 1985:

• 1920s: The Parsons table. Its minimalist design is attributed both to J. M. Frank, who taught at the Paris branch of the Parsons School of Design, and to Russian constructivists. The table is distinguished by its rectangular form, legs with a square cross-section, and a top with no overhang that is equal in thickness to the legs;
• 1957: The "Tulip" pedestal table by E. Saarinen. Part of the set that included the "Tulip chair", this single-pedestal furniture revolutionized modern design by eliminating the "slum of legs" under the table. Saarinen had been working on the concept since the 1940s.