TABLES gateleg
The gateleg table was a great favourite of the 17th and 18th centuries. It did not die out in the 19th century but continued in other forms, like the Sutherland (q.v.) table.
During the last quarter of the 19th century, however, it was back to the Good Old Days for gatelegs, as with so many [...]
TABLES dining, mahogany multi-pedestal
A two pedestal table with column supports and curving legs having a dark inlaid stringing line. The centre leaf is supported by strong metal catches. Note that the tripods are not evenly spaced so that when the flap is taken out they can come together without clashing. c.1790
Similar to the first example [...]
TABLES dining, Georgian extending
The limitations of the gateleg table are obvious; its size cannot be above a certain dimension and the legs get in the way of the diner. The George III D-end table resolved the first problem, although not always the second.
The concept of the D-end table is ingenious enough. The two D-ends, each [...]
TABLES dining, early gateleg
Examples exist from the early part of the seventeenth century but they did not come into general use until the middle of the century, when dining at small tables became common, not only in the homes of the middle classes, but even the large houses.
The value of a gateleg today is greatly [...]
TABLES dining, refectory
Oak tables of the seventeenth century, with their rectangular boarded tops, are now generically referred to by their Victorian title of refectory tables. They evolved from trestle-supported boards, and developed into more sophisticated bulbous-legged tables and draw tables (tables with second leaves under, which pulled out to extend the table) in the sixteenth [...]
Late XVIII Century Tables
18th Century tables, although not described as such in Chippendale’s Director, were a new type of table. During the first half of the 18th century, people tended to sit at small tables to eat, arranged in groups in a dedicated eating room.
Around the 1750s, people began to eat at longer tables. Quite [...]