How Did Tables Evolve as Furniture

Tables are important items of furniture for most modern homes and offices. However, outside of their basic utilitarian function, they have evolved into important items for social display and meaning. Concepts of power, status, and social interaction have revolved around the physical presence and concept of the table, where the design and purpose of the table has extended to many different meanings.

Early History

In earliest written societies, Egypt and Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BCE, tables were utilized mostly to keep things from the floor or lift items off the floor. Stands, on the other hand, held food and drinks for people. Tables were created from stone, wood, or sometimes ceramic, although usually these were smaller tables such as end tables. Tables were used for activities such as making crafts. However, tables were not seen as a primary item for furniture in the home, temples, or palaces. This began to shift by the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE, when tables began to appear more on palace reliefs. By then, the table began to replace stands as something that could hold items while one was seated. Tables also were now made of metal as well as more perishable materials.

In the 1st millennium BCE, the Greeks and later Romans also began to utilize tables as more prominent pieces of furniture for the home. Many scenes indicate dining and feasting occurring around tables rather indicating that tables a more prominent aspect of daily furniture. The guéridon, a small rounded table we still use, became popular as a typical piece of furniture for homes. Romans also made more elaborate and decorated tables that were larger, where they now became more associated with wealth display in feasts and as prominent furniture in rich estates. Tables began to be associated with banqueting and elaborate feasts.

Later Development

In the early Medieval period, tables once again lost some of their prominence. Household furniture often did not emphasize large tables and multiple types of furniture, such as chests, would be substituted for tables as they were required. However, wealthy classes or individuals began creating long tables that they could put all or many guests on. Tables began to represent a type of social bonding that guests would come together around physically but also socially. Thus, long tables in prominent halls became symbolic as wealth and social status, where one can dine many guests at once as a way of showing social status and power.

One aspect of tables was they became ways in which social rank was displayed. Those from prominent families or status ate at the head of the table, sometimes on a raised dais, while others were further way from the raised part or front of the table. If anything, it was only later in the Medieval period that dinning tables began to reduce in size again. This was seen, in part, due to the Black Death and declining larger gatherings held. Uprisings and political instability, in part due to split between Catholics and Protestants in the 16th century, led to smaller dinning gatherings, as it was seen less beneficial to have too many large banquets. This led to a reshaping of dinning into more intimate type gatherings and smaller tables becoming more fashionable. Round dinning tables also began to be seen as giving a more intimate gathering.

In the Renaissance period, there was renewed interest in all things Classical. Tables were among the many types of items and furniture where they were created to resemble Roman or Greek style ornate tables. Highly elaborate designs found in wealth households from the Roman period began to be copied and reproduced. There were innovations though by the 17th century. As the urban elite and rich began to imitate Roman or Greek designs, the trestle table was a development of this period in the countryside. It was seen as a simple but elegant design for dinning.