When the table became a fixed and permanent piece of furniture the word "board," which had long connoted it, fell into disuse save in an allusive sense, and its place was taken by such phrases as "joyned table" and "framed table"—that is, jointed or framed together by a joiner; sometimes people spoke of a "standing" or "dormant" table. They were most frequently oblong, some 2 ft. or 2 ft. 6 in. wide, and the guests sat with their backs to the wall, the other side of the table being left free for service. Sometimes they were used as side-tables, or furnished with a cupboard be neath the board; they were supported on quadrangular legs or massive ends and feet, full of Gothic feeling, and were several inches higher than the dining-table of the loth century. Heavy stretchers or foot-rails were fixed close to the floor—for the avoidance, no doubt, of draughts. Oak was the usual material, but elm, cherry and other woods were sometimes used. Soon the legs became bulbous, and were godrooned or otherwise orna mented, and the frame began to be carved. The introduction, before the 16th century closed, of the "drawing table" marked the rapidity with which this piece of furniture was developed. This was the forerunner of the "extending dining table." Of the three leaves of which these tables were composed two were below the other; they drew out and were supported by brackets, while the slab proper dropped to the same level. Somewhat later legs became excessively bulbous; this ugly form gave place soon after the middle of the 17th century to baluster-shaped legs. Hitherto tables had, generally speaking, been large and massive—little in the nature of what is now called the "occasional table" seems to have been provided until some years after the Restoration. About that time small tables of varying sizes and shapes, but still of substantial weight, began to be made ; many of them were flap tables, which took up little room when they were not in use. These, however, had been known at an earlier date. Charles II. had not long been on the throne when the idea of the flap-table was amplified in a peculiarly graceful fashion. Two flaps were
provided instead of one, the result being the rather large oval table of the "gate-leg" variety that has remained in use ever since, in which the open "gate" supports the flap. (See INTERIOR DECOR ATION ; English Furniture, Plate I.) Towards the end of the reign tables began to have the graceful twisted legs joined to the flat serpentine stretchers, which produced, almost for the first time in English furniture, a sense of lightness and gaiety. The walnut tables of the end of the Stuart period were often inlaid with marquetry of great excellence. The number and variety of the tables in well-to-do households were now increasing rapidly, and the console-table was imported from the Continent contemporane ously with the common use of the mahogany side-table.
As mahogany came into general use, about the beginning of the second quarter of the i8th century, an enormous number of card tables were made with plain or cabriole legs and spade or claw and ball feet, often with lions' heads carved upon the knees; the top folded up to half its size when open. The Chippendale school introduced small tables with carved openwork "galleries" round the edges (to protect china and other small objects), and clustered legs; Gothic forms and Chinese frets were for a time fashionable. Later in this century, so prolific in new forms of furniture, tables were frequently made of rosewood and satinwood; side-tables, often highly elaborate, adorned with swags and festoons and other classical motives, supported by termini or richly carved legs, were gilded and topped with marble slabs or inlaid wood. (See INTERIOR DECORATION ; English Furniture, Plate III.) The Pembroke table, of oblong form, with two semi-circular or oblong leaves, with edgings of marquetry, was a characteristic feature of late i8th century English furniture, and still retains its popularity. During the Empire period the taper was replaced by the round leg, rosewood grew commoner, and brass mountings became the rule. (For further illustrations see INTERIOR DECORATION; European; Early American; Modern; also, MODERN TENDENCIES IN APPLIED ART.)