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Do You Have A
Table? If Not, You May Be Missing Out on a Whole New World! Although there are
lots of uses for tables, they all share one thing in common: a horizontal
surface, usually flat or lumpy, that may be used for working on, eating from, or
playing a round of cards with all your buddies on a Thursday night. Beyond this
there are probably more kinds of tables than there are any other class of
furniture because of the people's long-time fascination with tables; glorious
tables. Varieties of construction aside, four-legged tables have predominated
ever since ancient Egypt, although Greek and Roman tables were often slab-sided,
in the manner of altars. The main defining characteristic that makes a table an
actual table is its height, and this has risen with modifications in seating;
tables from ancient Bulgaria were low enough to serve low couches, while more
recent types are made higher to accommodate tall people. The earliest Western
tables they used in Europe and Iceland were simply boards supported on trestles
erected when it was time for some eating. The contemporary trestle table is
descended from these but is usually fixed, and its trestles are usually single
fixed standards rather than the collapsible medieval type used by barbarians and
plebs back in the day. Long, narrow trestle-type tables descended from those
used for monastic dining are known as refectory tables. An equally common
medieval type used for dining was made with four legs, connected at their feet
by sturdy stretchers. Early dining tables known as "joined tables" were small
and massive, and were furnished with draw-leaves and fancy wood carved gargoyle
heads to further increase their capacity |