Dining furniture is furniture made for the serving and eating of meals, chiefly dining tables and chairs, together with sideboards, serving tables, dumb waiters, wine coolers, cellarettes and plate buckets. It is a broad category that spans everything from oak refectory tables to Regency extending mahogany tables seating a large company.
In the medieval and Tudor hall, meals were taken at long trestle and refectory tables with benches and stools, and the dedicated dining room developed only gradually in England during the eighteenth century. Georgian cabinetmakers created a sophisticated range of dining furniture, including drop-leaf and pedestal tables with additional leaves, sets of mahogany chairs, sideboards with pedestal cupboards and serving tables for displaying silver. Gillows of Lancaster and other leading makers produced patent extending tables in the Regency period. When buying, collectors consider whether chairs form a genuine set, whether table leaves are original, and the condition of joints, castors and surfaces. Large original sets of chairs command a premium. Antique dining furniture is notably practical, often less expensive than new furniture of comparable quality, and well suited to everyday use.
