French dining refers to the furniture, tableware and customs associated with the dining room in the French manner, and to the influence that French taste has had on dining throughout Europe. It encompasses dining tables and chairs, buffets and enfilades, silver and plated tableware, porcelain services, glass and table linen.
Until the eighteenth century, even grand French households rarely had a dedicated dining room, and tables were set up as required. As the salle à manger became established, specialised furniture developed, including extending tables, upholstered dining chairs and the buffet for storing and displaying plate. The traditional service à la française placed many dishes on the table at once, but in the nineteenth century this gave way to service à la russe, with courses brought round in sequence, which influenced the layout of tables and services across Europe. French provincial dining furniture, often in oak, walnut or fruitwood with carved panels and shaped aprons, is especially popular in country interiors today. Collectors seek well-proportioned tables, sets of chairs and buffets with good colour, as well as French porcelain, Christofle silver plate and crystal from makers such as Baccarat.
