Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-12-08
TABLES IN ANCIENT TINES,

| The Greek lady of leisure in
Athens employed herself at the spin
ming wheel. and had little need of
table; and beautiful in design and
form as all Greek furniture was, one
striking natural characteristic pro-
claimed itself in the furnishing of
the homes. They never had that for
which they could find no practical
Use. and. consequently. as tables
We're only needed for the purpose of
meals. they appeared only at those
times and were mere slabs of wood,
which were brought in at the dinner
hour and set down loosely upon
their legs. The meal over, the tables
vanished with the empty plates. In
Homeric days each person had a sep
arate table. and it was only when
luxury crept in that a larger table
for the men became common, while
the women dined at separate ones
Then the custom of lounging on
couches, the elbows resting on the
table, became usual, and the ladies
were expected to sit, while their
lords assumed the most comfortable
attitude they could find.
Even then, however, the table
played SO entirely a subordinate part
that we never read of it as being of
handsome material, or, indeed, as be-
ing of any importance at all, except
to grOan under the food. which was
OF the most luxurious description.
The Romans, on the contrary, held
their tables in the highest estimation;
they even made collections of them.
Seneca possessed five hundred small
ones. 1t is curious to trace in the
accounts old writer's give us of Roman
luxury in this respect a sort of like
ness to the taste Of modern days. No
article of furniture in the Roman
house cost SO much as the table.
Those with one foot or pedestal
brought enormous prices.
Pliny says that tables were
brought in the first instance from
the East and were called orbes, not
because they were round, but because
they were massive plates of wood cut
from the trunk of tree in its whole
diameter. Yet, oddly enough, we
hear very little of tables in the East
or in ancient history. Moses made
a table for the Tabernacle, as if it
We're something uncommon, upon
which to lay the shew bread. Philo
Jud;eus describes it as having been
two cubits long and one and one
half high, and dwells upon it as q re-
markable piece Of furniture.
Fashionable tables in the luxuri-
GUS Roman homes were called "mon-
Opedia," and were made of q massive
plate of wood resting upon a column
o. ivory. Such tables were enorm-
Ously expensive, and according to
Pliny, the wood was brought from
Nauritynia, and cut from the trunk
of the citrus-tree. Some of these
pieces of wood were four feet in dia-
meter, and the ivory column which
supported them was extremely mas
sive. They were polished and COW
cred with thick cloths, made gener-
ally of coarse linen, the first indica-
ton we meet with of the modern
table-clot Cicero had such table,
for which he had paid the enormous
sum of one million sesterces.
just as to-day the handsomest wal
nut-tables are those made of wood cut
from the trunk nearest the roots, 80
in the days of Roman magni6cence
highest prices were paid for the
tables made from the last cut of the
citrus tree, because the wood was
dappled and marked.