Moving a Dining Table–How It Was Done In Olde England and Today

Dining Tables: The Heart of the Home

Your dining table is the heartbeat of your house. For most families, that’s where life happens–not only do you clear it off occasionally for meals, but that’s where you drink your morning coffee, the kids do homework, and in a pinch it’s good for changing a baby. The more casual way we live today has rendered the old formal dining tables a bit obsolete, but dining tables have evolved so much over the centuries that this is just one more stop along the way.

The History of Dining Tables

The earliest tables were probably used by ancient Egyptians. Those tables were wood, carved out of a single tree trunk, and short, like a contemporary coffee table. Diners sat on the floor to eat. The Greeks and Romans got in on the concept a bit later, using ornate marble slabs for the surface. The word “table” comes from the Latin tabula, which roughly translates to a board or plank. 

The earliest European dining tables were trestle tables, which looked just like a modern picnic table. Benches for sitting were attached to the underside of the table’s surface, so when the lady of the house spring cleaned, replacing the old floor rushes and cleaning the really disgusting parts of the dirt floor was an easier job. Moving a dining table outside was the men’s job–they would probably unscrew the benches and take it outside. When the cleaning was done, they’d bring the parts back in and screw the benches back on. 

Fast forward several centuries – if you landed in staid Victorian England, you’d find the table legs hidden with a large cloth. After all, legs were a naughty thing to see–even a carved column of wood–and the more puritanical households covered them all lest someone have impure thoughts. 

Moving a Dining Table With Pack n Send

These days, you can find dining tables in all materials, from the traditional hardwoods, to glass, metal, or new-age resins. And the traditional legs have given way to wood, metal, or acrylic bases–anything goes when it comes to the table!

Whatever your table is made of, it deserves the very best care when you’re moving. Pack-n-send has decades of experience moving all kinds of dining room furniture, so you can depend on us to treat your table like the future family heirloom it is. 

 

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