Antique Round Tables
Round is a shape that allows freedom of movement. Tracing its outline with your hands, pursuing its fluid shape and smoothly gliding with its infinity present before you, a creation that has no end and thus lacks a definite start, a certain beginning. Objects that assume this unique shape permit ease of interaction in relation to other objects with similar characteristics or objects with stricter and more rigid corners and orientation. This is the principle that represents rippling circles and spherical global maps. In interior design, circular elements specifically round tables adapt well in a space because other interior elements are drawn to their unrestrictive and welcoming nature. A round dining table is an ideal choice when the interior of the dining room is small because it can suitably accommodate the chairs unlike the four-cornered square or rectangular dining table that restrains the snug fit of the chairs in its legroom.
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 Antique Postcard WINCHESTER KING ARTHURS ROUND TABLE  US $5.35 |  Antique SATIN STITCH EMBROIDERED ROUND TABLE SCARF US $7.00 |
 Knives 6 Round Ends Table Early 20th Century Silver Plated Antique Set Rogers US $7.99 |  Antique CHRISTMAS POSTCARD c1914 Santa Claus Family Round Table THOMPSONVILLE CT US $9.49 |
 ANTIQUE 1940s 30 inch Round Embroidered Table Runner Doily Cloth US $9.75 |  Antique Vintage Round Marble Top Wood Wooden End Table Plant Stand 18 Tall US $9.99 |
| Vintage Ephemera |
Contemporary round tables have reached a level of sophistication in their design that specifically and feasibly answers the functional requirements of a furniture piece. Their designs are utilitarian and the forms of their top surfaces and legs or stands are straightforward and streamlined. No fancy adornments, just clean structured lines. These designs are modern adaptations of antique round tables that have detailed tops and elaborately carved legs. The simple linear lines of 21st century furniture pieces are indeed genuine proof of how styles emerge, adapt and transform successfully throughout the decades and the centuries as an unpredictable cycle. However, the precise periods in this cycle of furniture trends and styles deserve to have an avid interest and thorough scrutiny granted to them because most of their masterpieces are of superior quality and superb artistic designs that the modern world should take notice of. People today do revere furniture designs of the past centuries. Some people are more enthusiastic than others and there are certain occasions in which antique furniture pieces are given grand accolades for their timeless and enduring qualities and characteristics.
Designs of antique round tables
Incorporating antique round tables in a contemporary home will not be a difficult endeavor for an antique collector or a simple enthusiast since the latest trend in interior design today is to combine different pieces of furniture from various periods, cultures and themes to create unique and eclectic interiors that speak of the personal tastes of the owners rather than following a consistent pattern dictated by a specific design theme. Most of these tables have elaborate designs that can be used as accent pieces in the dining room, a focal point in the design that might have been previously dominated by contemporary dining chairs and modern accessories. They can also blend in with other furniture pieces with a somewhat similar silhouette as theirs or the same color of stain or polish. Finding them in furniture stores and antique shops will be easy if prior knowledge about periods and styles has already been acquired through, either history of furniture books or browsed via the internet.
Antique round tables present numerous interesting silhouettes that are too beautiful to go unnoticed. Chippendale pie crust tables have fascinating top surfaces that resemble the crust of a pie, as their name implies, and they usually have tripod pedestal bases. Round tables during the Rococo period had intricate carvings and their legs bulged outward on the top portion and swayed outward on the lower portion mimicking cabriole chair legs. Antique drum tables have unique table tops that depicted shallow drums and they had three legs that swayed outwards.
Dining tables
Antique round dining tables of the 16th century in France have drop leaves for the top which can be bent down to save space when the table is not in use. Instead of drop leaves, some of them have tilted tops which meant that the entire top can be placed on one side which is for a similar reason of space saving and easy storage. They were more commonly made from solid wood materials such as walnut and rosewood and most of them have swirling and continuous carvings on the stretchers that connected their four legs. The legs of antique round tables were the elements that made them unique and representational of the periods when they were produced. Rococo table legs had cabriole styles with intricate and feminine carvings while neoclassic table legs had turned wood design and vertical flutings reminiscent of Greek and Roman architectural columns.
Difference between modern and antique coffee tables
The legs of round antique coffee tables are not limited to pedestal types. They have four-legged and tri-legged table legs as well and most of them made use of stretchers to make them more stable and as decorative elements, too. However, to set the record straight, antique coffee tables made during the middle of the 17th century in England were higher than the modern coffee tables and they resembled side tables placed near the sofas rather than situated in the center of the living room as it is done today. Basically, the antique ones were known more as tea tables rather than coffee tables but their function of providing a surface for tea, coffee and other refreshments was the same. The coffee table being surrounded by the sitting furniture pieces that we see today in our living rooms is a modern concept.
Occasional tables
An element of charm and whimsy embraces a painted antique occasional table in the foyer with embossed leaf-patterned carvings on the side lid of its top and feminine curvilinear lines in the three-legged bottom of its pedestal stand. It looks very quaint standing there across the room painted entirely in white. It would stand perfectly as a display table in a contemporary fashion boutique with a chic old-world design theme and in a modified French country cottage inspired living room. Patterns and styles that dominated antique occasional or end tables were ancient scrolls, acanthus leaves, claw feet, egg-and-dart border motifs, twisted rope and wood turnings. They adorned the side of the top surface and scrolls and large curved acanthus leaves that were intricately carved in the wood served as the femme silhouette of the legs. The application of the motifs depended largely on the dominant style of a specific period.
