Bleached Oak Gateleg Dining Table, Oval Drop Leaf

The gateleg table is the cleverest piece of furniture the seventeenth century produced and it has never been bettered for the house that eats alone on Tuesday and feeds ten on Sunday. Closed, it stands against the wall as a narrow table a hand's width deep, both leaves hanging down, taking up no more room than a console.

Open, two legs swing out on their stretchers like gates, the leaves lift onto them and there is suddenly an oval dining table where the wall was. Same table. That was the whole idea and it still is.

For the flat that dines for two and hosts for eight, the kitchen that wants a table it can push to the wall on weekday mornings or the person who has always admired the gateleg's small daily miracle. Fold it away Monday. Open it Sunday. It has done this for a very long time.