English: Table

1560-1600;
France, possibly Burgundy
Walnut, carved
Mid section restored about 1840

This type of centre table with fixed supports was known from its fan-shaped supports as a table 'en �ventail' (fan). Tables of this form have often been associated with Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau who published various, influential designs for similar tables from 1550, but he was not the inventor, since the form appeared in Italy from the 1520s, probably inspired by antique marble tables. Such tables were found in France by 1549, and the evidence of inventories suggests that they were considered highly fashionable in a well furnished room, and appropriate for dining, business or conversation with guests.Their impressive sculptural end pieces and their ornament derived from classical antiquity, distinguished them from the simple, standard trestle tables which had been used during the medieval period.