Dining Tables

Round tables, bench tables and the four-legged family table:

the shape decides how many people fit more than the length does. A rectangular table on four legs is the household standard and suits a long room. A round table seats a small family with nobody stuck at a corner, and on a single pedestal nobody’s knees meet a leg. A bench table fits more children along the same length and the benches slide underneath after the meal, but the whole bench has to stand up to let one person out, and an older relative may want a chair. Chairs sold on their own are under dining chairs, and a table meant for homework rather than meals belongs under desks.

Wrought-iron dining tables and the Antigua forges:

forged ironwork came to Guatemala with the Spanish and reached its most elaborate form in Antigua, where workshops still make dining sets to order. A forged base under a thick wood or glass top is heavy, does not wobble and copes with a covered veranda or terrace where veneer would lift. It is also a two-person carry. Factory tables in black-painted tube made to look forged are lighter and cheaper, and that difference is exactly what the extra money buys.

Formica-topped tables from small eateries and cafeterias:

are built for a lunch crowd rather than a family. The usual set is a wooden table with a formica top and two benches, or a square top on a metal pedestal with a cross-shaped foot. They take a hot plate and a wet cloth every day for years, which makes them a sensible buy for a house too. New, a workshop-made table with two benches costs around Q600 a set. When a restaurant closes, the same sets come up in batches at about Q350 each: the formica survives, what has worn is the bench joints and the paint on the legs, and a seller emptying a dining room wants the lot gone at once. A complete restaurant fit-out, beyond the tables, belongs under hospitality furniture.

Water rings on the top, rust at the feet:

start with the finish. A white ring or a cloudy patch on a lacquered wooden top is moisture caught in the finish and often lifts out; a dark ring has gone into the wood and stays. Feel the edges of a veneered top for bubbles, and if a sheet of glass lies over the wood, ask to see underneath it. On wrought iron, look where the feet meet the floor and at every weld. Rust starts there after years of mopping, and a fresh coat of black paint hides it for a few weeks. Genuinely forged scrolls carry hammer marks and differ slightly from one to the next; smooth, identical curls were stamped or cast. On a restaurant pedestal, rock the top and watch the joint between column and foot, because a crack in that weld is the one fault worth walking away from. Then turn a bench or chair over: seating gives out before the table.

A dining set for sale, from one family table to a whole cafeteria:

give the shape and size of the top, how many people it seats and what comes with it: how many chairs or benches, and whether they match. Name the top material plainly and say whether a metal base is forged or tubular. Photograph the top in daylight from a low angle so any rings show, then the base, one weld or joint up close, and a chair from underneath. For a batch, say how many identical sets there are and whether you will split them, because someone fitting out a lunch place in Mazatenango needs matching tables and will ask before hiring a truck. A wrought-iron table is heavy enough that the buyer will want to know whether the top lifts off and how many steps lie between it and the street.