The expanding dining table

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Article Summary

December 12, 2006 It is not often that we see a product of exquisite beauty, ingenious design, and made from extraordinary materials that scores 10 from 10 on the usefulness scale. This is such a product. David Fletcher is a bespoke furniture manufacturer who has spent many years producing distinctive pieces of exceptional quality, each custom designed and built for each commission. Nothing is copied, nor are any two pieces ever created the same. The expanding table shown here is the result of many years of development, but follows a line of history of more than one and a half centuries. The Fletcher Capstan Table is the only table in the world with its unique properties. It is a circular table which, when rotated at its outer perimeter, doubles its seating capacity, yet astonishingly remains truly circular. The masterpiece is of course the operating mechanism which is beautifully engineered, yet simple and robust … and you can have one built to your exact requirements for a sum commensurate with this functional work of art. Gizmodo’s comments are worth reading and the videos are here, here and here. Just to show they know their way around functional design, the company also manufactures another expanding table done by entirely different means - the Fletcher Rising & Folding Table achieves many of the same functions, but also raises and lowers. And if you like this table, you'll also like this one.

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