Expert: Christina A. Rallo, Esq. - 9/27/2006

Question
hello i have a dinette set that has a slide out on one side to make it longer,the top appears to be metal with design on top.it has matching chairs (6) with same design as the base of legs on table.the chair underneath are stamped national chair company with the date april 25th 1939 boston roxbury mass.the design looks like flowers in pots.can you give me any info on this.thank you

Answer
National Chair Co. has been around since 1910 and today produces office and institutional furinishings. It sounds like what you may have is a large tin topped enamel finished kitchen/dinette table. These were popular in the period of time you mention and may be valued from a few hundred dollars to much more depending on design. Pieces with art deco style are the highest values at this point.  They are sometimes considered baking tables since the cool metal tops allowed for rolling out dough. There was really a plethora of these made.  More info will involve homework by you, search google.com at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=tin+top+kitchen+table and plow through. You may not find an exact match but you can get some ideas.