Small Dining Table

Gonggosang, also called beonsang, is a small dining table used to serve food to those working outside of their home. As the table does not have legs, there is no wooden panel supporting the tabletop nor wooden rods linking legs at the middle or at the bottom, but only engraved panels supporting the tabletop. Though its engraved panels are smaller than those of small dining tables made in the Haeju area, they are delicate, appealing, and varied in design. Originally produced to be used in government offices, gonggosang was neat and tidy in appearance, commonly made of fine materials including ginkgo wood, and varnished with high-quality raw lacquer. The shape of the tabletop may be round, hexagonal, octagonal, dodecagonal, etc. On the engraved panels to the side are two hand slots and two flower-shaped openings, allowing the carrier to look ahead. Both sides of the opening are decorated with openwork designs such as the Buddhist swastika and the Seven Treasures. Once various vessels were placed on the tabletop, it would be covered with oil paper or a wrapping cloth and tied under the tabletop, and the table would be balanced on the head of the carrier, who would carry the table with both hands in the hand slots while looking ahead through the opening. Some gonggosang had a drawer to store spoons and chopsticks. As this type of table came into widespread use in the late Joseon Dynasty, the height of the engraved panels on the sides became taller, making it impossible for the table to be carried on the head. As a result, the openings merely served as decoration, and gonggosang came to be called punghyeolban among upper-class families.