Why doesn't IE respect table width with fluid image child

Answer 1

If you specify table-layout: fixed; in the table css it works.

There seems to be some contradictory terminology in the standard regarding table layouts. In particular, table-layout: auto; says this:

The column width is set by the widest unbreakable content in the cells

Since the images content is unbreakable, it sets the width of the cell to the size of the content. The max-width seems to be overriden by it.