I use a small gif to tile the background
but now I also want a 200 x 200 gif to use as a watermark
on top of that and below the text
is this possible

I tried to make a table
but the image tiled there as well

is it possible to have a bcakground image for a single table or cell?
and have it NOT tile?

or some other trick?

I have some knowledge of css

is it possible to have a bcakground image for a single table or cell?
and have it NOT tile?

Not really, not with straight html you can't. Using CSS you can do this and do it with NO TABLEs.

make layered design with DIVs
the body will have your tile image,
the next layer above it will have the watermark,
put your contents on the layer above the watermark layer,
( use z-index to specify layers )

you can check out my portfolio which uses similar thing,
my name is placed like a watermark at bottom right

Z-index only works with absolute positioning and using position:absolute for all <div>s is just asking for problems .. and it is just plain unnecessary and a trademark of an inexperienced designer. I see it ALL the time. Just because Dreamweaver does it, does NOT make it good coding.

you could do with 2 divs and one of the div has a png bakcground instead of a gif