A two-part case piece consisting of a chest of drawers on a separate stand that may have one drawer in it, or raised on short legs (see Highboy).
The term applied to furniture and other items following the fashion, prevalent in the late C18th, for Chinese style decoration and ornamentation. This manifested itself on fabrics, wallpapers, porcelain, furniture, garden architecture, and decoration in general.
English furniture designer and maker whose book The Director , published in 1754, dramatically influenced the direction of English (and American) style and taste.
A strip of wood applied at the edge of a boarded flat surface, such as a table-top, for neatness, and to secure and stabilise the boards.
Cloisonne is the term used to describe a method of decorating metal with enamel. Metal filaments are fused to the surface of an object to outline a design which is then filled with enamel paste.
Virtually the same as a Pad foot, this was popular in the early to mid C18th. Found mostly on a cabriole or turned tapered leg, the foot swells to a depressed circular pad. (See Pad foot ).
A chest, originally for storing valuables, but now used to refer to one made in the seventeenth century. More information about early Tudor coffers.
A thin banding or moulding applied round legs etc.
he most common Roman order, especially for temples, the Corinthian capital has two rows of acanthus leaves, with stalks sprouting to form spirals (volutes) at the angles. Surmounting the capital is a flat slab (abacus) with an acanthus flower in the center of each side.
The earliest ones, usually of steel, were made around 1600, and are now very rare. Much more common are silver handled ones, produced in Birmingham, England, from about 1775, and imported in large quantities for the rapidly growing American middle class. Many were fitted with a brush for cleaning the labels in the dusty cellar. The nineteenth century saw a huge proliferation of corkscrews whose handles were made in almost every metal in forms that ranged from the beautiful through the curious to the obscene.
A chair with a semi-circular back around two sides. In the period, often called desk chair or smoking chair, and rarely set in a corner. An eighteenth-century form.
A triangular washstand designed to stand in the corner of a bedroom. (See Washstand.)
Amoulded projection or ledge finishing off or crowning the top of a piece of case furniture, a wall, door-surround, window etc., sometimes embellished with dentils etc.
Fluting in which part of each channel is filled with a reed of wood or brass (Also known as Stop-fluting).
Sometimes referred to by the generic term buffet , this is a piece composed of two or three open tiers, the primary function of which was to show off or display plate and other such finery.
A flat top, with a cavetto moulded edge, often found on a lid.
A seventeenth-century side table with folding top, often semi-circular or hexagonal in form.
A long side-cabinet with glazed or solid doors.
(or crenellated). Originally, this was called battlemented, and is a repeated geometric decoration based on the battlements of a castle or similarly fortified building. It is also used to described the tops of pottery vessels which have a wavy or even pie-crust rim. Can also be a term applied to a cornice .
A shaped ornamental decoration usually set in the centre of the top of a chair-back, but can also be found on a mirror, cabinet etc.
An arched stretcher found on some windsor chairs ; highly desirable.
The style period of Puritan rule from 1640-1660. Characterized by a severity and absence of unnecessary decoration.
A veneered edge at right-angles to the main veneer.
- A frame for holding casters and bottles containing condiments.