A carved and gilt-gesso Wall Mirror of 18th Century design, junghans bracket clock festoon walnut with an eagle cresting, antique shield chair 156cm. high by 65cm.

A William IV antique Wardrobe, brown westhead moore and co pottery with gadrooned mouldings, vintage oak parlor tables the pair of panelled doors above a fall panel and a drawer, tortoiseshell tea cabinet with legs on splayed bracket feet, antique collectors smoking cabinet faults, antique chipendale pedestal mahoganey pedistal table 206cm. high by 140cm.

A Victorian carved rosewood and
button upholstered tub-shaped Armchair, writing desk with depth 40cm or less
carved in salmon-pink velvet, rococo patterns on silver on cabriole legs.

A late George III antique and inlaid rectangular Pembroke Table, english gothic revival cabinet religious on a turned pillar support and quadruple splayed legs, origin art deco homes distressed, 1905 sideboard 119cm. wide extended.

An oak Side Table, center table - 1920h strecther part late 17th Century, antique cross leg table with a panelled frieze drawer, country hepplewhite chairs on turned and square legs joined by stretchers, early american tulip maple poster beds 18th century for sale 95cm.

A George III oak Chest on Chest, sheffield platter 1809 with a antique veneered frieze above two short and six long graduated drawers, antique carved wood hexagonal small 7 leg table with a animal carved in the top on bracket feet, cherrry valley stickley chairs restored, antique pottery birds branches and insects 182cm. high by 112cm.

A George III antique rectangular
Card Table, barley twist antique dining table antique english on moulded square legs headed
by pierced angle brackets, henri paris bakerlite alarm clock art deco 91cm.

A George III antique Tea Table, two tier writing table of
chamfered rectangular form, antique elizabethan table inlaid
throughout with stringing, gordon russell sideboard on tapered square
legs, eighteenth century upholstered chair styles 92cm.

A George III antique Tea Table, wilcox & wagoner sherbet dish of
rounded rectangular form, china display cabinet single door mirror bow inlaid with
stringing, antique spanish porcelain marks on tapered square legs, antique dining room sets empire 91cm.

A George IV antique Pembroke
Table, corner cupboards wood patterns with two opposing drawers, edwardian style moulded top desk on
baluster turned column and splayed
quadruple supports, antique wood wicker chairs 113cm.

A George III antique Bureau
Bookcase, mahogany wash stnads of 1790s the associated upper part with a
moulded cornice above a pair of glazed
doors, imperial crown embossed in ottoman empire furniture the lower part with a fall-front
enclosing drawers and pigeon-holes above
four graduated drawers, wieseltheir and textiles on bracket feet, antique curved seat flower type back inlaid mother of pearl chair
200cm. high by 92cm.

A Victorian rosewood Occasional
Table, 1860s gothic antique chairs the square top with four hinged
shaped leaves, antiques desk 1800 with bone and boxwood
stringing and foliate parquetry corners, dining table with jupe mechanism on
square baluster legs joined by a platform
stretcher, light colored console table 74cm.

A George IV antique cylinder Bureau, chinoiserie mirror the solid front enclosing an arrangement of drawers and pigeon-holes above a leather-inset sliding writing surface, antique hanging shelves with two frieze

drawers, renaissance bed ornate on turned legs, antique plate warmer 89cm.

A Continental birch wood draw-leaf Refectory Table, louis xvi cane back chair - how to tell if it is a dowel joint or mortise and tenon the cleared top on turned baluster legs joined by a stretcher, antique gilded mirror 169cm. long; and a set of six oak Dining Chairs, mahogany scrolled victorian buffet the backs

carved with flowers, rosette fabric methodo curtain with solid seats, antique silver salt cellars german on turned legs.

A pair of George III antique Bed Posts, ferrara pottery etruria the square bases rising to baluster and tapering cylindrical columns, chippendale chairs for child 205cm.

A brass Bedstead, antique german carved desk modem, muller freres copy the head
and end with shells and ‘C’-scrolls and
mounted with mirror panels, staffordshire tin glaze with side-
rails and box spring base, empire desk with claw feet 138cm.

A George II antique drop-leaf
Dining Table, north wales antique dresser the oval moulded top standing
on four tapering legs terminating in pad feet, antique bloodhound table 116cm.

A set of antique standing
Bookshelves, antique louis philippe gray saint anne marble walnut part early 19th Century, louis xvi legs of
graduated depth and with receded mouldings, marble top pot cupboard standing on later bracket feet, cromwellian barley chair 79cm.

A Continental satin birch and
rosewood Display Cabinet, amphora tureens with three glazed
doors within ebonised mouldings enclosing
adjustable shelves, mahogony victorian rocking cairs, lions paw below are three smaller
cupboard doors inlaid with parquetry panels, dining tables fold semi circle
on a plinth base, carpenters gothic detail 172cm. high by 170cm.

A George III antique and satinwood
cross banded Chest on Chest, art nouveau dresser the upper part
with canted corners and a dentil cornice
above two short and three long graduated
drawers, chinese and porcelain bowl and playing and game the lower part with a brushing slide
above three long graduated drawers, antique furniture glens falls on
bracket feet, antique english chest on chest 191cm. high by 111cm.

A Victorian antique kidney-shaped
Table Virtanen, royal worcester porcelain the glass top within a scrolling
foliate parquetry band, italianate landscape peasant girl with glazed sides, silver basket star of david mark on
cabriole legs joined by an ‘X’-shaped stretcher, scroll work at top cupboards 62cm.

A George III antique Chest of Drawers, habitat leather umbrella stand formerly the lower part of a tallboy, chippendale double back settee the later top above three long graduated drawers flanked by fluted pilasters, www.pecher fiower.com on bracket feet, octagonal chineese box

129cm.

ANTIQUE FURNITURE INTERIORS

From such an advertisement one may pretty clearly visualise the interior of the house, which would have been that of fairly well-to-do people.   But there is no evidence that the furniture was considered exceptional in any way, and apart from its age the same furniture now would not be much out of the common.  Judging from the date of the sale and the description of the different pieces it is probable that the bulk of the effects were notable that the only wood mentioned is mahogany, but considering the ingratiating ways of auctioneers, one concludes that in this case mahogany was merely selected for distinction as being more likdy to be appealing to prospective buyers than other woods.   The advertisement as a document has, of course, no special interest, for hundreds of others of like character are easily to be found. Taken together, they afford a peep into ordinary middle-class homes of the time, and help one to realise what an enormous quantity of furniture must have been made in the country by utterly unknown makers.
Three great names always occur to us as representatives of the art of the cabinet-maker, and as far as style is concerned they do represent certain fairly well defined characteristics.   But to credit furniture of the class under discussion with the authorship of Chippendale, Heppelwhite, or Sheraton is absurd.   If a visit be paid to the nearest second-hand dealer’s shop it is almost certain that bits of furniture will be found quite palpably of eighteenth Century make, which cannot be identified as belonging to any one of the three styles mentioned.   I have seen many pieces of furniture, particularly chairs, which possess features characteristic of ail three makers’ work.  They might have been made anywhere and by anyone.   Considered as fine specimens of Chippendale, Heppelwhite, or Sheraton they are, of course, worthless, but as genuine old examples of the craft of the cabinet-maker they are interesting and often in very sound condition.   One cannot date them, for their design affords no assistance whatever, being impure and sometimes very naive in treatment.   Attempts have been made to group and classify such furniture, but it is almost impossible, though occasionally a little local character will crop out enabling one to say in what part of the country the maker lived.
An earlier advertisement of similar character, this time from the London General Advertiser of 1751 (which contains, by the way, some publishers’ announce-ments of the issue of the well-known works on architecture by William Halfpenny) runs :
The foregoing was from a fashionable town house. The French elbow chairs mentioned were not imported examples, but were made in what was then called the French style. Another sale advertisement from the same journal later on in the year describes these chairs better :  six fine French chairs, carved knees, elbows and Lion claws, stuffed backs and seats.” Most dealers and collee tors would call them Chippen-dale nowadays, and no doubt the great maker must have produced numbers of them.   The word furniture in these advertisements, and in the trade catalogues of the time, is often used to denote curtains, metal handles, escutcheons and other applied details to woodwork, as well as the constructed articles them-selves. Thus we have 1 a mahogany Bedstead with check Furniture,” and in the sale of the effects of one John Thompion, ” window curtains in Mohair, printed cotton, check and other Furniture.” The same custom obtains with regard to some Uttings in the trade to-day.
It is usual and in fact correct to date the decay in English furniture-making from about 1800 or possibly a Kttle before, but as the country cabinet-maker had been slow in taking up new fashions as they appeared so was he slow to discard them when he had become familiar with their features.   The result is that a good deal of furniture was made well into the nineteenth Century, of the utilitarian kind, which had little about it of the debased Empire feeling characteristic of later Sheraton work.   As time went on it became worse through lack of good example from fashionable sources and through the increasing interest taken in mechanical means of production.   But the writer has seen chairs, tables, sideboards, settees, corner cupboards and other pieces of furniture in country places, of quite pleasing design and of Georgian character which most certainly were not made before the nineteenth Century. Country-made mahogany (or more probably beech), ladder-back chairs, and corner or lozenge shaped chairs, chests of drawers (the latter rather given away by the mechanical turning of the feet), tables with large rectangular flaps, wardrobes with trays in the upper part, bureau book-cases, sofas, and other pieces are quite commonly met with which have a good deal of late eighteenth century character yet were made probably in the reign of
George IV. or even later.
Sofas quickly responded to the Empire feeling, but some examples are quite pleasant to look upon and are nothing like so vulgar and ornate as they became nearer the 1851 Exhibition. There are many round centre tables and rectangular sofa tables, both having spreading feet on castors, and usually spoken of as Georgian, which were in ail probability made long after George III., at any rate, was dead and buried. In the sense that much of such furniture was made before the last of the Georges departed this life, it may be said to be Georgian, but usually implies the eighteenth century before French influence in the time of Napoleon had made itself felt.
The following from an auctioneer’s advertisement in Gore’s General Advertiser, Liverpool, 1823, illustrates furniture which is stated specifically to be ” recently new.”   After commencing with the conventional ” That ” and  enumerating various household articles of no particular interest, the advertisement refers to  a set of dining tables with elliptical ends  which would be put down as not a bit later than 1790 by most judges of furniture to-day.   There is a curious reference to “an excellent Pedal Harp ” by Erard, and an assortent of ” Loo, Pembroke, Card, Snap and Dressing Tables   Auctioneers’ phraseology then, as now, was conventional, and advertisements of  the contents of different houses resemble one another sometimes too closely to be of much value to the student of old furniture. It is only when the run of the wording is broken by obvious attempts to describe some particular thing that one can visualise the article.
The York Courant for 178g contains several para-graphs of local colour.  One John Jameson advertises that he has been conducting his business of ” cabinet, Turnery and Toy Manufactory ” for twenty years and has ” supplied the First Families in England and Scotland, particularly in the articles of German and other Spinning Wheels.”  This reference to eighteenth-century spinning wheelsand late ones at that should be carefully remembered by those who imagine that an oak one with plenty of picturesque turnery about it must of necessity be Jacobean at least.  There are hundreds of spinning wheels in the possession of people who would be horrified at the mere suggestion that they could be a bit later than Charles II.   Yet they mostly date from the third quarter of the eighteenth century, when more wheels were required than ever before, and when the spinning jenny invented in 1764 had not as yet driven out the occupation of the domestic spinster.   Spinning wheels were, of course,made by a turner, not a cabinet-maker.
The York Courant for the same year also contains an advertisement of a sale of furniture which the auctioneer in a footnote says ” has been little more than a year in use.” It may be quoted in full as a record of the contents of a Yorkshire house of about 1797.
” Ail the elegant and modem Household Furniture
of William Barnett, Esq., of Abberford, consisting of Bedsteads with Mahogany posts, beautiful chintz, Dimity, and other Hangings, and Window curtains ; excellent bordered Feather Beds, Mattresses, Blankets Quilts, and Counterpanes ; Mahogany chairs, Dining, Card, Tea and Pembroke Tables ; single and double chests of Drawers, Basin Stands, Dressing Tables, etc ; two sophas, cushions and covers ; neat painted and stained chairs, two mahogany side-Board Tables and cellaret ; Pier and Dressing glasses in gilt and other frames ;  Floor, Staircase and Bed carpets ; two Passage Lamps and Floor Cloth ; Handsome Fire Irons ; a mangle, cloths and tables ; Kitchen requisite, Brewing Vessels and other efiects.”
The term ” basin-stand ” is interesting, and in ail probability refers to those of mahogany with round holes eut out for the reception of the various pieces of toilet ware. There are three-legged or tripod basin-stands made of mahogany which are usually credited to Chippendale. In second-hand dealers* parlance they are often known as  wig-stands.” The ” side-board tables and cellaret  indicate the development of the sideboard, which was first a table to stand near the wall, being afterwards supplied with side drawers and a centre drawer, a form which has never since been improved upon.
Other phrases which occur in eighteenth century auctioneers’ advertisements are : ” Six neat cabriole Drawing Room chairs and two elbow ditto, two neat mahogany knife cases, with table and desert knives and forks complete, Black handles, hooped and tipped with silver ; and three Shagreen Knife cases.” The Bristol Gazette for 1786 refers to ” Fluted Four Post, Field and other Bedsteads ” and Gore’s General Advertiser also refers to ” Field ” bedsteads and a “Press” bedstead.The London General Advertiser, 1751, enumerates amongst the furniture of a Hackney gentleman,  a travelling Field Bed ” …” a Bureau Bedstead, and a neat Settee ditto.”
The term ” field-bed  refers to a folding bed, but subsequently its meaning became extended. Murray’s Oxford dictionary gives the meaning to be ” A portable or folding bed chiefly for use in the field,” and supports the interpretation by the following quotations among others. 1590 : “A fair field-bed with a canopy.” 1709 : ” The Spanyard made his brags that he had turned the English ensigns into Spanish field-beds.” A second meaning is given as “a camp or trestle bedstead,” the illustrations being, 1592 : ” This field-bed is to cold for me to sleepe.” 1645 : ” The night is fled, and Dayes best Chorister kickes his field-bed with Scorne.” A further illustration dated 1754 suggests that field-beds were then commonly used in houses.
Heppelwhite’s ” Cabinet-maker’s and Upholsterer’s Guide,” dated 1788, also shews that they were used for household purposes, being simply tent bedsteads, the principal feature of which were the ” sweep ” tops to carry the drapery forming the tent. Two drawings of them are given in the book. They had four turned posts of quite simple and unimportant
character to support a light framework above, which was variously shaped, sometimes hooped, sometimes like a roof with sloping sides and a fiat top.   It was the form of this framework, stretched over with dimity or other material, and the curtains suspended from it, which combined to give the bed its character. The author has frequently seen them in old farmhouse and cottage bedrooms, but the term neld-bed appears to have  now become obsolete.   No particular value attaches to these old-fashioned beds, which were made well into the nineteenth century, but they have the interest of old association and are getting rapidly scarcer.
An amusing reference to tent bedsteads which could readily be taken to pieces and transported with the higgage when visits were paid by important people to houses at a distance is to be found in a letter written in 1779 by Dr. Thomas Eyre to Lord Herbert (after-wards Earl of Pembroke) who was in Vienna. It describes the visit of the King and Queen to Wilton House.
To accommodate their majesties with a good bed,” he writes,  I made interest with Mr. Skill, Mr. Beck-ford’s steward, to lend us his superb state bed, which was brought to Wilton, slung on the carriage of a wagon, without the least damage, at no small ex-pense ; but what signifies money when we want to entertain the princes of the land ; . . . when we had bustled our hearts out of a week before the time, lo and behold, when they arrived they brought a snug double tent bed, had it put up in the Colonade room where the state bed was already placed, in a crack, (sic) and slept, for anything I know to the contrary,
extremely quiet and well directly under Lord and Lady Pembroke’s and your honour’s picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds.”
A very careful description is given of a field-bed in Thomas Sheraton’s ” Cabinet Dictionary ” (1803), in which its connection with the camp bedstead is made clear. The author also gives a drawing which is much more detailed than the one in Heppelwhite’s book and illustrates the exact construction of the bed. Sheraton’s interpretation is a four post bedstead built so that the parts are easily separated and folded up. The posts, rails, and tester laths are each hinged in two or three places and when ail are taken down will pack into a case three feet eight inches long and nfteen inches square. He says in his notes on neld-beds, however, that they  may be considered for domestic use, and suit for low rooms, either for servants or children to sleep upon ; and they receive this name on account of their being similar in size and shape to those really used in camps.” N0 doubt the name ” field-bed  was applied indiscriminately for long after Sheraton’s time to indicate tent-beds of ail sorts, even though they may not have been made to fold up.
The press-bed referred to in the foregoing advertise-ment was simply the eighteenth-century interpretation of that very unsatisfactory arrangement by which a bed folds up to look like a wardrobe in the daytime. Heppelwhite gives no drawing of them, explaining the omission by saying : ” Of these we have purposely omitted to give any designs, their generai appearance varying so little from Wardrobes, which piece of furniture they are intended to represent, that designs
for them are not necessary.” Attention is called to the engraving of a wardrobe in the book which is described as having ” ail the appearance of a Press-Bed ; in which case the Upper drawers would be only sham, and form part of the door which may be made to turn up all in one piece, and form a tester, or may open in the middle and swing on each side ; the under drawer is useful to hold parts of the bed furniture ; may be 5 feet 6 inches high and 4 feet
long.”
Georgian furniture of the merely useful type was made in considerable quantities in the American colonies and has distinct character, mostly arising, however, from lack of means to interpret very correctly the features of English styles already developed, or from no particular desire being shewn to do more than adapt the main lines of the designs in the construction of articles of Utility. There are chairs made in America on the Windsor chair principle, and the American development of the rocker from the ladder back English and Dutch chairs is an interesting phase of the history of furniture.
Plenty of furniture was exported, but apparently for private individuals. The shipping records shew instances, but they are the barest possible notes, and are very rarely illuminating.
the omission by saying : ” Of these we have purposely omitted to give any designs, their generai appearance varying so little from Wardrobes, which piece of furniture they are intended to represent, that designs for them are not necessary.” Attention is called to the engraving of a wardrobe in the book which is described as having g ail the appearance of a Press-Bed ; in which case the upper drawers would be only sham, and form part of the door which may be made to turn up all in one piece, and form a tester, or may open in the middle and swing on each side ; the under drawer is useful to hold parts of the bed furniture ; may be 5 feet 6 inches high and 4 feet long.”
Georgian furniture of the merely useful type was made in considerable quantities in the American colonies and has distinct character, mostly arising, however, from lack of means to interpret very correctly the features of English styles already developed, or from no particular desire being shewn to do more than adapt the main lines of the designs in the construction of articles of utility. There are chairs made in America on the Windsor chair principle, and the American development of the rocker from the ladder back English and Dutch chairs is an interesting phase of the history of furniture.
Plenty of furniture was exported, but apparently for private individuals. The shipping records shew in-stances, but they are the barest possible notes, and are very rarely illuminating. From the V Liverpool Trade List” for 1798 one sees at a glance tliat woven and printed goods were the principal exports to the lately formed United States.   Thousands of yards of dimity, Irish linen, checked linen, printed calico, muslin, blankets, gingham, quilting and other materials for household purposes used to go out every week, but the furniture which would be an indispensable corollary of ail these fabrics must in the main have been con-structed in America, where wood was plentiful and cheap, for it only occasionally figures in the returns. To Jamaica, for instance, on one occasion, ” cabinet ware of the value of 50 ” was sent, to Virginia10 worth, to Maryland 80, to South Carolina 50, and Martinique 27.   Sometimes this is given as ” household furniture I and only in the cases of clocks, watches, and looking-glasses are the items separately enum-erated.   To Martinique by one boat from Liverpool in 1798 went forty-eight looking-glasses, to Jamaica two pier glasses, and to Tortola on one occasion six dozen time-glasses.   It is interesting to note in these lists of exports constantly recurring items such as I 20 carnage guns, 30 swivels, 4 carronades, 50 sword blades, 174 fowling pieces, and 14 pairs of pistols,M going for the most part to the Southern States, where Royalist sympathies in the War of Independence were strongest.
Windsor chairs are among these humble pieces of furniture of mere utility, and have been considered sufhciently interesting to justify a chapter to them-selves. But there are dressing tables, small corner washstands, with holes to take basin and dishes, little cupboards, sometimes inlaid with stringing or band appreciate to some extent. The small collector to whom the search for old things is as interesting as possession will still find local types if he applies himself with patience and assiduity in parts of the country which remained longest in rural simplicity after the Coming of the railway.  Parts of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Wales and East Anglia, are still not denuded of old furniture, though the finest pieces have in most cases already found their way into big private collections.   There is a kind of round table with three legs used in farmhouses and cottages all over England which sometimes shows features of unusual interest. It may be made of ash or oak and is known in the home cou nties as a ” cricket ” table, some say because of the three legs suggesting the three stumps of the wicket. This is a very doubt reason for the name, and the writer has seen little wooden fireside stools in Derby-sbire, localy termed crickets, which had four legs and so met i mes only two ends connected by a tenoned rail somewhat after the fashion of Jacobean joined stools. So me ti mes these three-legged tables are connected by an underframing  shaped fashion im-mediately beneath the circular top, and many of them have no lower rails whatever and no arrangement for letting. They are simply tables made on the prindple of three-legged stools, are usually ex-ceedingly strong and very suitable for inclusion in the rurnisbing of a country cottage.  The legs are mostly square and tapering from top to bottom, splaying out to give stability. Some of these tables are more nearly related to the seventeenth-century gate-leg variety, though they have no gate. One picturesque form has a circular top which turns on a central pivot to permit of three flaps falling down, thus Converting the shape of the top into a triangle at will. There are lower rails to this table and the legs are often very neatly turned.
The country-made dresser is an attractive piece of furniture to the collector of modest means.  Nearly always the backing to the upper part has been added though the shelves may be original.  A quaint reference to the eighteenth Century dresser is found in the 1744 edition of Thomas Tusser’s  Five Hundred Points of Husbandry,” where, in commenting upon the author’s conclusions on hair being found in the cheese, the Editor says :   ” Wenches when they can get a Looking Glass, will be running into Places where they are least suspected and be combing and tricking themselves up ; and therefore it is not without reason, some neat House wifes cannot endure a Looking Glass to hang over a Dresser.”   This clearly pictures the old dresser as a necessary piece of household furniture at which domestic work was done, the shelves being used as convenient places on which to stand pots and pans needed while operations were in progress.  The dresser was not used principally in the eighteenth Century as a sideboard, and whatever decorative character the upper shelves had must have come from the pride of neat arrangement exhibited by house mistresses who liked to have the crockery with which they worked clean, tidy, and handy on hooks. An eighteenth-century dresser will have come from a kitchen, not from a parlour, which as we have seen was furnished with side tables and sideboards.

ANTIQUE 18TH CENTURY FURNITURE CABINET MAKERS AND ANTIQUE CABBET MAKERS AND FURNITURE BOOKS AND DRAWINGS

There are several references to painted furniture at Strawberry Hill which must, however, have met with the approval of the owner. In the inventory one reads of Welsh armed chairs, painted blue and white “… ” chairs, settees, and long stools on black and gold frames ” . . . ” chairs of Aubusson tapestry, the frames green and gold ” . . . ” six elbow chairs with white and gold frames,” and so on.
Many books were published about this time with the object of giving instructions for lacquering, and it may be mentioned that the craft is described also as ” vernishing ” and japanning. But the recrudescence of enterest in a pleasant and agreeable occupation for ladies had little in common with the painted furniture like that at Strawberry Hill, which was a distinct development of classic taste inaugurated by the Adam brothers.
In the main, collectors will find that the most useful point to remember in distinguishing this work is the character of the ornament, which was not Oriental but distinctly Western. Robert Adam brought from abroad Italian artists to paint the interior decorations of his buildings and to decorate the furniture he designed. The best known of these artists were Angelica Kaufrmann, Cipriani, Columbani, Zuchhi, and Pergolesi. A familiar form in which they exercised their most delightful art was in the decoration of painted plaques where classical figure subjects, groups of cupids, and pastoral scenes gave an intimate touch which had not hitherto been seen in furniture. Such medallions are usually oval or round and are seen on semi-circular satinwood commodes and cabinets designed by the Adam brothers or their imitators. Perhaps the finest existing specimen of this class of work is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is a toilet table of beautiful proportions designed by Sheraton and painted by Angelica Kaufrmann.
It is very unlikely, however, that the collector will find an unknown piece of this class of work, for it was not executed in the ordinary way of business, but specially commissioned for wealthy patrons. What is far more likely is that chairs, settees, Pembroke tables, card tables, bookcases, toilet glasses, bureaux and other pieces of furniture of the Heppelwhite or Sheraton school will be found here and probably in a damaged condition painted by journeymen in response to the fashion created by the brothers Adam and their Italian assistants. But the designs in all probability will not reflect the Italian taste of the day as much as the French, and instead of the figure plaques it will be found that the decoration consists more frequently of prettily executed wreaths of roses, festoons, twisted ribbon work, baskets of flowers, and attenuated acanthus ornament.
I Satinwood was the favourite material for pieces of furniture so decorated, but in many cases the wood does not show at all, being enamelled white all over, the painted decoration being applied over that. Coverings to chairs and settees of this kind were also painted, and those who have an opportunity of securing an example in which time and ill treatment have not destroyed the delicacy of the work may congratulate themselves on a very lucky find. Frequent cases are to be met with where a chair or settee, formerly enamelled and painted, has been cleaned entirely of its decoration, and renovated as a plain piece of furniture. Although this is, of course, regrettable, it is difficult to see what can be done with badly chipped enamel and half obliterated painted detail. They simply make the piece look a wreck, and no amount of restoration will ever bring it back to its original condition.
One must expect, however, ail old painted furniture to show signs of wear. It should also look mellow and soft. There should be no sharp edges and crudely contrasting colours. If the satinwood shows, there should be a distinct relationship between pattern and
background, difficult to describe but easily recognised after a few pieces have been examined. The patina should run right over the surface and the ornamentation
should suggest a sunken appearance. Old wood, particularly mahogany and satinwood, looks dull but transparent and deep in quality, like water in the shadows of a rocky pool. It was Sheraton whose painted furniture was executed with the satinwood shewing as a background, but Pergolesi resorted principally to treating the whole surface with enamel first.
In a chapter on English painted furniture reference should be made to the inventors of the varnish known as Vernis-Martin,” the most celebrated preparation of the eighteenth century for the execution of this class of work. It was a French discovery, and was known before 1730 when Simon Etienne Martin obtained from the French Government a monopoly of its use for twenty years. About 1750 there were several factories in Paris turning out Vernis-Martin. After that time the designs, which had at first followed Oriental models, became more purely French, and as English designers at this time were so largely influenced by Louis XV. decoration, it was natural that painted furniture should reflect the common source of inspiration.
Vernis-Martin, indeed, was a method which had its imitators ail over Europe. The King of Prussia had one of the Martin family to work for him, and an immense amount of work was done for Versailles, particularly in the redecoration of the apartments of the Dauphin. Madame de Pompadour was also a considerable employer of the factories of the Martin family, paying in one year (1752) as much as 58,000 livres for work done.   Much English painted furniture
recalls far more vividly this extraordinarily popular French taste than the purely classical work of the brothers Adam and their Italian assistants, which had very little floral detail, being composed mostly of vases, husk swags, the anthemion, and attenuated scroll work after the manner of Pompeian decoration. It had its base on architecture, whereas the designs of Martin and his English imitators were evolved from a fanciful treatment of flowers and foliage.
It is evident that the interest of painted furniture depends entirely upon the quality of its execution. Painted furniture has no particular value as such, for after all it was a very easy Substitute for carving, and could be rapidly executed in a slipshod manner by a comparative novice. To some extent this is a safe-guard to the collector, for poor painted furniture by which no particular store was set in the first instance has had no chance to live. Most of that which comes into the auction room now is well preserved and worth buying.
On the other hand what was easy to the professional or amateur in the third quarter of the eighteenth Century is equally easy to the faker of to-day, who does not scruple to take a Sheraton or Heppelwhite chair or table and transform its appearance by lavish brush work. The only reliable way of detecting such frauds is by cultivating a close acquaintance with genuine specimens which will reveal subtle qualities of grace and dexterity never to be seen in new work.
Late Heppelwhite and Sheraton sideboards, chairs, settees, and tables decorated with painted enrichment will be the most likely articles to come the way of the collector in out-of-the-way places. Heppelwhite’s productions or those of the many cabinet-makers working from about 1785 to the end of the century were specially designed and ornamented in response to the fashion. a Miss Constance Simon refers in her book on ” English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century ” to the following recipe culled from Knight’s Penny Cyclopaedia, which may well have described the simple means taken for painting furniture at this period. I A good deal of common wood painting is called japanning which differs from the more ordinary painters’ work, by using turps instead of oil to mix the colours with, bedsteads, wash-handstands, bedroom chairs and similar articles of furniture are done in this way.” The ground upon which the designs were painted was principally black or white, the details being put in afterwards in gold or colours. Heppel-white furniture was frequently used in Adam houses, and it is very likely that in some instances the Italian artists employed by architects were resorted to for the decoration of cabinet-makers’ productions turned out in the ordinary course of business.
The practice commenced by the Adam brothers of painting furniture to tone with the decoration of rooms was followed by their less famous contemporaries in cases where the work was commissioned for
special purposes. The Heppelwhites themselves make the following reference to this branch of their business: ” For chairs a new and very elegant fashion has arisen within these few years of finishing them with painted or japanned work, which gives a hch and splendid appearance to the minute parts of the ornaments which are generally thrown in by the painter.” White woods of quality very inferior to satinwood were often used for this treatment, but on the other hand there are mahogany pieces in existence which were so treated.
Three-back and four-back settees were often black japanned and decorated with gold, and as the fashion for this class of work lasted for a generation many pieces will be found reminiscent of the debased Sheraton work, tinged by Empire, which developed itself at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Some fine examples of Sheraton chairs, dated about 1800, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.   They indicate very clearly this tendency towards the Empire style, but are not as yet debased.   Made of beech, they are painted and gilt, have the delicate open backs of the period, and cane seats, one of them having an oval cane panel in the back.   A feature typical of many late eighteenth century lacquered and painted chairs  and settees  are  the  round legs curved and splaying out at the bottom.   These legs are ringed in places and are often seen with touches of gold on their black japanned surfaces suggesting the coachmakers’ work.   The best period of English painted furniture is
from 1770 to 1780, but by far the greater number of examples which come the way of the collector will have been made after 1790, when Heppelwhite’s and Sheraton’s books had been published, and the work of the brothers Adam had time to influence not only fashionable furnishing but the work of ordinary cabinet-makers and upholsterers |throughout the country.
A photograph is given of a beautiful knife box of painted satinwood, an example whose vase-like form should be recollected by the collector, for plain specimens are occasionally to be met with. As a rule, however, these satinwood boxes, which flanked late eighteenth century sideboards, have a sloping hinged lid and moulded front. They are often veneered on oak. Examination of the painted detail on this box will shew the ribbons, roses, swags of drapery, and pictorial plaques characteristic of the style.
As time goes on it may appreciate a little in value if the present interest in old furniture persists, but it can never compete with the fine specimens which at the date of their making were exceptional.   Eighteenth-century chairs, perfectly genuine, are to be bought quite easily every day at comparatively small prices. Oak and mahogany tables, chests of drawers, long case clocks, bureaux, bookcases, secretaires, dressers, corner cupboards, settles, settees and sofas, they are ail to be had in the simple forms ordinary household furnishing of the Georgian era.  They are worth buying because they have old associations and are pleasant and comfortable in use. In the eighteenth Century such furniture was made for middle-class houses by the cabinet-maker in the ordinary way of business.  It was not thought in its day of more exceptional interest than we should think the commercial products of the modern furniture shop.   It had qualifies which were appreciated, the principal one   undoubtedly  being   its  soundness   of   construction, for people bought their possessions then with a view to durability, and makers had not yet learnt all those clever ways of producing the cheap and shoddy which have resulted in so much showy furniture of our own time.   Advertisements of sales of household effects in the eighteenth Century help to give a picture of the kind of furniture.
‘ All the genuine Household Furniture, comprising bedsteads with marine and other furniture, fine goose feather beds, blankets, etc., mahogany wardrobes, chest of drawers, ditto dressing tables, mahogany press, bedsteads with green check furniture ; mahogany escritoire ; ditto writing table with drawers ; ditto dining and Pembroke tables ;   library table with steps ; mahogany and other chairs ; pier glasses and girondoles, in carved and gilt frames ; a neat sofa ; an exceeding good eight day clock ; Wilton and other carpets ; register and bath Stoves ; kitchen range ; smoke-jack and other useful kitchen furniture ; two large brewing coppers, exceeding good brewing Utensils, and other effects.”

PINE FURNITURE
Pine was used for all kinds of furniture, so that in some ways it should be shown in most sections of this book. However, it has become customary for pine furniture to be a separate part of the is mahogany a fashionable woos antique trade, with
specialist shops catering for this very popular furniture, which has been available at very economic prices for the thomas pitts silversmith bargain hunter. Better quality pine furniture is now quite expensive, however, fetching prices equivalent
to some mahogany pieces. On the paul crespin silver whole the de coene freres chair most prevalent pine furniture to be found in shops is carcase furniture chests, desks, cupboards and so on and tables and dressers for the a wooden flap breakfast table kitchens which it so cheerfully furnishes. This section reflects this trend.
A pine cupboard which could be used as a dresser or bookcase, with diagonal planking to the satin birch chest drawers lower doors as approved by Talbert, Eastlake and other Gothic reformers. The two drawers below the pearl japanese tray glazed upper doors
lead one to believe that the antique renaissance candlesticks piece was equally at home in the national style houses kitchen as in the reproduction queen anne knee hole walnut library. c. 1880
A ‘Lancashire’ pine dresser base with panelled door and three drawers below the antique hinged-top cabinet queen anne top, with its shaped back and shelf. 18th century style brass handles with back plates have been substituted for the 1920 draw-leaf table original knobs.
A pine bureau of a type originating early in the drop arm sofa term 19th century and remaining on manufacturers’ catalogues almost to the antique desk raised edge drawers iron pulls end of it. Very often originally sold in stained or painted finish; now inevitably stripped
and waxed.
A heavy side or dressing table in pine with turned finials below the 18th century chest of drawers top corners and thick turned end supports. A design which was used for many years.
Straightforward pine chests of drawers of a type made in huge numbers, particularly in the william iv caned back library chair 1870s and 1880s. That on the original antique portuguese furniture right has its original white china knobs, whereas the japanese bronze cloisonne vase dragon face left-hand example has been prettified with
modern reproduction brass plates of 18th century design. 1860-1900
A Wellington chest and a rather tall chest with sunken ‘military’ handles. The Wellington chest is not made of pine but of satin walnut, which has been stripped, bleached and waxed to a pale yellow colour. The other
chest on the buffet antique english secret drawers right is pine and has the opening 17th century japanese chest unusual feature of a single handle for the antique french ladies writing desk with inlay top drawer, whereas all the antique masions stone china rest have the 10 cake plate made by copeland & garrett normal two.
Two pine dressing chests of a type very popular around the claw table end cap turn of the what were the antique wealthy family baby beds in italy. century. Many have had the lions head mahogany library table mirrors removed to leave useful low chests but the antique mirror design re seems to be a recognition lately that the antique french border design mirrors really are quite
useful. Also shown under Dressing Chests as 293. 1890-1920
A reproduction pine refectory table on four solid turned legs with heavy connecting stretchers. The top is made of three heavy thick planks and has a ‘bread board’ end locking the duncan phyfe style pie crust table carved legs planks together.
20th century
Pine kitchen tables of late 19th/early 20th century manufacture. That on the oak corner cupboard h hinges left is of Pembroke type with flaps supported by ‘butterfly’ gates underneath. The table on the chest of drawers restoration right is more solid and of more traditional
kitchen design. Both have a drawer in the leather top kidney shape desk end for cutlery.
A dining table from Percy Wells c.1920, intended for small houses. The top of the antique dresser curved table was intended to be large five or six feet long made of deal and with square or tapered legs with chamfered edges. The tenon
joints were pinned through the antique brass bookcase light leg to add to strength. The ends of the painted deco dresser top were rounded and the early derby tureens top was not `thicknessed up’, i.e. made to look thicker by the antique english silver dinner plates addition of a frieze, but left as shown. This is a happy
design, robust, well-proportioned and very functional. c. 1920
A kitchen table and two chairs designed by Percy Wells c.1920. The table is made of deal and has square tapering legs, since ‘turned legs increase the red lion birdseye furniture work of dusting’ and cost more than a plain taper. Wells believed that this plain but pleasant table, with its drawer for cutlery in the horsehair settee end, was well-proportioned enough for dining as well as kitchen use. c. 1920
A pine kneehole desk on turned feet. The centre door has an arched panel and the chinese red carved figures re is a useful complement of drawers. 1840-1870
A large dresser with diagonal planking to the english sofas antiques doors in the dark walnut cabriole dining chairs lower half as approved by Talbert, Eastlake, etc. The bevelling and square joints of the beech bentwood armchair stool & cushions shelves and centre upright in the clock face glass fr a banjo clock top half also reveal Reformed Gothic
influence.
A large pine dresser-cum-display cabinet with pillared supports to the antique furniture for sale in top half, which is much more imposing than the walker and hall silver column candlestick very mundane bottom half. Would the designer wrought iron furniture, chairs, spider man who turned out such
IN an elegant double-pillared top with break-front and deep cornice really have put it on so ordinary a base with such lamely-framed doors And no bottom moulding or plinth to balance the antique round drop leaf coffee table top Surely not.
A typical bedside cabinet design current from 1850 to 1880. This version is in walnut. 1850-1880

Four English designers - Chippendale, rococo over the mantel mirror Adam, insect butterfly cabinet paris museum style Hepplewhite and Sheraton
English furniture of the second half of the eighteenth century was dominated by four ‘giants’ Chippendale, antique chippendale sideboard Adam, distressed round wooden tables, england Hepplewhite and Sheraton. In a resume of this size a brief look at the work of these men should be enough to show the very great heights to which English furniture rose in the period. But any further study must include examination and appreciation of the work of other extremely fine designers and craftsmen of the time, rectangular drop leaf dining table such as Kent, antique 3 drawer commode Vile, steinzeug pottery Cobb, cupboard neoclassical Ince, round mahogany antique dining table los angeles Mayhew and Linnell, antique drum table restoring leather inlay not to mention the creative work of a number of gifted and imaginative architects.
Thomas Chippendale was born in Yorkshire in 1718. By 1748 he was in London in business as a cabinet-maker, 20th century hepplewhite style sideboard and five years later he moved to a house in St Martin’s Lane, seventeenth century english wood carving which he occupied until his death in 1779. St Martin’s Lane was an astute choice, kakiemon tripod candlestick for two of the country’s top painters lived there, antique sideboard uses Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir James Thornhill, antique dresser/cabinet made by los angeles furniture co. the patron of Hogarth. In 1754 Chippendale produced a book of furniture
designs called The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director.
It was not the first work to contain designs for furniture, j.w.benson carrage clocks as de Vries and Ducerceau (see pages 27 and 30) among others had produced design books, antique military chest of drawers but it was the first to consist entirely of drawings of furniture by a furniture-maker, antique buffets identifying and it was an instant success. It was reprinted the next year and again in a larger edition from 1759 to 1762, frederick james halnon and it had a decisive effect on English styles for at least a decade.
At this time English furniture-makers were dabbling with Rococo designs and also with Chinese and Gothic styles. Chippendale adopted all three and modelled them in a sharply individual manner. He adorned his
furniture with exquisite fretwork in the Chinese taste, steel cabinet cabriole legs employing it for the edges of tables, mahogany desks edwardian doors of cabinets, louis 14 ceramic inlaid boudoir tables canopies of beds. He also designed Chippendale four-poster bed in the Chinese style, verlys with pagoda top, italian cupboards now at Badminton House, lamp manufacturers, f in hexigon, deco era Gloucestershire. This style of furniture was popular in the mid 18th century and sometimes executed chairs in the Gothic taste, kidney-shaped over the chair tray tables with ecclesiastical-type splat-backs and top rails. He decorated some pieces after the French manner with Rococo motifs, rouenpottery combining shell ornaments with his own ideas. Principal pieces in his Rococo style were chests of drawers, calamander brass inlay sofas, plinth bronze bust china
cabinets, carved medieval lion mask writing tables, friezes cupboard dressing tables and bureau-bookcases. They were made chiefly of mahogany of the best grain and figure, georgian pie crust pedestal end tables which looked marvellous after waxing and polishing. The styles he devised were often
such that the ordinary country carpenter could emulate with little difficulty, 1920s reproduction settee set even if without the exquisite refinement of the master craftsman. This is why there is so much furniture today which is described in sales and shops alike as Country Chippendale. It was copied in his time and it has also been ever since.
Chippendale himself appears to have made very little furniture, barley twist antique chairs 1700’s and only a few pieces can safely be ascribed to his hand, 5 legged gateleg table through bills made out by him to purchasers. The Chippendale armchair in the Gothic taste
owner of Nostell Priory was billed by Chippendale for a table for 72 10s. Chippendale ceased to hold the centre of the stage after the advent of Adam in the decade 1760 to 1770, origins of the chicken coop chair but, antique oak and bamboo settee quick to see which way the wind was blowing, antique chaise lounge styles scrolling head and foot rest he accepted commissions from Adam to make furniture in the Neoclassical style, directoire breakfront which Adam was pioneering in architecture and furniture.
Robert Adam was born in Scotland in 1728, dressing table chairs old brass the son of an architect. He and his three brothers studied under their father at Edinburgh. Then in 1753 Robert went to Italy to continue his training, cama de bilros and he fell under the
spell of the new Italian ideas which derived directly from the recent discoveries at the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. He got to know Piranesi who by his etchings had done so much to popularize the Classical Revival. Adam grasped the importance of relating interiors to exteriors of buildings, rene lalique porcelain lamps with nude women and when he returned to Britain in 1758 he had already formulated a whole series of new ideas of architecture and schemes of interior decoration. We are not concerned here with his architectural ideas (see Architecture in the all-colour paperbacks series), dining chair with wide center splat but in decoration he based his modes on ancient Roman motifs, antique campaign box such as strings of flowers, antique round split pedestal dining table formal shell ornaments, empire sideboards palm leaves and disciplined scrolls of foliage. He produced a vast number of drawings, victoria s roll desk many of which are now in the Sir John Soane’s Museum, beau mercier watch lady’s baumatic London. They included a whole range of items of furniture, antique corner hutch pine which were only part of the whole interior of a house.
Adam was commissioned both to design and build new houses and decorate them, antique claw foot double pedestal table and to redecorate existing ones. Among his important works were remodelling Harewood House and Nostell Priory in Yorkshire and Syon House and Osterley Park in Middlesex. At Osterley he commissioned Linnell to make furniture, baloon back chairs round cane seat including a pair of bow-front commodes in the Neo-classical style. Occasionally, 1630 english gothic hall chairs Adam furniture was painted to fit into the general colour schemes of his rooms, identifying 19th century cane chair types some of which were executed by such distinguished artists as Angelica Kauffmann and Cipriani.
Adam chairs had new forms, robert rutland spoons straight tapered turned legs, claw leg cherrywood dressers fluted, antique english windsor chairs reeded or plain. Backs were often oval within a plain wood frame, french stile chair legs the wood being mahogany or beechwood. The
influence of French ideas was here and there evident, antique drop leaf oak table with trestle footed although nothing displaced the predominance of Adam’s own individuality. One of the finest emulators of his ideas was George Hepplewhite.
Hepplewhite is something of a mystery. His beginnings are unknown and his date of birth unrecorded. He learned the trade of cabinet-making in Lancashire and set up in business in London. He was active from about 1775 to his death in 1786. Two years after his death his widow published a book of his drawings of furniture styles called The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide, ballon back chairs and it was this which made him famous. It was the first book of its kind since Chippendale’s Director. It had nearly 300 illustrations, antique german cupboards a great many of which reveal the influence of Adam. Much of the furniture is designed to be made of mahogany, 1920 dining sets with satinwood inlay, antique oak tallboy dresser or marquetry in the French manner.
Many of Hepplewhite’s designs were not unlike those of Chippendale’s later years. These were less classical than Adam styles, pull sides antique expanding table and curves abounded, half moon pedestal desk-biedermeier especially in chests of drawers’ fronts and feet, what are a set of six silver apostle spoon worth cabinets, antique royal worcester potpourri jar h and chair
backs. It is for chair backs in fact that Hepplewhite is best known, bronzes de m.bouval although
Tnis bow-fronted satinwood commode, antique qashqai rug one of a pair made in the Adam manner by Linnell in about 1770, antique french art deco club chair is at Osterley Park, biedermeier sofa Middlesex
Two designs for chairs with shield-backs, antique table with roman engraving on wood below glass top from The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide, china cabinet, 1930s, danish, blonde wood, weight published by Hepplewhite’s widow in 1788
Armchair designed in the Adam style for the drawing room at Saltram House, antique bail oval handle Devonshire, style buffet fluted legs in about 1770. The ornament beneath the front seat rail is an unusual form of English decoration
he might well have wished otherwise, antique, buffet, doors for his solid piece are very beautiful indeed. Many different chair backs figure in the book, breakfront bookcase and bar the most popular being the shield-back with < variety of splats inside. One favourite
inside pattern rang( incorporated Prince of Wales ostrich feathers. The chair: have square or turned legs, escritoire antique oak the former sometimes with spade feet.
The variety of Hepplewhite pieces was extensive: ward. robes, antique bottles with gold leaf decoration with or without oval door panels of satinwood, georgian mahogony sloped front bureau bookcase with or without three or four drawers underneath; chests of drawers sideboards in many shapes and sizes, antique red dutch table
bow-fronted, victorian washstand straight or serpentine; sofas with upholstered backs and sides, south carolina stoneware jug decorated of with backs formed by three or four splat-backs joined in a row; card tables with fine inlay or marquetry; Pembroke tables, rococo england chippendale s-curve with rectilinear flaps with rounded ends or serpentine edged flaps, george 11 carved mahogany side table inlaid or banded in satinwood. Not one piece of furniture, 2 pedestal antique 1800 century however, antique furniture book exists that can be ascribed definitely tc Hepplewhite as the maker, mahogeny wood drop leaf dining room table and in his own time he enjoyed no fame. And yet, myott son & co shakespeare if comparisons are permissible, antique dresser / carved leaf handles Hepplewhite furniture is finer and more graceful than Chippendale.
The last of the giants was Thomas Sheraton, bronze archer figure a man of violent opinions and with little tolerance of other mortals, small box hasps who lost his reason in the last years of his life. He was born at Stockton-on-Tees in 1751. He studied as a draughtsman-designer and journeyman cabinet-maker. For a while he made a precarious living, maghogany pie crust shelf two-tier claw supplying designs to other cabinet-makers. He does not appear to have had either shop or workshop in London, curly maple antique chest of drawers nor is there any furniture that can be attributed to him.
Between 1791 and 1794 Sheraton published a book of furniture designs, period furniture company italian chest in sections. It was full of advice and also of criticism. He considered that Chippendale styles were antiquated and that Hepplewhite styles had
‘caught the decline.’ There is no doubt, early oak coffer 1725 however, antique game tables from 1930s about the very high quality of his own designs, english walnut stool which were in many respects more original. This is abundantly evident from the many pieces of furniture that were made
according to his designs in his time and afterwards. Sheraton preferred delicate furniture, tambour desk for sale which was light in colour, old victorian 8 drawer mahogany dresser including painted pieces, antique french renaissance style trunk for linens and valuables-oak late 1700 and he specified that many items were best made in satinwood or other light tropical woods. His designs are straighter than Hepplewhite’s
and so closer to Adam. They had a strong influence on furniture at the end of the century, silver toilet set not only in England but also abroad.
Sheraton designed a number of intricate pieces, antique german blue white pitcher 1700’s some of them for women, small antique half table such as small graceful cylinder-top desks, louis xiv style dining room 1880 oak dressing tables, south carolina stoneware jug decorated work tables and games tables. The mahogany used was often brought into relief by light inlay or banding in satinwood. In particular, antique cedar chest value july 25th 1929 his chairs were favoured in most large houses. The backs were straight rather than curved, antique curule chair square rather than oval, large modern dining tables from france and often in-filled with classical motifs. A series of six designs illustrates this theme.
One piece of furniture with which Sheraton is associated, kashan trefoil but which he did not invent, splayed reeded leg was the Carlton House table. It is an unusual and very fine article, blue cut glass pair lustres especially if made in satinwood.
Sheraton spent the last years of his life writing about furniture, oak dining room chairs 1800 not overlooking opportunities of criticizing both predecessors and contemporaries alike, small chest made from ivory with sustained impatience. The increasing instability of mind which in the end rendered him insane is reflected in his last works. Despite his very great skill and originality and his high reputation he died impoverished in 1806. And with him died the last major individual influence in English furniture history.
Serpentine-fronted Hepplewhite style sideboard of the late 18th century