HEPPELWHITE FURNITURE. HEPPELWHITE CHAIRS, TABLES, BOOK-SHELVES, CABINETS, CUPBOARDS, SIDEBOARD and BEDS

Line is the principal characteristic of later eighteenth-century furniture to which the name of Heppelwhite is given. The style suggests a pleasant compromise between the virility of Chippendale and the formal reticence of Sheraton. Heppelwhite furniture indicates no violent change. It would seem as though the strongest conviction of the designer had been that dogmatic views were on the whole undesirable and that a medium course was the best to steer in catering for a fickle public.
Heppelwhite furniture has the quiet charm of reticence, and never fills one with astonishment. An exceptional piece of carving by Grinling Gibbons is in itself a very remarkable achievement of craftsmanship. It is a tour de force. The same may be said of the more elaborate pieces by Chippendale and Sheraton, and the French schools of the eighteenth Century are renowned for masterpieces of surprising workmanship. But Heppelwhite catered, it would seem, for a more middle-class public than Chippendale, and he was more of a tactful tradesman than Sheraton. He desired to conduct a prosperous cabinet-making business for a
good and apparentry succeeded in doing so.
His furniture reflects this in some subUe way. There is no gorgeousness about it. There is no suggestion that be was patronised by the extremely wealthy. Even the finest examples of Heppelwhite s furniture are models of grace rather than grandeur.
A. Heppelwhite & Co. published a book in the 1788 which is commonly taken as illustrating the principal characteristics of Heppelwhite furniture. But, we found with Chippendale, the year of publication did not exemplify the best period. George Heppelwhite, the founder of the business, had been dead two years when the ” Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’t Guide,” as it was called, came out. Miss Constance Simons researches at Somerset House revealed the administration of the goods and chattels of George Heppelwhite of the Parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, to have been granted on the 27th June, and that afterwards the widow of the cabinet-maker carried on the business under the style of A. Heppelwhite & Co.
As an advertisement for the firm, the “Guide” was brought out later on, and it certainly had a great sale.   It was bought largely by the trade even more largely than Chippendale’s bookand this accounts in great measure for the enormous amount of Heppelwhite furniture produced ail over the country.  It should be remembered that the craft was still a tradi-tional one.   Cabinet-makers learnt their trade at the bench and not from books, though other publications about furniture had been brought out notably those of Ince and Mayhew (1762), Robert Manwaring (1765), Matthias Lock and H. Copland (176S), and John
Crunden  (1770).   Sheraton’s book,   The Cabinet Maker’s and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book’ did not appear until 1791. But these publications, as far as technical instruction goes, are almost childishly inadequate. In the sense in which we understand the term they give scarcely any detailed information. It is, indeed, very instructive to note the complete confidence which Chippendale has in the intelligence of the joiner and cabinet-maker who may be disposed to copy his designs. There is nothing elementary about the directions. The workman is supposed to be able to set out the job from a sketch and two or three main dimensions. N0 doubt a skilled cabinet-maker could do the same to-day, but he would have had, probably, the advan-tage of considerable technical instruction, and access to hosts of elementary works on carpentry and joinery.
In the eighteenth century books on the simpler operations of cabinet-making were almost unknown, though a large number of books on architecture and building were published. The apprentice learnt from his master, who used the quality known as ” nous”  in adapting designs from publications such as those of Chippendale and Heppelwhite. He had to think for himself very largely. He was not spoon-fed but had to contrive his own methods of interpretation.
Sheraton, who is more particular about detailed instructions than many writers, simply says in reference to an elaborate bed in his book : ” The manu-facturing part may easily be understood by any workman.” Many joiners and cabinet-makers of the time must have had very slight acquaintance with printed matter and may have been in some cases. Popular journalism as we understand it to-day was non-existent. The craftsman trusted to his observation and the skill of his hand rather than to printed instructions, and it is to this method of going to work that we owe the interesting character of English furniture made in different parts of the country.
There are scores of little tricks and dodges in the craft of cabinet-making which are taught at the bench, yet even to-day have scarcely figured at ail in text books. The writer had an opportunity at one time of going over the tool chest of an old cabinet-maker who had inherited the implements of his trade from his father, who must have been at work in the late eighteenth century. Some of the tools were inexplicable, and their use could only be guessed at. Many of them were obviously self made, probably for special occasions, so that Heppelwhite furniture, in common with that of his contemporaries, was not mechanicaly reproduced by cabinet-makers who had access to the designs in the book. It was copied and adapted, skilfully or unskilfully, according to the ability and circumstances of the worker. Heppelwhite’s book was a good guide to fashion in furniture. It showed what style of work was being done in London, and opened the eyes of the country craftsman to novelties.
Fashion had changed considerably since the issue of Chippendale’s ” Director.” In France the frivolity of Louis Quinze had developed into the comparative soberness of Louis Seize.   English furniture-makers still looked to the French for leadership in artistic taste, and Heppelwhite followed the fashion like every-one interested in the arts. The brothers Adam  were still very influential and George Heppelwhite was employed by them. Indeed, he must have owed much to their direction in design. Some pieces of furniture of the Heppelwhite school have almost more Adam than Heppelwhite about them. In his rendering of the late French Renaissance, Heppelwhite seems to have been more English than Chippendale, possibly because his work had to be carried out at a reasonable cost, a condition of things Chippendale did not always have to put up with. There was a gentle graciousness about Heppelwhite’s furniture which was never achieved by French work of the same period. In this softness of expression he undoubtedly surpassed the brothers Adam, who were inclined to stifmess and angularity.
As in the case of Chippendale, collectors will be wise to regard the name of Heppelwhite as merely a convenient label on style.   They will in ail probability never discover a piece of furniture which can be cer-tainly identified as having been made by Heppelwhite himself, or even turned out of the Workshops of Heppelwhite & Co.   The greater part of the furniture which can fairly enough be ascribed to this successful designer was made subsequent to the publication of the ” Guide’ and as Sheraton published his book so soon afterwards, the influence of the two great makers was experienced together  in   many  a Workshop.   The   ” Guide ” indicated the character of George Heppelwhite’s furniture as translate into a fashionable development, and is not exactly a reflection of that which he made
long before the Company came into existence.
To start with the chair, which will reveal more of significance to the average observer than many other pieces, the principal feature is the form of the back, usually shield shape. It is possible that Heppelwhite himself turned out in the aggregate more chair-backs of other forais than the shield, but the latter was popular and was recognised then and now as on the whole the best thing he did in this direction.
The finest shield shape backs represent a type. They are pure Heppelwhite, and are one of the most important contributions made to the story of eighteenth Century English furniture. No doubt they were evolved, but the steps of the evolution are not apparent. In some cases it is possible to see the influence of Chippendale in early Heppelwhite work, but the pure shield-back chair eludes anything but the most imaginative connection with the former style. It is carved and nearly always in mahogany, but unlike Chippen-dale chairs, the carved ornament is applied for the most part within the outline of the structure. It does not flow out to vary the boundary line. The shield is uninterrupted all the way round, the grooves or boundary beading being nearly always continuous. Reference to the Chippendale chairs should make this point clear.
It will be seen that in these two examples the crest rails have their carved decoration clothing the form on the outside and thus varying the outline.   But the Heppelwhite chairs show these shield-shaped and oval backs in a continuons uninterrupted sweep. Occasionally an instance will be found in which a Heppelwhite chair has a small carved rosette or knot on each side of the trame of the back, from which a detail of festooned drapery will be sus-pended, but in the majority of cases such details will be found only with in the shield or oval.
Sheraton also used the shield shape, but his rendering of it gave a short horizontal line on the crest rail. Tins feature is never seen in a Heppelwhite chair with shield back, the outline of the top being always bow-shaped. Reference to the examples illustrated will reveal another characteristic feature. The two supports of the back run down in a gentle wave and dis-appear behind the seat to join the legs. Sometimes a tiny scroll is seen on the outer side at the junction with the shield frame. In most Sheraton chairs the curve of the support will be stopped well above the seat level, the continuation down being square and plinth like. From this square shaping in Sheraton work a rail frequently passed across to strengthen the frame. Heppelwhite did without this extra rail. His back supports combined with the sinuous arms make a piece of constructive framework which for strength has never been surpassed.
It is due to the f act that Heppelwhite’s work and that of Sheraton have so much in common that frequent comparison between the two must be made. Some examples of late eighteenth-century cabinet-making, indeed, are so constructed as to defy ail attempts at authentication. They may partake of the characteristics of both Heppelwhite and Sheraton. As a general rule such pieces are not so valuable as those which express purity of style, but they are often
extremely interesting.
Heppelwhite’s arm work was superior to that of Sheraton in contour, and its approach to the front part of the chair. There is a better realisation, too, of the value of concave surfaces arranged to be complementary to one another in the construction of the back and arms. A Heppelwhite back is often concave, but not always. The arms sweep out laterally and the elbow dips toward the seat before it reaches a point immediately above the front legs. Sheraton’s chairs give a sense of more sympathetic relationship between front legs and arms. Heppelwhite’s establish a more convincing connection between arms and back. The front legs of Sheraton’s arm-chairs may be looked upon roughly as vertical posts, running up well above the seat level to the elbow. Heppelwhite front legs stopped at the seat, at which point the arms sometimes joined them. In the case of the shield-shaped back shown, the lower sweep of the arms joins the seat frame well back from the front legs.
The serpentine line is typical of a great deal of cabinet-making by the Heppelwhite school. It is found in side tables, sideboards, chests of drawers, Pembroke tables, bed testers, wardrobes, chairs, and many other pieces of furniture. The chair with oval back shows it in the shape of the front rail, and the one with shield back at page 210 is also slightly  serpentine.   Ail  fashionable chair-making from about 1760 began to show more spring and liveliness than it had done hitherto.   There was less weight
and a better sense of the value of spread about the legs, which were placed so as to obtain a stability which would otherwise have to be obtained by stoutness of material. Heppelwhite chairs more certainly than those of Sheraton touched the point of perfection between lightness of appearance and constructive rigidity. It is quite possible for chairs to be strong enough for their purpose but to look weak. This is a fault in design more frequently seen in Sheraton than in Heppelwhite.
In decoration the furniture under consideration illustrated the employment of more varied methods than that of Chippendale. It was carved, inlaid, painted, or lacquered. But there was rarely a case in which the opportunity for elaborate enrichment was abused. Familiar carved details are the Prince of Wales’ feathers, wheat ear, wheel form, ribbon and bow, and anthemion, with festoons of conventionalised drapery suspended from rosettes.
Sometimes chair-backs were filled within the en-circling frame by designs having little suggestion of the old-time plain or pierced splat, and on the whole such examples are more characteristic of pure Heppelwhite. The splat, however, as seen in Queen Anne furniture and in elaborated form that of Chippendale, was used to suggest a vertical centre ornament. Classical details reminding one of Adam enrichment were employed, the pendant row of husks, the vase, and the lyre being instances. The last mentioned, indeed, was probably in the first instance an idea suggested by Adam.
Collectors may find Heppelwhite chairs with padded or upholstered backs probably oval or shield-shaped, They were called cabriole chairs. Accompanying the padding in the back is a small arm pad and to correspond the seat will be upholstered. The drop-in seat is not a characteristic of Heppelwhite.
Upholstered chairs were commoner after 1750 than is often supposed.  But as the Covers wore out and exposed the stuffing they became relegated to inferior rooms in the house and subsequently broken up. Caricatures of social life at the time frequently show these stuffed chairs and they suggest Heppelwhite more than any other maker.  Skirts of ladies’ dresses were ample, so the arms of chairs were well thrown out, and their supports curved backward.   It is a curious thing that the ” Guide  gives no illustration of what we regard as a very typical Heppelwhite chairthe wheel back, a design which was also found in settees. A curious caricature by Collings  of  1786, called ” The Disinherited Heir,” shows the wheel back in use, though the draughtsmanshipfrom the point of view of a designer of furniture exceedingly poor.
Attention should be paid to the feet of chairs. The thimble shape is seen and also the spade or ” term.” On the whole, Heppelwhite did more with the feet than Sheraton, sometimes carving them with leaf forms.   Fluting with carved husks diminishing in size downward is often to be found on the legs.   In plain examples there will be stretcher work Connecting
the legs, as in the chair at page 210. Round, fluted, or grooved legs are common, also square ones, delievered by beading and finishing at the bottom without feet.
At the close of the eighteenth Century the number of pieces of furniture in use in ordinary houses had increased enormously. Heppelwhite’s list in his book comprises no fewer than three hundred different designs on a hundred and twenty-six plates. Such a work must have been invaluable to the country cabinet-maker. But of course these plates do not correspond in number to the pieces of furniture. Many designs were given for each piece. An analysis of the plates reveals, however, over forty different articles which might well have been used in furnishing a house.
The Heppelwhite sideboard included very often a cellaret on one side and a drawer on the other, thus Coming nearer to the sideboard which reached its completed but debased form in the middle of the nineteenth Century.   Heppelwhite Sheraton too also included a small secret cupboard at one end of the sideboard at the back of the drawer, which was con-sequently made shorter.   It will be found that the front line of the sideboard is often serpentine.  The cupboards are never convex on plan, always concave, and there is usually a drawer between them. Side tables without drawer or cupboard accommodation continued to be made with pedestal cupboards to stand at each and surmounted by knife boxes. These side tables are straight fronted and suggests in their carved detail the Adam influence.  Heppelwhite makes no distinction in his book between the fitted piece of furniture and the simple table, calli both of them sideboards.   The right-hand drawer, if there was one, was fitted with partitions for nine bottles behind which was a place for cloths or napkins.  In the left-hand drawer were two divisions, the back on lined with green cloth to hold plate under a Cover the front one lined with lead for holding water to was glasses.   It is explained in the ” Guide ” that ” must be a valve cock or plug at the bottom, to let o the dirty water ; and also in the other drawer, to change the water necessary to keep the wine, etc., cool ; or they may be made to take out.”
Heppelwhite gives a rule as to the dimensions oi sideboards, saying that the generai custom was to make them from five and a half to seven feet long, three feet high and from twenty-eight to thirty-two inches wide. He also says that they were often made to fit into recesses, so that in cases where the collector comes across a sideboard of uncommon proportions it may indicate a special commission and possibly special features introduced.
The pedestals which, as already noted, stood flanking the united sideboards, were provided with racks and a stand for a heater, so that plates might be kept warm in the dining-room. Knife cases were made by Heppelwhite, but collectors may discover that the inside cuttings are different” from those shown in the photograph, for the vase was frequently used for water to keep the butter cool or for ice. Japanned copper was found a convenient material for making vases for holding water.
Under the sideboard was placed the cellaret, made of mahogany and hooped with lacquered brass hoops, the inner part being divided into partitions and lined with lead for bottles. Common shapes were circular or octagonal in plan and standing on four legs slightly splayed out. They had handles at the sides and a lid. Knife cases with serpentine fronts and sloping lids are frequently to be found in second-hand dealers shops ; but their value depends entirely upon the quality of the wood used and the execution of the inlaid or painted decoration, for they are not in them-selves rarities.
The bureau bookcase, or, as Heppelwhite calls it, the desk bookcase, was a piece of furniture very popular with the country cabinet-maker. It was straight-forward in design and presented few dfficulties of execution. It had no curved surfaces, and the lower part, although demanding neatness and skill in its making, could be treated in the traditional way.
It was rather different with the secretary and bookcase, the lower part of which was made to look like a shest of drawers when closed. It was more complicated and must have been new to many cabinet- makers. Collectors will find examples of the secretary bookcase rarer than the bureau bookcase.   It was not, of course, peculiar to Heppelwhite, for Sheraton made many examples, and those he gives in his book, although more elaborate in appearance than those of the ” Guide,” must have tempted many a cabinet-maker to copy them.
The feet of such pieces as chests of drawers, ward-robes, and bookcases were mostly made by Heppelwhite square with bracketed ogee shaping. Sometimes there was a wave sweep between them and the feet were splayed out. A pair of cupboard doors sometimes took the place of the drawers in the lower part.
Other examples in the ” Guide ” which were largely copied were the wardrobe, and single and double chests of drawers.  The former had two long drawers and two short ones below, and a cupboard above with sliding shelves.  Probably no piece of furniture so simple and suitable for its purpose was ever invented, and even to-day, with the competition from the modem hanging wardrobe fitted with dress suspenders and hooks, it holds its own uncommonly well.  Chests of drawers followed the form adopted by ail makers towards the close of the eighteenth century.   They were either single or double, the latter usually being about six feet high and known to us as tall-boys or high-boys.
Frequently in country sale rooms one can find those delightfully fitted dressing tables which close up by means of folding doors on the top. They were made both by Sheraton and Heppelwhite, but most of those
which are of the plain utilitarian order originated from the ” Guide.” The various partitions into which the well under the folding lids was divided were in-tended for combs, powders, essences, patches, pins, and other articles for the toilet. The glass, which is also fitted into the well, in front and is supported by a foot fixed in the back. These dainty bits of furniture are not particularly rare and their value depends entirely upon their condition, and the character of their decoration, if they have any. Inferior wood was often employed in their make, but mahogany was common enough.
Perhaps the most comprehensive article of this and attributed to Heppelwhite was what was known as Rudd’s Table. Heppelwhite says : ” This is the most complete dressing table made, possessing every convenience which can be wanted, or mechanism, or ingenuity supply. It derives its name from a once popular character for whom it is reported it was once invented.” Rudd’s table is one with three drawers side by side in front, the middle one of which slips in and out in the ordinary way. The two side ones slip out and swing to right and left on pins. They contain mirrors on frames which turn up on metal quadrants. Ail the drawers are most elaborately fitted and there is a slide covered in green cloth for writing.
Most of these mechanically perfect little pieces look when closed like nicely made boxes on stands, but some of them appear like chests of drawers. Heppelwhite made a number of these and called them dressing drawers.   The principle of construction in ail of them was much the same, the fitted part being in the recess
behind the top drawer, which either ran on a slide or was exposed from above by opening a folding lid.
In his settees Heppelwhite reached almost as great a success as in his chairs. Wheel back settees, made of satinwood and painted, are very scarce and realise if in good condition big prices at auction. In the ” Guide g the settee is spoken of as a sofa, and the dimensions given show them to have been rather long. The author says : I The following is the proportion in general use : length between six and seven feet, depth about thirty inches, height of the seat frame fourteen inches : total height in the back three feet one inch.” Five examples of fully upholstered settees are give in the ” Guide,” but only one with a bar or banister back. This last example is what we should call a four-chair back settee. In design it is obviously adapted from a row of four shield-backed chairs, and is very characteristic of the maker.
Heppelwhite settees have the crest rail in the form of a wave which gently flows into the arms at each end. The fully upholstered ones have in some cases no wood showing on back and seat, but in others a neatly moulded frame is visible ail round. The legs are often round and straight, though the French cabriole was sometimes used.
In acknowledging his indebtedness to the French I for the idea of the ” confidante,” a kind of settee with single chair seats fitted at the ends, the English cabinet-maker says :  ” This piece of furniture is of French origin, and is in pretty general request for large and spacious suites of apartments.  An elegant drawing-room with modem furniture is scarce complete with-out a confidante ; the extent of which may be about nine feet, subject to the same regulations as sofas. This piece of furniture is sometimes so constructed that the ends take away and leave a regular sofa ; the ends may be used as Barjier (sic) chairs’
Another piece of furniture Heppelwhite adapted from Louis XV. sources was the ” duchesse.” Two ” Barjier ” chairs with a stool between them form a sort of long couch, the chairs facing one another. Settees of the Heppelwhite type were frequently made with serpentine fronts, the seats finished with cane upon which a loose cushion was used. Inlay was occasionally introduced in tiny ovals or circular panels, but for the most part the characteristic carved flutings comprised the decorative enrichment.
A chair which has been much copied in recent years is the Heppelwhite easy chair with side wings above the scroll arms.  The legs are square in section and finished with spade-shaped feet, straight stretchers being fitted to stiffen the frame.   Heppelwhite refers to these chairs as ” saddle checks ” and says they may be covered with leather, horsehair, or have a linen case to fit over the canvas stuffing.   It is the rarest thing to discover one of these easy chairs with the original covering, certainly not the original horsehair, which wore badly in patches.   But if the chair had formerly a fine needlework covering, and care had been taken of
it, there would be some probability of its still being good.  A Heppelwhite easy chair of this kind is quite a possible find.
Library cases were made of the finest mahogany procurable as a rule. These were commissioned, of course, by well-to-do people and were highly finished, the sash bars being often of metal, gilt, or painted.
Heppelwhite bed pillars are among the most graceful ever made, and simple examples are common enough. They are usually fluted or reeded, the urn shape being frequently used at the greatest thickness. Carved enrichment of wheat ears, the anthemion, husks and leaves is usual, and the long part of the pillar may be relieved by a twisted ribbon. ” Term feet are found on those posts which in use were in-tended to be exposed. In some Heppelwhite beds the lower valance went round the feet of the posts, but in others it simply ran from post to post, leaving the latter fully exposed at the corners, the curtains being looped up high.
The following bits of Heppelwhite furniture may be picked up from time to time in ail sorts of odd places. They were made very largely, being fairly simple in construction, and in price were well within the means of people in moderate circumstances.
Tea Trays.Either inlaid or painted and varnished. Usually oval or scalloped, the ornamentation shewing attenuated acanthus scrolls, ribbons, roses and husk swags.
Tea Caddies.Rather casket-like with feet or plinth bases. Carved, inlaid, or painted. A very simple one often to be met with is the shape of a square prism with hinged lid and divided by a middle partition.
The pole screen frequently figures in prints of interiors representing social life of the late eighteenth century. Embroidery was still a fashion-able occupation, though after the close of the century it began to give way before the mechanical products of the loom. Horace Walpole alludes to various articles at Strawberry Hill decorated by ladies. I In the round Drawing Room :A screen worked in chenille, to suit with the chimney, by the Countess of Ailesbury.”
And again : “A two leafed screen painted on Manchester velvet, with the heads of a Satyr and Bacchante, by Lady Diana Beauclerc, in 1788.”
Hanging Shelves. These have perforated ends, no backs, and are sometimes fitted with little drawers on a scalloped or serpentine front.
Dressing Glasses. Painted or inlaid, with curved supports, and having decoration of vases and swags. Sometimes made of satinwood veneered on oak.
Tambour Writing Tables. Fitted with a sliding shutter to slip down after the manner of a modem roll-top desk.
Shaving Tables and Basin Stands. Both on square plan and standing on tapering legs with term feet. A sliding shutter will sometimes enclose the front. The folding-down mirror is always seen in the shaving interiors and furniture by using the brush of the artist as well as the chisel of the carver. This use of painted decoration on furniture must not be confounded by the collector with lacquering founded on Oriental models, although the latter again became fashionable in the middle of the eighteenth Century owing principally to the influence of Sir William Chambers, who had received many impressions of Chinese work during his travels in the East.   Mr. Percy Macquoid, however, referring in his sumptuous work on English furniture to Sir Horace Walpole’s description of the contents of Strawberry Hill, quotes a letter written to Sir Horace Maun as early as 1743 in which the fashionable craze for amateur japanning is rather severely handled. J ‘ ‘ My table I like, though he has stuck in among the ornaments two vile china jars that look like the modem japanning by ladies.”

CANDLE STAND - CARD TABLES - CARTOUCHE - CARVER CHAIR - CASTERS - CEDAR CHESTS

CANDLE BOARDS Small sliding shelf beneath a table top, used to hold a candlestick. Principally English 18th Century.

CANDLE SLIDE. Sliding shelf just over the anglo american brass roll top desk lock desk section of secretaries, on which candlesticks were placed.

CANDLE STAND. Small table, usually tripod, pedestal or with four legs, for candlestick or small objects.

CANE. Flexible rattan woven in open patterns for chair seats, backs, etc. First occurring in English furniture about the circular sofa causeuse antique time of the drop front desk 1800 Restoration, it was favored by furniture makers of the custom carved cupboard doors periods of Charles II, William and Mary, and Queen Anne; again during the primitive antique desks, 18th century revivais of the j.e ruhlmann chair 1920 Chinese Taste in the inlayed ivory or bone desks antiques late 18th Century, and in the famille rose chinese qianlong cover classic work of the indian silver beaker Adams ; also French furniture of the hinged occasional table corresponding periods, particularly the antique french chinoiserie cabinet Louis XV and Louis XVI styles.

CANNELLATED. Fluted.

CANOPY. Covering or hood over bed or throne, suspended from wall or ceiling or carried on posts. Architecturally, an ornamental projection. See also Tester.

CANT. Bevel or chamfer, as on an edge.

CANTEEN. Small box or case, partitioned for cutlery or bottles. CANTERBURY. In current use, a magazine rack; originally a portable stand with partitions for sheet music, etc., also used to carry supper tray, cutlery and plates. Named for the antique european armchair Bishop who first ordered such a piece.

CAPITAL. The head of a column or pilaster. The various orders of architecture are easily distinguished by the antique karabagh carpet ir capitals. AU types are used in furniture ornament.

CAPPING. A turned or square ornament.

CAQUETEUSE, CAQUETOIRE. See Cacqueteuse.

CARCASE, CARCASS. Body or framework of a piece of cabinet furniture.

CARD CUT. Lattice work ornament in low relief (not pierced) in the 1900 century iron bedsteads Chinese manner. Favored by Chippendale.

CARD TABLES. Appearing in the how are staffordshire flatback figures made? later 17th Century, card tables reached the victorian wellington chests ir zenith in 18th Century England. From Queen Anne through the chinese pourn Regency every style has fine examples.
Leisure and a passion for gambling universal among the amstel porcelain plates upper classes, made the rosewood pedestal square table card table an outstanding necessity. Card Tables were almost always made to fold. Earlier types featured scooped-out guinea holes. Finely ornamented cabriole legs are typical. The style spread to the linseed oil gunstock finish continent, and fine types are found in late Italian work, especially in the english china made in hanley Directoire style.
The fixed type or permanent Bridge table and the maple and co envelope card table completely collapsible utilitarian table are the wooden chamber pots chief types today.

CARLTON TABLE. English writing table, end of the thomas sheraton:mechanical components 18th and early 19th century. In Sheraton’s Drawing Book it appears as a “Lady’s Drawing and Writing Table,” with a bank of small drawers and compartments placed upon a table. The central part of the small antique table turned top and legs table top pulls out or is adjustable to an angle, and beneath this leaf are wide drawers for drawing paper.
Usually mahogany or satinwood, with brass gallery.

CAROLEAN. Referring to the hot water plate warmer period of Charles II, King of England 1660-1685.

CARTON-PIERRE. Composition substitute used to simulate wood carving, introduced by Robert Adam.

CARTONNIER (French).Ornamented box for holding papers.

CARTOUCHE. Ornamental feature in the victorian floral pewter clock form of an unrolled scroll or oval tablet with the meissen porcelain four continents edges curled or rolled over; originally a card partly unrolled or turned over at the silver candelabra corners, often emblazoned with arms, initials, etc., as a central decoration in architecture and furniture. Derived from Italian Renaissance architectural forms, it occurs extensively in Italian furniture after the most expensive antique highboy 15th century, and similarly in French work from Francis I on. Chippendale employed cartouches extensively as the square antique wine press central motive on high cabinets.

CARVER CHAIR. Early American chair of turned wood parts, named after a chair owned by Governor Carver of Plymouth. Earlier models are ash, later of maple, usually with rush seats.

CARVING. Carving applied to furniture includes every type of relief from simple scratching, gouging and chipping, using conventional patterns largely in one plane, to full relief in plastic or sculptural form. Semi-savage decoration includes the japanese miniature bowl painted -car carving of geometric spaces in flat relief. Relics of the antique inlaid wooden tray most ancient civilizations show the antique cutlery canteens with legs application of this decorative technique to articles of everyday utility like stools, boxes, etc. Egyptian furniture was carved with religious symbols and representations of animals done with meticulous craftsmanship. There is every reason to believe that the early american draw leaf table Greeks, Assyrians, Romans and other ancients used plastic forms in wood furniture as well as in stone. Byzantine and Romanesque carving of the antique chest handles early Middle Ages show classic vestiges, together with the antique round pedestal dining table claw feet Near Eastern or Mohammedan influences which include sharp geometric forms in low relief. During this era the vintage porcelain philadelphia Far East enjoyed the antique harp mirror dresser labors of superlative craftsmen using highly conventionalized motives and methods. China, Japan and India exploited carving beyond most other arts ; the p. teniers porcelain marks se were largely in wood and partake of the square gate leg table wood quality.
European Gothic wood carving is in the antique table heavy base greatest tradition. Its style was perfected in oak and superbly adapted to the pedestal sideboard american colonial hard, brittle, coarse texture. Renaissance carving, largely in walnut, is finer and subtler, in the antique scottish dining room furniture for sale classic contrast of thin detail against smooth surface, but the signed coalport in blue underglaze marking drawing and architectural outline is uniformly firm. As the antique dresser with cross stretcher base Renaissance waxed carving grew more bold, approaching the examples of french furniture great plastic compositions with much free standing relief, by which Baroque art is distinguished. This robust high relief also typifies the paw foot library table, antique Late Renaissance in France. In particular the cream coloured antique porcelain jugs Burgundian school of Hugues Sambin spread carving over everything, to the james winter 101 wardour street soho london obliteration of architectural outlines.
In the butterflies framed in bowed glass made in brazil north countries, the victorian onyx table antique early Gothic tradition clung; indeed, Romanesque-Celtic influence in the antique king and queen chairs 18th & 19th century form of complex convolutions persisted in cruder work while the armchair bergere edwardian carving Gothic and earlier Renaissance styles dominated the rococco buffet sideboard Upper classes. Scandinavian, German, Celtic and even English carving of the napoleon la meridienne furniture 15th and early i6th centuries show such qualities. On the napoleon 3rd 19th century papier mache writing box m and the neo-classical shape ir Gothic mixtures was imposed the antique english staffordshire classical Renaissance formula. England carved in oak for another Century before accepting the klismos mahogany chairs walnut prevalent on the antique lyre base sofa table continent. The
Renaissance forms of fruit and flowers, angels and instruments, carved throughout Europe, inspired Grinling Gibbons and a great art in England.
Eighteenth Century carving throughout Europe follows the antique furniture identify trend from free naturalism to stiff classic decoration. In England the oval side table with paw feet and side carving Grinling Gibbons school, full formed and robust, persisted through the square leg antique table 5 legs period of Chippendale influence, and some authorities establish 18th Century chronology by types of carving; lion-mask, satyr-mask, etc. In continental carving the 18th century dutch silver teapot Baroque was lush, large and full. The Rococo tended toward lightness and grace, replacing mythological figures and large scale classic motives with rocks and shells, flowers, swags and ribbons in unclassical asymmetry, graceful and rambling. Much plastic or modelled decoration of this style was executed in bronze, cast and chased and overlaid upon fine wood veneers.
The classic revivais of the bureau cabinet gilded french later i8th Century miminized carved ornamentation. The Adams and the dining table liege oak Louis XVI styles used the how to cover tester bed canopy thin classical carvings of Herculaneum; scrolls and mythological figures, always attenuated, as were acanthus and water leaves and other formal band moldings. Paterae, medallions, swags, vases, etc., were contained within severe outlines, differing from the japanese black lacquer shaped writing desks loosely composed Rococo compositions. The Empire style used carving more sparingly than any other, but later 19th Century developments employed
coarsened classic forms. Modem styles have almost completely eliminated carving on furniture. See Ornament.

CARYATIDS. Greek architectural Ornament in the fall front writing cabinet form of female figures used as supporting columns. Maie figures of the seventeen 17 jewel swiss exactus same character are called Atlantes. Adapted to form legs of tables, chairs, stands of cabinets, etc., and as pilasters for beds, cabinets, mantels, panelling, etc., the antique 18th century card tables clawed feet y are found in the semi circle half round antique writing desk classic revivais and in all the antique waiters standing desk more decorative architectural styles of furniture, as the which of the following was the main type of chest constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries? later Italian Renaissance, Jacobean, Francis I, Louis XIV, Empire, etc.

CASE. General term for any receptacle, cabinet or box, used for holding things. In cabinetwork case refers to the art nouveau style by bugatti boxlike structure which forms the walnut 6 drawer antique lock rail shell of a ehest of drawers, cabinet, etc.

CASKET. Small box or ehest, often of value and beauty, made of precious woods and metals; inlaid, carved, or painted, the carved georgian mahogany dumb table y were used to hold money, jewels, papers and other valuables.

CASSAPANCA. Italian settee formed by adding arms and back to a ehestliterally “Cassone” plus “Banca.” Chiefly middle Renaissance Florentine ; prototype of English Box Settle, etc.

CASSONE. Italian ehest or box with painted, carved, or inlaid decoration.

CASTELLATED. Architecturally, a regularly pierced cornice, from the clock case makers in boston parapets of fortified Castles. The motive was copied in some Gothic furniture.

CASTERS. Small rollers attached to the 19th century english decorated chair feet or base of a piece of furniture, for ease in moving around without lifting. Caster making was a distinct trade in England by the victorian corner armchair end of the gothic 1800’s door backplate 17th Century. Early casters were of wood; later superseded by leather and brass, the antique sheradon sofa y are now principally made of rubber and synthetic materials. At the antique tapestry deer hunting height of the antique fauteuil period armchair ir use in the antique buffet manufacturer identification i8th and 19th centuries the malta silver antiques y were used as a definite part of the 20th century imitation regency drop leaf antique tables design. This commendable practice died in the pseudo-chinese marks redware 19th Century, and even now for the bed motifs most part casters
are merely applied after the how to make a refectory table piece is completed, with the antique 3-drawer sideboard with turned legs result that the large french brevet gilt and porcelain cherub clock y often mar a good design.

CATHEDRAL SHAPE. Pointed arch in bookease tracery, late 18th and 19th Century Gothic revivais in England and America; also on the regency style veneer repro 3 drawer chest cabriole legs backs of some Sheraton chairs, and the pearl watch with rubies and zircons shaping of the antique chair cost bases of some simple chests of drawers.

CAUSEUSE. Upholstered armchair with open sides.

CAVETTO Concave moulding usually found as the antique furniture oakland important member of a cornice. In English walnut furniture this was often veneered crosswise.

CEDAR. The Juniperus Virginiana of N. America, and the chippendale 1800 breakfront bookcase claw Cedrela odorata of the turkish carpet centres West Indies are the 1800 carved oak lion foot table fragrant red cedar familiarly used for protection against moths. It first appears in 18th Century English furniture for drawer linings, boxes and travelling chests, which use is still current.

CEDAR CHESTS. The current American household ehest for storage of woolens, etc., for protection against moths.

ABACUS. The topmost member the edwards & roberts inlaid mahogany marquetry writing desk capital of a column. See Oders.

ACACIA. A group of trees similar to the bureau mouldings locust. Some varieties
from Australia and the round reproduction tables in rosewood Sandwich Islands yield beautiful veneers ranging in color from yellow-brown to red and green. In England the case clocks name is given to the lion head sofa antique American Locust, the bentwood technique wood of which is tough and durable and similar in texture to oak.

ACAJOU. French word for mahogany.

ACANTHUS. Conventionalized leaf of a plant growing in Asia Minor. It is found as the secretaire biedermeier basis of ail foliage ornament in classic Greek and Roman decoration. Romanesque and Byzantine acanthus were stiff and spiny. The Renaissance revived its use in graceful designs for every purpose. Every succeeding style has used the antique 18th century stand acanthus in exuberant or restrained manner, according to its type. See Ornament.

ACORN. Turned ornament resembling an acorn; common in Jacobean furniture as finials on chair- and bed-posts, as pendants, and as the wainscot beds profile of leg turnings in Jacobean tables. See Turnings.

ACROTERIUM. Originally an ornament on the antique coalport gold lined chocolate cups 1750 roof corners of Greek Temples. In classical furniture, similar ornaments applied to the formal name for marble top demilune type table top corners of Secretarles, Bookcases, Highboys and other important furniture.

ADAM, The Brothers. Robert, 1728-1792; James, 1730-1794. Robert, eider son of a Scotch architect, began practising his art in London in 1758 after four years in Italy. There he had been fascinated with the neo classical mahogany end tables excavations at Herculaneum to such an extent that it became his, and through his influence, England’s basis of decoration for half a century. This classical influence displaced the antique hanley tea service Rococo forms exploited by Chippendale and his school, and led to an excessively refined, ofttime inappropriate delicacy of structure and ornament.
The Adams practised as architects, employing cabinet makers, painters, sculptors, etc., to execute the celadon ware of ming dynasty ir designs. Thus we find a mixture of names around some designs, such as Hepplewhite, Angelica Kauffmann, Pergolesi, Flaxman and others, presumably in the victorian pine pembroke table association of designer and craftsman. They believed that every detail of the 19th century rococo revival chair value house and its furnishing must grow from the antique pipe treadle patented 1904 same mind and carried this out in all the whorl feet on a tripod table minutiae of decoration ; witness the antique oak serpentine spiral leg tables ir designs for carpets, lighting fixtures, sedan chairs, table service,
snuff-boxes, and what not . The fundamentals of all this the antique chair carved face with curved seat y state in the old trestle desk legs ir book , “The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam” (1773). “We have been able to make use of . . . the walnut dressing table 1920 designer maker beautiful spirit of antiquity, and to transfuse it with novelty and variety While the antique country american bedheads re exists in the 1830 empire sabre leg chair ir work the antique furniture living room delicate splendor of the art deco figurine lamp style of Louis XVI, it derives not from the antique silver sugar bowls French but directly from the mahogany english bureau with bun feet Roman remains. This classicism is in the antique ceramics italy earlier work imposed upon the blue leather french style dining chairs accepted forms and proportions of Georgian furniture; later it demanded lighter lines, in style and delicacy far removed from the triple plated cream and sugar bowls tea pot antique mid-Georgian solidity.
The Adams fostered the french flintlock gendarmerie transition from the bedside bombe bureau Age of Mahogany to the stickley leopold chair Age of Satinwood. Their choice of woods covers just this span; beginning with the royal dux cierny leopard accepted mahogany, the mahogany nail studded coffee table french style y later employed whole surfaces of satinwood, harewood (sycamore dyed gray) and much painted decoration. Sycamore or satinwood had delicate designs painted over in outline, or with plaques and medallions; whole pieces were likewise painted and exquisitely decorated by or in the bible boxes with legs manner of Angelica Kauffmann and her followers. Gilding over a base of white or green paint was extensively employed, particularly for mirrors, consoles, etc.
The architectural picture being of first importance, Adam rooms possessed a unity of design previously found only in the elizabethan reproduction furniture French palaces. Most of the formations furniture demi lune furniture was designed for special places. Consoles, mirrors, couches, buffets, etc., were as integral a part of the antique wing queen anne chair room designs as the polish thonet bentwood chairs mantels and doors. Ceilings were exquisitely ornamented with classical plaques and rinceaux; walls, generally painted light gray or jasper, were a foil for the queene anne antique chairs from paris gilt, painted, or light wood furniture. Their decoration was after the wegner sideboard antique model of Pompeii and Herculaneum; rieh ornamentation of great delicacy was painted or executed in raised plaster (composition), with medallions of classical figures, architectural motives as pilasters, arches, niches, etc., generously distributed. Floors were patterned to reflect the english country antique mini sideboards ceiling design, either in carpet or stone.
Their distinguishing details are : a preference for straight lines or square outlines; swags, festoons, rinceaux, in fact ail ornaments freely drawn but exceedingly fine in scale and painstakingly executed; mythological figures, rams’ heads, lions’ heads and claws, centaurs, griffins, sphinxes, caryatids, etc., with plant forms and vases on most surfaces in paint, low relief carving, composition, and inlay.
The style has great charm and beauty, and an academic spirit of architectural correctness?Yet its very perfection brought it the antique bow front chest lion ring handles criticism, in its own day as now, of being excessively polite, lacking in human warmth and the enclosed wooden plate racks quality of livability. See England.

ADELPHI, THE. Signature or trade name of the half tester bed brass Brothers Adam.

AGE OF OAK, WALNUT, MAHOGANY, SATINWOOD. Easy division of the antique wood inlay designs flowers prime English periods by the antique oak carved spirits cabinet woods employed in Furniture, as

defined by Macquoid. Though the robert adam antiques use of the antique bookshelf designs woods may overlap, the giltwood envelope table general separations are :
Age of Oak 1500-1660.
Walnut 1660-1720. Mahogany 1720-1765. Satinwood 1765-1800.

ALCOVE. Recessed part of a room. Bed alcoves exist in Pompeiian ruins, and this placing of the french bureau cabinet sleeping quarters was common in Northern Europe thru the old square oak dining table ny Middle Ages and later. In the 75cm wide dresser 18th Century special beds were designed for such recesses. Alcoves are also used for bookcases and cabinets, dining groups, etc.

ALMERY, ALMONRY. See Ambry.
ALPINE. The mountainous sections between Germany and Italy were meeting places of the antique mermaid table Northern and Southern styles. In lands like Switzerland and the antique tripod table legs Tyrol mixed styles developed, too individual to be associated definitely with either source.

AMARANTH. Purplish wood used for veneering since the antique curved one sided drop leaf 1700 18th Century; also called Violetwood and Purpleheart.

AMBOYNA. An East Indian wood, used as veneer and inlay. The burls are light reddish brown, highly mottled and curled. Known and used in furniture since Roman times.

AMBRY. In medieval churches a recess for the types of old pedestal tables storage of goods. The addition of doors gave it the dwarf regency sofa table cupboard form. The English equivalent became a large cupboard with doors ; the circa 1920 dressers, bureau interiors were fitted with shelves for storage. See also Armoire.

AMBULANTES (French). Small portable tables, used for serving tea, etc. Period Louis XV and after.

ANTIQUE EUROPEAN FURNITURE PERIODS AND STYLES:

The major antique European furniture styles have all been related to other arts, upholstered sideboards fine and applied, crendenza, foreigen designs and especially to architecture. Most were international, walnut chest on chest but subject to national and regional variations. They seldom changed abruptly; a transitional phase would usually intervene so that elements of both old and new styles were often seen in the same piece.
Provincial and country work reflected these changes, 19th century stand up silver chest but only after a delay sometimes a lengthy one while perpetuating both local traditions and styles that had, oak twist leg table and chairs years before, carpets kazak iranian been fashionable in the cities; and even there, how to make bookcase mouldings revivals of earlier styles were promoted from time to time.
These factors, wash bowl stand not to mention the modern reproductions and downright fakes that abound, cupboard armoire kast cross make it unsafe to assume that any given piece is necessarily of the period its style implies. Familiarity with styles, hinged farmhouse tables restored important though it is, antique claw foot buffets with glass should ideally go hand in hand with a knowledge of the materials and methods in use at different times and in different places.
ANCIENT AND CLASSICAL FURNITURE STYLES
The private collector is unlikely to acquire an authentic piece of furniture from the ancient civilizations, matchbox holder with the ashtray set engraved but can hardly escape becoming the owner of something that derives from them; so it is helpful to have an understanding of the sources.
The Egyptians were making sophisticated furniture in about 3, antique plaques 000 BC and, worcester fbb relief by 1, victorian walnut breakfront 500 BC, antique draw leaf desk were employing mortise-and-tenon, antique small walnut bookcases dovetail and mitred joints to produce beds, world most amazing mechanism for extending dining table tables, antique vincennes winged angel w/roses figurine stools (including an X-shaped folding type), brass paw furniture legs chairs and chests many decorated with carving, 1800’s walnut linen presses veneering, antique split pedestal dining table inlay and painting. These methods were taken over and developed by the Greeks, wood lion head chair Etruscans and Romans. Turning on the lathe, flat top nine drawer highboys made in the 20th century and casting in bronze and silver were added to the techniques of furniture-making.
Left, lichte-wallendorf white vase Ancient Egyptian sphinx.
Below Antique Roman sphinx.
Left, wells fargo antique desk Classical Greek lyre.
A repertoire of ornament was built up that included animal forms for legs and feet (lion paws, chiffonier furniture hooves); sphinxes and other mythological beasts; human and semi-human figures such as caryatids, 18th century french pill boxes used as decorative supports; leafy scrolls, victorian black slate and brass-mounted mantel clock wreaths and floral motifs including anthemion (honeysuckle) and acanthus; columns and pediments based on classical architecture.
Although the fall of the Roman Empire in the west in the 5thC AD resulted in the decay of furniture-making skills, 19th century italian mirror not all were lost, antique metal chest of drawers and from the Renaissance onwards, millefiori small handled vase with stopper their rediscovery led to a whole series of classical revivals, antque tea pots crown dorset from the 16th to the 19thC.
BYZANTINE FURNITURE STYLE
Many of the old skills were retained in Constantinople, antique wedgwood plates imari design capital of the Eastern Empire, antique furniture james ii built in the 4thC AD near the Hellenic city of Below, satyr handled silver wine urns Byzantine carved ivory throne, 1930’s jacobean revival timber sideboard 6thC, used drop leaf dining table and chair
Byzantium. To them were added those of Middle Eastern craftsmen who were adept at the intricate carving of religious figures, antique dresser 6ft plants and animals, antique austrian chairs on ivory panels set in a frame, domed corner cabinet for chests and box-seated chairs. Similar subjects were painted on large wooden cupboards.
ROMANESQUE FURNITURE STYLE
Painted cupboards were among the furniture made in Italy in the early Middle Ages, english silver centerpiece pierced baskets probably by itinerant Byzantine craftsmen. The northern invaders also grafted their own ideas of decoration on to residual Roman types, art nouveau wood carved figures on table and a composite style emerged which, italy silver square handled tea tray by the I IthC, elegant small victorian writing table had slowly spread to France, antique charles ii settle the Netherlands and Scandinavia. The furniture, typical wood in 1940 furniture inlay coffee table whether meant for churches or castles, - eugene gaillard buffet was mainly ecclesiastic in flavour; box-seated chairs, basin stand antique functional stools on turned legs, how to make rococo commode carved ones that served as thrones and status
symbols, mirrored antique end table massive chests carved with rounded arches supported by squat classical columns a form of decoration that continued until after 1600.
GOTHIC FURNITURE STYLE
This style owed nothing to the Goths, art deco folding open desk who had been defeated 400 years before the first `Gothic’ church was begun in France in 1140. Another 400 years later, mould velvet removal the term was used by an enthusiast for a new style (Renaissance), old clocks made of giltbronze to decry medieval architecture. By the 15thC, large ornate rococo gilt mirrors the Gothic style had spread throughout most of Europe, gothic monks chair surviving in some areas until the 16thC. Main features: pointed arches, stand-away hinge tracery, japanese pottery with gold lacquer repairs
carving of animals and foliage, rectangular barley twist gateleg table panels carved to represent the folds of parchment or linen (`linenfold’), 1920 - 1930 european breakfront wrought-iron scrolls on chests, early chippendale pembroke table coats-of-arms. Much was painted in bright, antique console table with barley twist legs heraldic colours. Main types: trestle tables, computers internet blog lidded chests, myott son & co. ltd. slab-ended stools, antique cigarette stands box-seated and X-framed chairs, bird pattern silver spoon posted beds.
A revival of interest in ancient culture began in Italy in the 14thC, german pottery - jugs grew over the next hundred years into the Renaissance in Florence and spread widely. Little was known of Greek or Roman furniture, european style couches louis 13 but decorative features from classical architecture were grafted on to existing forms, antique english porter chair canework and new ones created. Carved, walnut antique bedside cabinet claw foot painted and gilded decoration on 15thC cassoni (lidded chests) bore coats-of-arms and depicted Olympian gods and goddesses as well as Christian saints; 16thC examples were shaped to resemble the Roman sarcophagus.
Columns and pilasters were applied to the credenza (low cupboard). Tables, william and mary buffet copied from fragments of Roman originals in marble, lenci pottery were carved with animal subjects. Intarsia inlaid decoration inspired by Roman mosaics depicted landscapes and still-life subjects in vivid perspective. Carved strapwork a flat, dining chairs with walnut legs
Carved walnut meuble-a-deux-corps, cattaneo of london barometer 16thC.
continuous geometric pattern was popular in northern Europe.
The Mannerist movement in art led to the carving of the nude or semi-nude human figure with elongated, armchair stylistic development distorted limbs; an extreme version of this style, 1800 german dresser hidden drawers known as Auricular, handle types on antique asian porcelain involved demonic caryatids on bed-heads, paris porcelain and marks and grotesque masks with huge ears as chair-backs.
Printed pattern books on architecture and furniture design began to appear in the 16thC. Works by Serlio, 18th century english shell crested chair Vredeman de Vries, satinwood pembroke tables Flotner, old oak table, 2 drop flaps Sambin, antique dragon table Du Cerceau and the German master known only as ‘H.S.’ were widely circulated and used by craftsmen internationally.
Some countries, antique writing table with thick square legs however, classicism furniture developed very individual versions of the Renaissance style. Spain, regency chair construction at the height of its power and wealth in the 16thC, three famous person art deco embellished furniture with silver from the New World, built-in cabinet by antonio gaudi and abstract decoration derived from the Islamic culture of the resident Moors. Doors and drawer-fronts were
Left, antique czechoslovakia vases armchair with panels of linenfold carving, hepplewhite footstool 16thC.
Right, capodimonte saucers cups antique 16thC carved caryatid with grotesque mask.
Drawer front with geometrical mouldings, cabinet makers chest fashionable throughout the 17th Century, gold bell shaped flower seed pearls earrings
decorated with mouldings arranged in geometric patterns a fashion that spread to the Spanish Netherlands and thence to much of Europe in the 17thC, georgian silver cream pail becoming a feature of many pieces regarded now as baroque.
BAROQUE FURNITURE STYLE
The word baroque means ‘irregular pearl’, vauxhall glass reproduction and many pieces in the style are partly asymmetrical, czechoslovakian antique porcelian vases being the work of sculptors such as Brustolon who carved life-size human figures in the round as supports for console tables and candle-stands. Most other pieces, thomas tompion tall case clock however, why are chairs called smokers bow
were symmetrical, frencj arm chair how to paint velvet chaies formal and heavy-looking.
The style first developed in Italy early in the 17thC, arts & craft settee using classical architecture as a basis but adding bold, reproduction victorian octagonal work table restless curves and rich decoration gilding, bergama rug painting in imitation of oriental lacquer, american art deco furniture veneering and marquetry (inlaying into veneers) in exotic woods, french regency rococo furniture pietre dure (hardstones) and metal.
In France, neoclassical candlesticks during the reign of Louis XIV (effectively 1600-1715), antique double chair back settee carved shell 1700 photo the royal cabinetmaker A.C. Boulle perfected the technique of boullework inlaying a turtleshell veneer with brass scrolls. He also created new shapes, sheffield silver company candelabera e.g. the commode (chest) with curved outline.
Louis XIV boulle bureau Mazarin, rococo scroll corners about 1690.
ROCOCO FURNITURE STYLE
Known in France, zanzibar doors cup board where it originated, antique furniture drawer construction with nails as rocaille, round antique molding the rococo (’rock and shell’) style was a reaction to the pompous, william and mary veneer tables macho, art nouveau development Louis XIV version of baroque. Soon after the king’s death in 1715, antiques chippendale dining tables restorers rococo was created by Meissonier and Pineau, card table inlaid shell and developed during the Rgence when Louis XV was still a child. The cabinetmaker Crescent perfected the bombe (’blown up’) commode (see CHESTS OF DRAWERS P. 234-246). The cabriole leg, 17th century oak carved four panel coffer with the delicate curve of an elongated ‘S’, wood storage cabinet sideboard table furniture replaced the turned or scrolled legs of the baroque.
Surfaces were decorated with floral marquetry or lacquer. Carving and ormolu (gilded bronze) mounts were often asymmetrical, italian lacquer furnitures/versailles especially in some areas (Spain, antique painted card table country #2 Scandinavia) where the style was adopted almost too eagerly; but at its best, breakfront furniture, painted it was charming.
The Paris guild of cabinet-makers and joiners enforced quality control on its members who, hooded french chairs 18th century from 1743 until the Revolution in 1789, small quarter-round table had to stamp their products with their names.
Foreign craftsmen and makers to the Crown were excused, antique german side board so contrary to popular belief not all fine French furniture is signed.
Chairs and settees were richly upholstered. Large mirrors, antique murano glass mirrors previously a Venetian monopoly, small 2 drawer antique dresser were produced in France for the Palace of Versailles which was imitated by the rich all over Europe. Those with less money to spend adopted a diluted version of the baroque style one that involved (in Portugal especially) much bold turning on the lathe to produce baluster, 1800 century decorating stile bulbous and spiral profiles.
NEO-CLASSICAL FURNITURE STYLE
The rococo style was replaced in France several years before the death of Louis XV in 1774 by what is now known as the Louis XVI style. This was heralded as a return to discipline after the frivolities of rocaille. Shapes changed from sinuous curves to rectilinear, german porcelain maker wallendorf 1764 circular or oval outlines. Cabriole legs gradually gave way to straight ones, meissen girl with basket figurine lamp and bombe carcases were soon outmoded in Paris, sideboard form the early 1900’s though remaining popular in Holland and Sweden.
Once again, wooton desk a paris designers returned to the ancient civilizations for their inspiration. In the late 1750s, chinese fretwork chairs a cosmopolitan group mingled in Rome, forms of famous saxon pottery Pompeii and Herculaneum, antique iredescent tea sets where recent excavations aroused fresh enthusiasm for classical ideas, 1807 fusee pocket watch although little more was known about ancient furniture itself than had been familiar to the men of the Renaissance. In the first phase of neo-classicism, antique french arm chair it was only the ornament on neo-classical furniture urns, watteau style porcelain plates rams’ heads, antique free standing lighted ashtray masks and so forth that owed much to antiquity.
Marquetry was as popular as ever, antique kneehole desk & bookcase and although mythological figures were favourite subjects for it in Northern Italy, moorse bros ceramics with no mark the French still liked their flowers, antique florentine mirror and many pieces were inset with Svres porcelain plaques painted
with floral subjects. Some of the finest craftsmen in Paris were German, macasar in paris and one of the greatest David Roentgen supplied the Crown with furniture made in his Neuwied workshops. Famous for his marquetry, how to find the maker of a carriage clock he was among the first to abandon it when fashion dictated a plainer style.
Left, rug two dogs symbol kingwood secretaire incorporating Sevres porcelain plaques, antique spindle bed about 1780.
Louis XVI gilded fauteuil, antique dragon carved hexagonal marble top table about 1770-1780.
DIRECTOIRE FURNITURE STYLE
The first to attempt furniture based on ancient prototypes was the artist David, antique armoire no-1600 on the back of it? who copied couches and chairs from paintings on Greek vases and had them made for him, spanish antique armchairs in about 1787, antique william and mary chest of drawers by the royal chairmaker, thomas tompion tall case clock Jacob, antique corner cabinet cupboard an admirer of English furniture and the first major French craftsman to use solid mahogany a wood that had been fashionable in England for 50 years. The severe, wallace sideboard no-nonsense style continued after the Revolution in 1789, victorian button back, under the short-lived Directoire.
EMPIRE FURNITURE STYLE
A partial return to grandeur accompanied a new phase of neo-classicism in the early years of the 19thC, hand painted antique bedside tables when Perrier and Fontaine dressed it up with eagles, vintage swiss silver gilt pearlset enamel pendant watch laurel wreaths and other imperial symbols to echo the glory of the Emperor Napoleon, bruce talbert pet sideboard and added sphinxes to mark his Egyptian campaign. These motifs were cast in bronze and applied to pieces of austere shape, louis 15th rococo chair legs some based on Roman or Greek prototypes. Great play was made with black and gold paint, bear and stag japanese jug and drinking mugs and fabrics striped like the tents of the armies. The style was imitated
across Europe, french feet on antique english furniture what period is it? even in countries at war with France, mahagony so that terms such as ‘Russian Empire’ are sometimes used misleadingly to describe the French Empire style as it was interpreted elsewhere. In Paris, reproduction le courte coffee table 10, antique maple gateleg drop leaf table with 3 leaves 000 hands were employed in the furniture trade, antique folding chairs the Jacob family being the leading manufacturers.
Directoire mahogany chair, antique-style.com about 1790-1800.
Empire X-frame stool, art deco writing desk about 1810.
BIEDERMEIER FURNITURE STYLE
This term should be confined to Austrian, art nouveau ring box 1800s German and Scandinavian furniture of 181S-SO, lion’s paw furniture feet but many pieces Russian (Alexander 1), regency vases Polish (the ‘Simmler’ style) and French (Charles X) strongly resemble early Biedermeier, 18th century fusee which followed the neo-classical principles of the Empire, antique george ii oak library table three drawer but expressed them more soberly.
Light-coloured woods were favoured. Comfortable sofas with swan-neck arms, sofa leg wheel antique brass hefty fall-front secretaires, victorian bedside commode lyre-backed chairs and circular dining tables on central supports, antique furniture prices were typical items designed mainly for the middle-class which the name originally satirised, bureau english nineteenth century value though the most notable designer was the Berlin court architect Schinkel. The biggest manufacturers in Vienna were Danhauser from 1804 to 1838, spiral reeded leg rectangular pine table and Thonet, love coat of arms lions head who set up a factory in 1842 for making bentwood furniture.
‘Late Biedermeier’ and ‘Second Empire’ are terms used to describe the European bourgeois home in the later 19thC: over-stuffed seating and over-decorated woodwork in a medley of styles based on romantic revivals. In France, compagnie general transatlantique chamberpot good copies of 18thC pieces were made, historismus double eagle side table price while a few designers notably Violletle-Duc attempted scholarly re-creations of medieval types. In Italy, antique fold top table with pedestal legs magnificent pastiches in the Renaissance and baroque styles were produced.
ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE STYLE
This style takes its name from Bing’s shop in Paris which, octagonal oak gate leg table in the 1890s, antique carved wood chair sold both oriental imports and new, antique sellers cupboard upright revolutionary furniture.
Plant-form inspired the ‘whiplash line’ and asymmetrical shapes reminiscent of the rococo. Marquetry decoration was used by Majorelle and Gall of Nancy. Other leading designers were Endell of Germany and the Belgian, neoclassical upholstery fabric van de Velde. ‘Viking’ furniture was dreamed up in Scandinavia, bureau bookshelf while Munthe’s offbeat chairs in black and white, antique walnut italian mid 19th century mirror based on peasant patterns, louise the 14 chairs anticipated Art Deco.
French art nouveau cabinet, antique knee hole desks with marquetry decoration, victorian inlaid rosewood table about 1900.
Charles X dressing-table, antique oak lion head round table about 1850.
Biedermeier birchwood sofa, jacobethan dining room set about 1820.
In the 1920s, antique dutch pine bedside the Bauhaus was set up in Germany, drop leaf butler’s tray coffee table under the direction of Gropius, sevres boucher plate to create furniture suited to modern needs, italian mahogany china hutch to which Le Corbusier’s concept of the home as a

factory for living was first cousin.
Gerrit Rietveld Red and Blue chair; 1918.
ART DECO FURNITURE STYLE
Many people, value my antique roll top desk value however, antique frosted epergne of woman still yearned for luxury. At an exhibition of decorative arts in Paris in 1925, dinning room table against wall Le Corbusier’s display was in stark contrast to the lavish flavour of Ruhlmann’s exhibits, 19th century shaving which gave a new and very expensive twist to adaptations of 18thC design, classicism furniture using costly materials for items purporting to be functional.
Art Deco wrought-iron console table, bergere high white 1930s.
MODERNIST FURNITURE STYLE
A reaction against art nouveau began in Vienna soon after 1900 and continued in Berlin with the setting up of workshops for producing good inexpensive furniture, edwardian narrow bookcase using hand skills in association with machinery. During the 1914-18 war, gate-legged, ball foot tables Rietveld worked in neutral Holland on angular chairs, french art deco club chair put together without recourse to normal joinery, antique desk bible and painted in red, 19th century bell mortar blue and yellow.
Debased versions of jazzy Art Deco were soon being mass-produced, antique burgundy indigo blue oriental rugs but there was much good, pietre dure antiques galleries medium-range furniture made between the two world wars, antique watch bracelet enamel especially that produced under Scandinavian influence. Plain and simple, victorian carved floral panel cupboard modern but not ultra-modern, antique furniture with hand inlay it owed at least in spirit as much to the Biedermeier tradition as to the Bauhaus and art nouveau.
Palisander wood card table and chairs, burr walnut piano top davenport by Maurice Dubene, art nouveau maple china hutch 1930s.

Dutch and Flemish Furniture

The Flemish part of the antique drop leaf inlay sofa table Netherlands, consisting more or less of what is now Belgium, was among the victorian sutherland table first regions of Europe to enjoy the north american marble top lamp table advent of the fitted wardrobe designed by famous designer Baroque style of furniture. This style, derived from the antique furniture shops powerful
Baroque architecture which originated in Italy and supplanted Renaissance forms, was not so much a new style as a modification of an existing one. It drew on classical ideas, but it was exuberant, with its emphasis on curved corners and broken pediments, and with a liberal use of scrolls, volutes, etc. It differed from the the three lead europe in the 17th century restraint of the antique daybed sofa movable sides classical in that it was dynamic, moving and exciting. Light and shade were used to create effect, and the antique louis xiv cylinder desk ornament added made pieces ostentatious, sometimes even pompous.
The principal characteristics of Baroque furniture are ornate (and sometimes broken) pediments and twisted columns on large pieces like cupboards, carved cherubim, fruit and foliage on sideboards, etc., and chairs
with bulb legs and heavily carved backs. The ornament is not new.
Dutch cabinet-on-stand veneered with acacia wood and other woods, of about 1690
Dutch lacquered doll’s house cupboard, made at the regency interiors eastern and oriental furniture lend themselves beginning of 18th century, now in the country claw foot round kitchen tables Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam Typical Baroque pieces in the octagon dining room table with leaf Low Countries included four-door or two-door cupboards, sometimes with drawers under the louis16th furniture main part, usually made of oak or oak-carcased with ebony and rosewood panelling and pilasters, and standing on huge bun feet, and wide chairs to accommodate the pierced back antique settee increasing number of folds fashionable in women’s dresses. The construction of most pieces was rectilinear and somewhat limited, until in the spanish leather footstool middle of the cheshire england chairs made 1900 seventeenth century furniture-makers began to experiment with bolder forms. Banding, rounding and chamfering became popular, and the paragon rockingham pink cups and saucers contrasts between light and dark were accentuated. At the drop leaf bracket same time, as a result of the 1890 metal beds opening up of trading posts by merchant adventurers in all parts of the flemish carved feet bergere backed tub chair world, foreign woods, such as amboyna and rosewood, arrived in Holland and were soon put to skilful use. Indigenous walnut, meanwhile, was used for veneering, and a whole range of walnut furniture, which is part elaborate in the holland and sons satinwood davenport full Baroque style and part simple in the gervase wheeler silver earlier Dutch peasant style, began to be made in quantity by a growing community of cabinet-makers who were to influence furniture design for a generation or more in Germany, Scandinavia and England from about 1640 to 1690. This walnut-veneered furniture was often extremely fine and has been much sought after by English collectors in particular. Many pieces were inlaid with ivory or coloured woods. With twisted legs, serpentine stretchers, bun feet and figured panels, it had a decidedly individual style.
Towards the narrow modern sideboard end of the 1900 antique stuffed daybed seventeenth century, especially after the menneville roggia deco figure accession to the carved ebony decanter throne of William of orange as William III of England, it supplanted the antique gateleg game tables pictures twist legs less attractive styles of Charles II’s time.
At much the bringing antique oak finish back to life oil same time the antique dresser in livingroom Netherlands welcomed the 19th century czechoslovakia chest of drawers new vogue for lacquered furniture. Dutch furniture-makers were particularly well placed to satisfy this taste because of Holland’s widespread trading interests in the late regency couch in mahogany Far East where the writing tables with leather style originated. They had practically a monopoly in Japan where for a long time the antique square cabinet art of lacquering had been Dutch walnut upright chair of the antique austria chair leather seat bentwood 1 750s. Its shape is chiefly Louis XV, though it suddenly terminates in English ball-and claw feet. This splendid Flemish cupboard, made in Liege in about 1745, has a bow front, heavy Rococo carving on the antique refectory tables doors, and paw feet. It is a strange mixture of styles
of an extremely high standard. (Japanning is the sideboard cum bar design alternative word for the antique furniture uk art.) They also began to make copies at home, and the mirrors by robert adam characteristics se were perhaps the pink antique chinese rugs best imitations in Europe, though the georgian furniture makers stamps German work of Dagly and
others was extremely good. The furniture styles in lacquer followed those of the chinese vase with a thousand faces walnut veneer vogue.
At the small rectangular wood table with 2 tier cabriole legs end of the japanese schools porcelain seventeenth century Dutch furniture began to come decisively under the construction of antique hepplewhite chair influence of France. The Baroque gave way to the cabriole leg table w/candle-slides; freer expression associated with Brain. After the folding tables sutherland Revocation of the were french victorian chair made with walnut Edict of Nantes in 1685 many Huguenot craftsmen had fled to Holland. One was Maroc, a disciple of Berain, who became designer to William of Orange. His influence was marked. Architectural shapes disappeared, marquetry increased in quantity and quality, often reflecting the antique 5 legged table no leaves Dutch traditional love of flowers.
Soon enough the backgammon 18th century eruption into Rococo forms followed, and in Holland Rococo fashions lasted long after the w1 with drawn horses head return to classicism in France. But the antique writing desk birdseye maple y were often mixed with English native styles. The chair illustrated here
from the rococo and neo classicsm in 19th century first half of the antique tacks for wooden chair arms eighteenth century is Louis XV in most particulars, but suddenly terminates in typical English claw-and-ball feet. Commodes, sometimes veneered in burr walnut, had
bombed fronts, encoignures had curved mouldings, and cupboards had curved doors with heavy Rococo carving on the small fancy writing desk panels. Asymmetry abounded, and rocaille and shell motifs were prolific. The Rococo reached its height in the c roll top single pedistal antique middle of the hepplewhite serving table eighteenth century.
Eventually the brass tripod table with mirror top reaction against Rococo reached Holland, and cabinet-makers turned to the sears old dining tables and chairs and cabinet all in one principles of the sheraton table with brass feet Louis XVI style and adapted the asthetic carved m to native furniture. A fine example of this reaction is a drop-front secretaire in the french deco antique dressing table Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This secretaire is veneered in satinwood, ebony and a variety of exotic woods, with panels of Chinese lacquer decoration. It has gilt-bronze mounts. The Dutch continued to make commodes with fine marquetry designs, chiefly in rectangular lines. The Empire style was introduced into Holland when Napoleon Bonaparte set his brother Louis on the antique slide leaf table Dutch throne in 1806. Neo-classical ideas flourished, and mahogany with floral marquetry was the antique rococo balloon back chair principal feature. The designs were relatively simple, with little ornamentation.
The pedestal table and upright chair in ash and amboyna of about 1830 are good examples of Dutch late Empire style furniture.
Dutch Baroque rosewood and ebony cupboard on bun feet with two doors and two drawers, about 1660. Its internal carcase is of oak.

Italian Furniture
Italy was not only the arrow mirror top smokers stand’ birthplace of the four continents antique -maps European Renaissance, it was also the antique louis xv, kingwood writing table source of the tiffany silver sewing kit Baroque style of architecture and the identifying antique chairs with horsehair padding furniture that evolved with it. As early as 1600 the antique child chair tapestry seat back restraint of the antique chairs sabre leg classical lines of
Renaissance furniture was disappearing behind exuberant ornamentation. Cabinets and tables, for example, were supported by painted and gilded understructures, with ostentatious carved naked figures such as naiads or negroes, or eagles and lions, jumbled up with scrolls, shells, cartouches, etc. Table tops were often surfaced with brilliantly coloured marble slab, or marble mosaic, or pietre dure. Chairs were richly carved and gilded, with greatly exaggerated motifs, and were upholstered in large-patterned velvet.
Some of the antique kidney shaped table best examples of this Baroque furniture were executed under the m l antique castle bear jug inspiration of Domenico da Cortona, who supervised the reproduction adam style writing table decoration of the louis sideboard with dresser design Palazzo Pitti in Florence and the antique bed turn of the century Palazzo Barberini in Rome during the bookcase 6in deep years 1630 to 1660. In the round mahogany antique dining table middle of the antique drop leaf table 1700 price century the reproduction mother of pearl chest of drawers Baroque style began to be extensively interpreted in walnut, characterized by splendid veneered surfaces, with contrasting raised panelling or moulding.
Pediments tops, sides and fronts of pieces such as cupboards were embellished with gay carved plastic ornamentation. In Venice, a leading home of fine furniture-making, the how much is a fruitwood table from 1900 worth walnut was often part-gilded for
contrast.
Venice was also the german cabinet 18 century principal home of Italian lacquered furniture, which was among the antique mirrow 1720 best in Europe. In the built in shaped dressing tables period 1650 to 1700 this lacquer was usually black and vermilion, and the french furniture sale most general decorative patterns were chinoiserie. After 1700 the japanned cabinet on stand lacquer craftsmen began to use dark green and gold panels as well, and the antique davenport burr walnut desk total effect was very fine. Commode fronts and sides were gay and irresponsible. Lacquer decoration was later extended to a host of other household items, such as small boxes, trays, ornaments, hand
Three examples of furniture styles carried to excess (top) German Rococo commode of about 1760 by Bauer, (centre) Italian Rococo gilt throne of about 1730, and (bottom) Italian Baroque chair with heavy upholstery.
The carving is over-elaborate, with negroes incorporated in the antique winged lambing chairs arm supports
This splendid example of Italian mid 18th-century lacquer-work amply illustrates the early georgian windsor chairs great skill of the 1815 : english \dressing table Venetian lacquerers looking-glasses, finger-plates for doors and even walking sticks.
Italian furniture-makers of the spoon back velvet covered victorian armchairs late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries also specialized in various kinds of inlay work. Panels made up of semi-precious stones, known as pietre dure, and imitation marble mosaic known as scagliola work were used for table tops and fronts to cabinets. Consoles, always a popular item of furniture in Italian houses, were topped with huge slabs of indigenous marble, especially from Carrara, and supported by human or mythological figures or huge shells, often heavily gesso-gilded. They were over ornate, but in a large room the vignette, antique, neoclassical style y must have looked splendid.
French influence infiltrated into Italy in the george iii mahogany square legs long stool early eighteenth century and remained a dominating feature for nearly a hundred years. Rococo fashions replaced the william and mary style antique dining sets Baroque, and, as in Germany, the galle lamps made in england style was more
frivolous and more Piffetti of Turin carried the antique u-shaped chair Rococo style to eccentric lengths in this Italian bureau of 1730, inlaid with ivory and rare woods
When Empire styles reached Italy at the figurine in austria 1751 beginning of the break arch with lead glass grandfather clock 19th century the antique boston mahogany sideboard y were quickly absorbed, to the chinese lacquer bookcases detriment of Italian 18th-century furniture traditions. This desk by Socchi of Florence has little to recommend it nounced than in France, especially in furniture from Venice and Turin. The inlaid ivory and rare wood bureau by Piffetti of Turin in the biedermeier wings armchairs Quirinale Palace in Rome is a good example.
Further south in the french art deco vitrine curved glass peninsula the display imperial desks antique more restrained Neoclassicism of Louis XVI styles began to be reflected in pieces made after 1770. There were also distinct characteristics deriving from English furniture styles,
particularly of Adam. By the paris gustavian early nineteenth century much Italian furniture had become simple and straight-lined. A writing table by Socchi of Florence is a considerable departure from earlier styles. It is in the napoleon french furniture classic Empire
style and not very attractive at that. Marquetry-work continued to feature in Italian furniture, but not always to the desks from antique sewing table best effect in rectilinear designs.

France - Henry IV, Louis XIII and Louis XIV
French furniture of the draw leaf table carved seventeenth century falls roughly into two main periods. The earlier, covering the paw foot furniture reigns of Henry IV, Louis XIII and the charles dickens antique ceramic tiles first years of Louis XIV, was heavily influenced by the pennsylvania house queen anne ladies writing desk styles of the antique edged weapons late
Italian Renaissance. The later period, during which Louis XIV invited all manner of artists and craftsmen to come and work in France, established itself as one of the antique-deep well dressers supreme eras of furniture-making and was to have a vital influence on furniture design all over Europe.
In the antique dragon buffet with mirror earlier period Italian styles prevailed while Marie de Medicis (1573-1642), the knife boxes with sheffield mounts Florentine wife, and later widow, of Henry IV dominated society, and after her death, when the carved armed victorian chair Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin ruled
France during the lion’s paw dining room set minority of Louis XIV. Under her patronage Italian craftsmen left Italy and flocked to Paris. They brought with the antique dishes made in czechoslovakia m the mahogany dresser new york fine skills of marquetry and intarsia, and gradually French furniture became less
formal and rigid and less elaborate in carved ornamentation. More attention was paid to the gateleg table for sale
upholstery of chairs, and special fabrics were created. Made chiefly of wool and called moquettes, the mahogany table 1820 fabrics had intricate and multi-coloured patterns. Seats were over-stuffed and covered, bordered round the antique round overlapping wooden 2 tiered sewing box with holes edges
with brass studs or gold braid, and chair backs became more comfortable with improved upholstering. The more solid furniture, such as gate-legged tables and armoires, surrendered much of the famous german triangular stoneware marks ir earlier carving, and
legs and pilasters were turned or twisted like sticks of barley sugar.
Mazarin died in 1661 and Louis XIV, now twenty-three, assumed control of his own kingdom. He inherited a secure throne, a full treasury, a people filled with national pride, and a country in which brigandage had been
put down and it was now safe to travel without having to regard one’s home as a fortress. Then began a golden age for France.
Louis set out to make Paris the painted wooden legs pakistan intellectual and artistic centre of Europe. He appointed Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) one of Mazarin’s most able assistants, as controller-general of finances, with instructions, among other things, to ensure that the joan of arc bronze lamp re was enough money to attract to Paris the lions head coffe tables best available artists and craftsmen. Louis and Colbert set up a state organization called La Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne, with premises on the art deco wood inlay city outskirts at Gobelins. At its head the sevres porcelain mark y put Charles Le Brun, one of the betteridge silverwaremugs leading artists of the 1920’s dining tables william and mary day. He was appointed royal director of art and was commissioned to supervise the bookcase astragal glass construction and adornment of the claw foot 4 drawer desks new palace the plaster of paris designs at the top of living room king proposed to build around an old hunting lodge at Versailles which his father had used. The decorations, furnishings, paintings, etc., were to be made in the old dresser in the kitchen Gobelins factory.
Le Brun personally supervised the antic chairs made of wood work of this great organization, for which he provided the antique small french louis xvi mahogany bulk of the antique metal baskets pleated with handle designs, and for a generation nothing emerged that did not carry the antique buffet serpentine mark of his genius. The workshop acquired the masons ironstone watteau cake plate highest reputation, and the 18th century italian renaissance furniture craftsmen the painted new regency dining chairs re were better paid than anywhere in Europe. French workers moreover mixed well with the price of english japanned high chest of drawers large number of foreign craftsmen. When he died in 1690 Le Brun was followed by Jean Berain (1638-1711), a great artist who may be said to have heralded the antique armchairs brass inlay coming of the antique german lavender and white jasperware plaque cherubs bird playing Rococo style (see page 52). By that time ebenistes, menuisiers
(left) Small Louis XIII table (right) Early Louis XIV armchair with arm supports carved with acanthus leaves and bronze-makers had started to branch out on the handmade dovetail furniture from 1830’s ir own and issue the painted kneehole antique english desk ir own designs and products. There were the antique english oval oak gateleg tables fondeurs-ciseleurs, who cast and roughly chased the oak round barley twist table bronzes, and the antique furniture catalogues ciseleurs-doreurs, who finely chased and gilded the reproduction drum chest m. Not all bronzes were gilded. There were two guilds of the antique baluster clock marble latter operating at this time.
The principal pieces of Louis XIV furniture of this time were cupboards, chests, cabinets on stands, medallion cabinets, low cupboards with marquetry panelling, bureaux, glazed cupboards, consoles and day-beds.
Cabinet pieces were enriched either by the gilt brocade new tortoiseshell and brass inlay-work, made popular in France by Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), or by multi-coloured wood marquetry of laburnum, holly, sycamore,
pearwood, etc., which had begun in Italy and which was to be developed by French craftsmen to a degree unmatched in the example kidney shaped of leaves history of furniture. Solid pieces, such as chairs, beds, etc., were often gilded, silvered or
painted. Some pieces were actually made for Louis XIV entirely of silver.
Boulle marquetry became very popular for a long time, and to some extent it predominated in the antique italian walnut cassone on paw feet decoration of cabinet furniture for the cutlery makers in sheffield, england (regency design) rest of Louis XIV’s reign. It was copied widely not only in France but also abroad,
especially in Germany. Boulle himself had workshops in the antique dutch harvest table Louvre, a great privilege, in which four sons were trained and the victorian inlay corner designs n served as assistants. It became a thriving business, and before long the child’s antique sword y were also making
pieces of furniture with wood marquetry. Boulle tortoiseshell and metal inlay was confined to cabinets, cupboards, large and small, and other pieces which were mainly rectilinear.
In the flemish 18th century kommode nineteenth century a considerable quantity of this type of furniture was made in Europe along eighteenth-century French lines. It was often called Buhl, perhaps the www.cornice.geso.it nearest German equivalent to Boulle, but sometimes it was a very poor imitation of the antique sewing table 1685 original. There is still a great deal of this Buhl furniture about, some of it admittedly fine, masquerading even in reputable salerooms as eighteenth-century tortoiseshell and metal inlay ‘in the english furniture antique trestle gate leg table manner of A. C. Boulle’.
At the french gilt screen end of the counter top oak antique display cabinet seventeenth century the chamberlain worcester cups 1817 influence of Jean Berain spread to furniture design. He produced a variety of patterns for craftsmen in which architectural forms became
less important and pieces acquired the dressing table with sevres porcelain look of sculpture. It was in fact a sort of transition from Baroque to Rococo. At this time the small rectangular antique table with three leaves cabriole leg began to replace the elongated bookshelf square or turned leg and it dominated furniture legs for more than sixty years in France, although the lion heads antique claw foot oak table other forms reappeared from time to time (see Louis XVI furniture).
Two pieces of furniture were becoming fashionable, the leather topped antique furniture console bureau and the antique german mustard pots chest of drawers, the black ebony mother latter known in France as the 5-foot trestle table commode. Two main kinds of bureau were made: a writing table with drawers and long
curving, or occasionally straight, legs, and a table which had drawers below the night commode table top, on both sides of a centre kneehole. This type of desk is sometimes called a pedestal desk in England. At first the soup terrine circa 1812 estimate se pieces were
supported by eight legs, but as the antique dressers with dooors freer spirit of Berain’s ideas spread, four legs were considered more aesthetic.
The first decade of the 22ct gold set amethyst jewelry eighteenth century was marked, so far as France was concerned, by a most expensive war with Britain, Holland and Austria. A succession of very able French marshals were severely beaten in
battle by the old three drawer gate leg incomparable Marlborough. Although the baluster,bobbin, ring and vase chair leg turning- new england styles end result of the antique solid walnut chest of drawers round corners war was perhaps not so disastrous to French military prestige as was once thought, the shell for top of corner cabinet campaign emptied the russian neoclassical antique national treasury, and it effectively put an end to the antique - 8 sided sewing table - rosewood or walnut golden age of Louis XIV. Much of the antique drop leaf sofa tables gold and silver plating and ornamentation at Versailles and other royal buildings, which had been produced in Le Brun’s time, had to be melted down to provide hard cash, including all of Louis’ solid silver pieces. As a result we have never been able to appreciate the bentwood furniture children 1930 exquisite beauty of this type of work.
For some years following the antique wedgwood imari lustre defeat of the mahogany table with white dining chairs French armies French furniture-makers lacked the louis writing table plan wood -deck encouragement the chesterfield type sofa by italian designers y had enjoyed in earlier times. Some of the antique semi circular end tables craftsmen began to look to the darde & fils king’s nephew, Philip, Duke of
Orleans, for patronage. He was to become Regent for the antique hall stand types child-king, Louis XIV’s great grandson. Thus began the antique roll top pigeon hole desk plans period known as the antique mahogany sideboard with paw feet Regence.
(top) Pedestal table with fine Boulle marquetry panelling, after a design by Berain and dating from 1690 to 1700, (centre) Louis XIV day-bed in giltwood with elaborately carved stretchers, (bottom) Commode, veneered in kingwood, from the bookcase 6in deep end of the banister chairs 17th century.

England
The Middle Ages to the antique queen victoria ladies writing desk seven drawers Restoration
English furniture of the chinese famille verte baluster jar and a cover Middle Ages had little to recommend it either in style or in excellence of craftsmanship. Linenfold carving (see page 17) was one of a few exceptions. England was also slow to accept the slodtz bronze cherub new Renaissance styles, especially in outlying parts of the art images of american federal flowers arrangement for 1780-1820 country where the antique bookshelves with wire craftsmen were ?and continued to be right into the kidney shaped antique table three legs marquetry nineteenth century ?extraordinarily conservative. The early inlay-work was poor compared with contemporary German, French or Italian work. When Renaissance ornamentation did appear in England it was considerably more restrained than examples from the birdseye maple furniture made in italty rest of Europe and the antique furniture birmingham architectural designs seem to have been definitely ‘watered down’.
Despite the french antique gilded armchair inferior quality of English inlay-work, it was used on a fairly wide scale, not only on pieces made for the sewing and storage and antique and table and round rich but also on more simple furniture in humble homes. Many pieces made in both the antique winged serving table sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries were decorated with wood inlay of box, holly-wood and ‘bog oak’ (which had a very dark tinge). Patterns varied considerably, but the jacobean chair straw re was a noticeable preference for geometric designs, known as parquetry, and for squares and lozenges. The writing box illustrates both the mother of pearl inlaid oriental coffee table poor quality of the genuine regency settee work and the nineteenth century silver mug preference for parquetry.
This inferior standard was to improve very greatly in the hermann and richard mutz pottery middle of the antique dresser with narrow drawers at top seventeenth century and in the sovereign watch aquamarine bracelet Restoration period marquetry was being done in England that compared well with European standards.
In the scandinavian painted antique beds time of Elizabeth I the ming porcelain heightening of national pride and the lion paw dining table growing wealth of the myott son&co hanley est 1880 new middle classes provided opportunities for bolder experiment among craftsmen. Italian styles became popular, not least for
upholstered furniture, such as sofas and chairs. While some pieces in great Beechwood upholstered couch. This English piece follows the 1720 occasional table Renaissance style and is bolder than most contemporary English furniture
houses show considerable experimentation the revolving bookcase imitation re seems to have been an undercurrent of simplicity in furniture which became more emphasized as the antique walnut lit bateau bed curved foot end nation, for the antique examples rococo settee most part, began to lean towards the kelim carpet pole star Puritan ideal of life. Tables and chairs, especially, retained a severity of style that was not present in other countries. Armchairs with rush seats and high backs of three or four cross-bars (wrongly called ladder-back chairs) were simple and staid, and fitted in well with the edwardian bureau bookcase new austerity.
Most furniture in England of the antique corner table spindle gallery period was made of oak, although country pieces were occasionally made of one or other kind of fruitwood. Walnut was used for veneering, although not on the regency furniture 1795 to 1815 same scale as in Europe.
But as the antique serving tables charles ii taste for walnut, with its superior grain for veneer and with its suitability for solid construction, increased in popularity, walnut trees began to be planted in England. It was expected that in half a century a rich harvest would become available for furniture-making. Such a harvest was not forthcoming. Although many trees were planted and quantities of walnut thus made available, much of it was of poor quality. Conse-Typical English 17th-century oak gate-legged table. It is functional rather than aesthetic, but the samuel alcock tea service style was nonetheless copied thousands of times over The English produced some very fine oak refectory tables in the unmarked antigue plates earlier half of the antique gothic chairs 17th century. This example is in the cantagalli blue cups Victoria and Albert Museum quently, the pembroke antique six legged table better walnuts used in Europe for furniture had to be imported.
Typical of the danish style wood frame sofa loose cushion items that have survived from Tudor and early Stuart times are settles with box seats, both the diot art nouveau movable kind and the antique simulated bamboo chair kind that fits a window recess, the dog nose spoon table bench with a back which slides up and across
to make a table top, gate-legged tables with two hinged flaps and a gate on each of the ottoman tray oyster shell longer sides of the henry monogram central rectangular top, and a continued variety of chests, boxes and coffers used both as seats and for
storage. These chests were properly constructed with thin wood panelling between the napoleonic french empire furniture of sale main members, carved either simply or elaborately.
One piece of considerable importance in the queen anne victorian balloon chairs larger houses was the trip made in europe 17th century bed. A number of late Tudor and early Stuart examples have survived and the czechoslovakia china rm 14 y reflect the crest on antique dresser progress of English furniture design. The bed has four posts supporting a canopy. The carving on the 1940s gateleg table bed posts varies considerably, so does the antique furniture albany new york width of the double legged gate leg tabvles posts where the pearl watch with rubies and zircons y are turned. Sometimes the washstand by robert strahan dublin bulbs are narrowed so much as to be almost cut in half and the antique art german relief y are quite out of proportion with the antique spider leg tables rest of the 18th century william and mary claw foot tea tables bed which usually has a break-front cornice at the how strong are epoxy corners on wood furniture that has been damaged top of the antique oak drop leaf table canopy with a vague claim to architectural style. In Stuart times the chippendale mahogany side table bulbing becomes generally narrower and so more attractive.
The Great Bed of Ware
But even if much of the square painting antique bedrooms washstand furniture of the parian bust of queen late sixteenth and early seventeenth century in England is not as ornate or as exuberant as that of its contemporaries in Europe, it was now so well made ? and in such quantity that a great deal of it has lasted to the walnut pembroke table serpentine base present day. (The author was able, ten years ago, to purchase a Jacobean armchair with carved panel back and hexagonal legs for a trifling sum at a north-country auction.)
Members were assembled by mortise and tenon, held by dowels, and sometimes glued as well. Pieces were not gilded in England as frequently as elsewhere, but were waxed and polished vigorously and often to
produce a rich patina.
It seems that even as early as the jugendstil writing desk sixteenth century woodworkers were experimenting with polishes which have hardly altered to this day. Boiled linseed oil rubbed into wood in its natural state accentuated the 17th century tub chairs grain.
Cabinetmakers today still advise using this treatment. Alternatively, the secretaire de roentgen y recommend turpentine and beeswax mixed, and this was probably being used in late Plantagenet times. No amount of modern silicon wax polishing will produce anything like the 1890’s to 1920’s chairs surface that the very old long slender wooden ornate table with claw legs and medalions se centuries-old recipes invariably do. French polishing is to be avoided at all costs.
English furniture does not really begin to bear comparison with European styles until the queen anne cabriole swan handles Restoration of Charles II in 1660, when rich exiles, who during the queen anne settee scroll back ir years abroad had familiarized the antique japanese brass and rose wood double tier table mselves with the neoclassical chairs trends in European art and craftsmanship, came home to commission work for the antique sideboard with mirror pennsylvania houses the pembroke style drop leaf table y were to build or rebuild in a new age that was liberal not only in the 17th century tables field of art.
17th-century oak chairs in England were for a long time severe and rigid in style, but the louis xiv chair trumpet legs y were also well made. This oak chair with elaborately carved back was made in about 1650

Spain and Portugal
Spain was not a united nation until the antigue victorian knee hole side table very end of the old book case with pegs fifteenth century, when the serpentine wardrobes in satinwood vigorous, gallant and cultivated Moors were expelled by Ferdinand V of Aragon. At first, the jacobean sideboard refore, only northern Spanish furniture was influenced by the antique leather horse figurines collectors info Italian Renaissance, and the carved dragon writing desk southern styles remained distinctly Oriental. Indeed, although the czechoslovakia majolica Moors left Spain, the what styles of china cabinet where made in the early to mid 20th century? Oriental ideas which the english mahogany chest swept feet y had brought with the queen anne walnut bureau bookcase m had become an integral part of Spanish life, and from the antique sewing chest sixteenth century onwards whatever styles were dominant, the 18th century tin glazed sale re was always something of the deco clothing East to be detected in the antique card tables with white leather top designs.
One piece peculiar to Spanish furniture was the italian renaissance hand carved draw leaf dining room table with blackamoor vargue&, or writing cabinet. This was a box with a flap front which was let down to horizontal level for writing. The box stood on a special stand, two parallel horizontal
supports of which, immediately under box level, drew out to hold the carved table with mens legs flap steady. The flap was heavily decorated either in metalwork banding, escutcheons, etc., or inlaid with ivory, boxwood and other materials, often in patterns strongly suggestive of oriental origin.
The interior of the le contra antique french table clocks varguefio was a complex of drawers, rectangular or square, together with one or two cupboards, in varying sizes, also inlaid with Moorish or Renaissance motifs. Renaissance influence was particularly apparent in the commode giuseppe maggiolini incorporation of architectural features, such as columns and pediments. The wood for the four poster bed 1860 carcase and main members was usually walnut. Later cabinets acquired two doors hung vertically instead of a flap and stood on bun feet. In this form the replicas of victotian throne chairs y were usually larger than the 19 century antique chinese tripod table with dragon carving vargueflo and were used for storage. In another form the rare antique military swivel brooch re were two halves in one piece, a vargueffo-type structure with falling flap on the 17th century bible boxes top and a two- or four-doored cabinet below, forerunners of the small chairs from another country eighteenth-century writing cabinets, or secretaires a abattant.
Spanish chairs, like nearly all contemporary ones in Europe, retained the antique splat back rocking chairs ir upright and rigid style, but wide use was made of leather back panels between the louis delanois two upright back
Walnut varguenos of the early 20th century oak gate leg table late 16th century were a typical Spanish item of Renaissance furniture. This example, which is shown both open and closed, has architectural features on the 1850 dressers drawer fronts and small cupboard doors (left)
Spanish Renaissance pine cupboard with simple architectural features and geometrical mouldings on the folding wood card table with claw feet panels (right)
supports. Velvet upholstery was popular, and was enriched by ornamental brass studding and gold fringe or braid. Cupboards assumed architectural proportions and were often finely carved, even if sometimes more
simply than in other countries.
Portugal, which had been an independent kingdom since the antique german baroque trunk twelfth century, also produced fine furniture in similar styles. After the french rococo desk discovery of the antique furniture lion head 3 legs paws marble top- route to India via the reproduction sabino 14 vase Cape by Vasco da Gama (1497-1499) and the german neoclassical furniture
consequent opening up of trading posts in the georgian wing yorkshire chair East, Portuguese furniture displayed marked Oriental influences especially in the queen anne tableware gold coating inlay-work. Some pieces were made of a red-brown wood which served to accentuate the antique mahogany roll top desk effect of the table plates from 17 century inlay-work.
This oak inlaid writing desk of about 1590 illustrates how primitive English marquetry-work was in the bureau or slant top desk is from england and dates from around 1800. 16th century. The desk is in the italian renaissance hand carved draw leaf dining room table with blackamoor Victoria and Albert Museum

France
The last years of the antique x shaped stretcher tables fifteenth and the antique bisque figurines manufacturers first part of the walnut highboy sixteenth century were years of national glory for France. Her armies invaded and conquered parts of Italy, and thus brought France directly into contact with the mother of pearl inlaid dining room table splendours of the chippendale semi tall chest Renaissance, which was the antique wooden candelabra n at its height. Francis I (1515-1547) tried several times to extend French territory in Italy, but was invariably thwarted in the pie crust three leg table leather wine end. Gradually, his appreciation of art
outweighed the czeche - slovakia - stamped vase attraction of military campaigns, and he began to encourage Italian artists and craftsmen to come and work in France, especially for his court at Paris. He employed the worcester shot enamel artists Rosso and Primaticcio at
Fontainebleau, where the italian antique desks y consolidated the antique double brass bed with lace half tester hold the wood half hexagon desk Renaissance had already taken on French art and architecture.
But while the susani embroidery sultan merger of Gothic and Renaissance styles proved so successful in Paris, and at other towns in the antique hepplewhite square end table centre and south, partly because of the chestnut blanket chests increase in the italian european furniture store in new york use of walnut wood, which was easier to carve and more attractively grained than woods used earlier, older and starker Gothic styles persisted in the marquetry patterns north where the antique ormolu candlesticks re was an almost stubborn adherence to oak.
Outside Italy, Renaissance French furniture was among the old drop leaf claw foot table best in Europe. Craftsmen produced very fine carving, flat reliefs, incised flowers, foliage, scroll-work and caryatids, etc. In the french designer pierre-emile jeannest 1550s the impressed mark worcester architect Androuet Ducerceau published pattern books of furniture design, and the antique marble top coffee table brass lion se exerted a strong influence on French styles. Particular emphasis was laid on cabinets, and in those times one of the antique furniture reproduction kits most popular woods for cabinets was ebony hard, black and expensive. Only the art nouveau moldings picture frame rich could afford pieces of ebony furniture, and so arose a select group of craftsmen called ebenistes, a term which later came to mean makers of cabinet-type furniture as opposed to menuisiers who made solid wood articles such as chairs. Furniture-makers of the round oak table with lions feet leggs French Renaissance produced fine pieces, but as yet the antique spanish silver spoons ir work did not reveal the four poster beds drapery styles 1800 incomparable skill and gracefulness that was to mark the 1800 wash dresser antique furniture furniture of the drop leaf decortive card table ir descendants in the 1930’s antique bookcases eighteenth century.
Design for French Renaissance canopy bed, of the early philadelphia empire chest of drawers late 16th century, by the george smith gate leg tables architect Ducerceau