 1.Build Your Wish-List (More Info)
2.We Discuss Your Needs
3.The Masters Do Their Work
4.Delivered & Assembled
5.We Make Sure You're Happy
|
| | |
|
ACANTHUS:
A Mediterranean plant, Acanthus spinosus,
with fleshy scalloped leaves. From antiquity, it was widely used for
carved ornament, such as decorative moldings, and Corinthian and
Composite capitals. In the 18th century, it was a popular motif for
furniture and metalwork.
|
|
ANTHEMION:
With origins in ancient Greece and Rome, this is a fanlike decorative
motif resembling the honeysuckle leaf and flower. It was used as a
repeated motif for banding on Neoclassical friezes and cornices toward
the end of the 18th century.
|
|
APRON:
The frieze rail of a table, the base of the framework of a piece of
case furniture, or a shaped, sometimes carved, piece of wood beneath
the seat rail of a chair. It is also known as a skirt.
|
|
ARABESQUE:
Stylized foliage arranged in a swirling, interlaced pattern and
combining flowers and tendrils with spirals and zigzags. It originated
in the Middle East and was popular in Europe until the early 17th
century.
|
|
ARMOIRE:
A French term for a storage cupboard for clothing and household linen.
It usually has two large doors and interior shelving.
|
|
BALLFOOT:
A round, turned foot used on oak and walnut case furniture and chairs
during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
|
|
BALUSTER:
A short post or pillar, such as a table leg, or one in a series
supporting a rail and forming a balustrade. Usually bulbous in shape,
the form was inspired by Classical vases and has been used since the
Renaissance.
|
|
BANDING:
A decorative strip of veneer in a contrasting wood. Generally used
around the edge of drawer fronts, table tops,
and panels. With crossbanding,
the contrasting wood runs at right angles to the main veneer. In
feather, or herringbone banding, two narrow stirps
of contrasting veneer run diagonally in opposite directions, thus
forming a chevron pattern.
|
|
BEADING:
A decorative Neoclassical border, often used on case furniture, which
has applied or embossed beads of the same size used in a single row, or
alterating
with elongated beads, in which case it is known as bead and reel.
|
|
BEECH WOOD:
A strong European hard wood, commonly used in Italy for furniture
framing and for the construction table pedestals and chairs.
|
|
BOISERIE:
A French term for wood paneling elaborately carved with foliage, then
painted and gilded. It was fashionable in the wealthy residences of
France in the 17th and early 18th centuries, and was often complemented
with furniture of a matching design.
|
|
BOMBE:
A French term used to describe a chest with swelling, convex sides. The
term is usually applied to case furniture, such as commodes. The style
was popular during the Regency period in early-18th-century France.
|
|
BOULLE MARQUETRY:
A technique named after Andre-Charles Boulle
that involves the elaborate inlay of brass into tortoiseshell or ebony
and vice versa. The process was applied to high-qualityfurniture,
usually made in matching pairs, from the late 17th century onward.
|
|
BUFFET:
A French term for large, heavy display cupboard with open shelves, used
for displaying silverware in the 16th and 17th centuries.
|
|
BUREAU:
A French term for a fall-front or cylinder-top writing desk.
|
|
CABRIOLE LEG:
A furniture leg with two curves forming an attenuated S-shape, like an
animal leg. Popular in the early 18th century, it was often used on
chairs and terminated in a claw-and-ball or stylized paw foot.
|
|
CARTOUCHE:
A panel or tablet in the form of a scroll with curled edges, sometimes
bearing an inscription, monogram, or coat of arms, and used as a
decorative feature.
|
|
CASSONE:
An Italian term for a low chest or coffer made in Italy in the 15th and
16th centuries.
|
|
CHINOISERIE:
A decorative style, popular in the early 18th century, in which
fanciful, exotic motifs derived from Chinese originals were applied to
European furniture.
|
|
COMMODE:
A French term for a chest with deep drawers. The form was first seen in
the late 17th century.
|
|
CONSOLE TABLE:
A table that has two legs supporting its front, while its back legs are
spread out wider and up against a wall for support.
|
|
CORNICE:
A decorative, molded projection that crowns a piece of furniture,
particularly tall cupboards or display cabinets.
|
|
C-SCROLL:
A decorative, carved or applied Classical ornament in the shape of a C,
developed during the Rococo period.
|
|
DENTIL PATTERN:
An ornamental feature of Classical architecture, dentils are small
rectangular blocks, resembling teeth, that
run beneath a cornice.
|
|
DOVETAIL:
A joint, used from the end of the 17th century, in which two pieces of
wood are joined together at right angles. Each piece of wood has a row
of fan-shaped teeth, which interlock at the joint.
|
|
DOWEL:
A small, headless wooden pin used in furniture construction to join two
pieces of wood. Each piece of wood to be joined has a round hole, the
size of the dowel, into which the dowel is inserted and glued.
|
|
ESCUTCHEON:
A protective and usually ornamental keyhole plate, which is sometimes
in the shape of a shield.
|
|
FALL FRONT:
The hinged, flat front of a desk or bureau that falls forward to form a
writing surface. It is also sometimes known as a drop front.
|
|
FLUTING:
Parallel lines of shallow, concave molding running from the top to the
bottom of a column, the opposite of reeding.
Fluting was frequently used on table legs in Neoclassical furniture.
|
|
FRIEZE:
A Classical term used to describe the horizontal strip that supports a
table top, or the cornice on a piece of case furniture.
|
|
GILDING:
A decorative finish in which gold is applied to wood, leather, silver,
ceramics, or glass. The process involves laying gold leaf or powdered
gold (or silver) onto a base, such as gesso. Parcel gilding is the term
used when only part of the object has been gilded.
|
|
GILTWOOD:
Wood that has been gilded.
|
|
GROTESQUE:
A type of ornament, popular during the Renaissance, in which real and
mythical beasts, human figures, flowers, scrolls, and candelabra were
linked together. often
in vertical panels.
|
|
GUILLOCHE:
A decorative motif that takes the form of a continuous band of strands
that are twisted or braided together. First seen in Classical
architecture, the motif was popular with Neoclassical designers.
|
|
INTARSIA:
First used in the 14th century, this is an Italian term for a pictorial
type of marquetry.
It was often used for decorative paneling on furniture in Renaissance Itally
and 16-century Germany.
|
|
JAPANNING:
A decorative technique, dating from the 17th century, in which
furniture is coated with layers of
colored varnish in imitation of true Chinese or Japanese lacquer.
|
|
LACCA POVERA:
An Italian term, meaning 'poor
man's lacquer'
that describes a form of decoupage, in which sheets of engravings were
colored, cut, and pasted onto the prepared surface of a piece of
furniture, then varnished to produce a high-gloss finish. The technique
originated in Venice in the 1750s.
|
|
LION'S-PAW FOOT:
A leg terminal carved in the shape of a lion's paw, a popular Regency
and Empire motif.
|
|
LYRE MOTIF:
A Neoclassical motif based on the ancient Greek musical instrument and
used as an ornamental shape or decoration for chair backs and table
supports.
|
|
MAPLE:
A European hardwood, pale in color, which was used in marquetry
during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was sometimes stained black to
resemble ebony, a much more expensive wood.
|
|
MARQUETRY:
A decorative veneer made up of shaped pieces of wood in different
colors that are pieced together to form a pattern or picture. The technique was perfected by the Dutch,
who produced fine examples of floral marquetry
during the 16th century. In
seaweed marquetry,
used on chests of drawers and cabinets in the late 17th century, richly
figured timbers, such as holly and boxwood, were used to create a
seaweed effect.
|
|
MEDALLION:
An ornamental relief set within a circualr
or oval frame.
|
|
OCCASIONAL TABLE:
A small table that can be used for different purposes and moved from
room to room.
|
|
ORMOLU:
An English term derived from the French term or moulu,
meaning 'ground
gold'
denoting a process of gilding bronze for decorative mounts.
|
|
PALLADIAN:
A restrained Classical style of architecture and decorative features
that was derived from the works of the Italian architect Andrea
Palladio.
|
|
PEGGED JOINT:
A joint in which two
pieces of wood are held together by pegs driven through drilled holes.
|
|
PIETRA DURA:
An Italian term for an expensive form of inlay using semiprecious
stones, such as jasper and lapis lazuli, to create decorative panels
for cabinets and table
tops. First evident in Italy
during the Renaissance, the technique was very popular during the 17th
century.
|
|
ROSETTE:
Of ancient origin, this is a decorative motif in the shape of a rose,
which is often used as a disc ornament or as a circular patera.
|
|
SCAGLIOLA:
A plasterlike
substance, to which color pigments and small pieces of stone such as
granite, marble, and alabaster are added so that once set, it can be
polished to look like marble or pietra
dura.
|
|
SECRETAIRE:
A French term for a freestanding writing cabinet. It often has a slim
drawer beneath the top, and a fall-front writing surface. Below that,
there is an arrangement of drawers or cupboards. The form was popular
in France during the 18th century.
|
|
SERPENTINE:
A wavy or undulating surface. A commode with a serpentine front ahs a
protruding central section and concave ends.
Serpentine stretchers are curved cross-stretchers.
|
|
S-SCROLL:
A decorative carved or applied Classical ornament in the shape of an S,
developed during the Rococo period.
|
|
TONGUE AND GROOVE:
A wood joint in which a tongue along one side of a strip of wood fits
into a groove along an adjoining strip of wood.
|
|
VENEER:
A thin layer of fine wood that is applied to the surface of a more
durable wood, for decorative effect. Veneers were widely used from the
second half of the 17th century onward.
|
|
| |
| | |
|
|