GLOSSARY OF ANTIQUE TERMS

Acanthus

The leafy carving found on traditional furniture. It represents the acanthus bush of ancient Greece.

Alabaster

A fine grained stone that is usually gray or white in color and is slightly translucent

Albumen

the whites of eggs—were used on photographic papers to adhere light-sensitive chemicals. Manufacturers used all sorts of egg-white recipes. Many worked well; rotten albumen did not. If the albumen was fresh and the process done properly, the paper revealed an image with a wonderful tonality. From 1860 until about the turn of the century, albumen paper was the most popular variety used by photographers worldwide. In 1862 E. and H. T. Anthony Company in New York City claimed to use the eggs from 10,000 hens to coat the paper they kept on hand in their store.

Ambrotype

In the mid-1850s, the ambrotype process was invented. A glass negative was made positive by coating its back with black lacquer. Although they lacked the tonal range and brilliance of the daguerreotype, the ambrotype had one great advantage: they were less expensive. Thousands of these images were taken in the Civil War. Ambrotype did have one disadvantage: the glass was fragile and often broke, destroying the image. By the mid-1860s, the ambrotype was largely replaced by the tintype and newly-developed paper photographs.

Americana

This red-white-and-blue word is often used to describe many older antiques sold in the US. The word is used to describe almost any object: pottery, folk painting, furniture and more. It not only refers to antiques made in the early history of the United States, but also to objects made abroad and sold to colonists.

Aniline dye

A type of colorant accidentally invented in England in the mid 19th century. It was used to produce the vibrant fabric colors of the late Victorian period and was adapted to furniture manufacturing around the turn of the 20th century.

Antique

A genuine artifact of the initial period of introduction. Something valued specifically for its age.

Apron

In furniture, refers to the horizontal section between the legs of a chair, stand or cabinet. It may be shaped, carved or pierced.

Armoire

One of those French words we inherited. It refers to a large cabinet, primarily for clothes storage used in houses with little or no closet space.

Art Deco

Opposite of Art Nouveau, Art Deco pays homage to the machine age with bold straight line Think of New York’s Chrysler

Art Nouveau

Sinuous flowing lines, naturalistic detail, often asymmetrical lines as reaction to encroachment of industrialism. The artistic movement that flourished in the decorative arts in both Europe and America at the turn of the 20th century.

As Is

What you see, is what you get. Usually means there is a flaw or problem not corrected.

Astragal

The piece of wood that overlaps the joint where two doors meet.

Attributed

In our opinion

Awl

In woodworking a sharp piece of metal used to scribe lines for cutting or drilling.

Back saw

A saw with a stiff brass or steel spline to keep the blade from bending. Used to make delicate cuts such as those required for dovetailing.

Bail

The part of a drawer or cabinet pull that hangs down from the support posts on each side of the hardware. See "post").

Bakelite

In 1907, the Belgian-born scientist L.H. Baekeland invented Bakelite, one of the first plastics ever made. It was an inexpensive alternative to more natural materials, and proved to be an excellent insulator against heat and electricity, and fire resistant too. That's why it was used for kitchen appliances, such as toasters, and other household consumables, such as radios

Ball and claw

A type of foot popularized by Thomas Chippendale in the mid 18th century. It represents a dragon claw clutching a pearl, drawn from Oriental mythology.

Baluster

A turned column.

Bandsaw

A saw with a continuous flexible blade that moves in only one direction. Developed in the 19th century.

Baroque

Heaviness in full swing now, Massive architectural carvings, full figured mounts, thick floral and fruited garlands, high relief carvings

Bears the signature

Signed

Bed bolts

Bolts that intersect with implanted nuts to hold side rails securely to the headboards and footboards of a bed.

Bellflower

A decorative element of carving or inlay work found on traditional furniture, consisting of a connected string of three or five leafed flowers.

Bisque

Pronounced "bisk," and also called "biscuit" (not the eating variety), the word describes a delicate, unglazed, pink-tinted porcelain that was used from about 1820 until 1940.

Blackamoor

Dark skinned figure dressed in a colorful costume. First created in Venice , these figures were carved and used as a support for tables and torchieres

Block front

A technique of sawing solid wood to produce a three dimensional effect by dividing the frontal space of case goods into (usually) three vertical sections with the center section being concave and the end sections being convex.

Bow

The rounded outside back frame of a Windsor chair. Bent to shape from a single piece of wood.

Breadboard ends

Boards applied to the ends of a flat surface such as a slant front desk top or table top, at right angles to the direction of the grain of the main surface. This keeps the flat surface from warping excessively.

Breweriana

Beer advertisements, mugs, trays, signs, coasters, even foam scrapers — all beer-related objects that come under the category of "breweriana."

Broad Glass

The term used for glass in mirrors, windows and furniture. Also called "flat" glass.

Broken pediment

A pediment that is interrupted in the center.

Bronze

An alloy of copper, tin, and traces of other metals.

Bulb Turnings

The large bulbous turns on Jacobean and Elizabethan furniture. Also called "melon" turnings.

Bun foot

A turned, slightly flattened round low foot or leg which gained prominence at the beginning of the William and Mary period in the late 17th century. Also known as "Turnip Foot".

Burl

The random pattern seen in wood cut from a disturbance in a tree such as a knot or tumor.

Cabriole

The reverse S - shape of a leg which curves out at the knee and curves in toward the ankle. The 18th-century English described the feature as a "horsebone" or "crook'd leg." But it's fitting that these stolid Anglo-Saxon descriptions didn't last, displaced by the poetic Italian word cabriole, meaning "goat's leap". The cabriole was a signature of the Queen Anne style, which swept European and American salons during the early and mid-18th century, brushing aside the straight William-and-Mary-style legs that cabinetmakers would spin on lathes.

Cambium

The soft layer of living cells just under the bark of a tree.

Candelabra

A decorative branched candlestick, designed to hold more than one candle

Cane

A seating material made from thin strips of the outer skin of cane that can be woven into a fabric-like surface. Older cane seating was installed by weaving individual strands into holes drilled in the seat frame. More recent cane seating is installed from pre-woven sheets and is held in place in a groove in the seat frame.

Carte-de-visite

The French term carte-de-visite, literally, a calling card, came to describe a photographic process that originated in France in the mid-19th-century and was used throughout Europe. Now sometimes also referred to as CDVs, 300 to 400 million of the cartes were produced in England each year between 1861 and 1867. The technique crossed the ocean to the United States in 1859, just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Millions were sold in the United States when the process reached its greatest popularity in the 1870s and 1880s.

Cartouche

This word was originally used to describe the oval that surrounded a pharaoh's name in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Also used to describe a key feature in antique maps, the word refers to the design that surrounds the map's title, dedication, or mileage scale. Sometimes each of these elements is encircled, making for a map with multiple cartouches tucked into its empty spaces.

Caryatids

Female figures used as columns in ancient Greek architecture. They are seen in some classical furniture such as Empire works by Duncan Phyfe.

Case goods

Furniture such as chests, desks and armoires that consist essentially of a box with access to storage using drawers or doors.

Caster

A small wheel attached or implanted in the legs of furniture.

Caveat Emptor

Latin for "Let the Buyer Beware". Under the doctrine of Caveat Emptor, the buyer could not recover from the seller for defects on the property that rendered the property unfit for ordinary purposes. The only exception was if the seller actively concealed patent defects.

Chamfer

The angling of an edge to reduce the total thickness of the material, such as on a drawer bottom.

Chenets

Ornamental pieces placed in front of a fire place

Cheval Mirror

A full length standing mirror

China

Europeans gave the name to the hard and highly valued bowls, plates and other decorative wares that they imported from China over the span of hundreds of years. The Chinese originally developed the technique more than a thousand years ago and were its sole makers until the 18th century. As far as ceramics are concerned, china was once synonymous with porcelain. Both are made when kaolin (a clay mineral) is mixed with petunse (decomposed feldspathic igneous rock) - two forms of decomposed granite that fuse together in a very hot kiln to produce the translucent clayware. If not china or porcelain, a ceramic is known as pottery, which is opaque.

Chinoiserie

European versions of Oriental articles and motifs popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Chippendale

Style improvised by London's Thomas Chippendale, one of the most prominent furniture makers and designers of the mid-18th century. Chippendale mixed and melded the extravagantly sinuous Rococo style with the Gothic and Chinese styles to come up with a hybrid that was embraced on both sides of the Atlantic, displacing the more angular Queen Anne style. Chippendale brought prominence to his designs in 1754 by publishing the detailed Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, one of the earliest furniture design books, which was devoured by both makers and sellers of furniture.

Circular saw

Saw with a rigid round metal blade with teeth on the edge. First introduced in the late 18th century but put into general woodworking use in the second quarter of the 19th century.

Cleat

Piece of wood used to support the side and front rails of early 19th century chairs. Also the small, square or rectangular protrusions on iron bed hardware of the late 19th century.

Cloisonne

Style and technique used to apply enamel on metal objects

Collectible

Anything is artistic or historic significance, but not old enough to be considered an "antique", which must be at least 100 years old. Typically a manufactured item designed for people to collect. Some objects designed for other purposes, such as toys, become so popular among collectors that they are later marketed specifically to that audience. The high price for certain older Star Wars action figures is a good example of this phenomenon since the figures were originally intended to be purchased as toys rather than collectibles.

Commode

French term to describe a low bureau or cabinet

Composition

Refers to wood pulp and paste or boiled and formed into rags, a malleable material that served as the plastic of its day.

Console

A table that can be attached to a wall having two front legs or may be free standing against the wall

Cornice Molding

Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding which crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. The term cornice comes from Italian cornice, meaning "ledge". In French: "corniche", and German:"gesims"

Crest rail

The top rail of a chair. The top of the back.

Crotch cut

The cutting of wood just below the intersection of a branch with the trunk of a tree. This method produces unusual and attractive grain patterns with a "feathery" look.

Crown glass

Glass produced by twirling a gather of molten glass on the end of an iron rod. The centrifugal force creates a more or less flat "table" of glass to be used in windows and furniture. The primary way of producing "flat" glass in the 18th century.

Crystal

In the 17th century, Englishman George Ravenscroft discovered that using oxide of lead, rather than soda, produced a lustrous and heavy glass with a diamond-like brilliance. It also was harder than ordinary glass and less likely to contain bubbles, making it ideal for cutting. The term "crystal" refers to glass that contains lead. Glass that was made around 1900 generally contains about 25 to 28 percent lead; that percentage is down to 10 to 12 percent for glass made today, giving modern crystal a little less shine than its forerunners. The lead is also the ingredient that gives crystal the "ping" that's absent in ordinary glass.

Cylinder glass

The 19th century method of producing flat glass by swinging a blown bubble of glass to create a cylinder which was then cut and reheated to produce a flat sheet of glass.

Dado

A long straight channel cut into the face of a piece of wood to receive the edge or end of another piece.

Daguerreotype

The daguerreotype was invented first, and was also the first commercially successful photographic process. Before it arrived, anyone who wanted their portrait taken had to hire a painter, a miniaturist or someone who cut out silhouettes, costly processes. Daguerreotypes brought portraits to the masses. In the 1850s, a photo cost just 50 cents. The Frenchman J. M. Daguerre invented the process and taught it to American inventor Samuel B. Morse (as in Morse code) when Morse visited Paris in 1839. Morse brought the process back to the US, teaching it to paying students. The image was made on a copper plate coated with polished silver. Through a series of treatments with noxious gases such as hot mercury vapor and bromides, the plate's surface became light sensitive. The image was fixed with chemicals that stopped the development process and secured the image. Because the image is on a silver plate, it looks like a mirror. Turn the image one way and it's invisible; turn it another and it seems to jump out at you

Deal

A type of pine usually found in Scotland used as a secondary wood in English furniture.

Dentil

A small rectangular block repeated with even spacing. Often part of a cornice molding.

Dimension

To cut a piece of lumber to a useable size for furniture making.

Dovetail

An interlocking wood joint using roughly triangular shapes called pins and tails to create the joint.

Dowel

A small round, lathe turned wooden rod used to connect two pieces of wood. First used extensively in furniture production beginning in the mid 19th century.

Draw knife

A sharp blade with a handle on each end, mounted at a right angle to the blade. It is used to shape and smooth wood surfaces.

Draw table

A form of extension table developed in the 16th century from the refectory table. Additional surfaces are stored below the table top and withdrawn from each end to make the table longer. A popular style in the Colonial Revival era of the early 20th century.

Dust Jacket

Paper cover used to protect the binding of a book from dust and wear.

Earthenware

Earthenware can be made from many different types of natural clay, which when baked at temperatures between 800 and 1,000 degrees Celsius produce red, yellow, white, brown, or gray pottery.

Ebonize

To paint black.

Embossing

The impressing of some kind of decoration or lettering into a surface of metal, leather, textile or paper - any surface you can press into, really, to make a relief. Embossing is used in many of the decorative arts, such as in jewelry, book-making, silversmithing and even in textile production.

Empire

Heavy architectural forms, winged chimera, massive bronze mounts

Ephemera

Written and printed matter published with a short intended lifetime. In the world of collectors common types of ephemera include letters, advertising trade cards, cigarette cards, airsickness bags, posters, postcards, bookmarks, baseball cards, tickets, greeting cards, stock certificates, photographs and zines.

Escutcheon

The decorative plate applied to the surface around a keyhole. Usually made of metal.

Face veneer

The veneer on a table top or drawer front. The top layer of any veneered surface.

Fake

Something made with the express purpose of deceiving.

Fastener

A device such as nail or screw used to secure two objects together.

Federal Furniture

Furniture made in the historic period directly following our nation's independence (1786) until about 1810. Second only to pieces from the Chippendale period (1760-1780), it is among America's most valuable furniture.

Filigree

Jewel work of a delicate kind made with twisted threads usually of gold and silver. Formerly written filigrann or filigrane. Also known as "Telkari" (the name given in Anatolia it means, "Wire work") or "Cift-isi" (Meaning Tweezers work - Pronunciation: Chift-ishi)

Filled finish

The smooth, glass-like finish on a piece of wood produced when the open pores of the grain are filled. Results in the "formal" look of traditional mahogany and walnut furniture.

Finger joint

A type of drawer joinery made by machinery that produced alternating layers of flat "fingers" which are glued together for strength. Developed in the late 19th century and used in light weight applications such as jewelry boxes.

Finial

The ornament that sits at the top of a post or on the crest of a pediment. Some types are flame, acorn, urn, twist and ball.

Finial

An architectural device typically carved in stone and employed to decoratively emphasize the apex of a gable, or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller sized finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods or applied to chairs and furniture. These are frequently seen on top of bedposts or clocks. The finial can also function as a lightning rod, and was once believed to act as a deterrent to witches on broomsticks attempting to land on one's roof. On making her final landing approach to a roof, the witch, spotting the obstructing finial, was forced to sheer off and land elsewhere. Finial is also a term given to straw animals at the ridges of thatched cottages. Finial maker is the term given to the artisan that makes the straw animal.

First Edition

First press run of a book

Flat cut

The method of cutting lumber from a log by successively cutting length wise without regard to ensuing grain pattern. It results in a single log producing small quantities of lumber that represents every kind of cutting technique including quarter cut and rift cut.

Flat glass

The term used for glass in mirrors, windows and furniture. Also called "broad" glass.

Float glass

Essentially flawless glass made by a method developed in 1959. Molten glass is floated on a still bed of molten tin creating glass with a surface smoothness of 1/25,000 of an inch without further grinding or polishing.

Flush

A surface that is exactly even or level with another surface with no underlapping or overlapping.

Fluting

Deep concave channels cut parallel to each other in the legs and columns of classical furniture. Quality fluting is deeply cut with smooth curves at the end of each cut. The narrow ridges between flutes are called fillets.

Foxing

Brown spots that gradually form on paper, a scourge on rare and old books that can greatly diminish their value. Though all the factors that may contribute to foxing are not entirely understood, according to the Library of Congress, foxing is often caused by high humidity and temperature extremes where books and paper are stored. Other common culprits are certain ingredients found in older inks. Also, metals such as copper and iron, left over as trace contaminants from paper-pulping methods widely used in the late-18th and 19th centuries, can cause foxing as well.

Froe

A long handle tool used to separate wood bolts in the riving process.

Frontispiece

The illustration on the page that faces or immediately precedes the title page of a book or magazine. It's usually an engraving but it can be a photographic imprint.

Gash saw

A rough toothed reciprocal saw, steam or water powered used in saw mills to cut lumber from trees. Used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries before the general use of the circular saw.

Georgian Style

An architectural and decorative style that was dominant under the three King Georges, who reigned in England from 1714 to 1820. Those who embraced the Georgian style looked back to the classical Greek and Roman principles of proportion and symmetry and created furniture that was light, simple and elegant.

Gesso

Italian word for "chalk" (akin to the Greek word "gypsum"), and is a powdered form of the mineral calcium carbonate used in art. Gesso was traditionally mixed with animal glue, usually rabbit-skin glue, to use as an absorbent primer coat for panel painting with tempera paints. It is a permanent and brilliant white substrate, as long as it is used on wood or masonite. This mixture is rather brittle and susceptible to cracking, thus making it unsuitable for priming canvas.

Gilt Bronze

A thin layer of gold applied on bronze

Giltwood

A thin layer of gold leaf or gold foil applied on wood

Gimlet screw

A screw with a pointed end. Developed in the 1840's as the successor to the flat tipped screw.

Glaze

In painting is a transparent medium. Whatever is on the surface beneath the glaze shows through applied medium. A glaze changes the colorcast or texture (gloss or matte, for instance) of the surface. For many centuries painters have applied glazes to their works. A glaze is a vitreous coating to a ceramic material whose primary purposes are decoration or protection. Glazes can be considered specialized forms of glass and therefore can be described as amorphous solids. In pottery, glazing is the process of coating the piece with a thin layer of glassy material, called a glaze. After application, the pottery is fired, and the powdered coating melts into a hard, glass-like coating.

Gluede up

Describes large surfaces made of gluing many smaller boards together. Used to produce seats of modern Windsor chairs. Original Windsors had a single board seat.

Golden oak

Not really a kind of oak itself. Merely the color of white oak when stained light or finished naturally. Also used to denote the period at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century when the production of oak furniture was at its peak.

Gondole

The rounded twisting shape of the arms and back of late Empire/Classicism chairs, especially those made by Francois Seignouret of New Orleans and Joseph Meeks and Sons of New York in the mid 1800's.

Gothic

Usually features lancet arches, finials and pierce carving. Think Notre Dame

Hallmark

An official marking made by a trusted party, 'guardians of the craft' or nowadays by an assay office, on items made of precious metals (platinum, gold and silver) that guarantees a certain purity of the metal. This should not be confused with a marking, often just a number such as 925, which is done voluntarily by the manufacturer, and unfortunately does not always reflect the true purity of the metal. A hallmark is only applied after the item has been assayed to determine its purity. Often the hallmark is made up of several elements including: the type of metal, the maker and the year of the marking.

Hardwood

A deciduous tree. Does not refer to the strength or hardness of the wood.

Hobnail

A pattern of glassware: (sometime called Fenton Hobnail) where the body of the piece has a regular array of bumps, as if finished with glass hobnails. The word hobnail probably comes from the first surname in Hobbs, Brockunier & Company, from South Wheeling, West Virginia, the company that first patented the raised bumps. Their hobnail pieces are the most famous ones from the late 19th century. The company would sometimes advertise the pattern with other names, such as nodule, dewdrop, or pineapple, but hobnail has become the popular term for the glass.

Horology

The study of the science and art of timekeeping devices. Clocks, watches, and chronometers are examples of instruments used to measure time.

Inlay

A technique used with furniture and ceramics when part of a surface is removed and replaced with a contrasting material

Inscribed vs. Signed Edition

An author writes something more than his or her name, the more personal the inscription, the more the book is generally valued.

Jack plane

A plane with a convex blade used to dimension flat surfaces such as drawer bottoms and back panels.

Joint

The intersection of two pieces of wood.

Klismos

A light, classical form of chair developed in ancient Greece with curved, saber legs and a curved, shaped back and crest. Very popular in Empire form in the 19th century.

Knapp joint

A type of joint invented by Charles Knapp just after the Civil War. One of the first useful machine made drawer joints. It used a "scallop and dowel" approach to joinery instead of dovetails.

Lathe

A machine for making round wooden parts powered by foot, water, steam or electricity.

Limited Edition

To some degree, it was a marketing ploy. They thought: ‘If we limit the number of impressions and put numbers on them they will be treated as a fine art rather than as commercial prints.’ The notion of limited editions developed in the late 19th century.

Lithography

Greek word means literally "writing on stone" - and in practice, usually limestone. The process was invented by Aloys Senefelder in 1796 and the Bavarian limestone he used is still considered the best material for art printing. The artistic process was embraced by a pantheon of great 19th-century artists, including Goya, Delacroix, Daumier, Degas, Whistler and Toulouse-Lautrec. Here's how it was done: an artist would take a grease crayon and draw on the limestone template. He would dampen the limestone with water, then apply ink over its surface. The ink would only adhere to the grease crayon markings, allowing the image to be transferred to paper like a stamp, without manually having to chisel or etch a raised surface on the stone. Early lithographs were usually done in black ink; later ones were done in color, which required a new stone to be used for each color. Other surfaces have also since been used as lithography mediums, especially in commercial applications, including sheets of zinc or aluminum.

Lumber core plywood

A product developed in the early 20th century to produce flat furniture surfaces. It starts with a core of thick solid wood. Layers of decreasing thickness of veneer are added with alternating grain directions. Has unusual structural strength and resistance to warping.

Mannerism

Heaviness begins with this style, Often includes carvings of semi-human figures and fruit

Marking gauge

A precision wooden and brass instrument used in woodworking to mark areas for cutting.

Marlborough leg

A square leg with no foot or with a larger square foot sometimes employed by Thomas Chippendale.

Marquetry

The term used to describe the decorative work in which a pattern is formed by inserting contrasting material in a veneered surface

MDF

Medium density fiber board. A late 20th century invention made essentially of heavily compressed paper and used as an underlayment for veneered surfaces in furniture production.

Medullary ray

The horizontal veins in a tree trunk that carry nourishment from the core, (the pith) to the cambium. When properly cut these rays exhibit a remarkable pattern called "tiger eye" in oak and other hardwoods.

Melon turning

The large bulbous turns on Jacobean and Elizabethan furniture. Also called "bulb" turnings.

Memorabilia

A souvenir (from French, for memory) is an object that is treasured for the memories associated with it.

Mill saw

The rough saw in a saw mill used to convert timber to lumber. A mill saw may be a gash saw, a band saw or a circular saw.

Miter joint

The intersection of two pieces of wood where each piece has been cut at a 45 degree angle so as to form a right angle when joined.

Mortise

Hole cut into a piece of wood to match and receive its counterpart the tenon. Mortises may be round, square or rectangular.

Muntin

Originally the individual pieces of wood that held panes of glass in the doors of case goods. In the 20th century it denotes the thin piece of decorative plywood installed over the glass to simulate the look of individual panes of glass.

Neoclassical

Tapering lines and classical motifs. Straightness as reaction to excesses of Rococo. Torch & quiver, ribbons are indicative

Ogee

An S shaped curve also called a cyma curve.

Olla

A Spanish word—pronounced "oy-yah"—that refers to one of the most common kinds of pots made by native peoples of North and Central America. The unglazed pot is defined by its spherical body and wide mouth. The word gets its roots from the Latin word aulla, which means simply "pot." Some go unpainted, but many are adorned with designs characteristic of specific cultures.

Onyx

Onyx is a banded variety of chalcedony, a cryptocrystalline form of quartz. The colors of its bands are white and black. Sardonyx is a variant in which the colored bands are sard (shades of red) rather than black. It is usually cut as a cabochon, or into beads, and is also used for intaglios and cameos, where the bands make the image contrast with the ground. Some onyx is natural but much is produced by the staining of agate.

Original Finish

The original protective coating—including varnish, wax or polish—added to an antique to protect it. An object that has an unadulterated first finish (not removed or covered) is almost always more valuable than one that has been refinished.

Original Print

An original is a print where the design is done by hand. The human touch is all over an original print-a print made from a handmade or one-of-a-kind template. That template may consist of a copper plate (for engravings), a carved piece of wood (for wood blocks) or a limestone (for lithography)

Orotone

The process consisted of coating a glass plate with a gelatin silver emulsion. After this negative was exposed, the back of the glass was painted with a gold pigment mixed with banana oil, producing a warm-looking positive image.

Overcut

Cut by a saw that goes beyond the indicated mark.

Oxidation

The process of wood reacting with the atmosphere. The longer unprotected wood is exposed, the darker it gets.

Pad foot

A type of Queen Anne foot that has a small built up area, the pad, below the foot itself.

Panel construction

A method of creating a surface by inserting free floating panels of wood into a supporting frame to allow room for expansion and contraction of the wood.

Panel saw

What we think of today as the regular hand saw. Developed by the Dutch in the 17th century.

Parlor Set

Term used to describe a settee with matching chairs

Parquetry

A mosaic of wood used for ornamental flooring. (French parqueterie, from parquet.) The large diagonal squares known as parquet de Versailles were introduced there in 1684, as parquet de menuiserie ("woodwork parquet"), to replace the marble flooring that required constant washing, which tended to rot the joists beneath the floors.

Particle board

Man-made material composed of wood fiber and saw dust in a mixture of glue, used in place of solid wood sides and top. Came into general use in furniture construction in the late 1950's.

Pate-sur-pate

A 19th century porcelain decorating technique featuring relief designs.

Patera

An oval or round inlay pattern frequently found in early 19th century Federal furniture.

Patina

Fading, darkening or other signs of age, which are felt to be natural and/or unavoidable. The look of an old, undisturbed surface acquired through years of use, care and abuse. Very difficult to exactly duplicate and highly desirable in most cases, especially on antique furniture.

Pediment

The top portion of tall case goods, often triangular shaped, that simulates an architectural element from classical Greece. Pediments usually reach across the width of a piece rising to a peak or an arch in the center.

Phillips Head Screw

A 20th century variation of a machine made screw that has an incised cross instead of a slot to engage a driver.

Pit saw

An early method of converting timber to lumber. A log is extended over a deep pit. One sawyer stands atop the log and another in the pit. Each man operates one end of a large hand powered saw.

Plane

A block of wood with a flat metal blade extending through the bottom used to smooth or dress lumber and also to create shaped edges.

Plein Air

Literally meaning "open air" in French, the term plein air is generally used to refer to paintings executed out of doors.

Plywood

The layering of thin sheets of wood with the grain patterns at right angles to each previous layer creating a strong solid sheet of material. Came into use in furniture production around the beginning of the 20th century.

Pod auger

A type of 18th century bit with a rounded end used with a hand operated brace. Also called a spoon auger.

Porcelain

A hard, translucent ceramic made by firing and glazing a fine clay

Post

The part of a drawer pull that goes into or through the face of the drawer and holds one end of the bail. (See "bail").

Premium

The amount over and above the winning bid price one may pay at auction. Usually a flat percentage of the bid price.

Primary wood

The main wood seen in a piece of furniture. It may be solid or veneer and comprise only a small part of the piece but it is the wood most visible.

Prospect door

The small door found in the interior cubby hole section of drop front desks.

Provenance

A fancy word that refers to an object's history, or who owned the object, when and where. It is to an object what a deed trail is to a piece of land.

Quarter cut or Quatersawn

A method of cutting lumber and veneer so that the majority of the end grain pattern is 60 to 90 degrees to the face of the board. This minimizes warping and exposes the maximum number of medullary rays. Quarter cutting accounts for the dramatic figuring called "cat's eye" or "tiger eye" often seen in early 20th century oak furniture.

Quatrefoil

A Rounded, four lobed design often seen in Gothic Revival furniture of the 19th century.

Rabbet joint

Also called a rebate joint. One piece of wood partially overlaps another and fits into a section that has been cut out to receive it.

Race

A channel or grove for something to fit into such as the channel for a roll top desk tambour or the cut out portion of a Victorian era side rail to accommodate the iron hardware, the "horseshoe.

Rail

A horizontal structural member of furniture such as the board between drawers in a chest or the pieces of wood that compose the frame of a chair to receive a slip seat.

Reeding

The opposite of fluting. Deeply incised convex parallel cuts in the legs or columns of classical furniture.

Refinish

To completely remove all finish from the surface of a piece of furniture and apply a completely new surface.

Regency

Lightness makes its return with this style but some massive mounts remain Cabriole legs and ormolu mounts are common

Renaissance

Style reflects period zeitgeist and includes many allusions to classical Greece & Rome. Detail includes scrolling foliage, delicate intarsia columns, urns, flowing robed women, etc.

Reproduction

A historically accurate copy of an original design, not necessarily made with the intent to deceive.

Resurface

To apply a new surface or finish over an existing one without completely removing the old one.

Revival

A reintroduction of an earlier theme or fashion but includes some elements of the contemporary period.

Rhinestone

Technically, a rhinestone is lead crystal originally sifted from the Rhine River, or a faceted chunk of glass, usually backed with foil. But if any piece of jewelry jangles for more than just a dry definition, it's the twinkling diamond-pretender, the rhinestone.

Rift cut

A method of cutting lumber and veneer that produces the maximum straight line grain pattern with as little variation as possible. The opposite effect of that achieved by quarter cutting.

Rive or riven

The process of obtaining lumber from timber by splitting the wood into successively smaller pieces, called bolts, without actually cutting the wood. The process was used in most furniture production prior to the beginning of 18th century.

Rococo

Style is most characterized by an absolute abhorrence of straight lines. Rocaille, scallops, c-scrolls and delicate foliage reign

Roller glass

Glass produced in the early 20th century by pulling nearly molten glass through a series of cooled iron rollers to flatten into sheets. Produces a readily identifiable distortion pattern of parallel lines in the glass.

Rosehead

The effect on the head of a hand wrought nail by the impact of the hammer used to create the head. A head of the nail usually was made with only three or four blows, each of which creates a flat spot on one side of the head.

Rotary saw

Also known as a "circular saw". Saw with a rigid round metal blade with teeth on the edge. First introduced in the late 18th century but put into general woodworking use in the second quarter of the 19th century.

Rush

Material used in seating originally made by twisting wet cattail leaves into a tight cord and weaving the cord around the frame of the seat of a chair into a suspension platform. Newer rush, called "fiber rush" is made of what amounts to twisted, sometimes variegated craft paper.

Sang de Beouf

The striking blood-red glaze that was first used by Chinese potters hundreds of years ago. The French term literally means "oxblood," and Chinese potters often painted the opaque glaze on a white base that simulated bone. These imperial artists, aware of the glaze's beauty, protected its formula for centuries.

School

By one of his/her followers or in the style of a particular artist

Sconce

A decorative wall bracket for candles or electric lights

Secondary wood

The wood that comprises the structural and unseen portions of a piece of furniture. Secondary wood is almost always less expensive and more available than primary wood.

Seeds or Seedy

The small imperfections caused by the trapped pockets of gas common in older glass production methods. Also known as "Seedy Glass"

Sevre Porcelain

The first factory opened in the town of Sevre in 1756. Sevre porcelain is considered the finest of the French porcelains

Side rail

The part of a bed that connects the headboard to the footboard and normally supports the main bedding material.

Slip seat

A seat that is easily removed from a chair. The seat itself may or may not be screwed or nailed to the chair and the upholstery is not attached to the chair.

Slipper foot

A minor variation of a Queen Anne foot which is rounded at the back but tapered toward the front.

Softwood

An evergreen tree. Does not refer to the hardness or softness of the wood itself.

Spanish foot

An under turned scrolled foot with vertical ribs often seen on William and Mary and Queen Anne pieces.

Splashboard

The piece of material that rises above the level of the top surface in the rear of a piece to keep objects from sliding off and in the case of serving pieces to keep food and drink away from the wall. Also known as "Backsplash"

Splat

The center section of a chair that connects the seat rail to the crest rail.

Spoon bit

A type of 18th century bit with a rounded end used with a hand operated brace. Also known as a "pod auger".

Steeple

The pattern created in the grain of a piece of wood by flat cutting it. The pattern resembles a succession of rounded church steeples or soft Gothic arches.

Stile

The vertical structural component of a piece of furniture. In a chair it is the upright post on each side of the splat that connects the seat to the crest. In case goods the stiles form the corners of the cabinet.

Stretcher

The piece of wood that connects the legs of a chair to each other.

Structural members

Those pieces of wood in furniture that carry the weight of the piece and maintain the overall integrity of the work. A frame or other load bearing arrangement.

Stump cut

Veneer cut from the lowest section of a tree stump which produces an unusual, sometimes random pattern.

Tenon

The protruding end of a piece of wood that fits into a mortise to comprise a joint.

Tiger eye

A method of cutting lumber and veneer so that the majority of the end grain pattern is 60 to 90 degrees to the face of the board. This minimizes warping and exposes the maximum number of medullary rays. Quarter cutting accounts for the dramatic figuring called "cat's eye" or "tiger eye" often seen in early 20th century oak furniture.

Tinplate

Used to describe tin toys made during the late 19th and early 20th century, is more glitter than substance.

Tintype

Tintype photographers took their set-ups into the fields and made images on black-lacquered iron coated with light sensitive chemicals. The plate was exposed and developed at the same time in the camera. Tintypes were even cheaper than the glass ambrotype—and safer to transport. Tintypes had their heyday from about the 1860s to the 1880s, but were still going strong well into the first few decades of the 20th century.

Tracery

The intricate pierced carvings seen in the splats of Gothic Revival chairs.

Trefoil

The rounded three lobed design in Gothic Revival themes.

Triffid foot

A foot divided into three sections.

Trompe l'oeil

works of art, especially paintings, that fool the eye because of their extraordinary precision and realism. The phrase comes from the French words tromper ("to trick") and l'oeil ("the eye").

Trumpet turning

The turnings on William and Mary style pieces that resemble the down turned horn of a trumpet.

Trunnel

The peg inserted through a mortise and tenon joint to add additional stability. Originally called a "true nail", the pronunciation evolved into trunnel.

Turnip foot

A turned, slightly flattened round low foot or leg which gained prominence at the beginning of the William and Mary period in the late 17th century. Also known as "bun foot"

Underlayment

The substrate to which veneer is attached.

Valenced

Balanced scroll work on the lower edges of a skirt or rail. Very prominent in Queen Anne and William and Mary case goods. Meant to represent the folds in fabric draped over beds and windows.

Veneer

Very thin sheets of wood applied to the surface of furniture. Originally used as a decorative item it became an increasingly important part of conservation efforts world wide.

Vetted

An antiques or art show is said to be "vetted" when a panel of experts in the fields certifies that each item in the show is appropriate to the period, quality and style of the show.

Vitrine

A glass showcase used to display a collection of fine small objects of art

Warping

A type of shrinkage that distorts the shape of a piece of wood. Caused by uneven exposure to the elements or a cutting process that is not properly aligned with the direction of the grain in the wood.

Wicker

The stems of small rattan palms or willow shoots which are interwoven and wrapped around a structural frame to produce a semi solid fabric for covering furniture. In the late 19th century a loom was invented that could wrap paper around a wire core and produce simulated wicker, thus accounting for the proliferation of factory made wicker furniture at the end of the century.

Workmanlike manner

The concept employed when all work was done by hand. It states that if something is not seen it does not need to excessively smoothed or finished. Unseen parts of older furniture still bear the tool marks and traces of this labor saving concept.