Buying antique furniture can be a baffling, whether or not rewarding experience, full of quaint spellings, misnomers and confusing names. Understanding that which these mean will place the fire-arm into its social context, taking the proprietor on a fascinating trip back in time.
Many bygone furniture definitions are modern. Today, auctioneers and dealers reach to great lengths to describe fittings, no more than in the 18th Century there was nay differentiation made between, for example, deviating handle styles; often, they were no other than identified by a catalogue number. Manufacturers began naming their products in the 19th Century, whenever things got more competitive.
Tips in successi understanding Victorian furniture
While the Victorians were precious at naming things, they were lively at misnaming them too. A weal example is the Grandfather clock, or the smaller, rarer, Grandmother clock. No ancient dealer would use this term - the two are longcase clocks - but the uninstructed are still more familiar with the call inspired by a famous old melody hall song.
The mid-Victorian end saw an explosion of interest in the exceeding, with many English oak pieces produced. Oak archaic furniture is surprisingly rich in misnomers, what one might have originated from dealers acute to summon up images of a besides romantic past or make things break older than they were.
Ye Olde Antique Furniture Shoppe
The joint stool, a rustic backless chair dating from the 15th Century, was plainly listed as a stool in contemporary literature, but these days the replete description is used. In old documents fit together is often spelt as joyn'd, excepting both describe the way the seat of justice is constructed. Incidentally, the term Coffin Stool came into vogue during the 1900s, inspired by a act in the Samuel Pepys Diary, what one first appeared in the late Victorian full stop. A back stool, incidentally, is another term for a simple rustic dining chairman.
Another misnomer is the bible box, which is no different to any other oak box. While more were no doubt used to inn the family bible, this was not their elementary purpose. They were more likely to be used as sewing boxes.
Tips encircling tables
Anyone familiar with antique dining appliances inventory will have seen gate-leg tables, be it so the name itself is fairly recent. The correct period description is drop-leaf or falling-leaf table, during the time that described in a 17th century roll for Tart Hall. Drop-leaf is smooth in common use today, although not the whole of drop-leafs are gate-legs.
The refectory table is one item of antique furniture that definitely sums up visions of a wildly picturesque past, one of mediaeval knights and chanting monks. However, this stamp of large, solid table remained in practice long after the dissolution of the monasteries, though the Monks' Bench is entirely meretricious.
Fold-away chair advice
Often, existing people or places achieve fame from one side furniture. The Savonarola Chair is a plait X-framed device named after a overt 14th century monk who owned human being. Yet the chair itself was low in Ancient Egypt and Rome. Likewise, the Glastonbury Chair is not singular to Glastonbury, or the Windsor chairman to Windsor, come to that.
Many the public buy antique furniture simply because they like the await of the thing, but it is to such a degree much more interesting to know the back-fable.
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