Monthly Archives: July 2013
Picture This XV
I don’t know much about early North American furniture other than they seem to have no idea when it was made. Early on in the settlement of the colony, English joiners crossed the Atlantic, bringing with them, prevailing tastes and … Continue reading
Picture This XIV
I recently came across an unusual chest of drawers (fig. 1). The second thing that caught my eye was the unnatural wear to the bottom edges of the bracket feet: It looked like the corner blocks were missing and the … Continue reading
The Iron Duke Serves the French an Unsavoury Dish
On the 22nd of July 1812 The Duke of Wellington defeated the French forces under Marshal Auguste Marmont, at the Battle of Salamanca, in Spain. Robert Home, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Wellington later proclaimed “We always have been, … Continue reading
Picture This XIII
A rare Charles II cocus-oyster-veneered cabinet-on-stand, circa 1670. (Mallett) Case furniture with bold chiaroscuro surfaces (comprising wood and tortoiseshell veneer, marquetry, parquetry and painted finishes) was popular during the last three decades of the seventeenth-century. Some view the practice as … Continue reading
Picture This XII
If you were ever in any doubt that wood is susceptible to shrinking across the grain, then examine the drum table below. Fig. 1. George III mahogany drum table, circa 1775. (Sotheby’s) The table top substrate was constructed by edge-gluing … Continue reading
Chest Invection
Some furniture historians and collectors are of the opinion that genuine late seventeenth-century and early eighteenth-century floor-standing chests of drawers were only made with ovolo top mouldings (fig. 1) while chests with cyma and cyma recta (reverse ogee) top mouldings … Continue reading
Pegs and 'Tails 