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Antique Terminology

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Eight-Day Striking Movement

This term refers to a clock that has to be wound up every eight days (usually once a week) and strikes the hour (some clocks also strike every half hour.) Additional characteristics include two keyholes, one to be wound for time and one for the striking mechanism.

Escutcheons

An escutcheon is an architectural item that surrounds a keyhole or lock cylinder. Escutcheons are mainly decorative: they draw the eye to the keyhole. However some help to protect a lock cylinder from drilling or snapping, and the surrounding area from wear.

Fretwork

Fretwork is an interlaced decorative design that is either carved in low relief on a solid background, or cut out with a fretsaw, jigsaw or scroll saw. Most fretwork patterns are geometric in design. The materials most commonly used are wood and metal. Fretwork is used to adorn furniture and musical instruments.

Étagère

An étagère is a piece of light furniture very similar to the English what-not, which was extensively made in France during the latter part of the 18th century. As the name implies, it consists of a series of stages or shelves for the reception of ornaments or other small articles. Like the what-not it was very often cornerwise in shape, and the best Louis XVI examples in exotic woods are exceedingly graceful and elegant.

Faceted

The term faceted refers to glass / gemstones being cut at an angle. A facet is one side of a many sided body.

Frieze

A frieze is an ornamented, horizontal band of painted or sculptured decoration. The term also refers to the horizontal band beneath the cornice of a bookcase or cabinet.

Gillows of Lancaster

Gillows of Lancaster is a well-known maker of fine furniture. Robert Gillow established his firm in 1728 in Lancaster and subsequently opened a branch in London. At this time, furniture was also being traded to the West Indies from whence Gillows obtained the exotic hardwoods used in the production of some of their furniture designs. Gillows kept meticulous records, including a series of Estimate Books from 1784 to 1905, and from these it is often possible to identify the maker and original cost of the pieces.

French, English and Italian pieces collected by the Egerton family compliment the renowned Gillows collection and are displayed throughout their Mansion at Tatton Park, Cheshire. Tatton Park is considered to have the most outstanding collection of Gillows of Lancaster furniture in England.

Gallery

A gallery is an architectural term used to describe a platform projecting from a wall. Although, when used in the context of furniture, refers to a protrusion of material (wood, stone, metal etc) either horizontally or vertically from a surface. This often takes the form of a heightened back section on the surface of a table or a rail along the back of a sideboard.

Giltwood

Any wood that is gilded, whether with gold paint or gold leaf. The gilding process involves liquid gold, which comprises of powdered gold leaf mixed with oils containing sulphur. This solution produces a thin film of metal to give lustre like finish.

Hepplewhite

George Hepplewhite was a cabinet and chair maker in the 18th century and the term Hepplewhite refers to his particular style. There are no pieces of furniture made by Hepplewhite or his firm known to exist but he gave his name to a distinctive style of light, elegant furniture that was fashionable between about 1775 and 1800.

Reproductions of his designs continued through the following centuries. One characteristic that is seen in many of his designs, but not all of them, is a shield-shaped chair back, where an expansive shield appeared in place of a narrower splat design.

Inlaid

The term inlaid refers to a piece of solid wood furniture which has pieces of coloured woods, ivory, metal or mother-of-pearl set into cut out recesses (around 3mm deep.) This technique was first used in the 15th century in Italy, although the practise died out once veneer and marquetry techniques were perfected. Inlay designs tend to be fairly simple and usually geometric.

Lion Mask Handles

A lion mask refers to the depiction of a lions face as a decoration, often seen holding a ring in its mouth. The Lion mask is a motif used from antiquity as an emblem of strength, courage, and majesty. The lion mask holding a ring in its mouth as a handle derives from ancient Roman furniture and it continues to be popular as doorknocker. From the early 18th century onwards lion mask handles featured prominently in furniture design and are commonly seen on a wide range of antique furnishings

Marquetry

Marquetry is the craft of covering a structural carcass with pieces of veneer forming decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furniture or even seat furniture, to decorative small objects with smooth, veneerable surfaces or to free-standing pictorial panels appreciated in their own right.

(Marquetry and parquetry differ from the more ancient craft of inlay, in which a solid body of one material is cut out to receive sections of another, to form the surface pattern.)

Mountings

Mounting is a term used to describe an ornamental addition to an item of furniture, applied over the main body of the item. Often mountings on furniture are a different material to the timber beneath, such as brass or ormolu.