FURNITURE GLOSSARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 385, 20 June 1928, Page 7

FURNITURE GLOSSARY

WHAT DO YOU CALL THAT PIECE?

THIRD SERIES CLAW and BALL FOOT. Type of foot very popular from early Georgian times on. A decorative motif taken indirectly from the Chinese, | ]. who have used it from anj Vs. tiquity. There are an infinite number of different kinds V\ \) }J of *- eet used on furniture, most of which are self exClaw and planatory, such as these: Ball Foot. Bun foot, spade foot, webb foot, furred paw foot, scroll foot, bracket foot, splay foot, club foot, block foot, hoof foot, etc. COMMODE. First used to designate a. low chest of drawers with marble top about 1700. Until the end of the 17th Century personal belongings were kept in chests with the tops made to lift and consequently most inconvenient. Some ingenious person had the idea of dividing the space into compartments functioning independently whence arose the name commode. CREDENCE. A cupboard-like piece of furniture well ventilated which during the 17th Century was used for the storage of provisions. It was also placed in the dining hall and served for the display of pieces of plate and dressed meats. CYMA CURVE. A compound curve of ten found singly or in combinations in early Georgian design. The cabriole leg is formed -v. of a single cyma \ curve, while in its compound ine cyma curve in form it occurs in a chair top. cabinet hoods or tops of the period. It is a curve full of graceful lines. DRUNKARD’S CHAIR. An armchair of unusually capacious dimensions popular in the lusty Georgian times when three or even four bottle men were common. Chippendale designed several chairs of this type. FAUTEUIL. French armchair. The name was first definitely used in 1632 in an inventory of Hilaire de la Chausse. In those times it was a sumptuous piece of furniture, generally covered in the richest fabrics and found only in the houses of the great.