FURNITURE GLOSSARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 403, 11 July 1928, Page 7

FURNITURE GLOSSARY

WHAT DO YOU CALL THAT PIECE? SIXTH SERIES LOWBOY. Small table with drawers, similar in construction to the base j of a highboy. Often used as dressing tables or desks.

MARQUISE. A large comfortable overstuffed easy chair with wooden frame showing, first used in France during the 17th Century when it was generally reserved for the head of the house. In the edition of La Fontaine’s Fables illustrated by Fragonard there is one shown with fairly low back and high arms. MOUNTS. Any ornamental metal work applied to a piece of furniture. The Empire Period particularly is important for the amazing beauty of its mounts and the furniture of the Louis was also most noteworthy. MUNTINGS. The small vertical wooden divisions used to divide the doors of a piece of furniture into panels. OPENTWIST. A later refinement of the spiral turning and which came into vogue under William and Mary. Spiral turning said to be of Indian origin (see the native Indian stools of ebony), flourished mightily in England after the Restoration and up to Anne. The opentwist turning is composed of two intertwined spiral turnings and was used on legs of cabinets and tables which were often richly veneered and embellished with marqueterie. ORMOLU. A method of gilding brass or bronze with the aid of mercury which first seems to have been used in France in the 17th Century. The gilded bronze mounts so usual on French furniture are commonly called .ormolu.