FURNITURE GLOSSARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 415, 25 July 1928, Page 7

FURNITURE GLOSSARY

WHAT DO YOU CALL THAT PIECE? •EIGHTH SERIES

SPINDLE BACK CHAIR: The spindle-back chair was made in Lancashire between 1730 and 1790. The number of rows of spindles or bobbins varies, but in the armchair there are usually three. SPOONING: The curve given to a chair back so as to fit the back of the the occupant. Spooning is a refinement of the chair-makers’ art first used toward the end of the 17th century.

SQUAB CUSHION: An upholstered piece of furniture is said to have squab cushions when these are loose, otherwise it has a solid seat. The former is the more comfortable and luxurious method and the term is most commonly used in England. STRETCHER: Name given to the piece of wood which serves to brace the legs of a piece of furniture; it may be turned or flat, carved or shaped. The front stretcher of a chair is said to be recessed when it is set back between the two side stretchers. It is upright when it springs from the back stretcher to the front of the frame, the last is more unusual. There Is also the rising stretcher often found in tables of the Chinese Chippendale type, the saltire or X-shaped stretcher, the ogee or cyma curve stretcher and so on.

SWAG: A decorative motif, a festoon of leaves, fruit, flowers or drapery. Grinling, Gibbons, Cibber and their followers are especially noteworthy for their carvings in wood; the delicacy and refinement of their designs executed with unequalled skill in limewood or pinewood are without peer. TALLBOY; A high piece of furniture composed of two superimposed chests of drawers, the upper generally slightly smaller than the lower. Often made with chamfered and fluted corners and bracket feet. Very popu- , lar in Georgian times.

Civic Enterprise. —The Birmingham j Corporation intends to buy some of j the slum houses in the city and turn j them into decent habitations. There t no better or more practical means of housing the poorer classes available | to an urban authority (states the “Illustrated Carpenter and Builder”). At one operation they get rid of plague spots and provide new dwellings. In this enterprise the corporation follows the example of the socialreligious movement known as “Copec.” "Copec” took over 150 slum houses, converted them, let them to the poorest class of tenants, and paid its shareholders a dividend of 3 per cent., with which modest return, they

were well satisfied, as their first aim was the public good. The municipality can obviously do as well as this. Copec has rendered a great service in proving the practicability of this method of dealing with the slums.

Fencing material protected by a coating of lead is declared to be impervious to corrosion for years. The lead is more flexible and thicker than other coatings, resisting abrasion and bending to a high degree. The material is suppplied in all thicknesses and types of wire, including the barbed variety. Fences of this type may well be used to enclose home , grounds.