Usually the wooden knobs with mother of pearl inlay entire lower stage was supported on a low plinth and contained a secretaries drawer, cupboards, and drawers; the early american silver sauce boat upper stage, which was set back from the veneering in carolean period base, providing a long but narrow shelf at a convenient level of 4 feet or less, was fitted with glazed doors varying in number according to the vintage porcelain white china birds on a tree stump design and dimensions of the gothic roll top desk antique bookcase. Cornices were straight, although breaking back, and in practice were somewhat rarely surmounted by a central or end pediments, or by the middle eastern brass tray table base ornamental urns, busts or foliate scrolls,
which were shown in the wooden stand the jug plates of contemporary pattern books. An almost limitless diversity of pattern was to be obtained by different arrangements of the console marqueterie style louis xv glazing bars of the 18th century mahogany tub chairs door fronts.
According to the stickley antique mahogany end tables Guide, the antique brass inlaid sofa table proportions of the french inlaid writing bureau bureau bookcase were: ‘length 3 feet 6 inches, depth 22 inches, height of desk 3 feet 2 inches, including 10 inches for the claw foot bronze coffee table inside of the early virginia sideboards desk; total height about 6 feet; depth of bookcase about 12 inches’. On the drop leaf table 3 foot square whole a tendency to increased height was general. the gilt metal mounted drop front desk secretaries bookcase differed only from the antique fire screen/folding table bureau bookcase in ‘not being sloped in front’, but gained something of neatness in appearance .Writing facilities were ‘produced by the pierced porcelain bowl face of the where to find brass handles for chest of drawers upper drawer falling down by means of a spring and quadrant’, affording ‘the same usefulness as the 18th century german antique mirrors flap to a desk’. Hepplewhite may perhaps have specialized in this class of furniture.
‘Bedsteads,’ observed the antique furniture armoire compilers of the dining room cabinet designs nouveau Guide ‘may be executed of almost every stuff which the rectangle top pedestal slim loom produces.’ For state rooms they recommended plain or figured silks and satins, and fringed velvets; while the wood carved foot warmer georgian ‘Manchester stuffs’, printed cottons and linens and plain or corded white dimity, ‘with a fringe with a gimp head’, were said to be the art deco cellaret most suitable for use in lesser rooms. the staffordshire pottery jugs with raised design of a deer and a stag material of the antigue carved wood chairs hangings was of first importance. the period corner cupboard drawing several designs for bedsteads given by the brass and marble 2 tier tables firm were characterized mainly by a calculated disposition of curtains and valances. ‘The Valance,’ it was said, ’should always be gathered full, which is called a Petticoat Valance’; and bedposts ,often carved and decorated with reading, were usually fashioned with a plain base, which was covered by the art deco wood chair legs valance. the early 18th century rosewood sofa cornices, ‘either of mahogany, carved and gilt, or painted and japanned’, were in fact rarely of the antique commode – circa 1800’s elaborate nature which the the udell works antique furniture plates suggest. No distinction was made between designs for ‘Cornices or Pelmets for Beds or Windows’, and it was quite usual for the gate leg drop leaf side table windows to be curtained with the chair lion head arm mother of pearl inlay stuff of the antique casket stands bed ‘furniture’, and treated in a similar manner.
‘Press beds’ were not illustrated in the pedestal brass small table Guide, being perhaps insufficiency elegant to merit inclusion. These articles of furniture had been in use for many years. the old chest of drawers walnut firm ‘purposely omitted’ to provide examples, ‘their general A ‘Cornice or Pelmet for Bed or Window; from the marcel franck porcelain perfume 3rd edition of the antique furniture bedroom Guide
appearance varying so little from wardrobes, which they are intended to represent’ as to make the open cupboard designs inclusion unnecessary. ‘The wardrobe has all the dating biscuit porcelain appearance of a Press-Bed; in which case the art deco maple china cabinet upper drawers would be only sham, and formed part of the drop leaf table made by stuart door which may be made to turn up all in one piece, and form a tester; or may open in the antique butler’s tray coffee table from holland middle, and swing on each side; the antique chest of drawers, north carolina under-drawers is useful to hold parts of the english walnut corner cupboard bed-furniture .Boswell slept in ‘a lithe press bed’ in the buffet 1769 marked on handles New Inn at Aberdeen, where accommodation was short: ‘I had it wheeled out into the cherry buffet queen anne philadelphia pa dining-room, and there I lay very well.”
The fitted dressing-table was an extremely useful piece of furniture, and neat in appearance. A characteristic design by Thomas Shearer dated 1788, for one such table was included in the gilt bronze frame french Cabinet-Makers’ London Book of Prices, and is here reproduced. This ‘Lady’s Dressing Table’ was listed at three guineas. the victorian mahogany towel rail glass frames at the neoclassical mahogany bureau cabinet ends, which were optional and which were provided only at an additional cost of a guinea and a half, turned on swivels and were raised by means of weights. Of the rbert hennell helmet jug 1777 eleven drawers in front, five were sham. Shearer has illustrated a straight-fronted table, 33 inches long and 20 inches deep; but the antiques lamps pair man and women tables which were in fact supplied from this design were not necessarily of this size and were variously straight, bow or serpentine fronted. Some tables were veneered at front and sides, some at the gilding wax cire a dorer antique gold or antique front only and others were plain. the antique victorian balloon back chairs charge for veneering was very small - a few shillings Wardrobes, or clothes presses, were more usually constructed with a base of two long and two short drawers -rather taller .The upper stage was fitted with solid doors which enclosed a series of horizontal ‘press shelves’. At this date the regency cabinet grilles ‘hanging’ wardrobe was not in general use, except in so far as the antique wood parts from holland wings of large break front specimens contained hanging accommodation.
A dressing table; from the antique german buffet 2nd edition of Cabinet-Makers’ London Book of Prices, 1793
Sometimes wardrobes were built in the a round knuckle jointed fly bracket to support the leaf of a drop leaf table wall paneling, as at Lord Boston’s house, Hedsor, in the simms brass theodolite neighborhood of Marlow, visited in 1780 by Mrs Lybbe Powys, who remarked: ‘ a new house, which though’ not to be styled large or magnificent, is altogether the tallboy chest of drawers most elegant one I’ve seen for a vast while. My lady’s dressing-room octagon, the porcelain victoria czeche-slovakia corners fitted up with die cleverest wardrobes in inlaid
although. Sheraton, obtaining his information from ‘Mr Biack, Glass Cutter, near the antique porcelain plaques Seven Dials, Long Acre’, stated (1803) those great glasses might be ordered to size (from 36 by 60 inches to 75 by 117 inches, which was the clockmakers 18 century france largest cast) from the 19th century eagle head pommel British Factory, near Black friars.
A pier glass j from the royal worcester gilbert and sullivan 3rd edition of the bedstead Guide

France.
Because France was a more united country at an earlier date, and because many of its kings—not to mention their queens and mistresses—took a keen interest in the victorian rose antiques.com art of furnishing and decor, it is not only possible but right and proper to classify its furniture according to the english regency style sofa names of the antique car selling more important rulers. The less important ones are usually left out of the antique jet jewellery picture, the antique christening gowns periods of furniture being conveniently listed under a few well-known names, with the shaped metal lanterns word ’style’ preceding them.
Thus we have ‘Style Louis XII’ which also covers the antique oscilloscopes reign of his predecessor, Charles VIII, and again, ‘Style Henry II’ which takes in those of the chest the lion next three kings as well. So if you did french history for that Honours Degree you nearly didn’t get, and if you still retain any of it, don’t think I haven’t done my homework if I cheerfully ignore the purchase meissen porcelain count von bruhl tailor existence of two-thirds of the antique makers marks French monarchy. Here we go with the satinwood three pillars first batch. If you are English or American, and seeking a reputation among your friends as an expert on antique furniture—learn them off by heart. No one eise has ever heard of anyone but Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI, and most people have difficulty in discriminating between them when it comes to furniture.
Louis XQ (Early sixteenth Century). Still essentially Gothic, but feeling the antique bookcase edinburgh effects of the antique stanley furniture Renaissance as a result of an unsuccessful French invasion of Italy. The furniture is austere, mostly oak, carefully carved with precise, almost minute detail. You won’t find much, outside museums, but it does demonstrate the antique framed mirror interesting point that, in time past, war had its consoling features. Armies venturing abroad took home with them something besides the antique wood box with words spool thread more unmentionable diseases. Even last time, some of the david dunton antiques boys returned with good German cameras and passable Persian rugs. The French brought something rather better out of Italy in the antique shell cameos letter a, crown, hallmark early 1500’s. They brought the aubusson ebony upholstery fabric Renaissance—and they didn’t even have any cigarettes or gum to trade for it.
Francis I (Mid-sixteenth Century). During this reign, the antique concession stand French thoroughly absorbed these ideas from the antique box music swiss plains of Lombardy, and the harlequin patterns on furniture furniture that resulted, though traditional in form, exhibits a feeling of delicacy which very little work executed north of the raynaud limoges octagonal teapot silver and white Alps had formerly displayed. The rather flat carving of the antique pressed glass patterns Gothic style gave way to a much more detailed treatment in depth. The cabinet with doors on a columnar stand began to take the imperial silver company tea set place of the chamber wash set, 1830 porcelain cruder hutch. The use of inlay, both of contrasting woods and coloured marble, was increasingly used for decoration. A favourite motif, that was to be exploited for some years to come, not only for furniture but for wall-panelling and the antique christies like, was the american empire antique chairs cartouche, carved, painted or inlaid.
This kind of motif is an important element in carved decoration from the oak dresser base narrow late sixteenth Century onwards, especially on Italian, French and German furniture.
Henry (mid-to-late sixteenth Century). Corresponds roughly to the antique pontiacs Elizabethan period in Britain, but shows itself more advanced in its acceptance of Renaissance development. Preoccupation with the seventeenth century pottery scotland jugs architecture of Ancient Rome is marked,
often to a fault, more concern being felt for dignity than for charm. Some of the round gilded resin mirror heavier pieces, such as the mark antiques armoire, take on positively monumental proportions. The example illustrated shows the antique tractor seats persistence of the american indian antique Gothic arch in a design of moulded Baroque decoration, and demonstrates the edwardian chevet slow process of change. The armoire is a form for which I have great respect —even affection. I always champion its cause, if only to defy the small antique card table with round end leaves hilarious and irreverent comments of family and friends, provoked by two examples in my own bedroom at home.
French Provincial Armoire, seventeenth century.
Though belonging to the antique water pitchers Baroque Period, this piece demonstrates the antique ncr cash registers way in which Gothic elements were perpetuated, especially in country-made pieces, well into the antique briggs engine gas stratton seventeenth century.
The larger of the silver thimble 1800 pattern marking on rim two is a biggish article, but I resent the antique german wine dispenser suggestion that, if I were to install electric lighting, I could make a good thing out of letting it furnished. One source of amusement is the antique auto california club modem ball-castors on which I have mounted it; without them, it requires four strong men to move it when empty; with them, it does rather look as though Emmet had designed it for a Punch cover. But it makes a wonderfully commodious wardrobe, with full hanging-length for those long evening-dresses that my wife, perversely, happens not to own, and the antique fauteuil period armchair fact that she has to stand on a stool to reach the antique renaissance bedroom furniture hat-shelf is, after all, a small inconvenience to a woman who seldom wears a hat. When all the antique globes uk jokes have been cracked about it, it’s a thump-ing good piece of furniture that takes up no more room than would a built-in wardrobe, and it cost far less money than is usually spent on such a fitment. I can take it with me if ever I move house—provided I get a gang of workmen to take out the bedside commode cabinet window frames; it won’t go through the newhall english antique porcelain door.
Henry IV (late sixteenth to early seventeenth century). Chiefly remarkable for the chinese ivory jue beginnings, in France, of the carved flower on head and foot boards curving lines of the antique jules jurgensen pocket watch Baroque, and for an act of religious clemency, the antique crucifix for sale Edict of Nantes, which Henry granted in 1598 to his Protestant subjects. This is an important development which had a strong influence on Dutch and English, and ultimately American, furniture, later in the antique beige century.
Louis XIII (early to mid-seventeenth century) saw the slim round coffee table with drop leaf sides gradual working-up of French Baroque into an elaboration of heavy, architectural forms with excessive decoration. The whole effect is often depressing, and the galle nest of tables untutored observer might well be forgiven, when faced with one of the william & mary chest on frame more extreme examples, for thinking it to be a Victorian monstrosity made for some mill-owner’s mansion, about a hundred years ago. This is because Victorian mill-owners had a taste for this sort of thing, and a great deal of heavily carved oak and walnut was manufactured in the barker brothers white provincial furniture nineteenth century to meet their requirements. These pieces were seldom exact copies, authentic ’source-material’, as the antique catalog price guide 1895 clothing paterns archivists call it, being relatively scarce in England. The copyists worked from photographs, sketches, memory, and imagination, and there is no doubt that they succeeded in out-Baroque the victorian rose antique Baroque, which was something of a feat. Genuine or bogus, the antique dining room table and chair more massive pieces of this ‘Style Louis XllV have no place in the table turned leg office antique smaller house; but there is a danger of becoming completely prejudiced against the antique worcester flower pots period as a whole. Some of the antique pot tea smaller items, especially the matching antique chests gossip-chair—cacqueteuse—with its stiffly rounded back, and the antique earthen jug red glazed dole-cupboard with doors composed of rows of turned members, providing ventilation for foodstuffs —such items as these can often provide that touch of slightly mad extravagance that the antique car screensaver otherwise too sober room demands. Continental pieces of this kind blend happily enough with the library writing table trestle desk rather simpler English furniture of the antique bear steiff teddy early-seventeenth Century, and relieve it of the gustavian antiques angular appearance it often has when too much of it is used together.
Louis XIV (mid-seventeenth to early-eighteenth centuries). We are now, I take it, getting on to more familiar ground, and it is probably unnecessary to point out that, Coming to the antiques collector throne in 1643, when he was five years old, and staying there for a solid seventy-two years until he died in 1715, the antique printing press for sale Grand Monarch set up an unbroken European record for throne-sitting. Seventy-two years may not sound a very long time, set against the antique chicago mover whole pattern of history; but when it is kept in mind that, during the antique continental soldier girandole same period, Britain fought a protracted civil war, executed Charles I, endured Cromwell and his son, restored the antique auto manual repair monarchy to Charles II, kicked out James II, invited William of Orange to share the oakwood mortar and pestle throne with his wife Mary, got Blenheim Palace built under Queen Anne and finally settled for the antique pair of 19 th century glazed pottery british figurines House of Hanover, with King George upon the most valuable antique card tables Throne—when one digests the 1917 antique car fact that ail this happened while one king ruled France as an autocrat, then the antique antique power show tractor weight and force of those seventy-two years begin to tell.
On the louis xv furniture made in 1930s arts and crafts they told very heavily indeed, not least on those involving the comedy antique road show creation of fine furniture. Style Louis Quantize may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it had a profound effect on design and technique ail over Europe and over a long period, and it is only too easy to forget that even the antique sewing machine wilcox gibbs things made in conscious reaction to a particular style owe their existence, in a perverse sort of way, to that style. At worst, Louis XIV was a style powerful enough to make it worthwhile to rebel against it, and before you can understand the antique letter opener results of a rebellion, you must know something of the antique bookcase cabinet tyranny that provoked it.
A tyranny of a kind it certainly was. The earlier years of the antique lincoln continental reign were, so far as furniture was concerned, a hangover from
the previous one—Baroque gone mad—but as soon as the antique carolina mall north young king was old enough to exert an influence, it made itself felt in a return to classical discipline, and the antique baby plate warmer more fantastic elements of the antique sheet metal tool Baroque were licked firmly into shape, without one whit of its essential grandeur being sacrificed. After the antique child cupboard painted scandinavian death of Mazarin, who had administered the silver duck spout tea pot affairs of France while the antique sewing machines white king was still a child, Louis established himself as an absolute monarchy, ruling the antique barber chair for sale country and quarrelling with the virginia antique shows rest of Europe from his magnificent headquarters at Versailles. The previous king had used it as a hunting lodge. Louis XIV made it the antique elgin watches most splendid palace in Europe. In all this, as in every department of State, he was advised and assisted by his controller-general, Colbert, who appointed the wind up antique toy monkey painter Charles Le Brun as virtual dictator of the antique andersen window hardware arts.
These two founded the antique wood chamber potty chair Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and also a school of industrial art, which was really a splendid furniture-factory, at Gobelins. Today, we think of it mainly as a centre of tapestry-weaving, but in fact it produced most of the antique bedside cabinets furniture—and there was a great deal of it—for the how to build campaign table use of the antique brass bathroom fixtures king at Versailles.
Le Brun may be regarded as the stickley leopold drop leaf presiding genius of the czecho slovakia grown imperial china period, exploiting the furniture antique pine talents of hundreds of skilled craftsmen to satisfy the antique ford hub cap megalomania of the antiqueradio.com king. Of these, the victorian mahogany sofa couch 1850-1880 best known maker of furniture is Andre Charles Buhl (or Boulle), who perfected a method of overlaying wooden surfaces with a veneer of tortoise-shell, dyed red and intricately inlaid with brass. So skilfully was this work executed that virtually no waste was involved.
Boulle and Contreboulle The black area represents stained tortoiseshell, and the antique majolica plates clear area, brass. The piece of tortoiseshell out out for the value of karpen chair inlaying of the antique tv’s brass motif is itself used as a motif in a brass ground—often on a different article of furniture. Elaborate patterns are thus built up with the antique tureens collector minimum of waste.
It resulted in two compositions, identical but for the antique bottle political soda fact that one was composed of brass inlay on a tortoiseshell ground, and the small work table antiques other of tortoiseshell inlay on a brass ground. The first is called Boulle, the antique time clocks factory second, counter-Boulle (or, in France, contreboulle). It was thus possible to make up pairs of tables and cabinets exhibiting this subtle difference. Contreboulle pieces are regarded by some judges to be inferior to Boulle but the antique collectible new rochester york two results ought to be seen as complementary to each other.
Metal-work played a further part in forming protective mouldings and corner-pieces of gilded bronze, which came to be known as ‘ormolu’ mounts. In the what is a hallrobe reign of Louis XIV, their use was restricted to this protective role, and though they were cast with great attention to detail, it was not until the bulova watches antique following Century that, as we shall see, ormolu assumed a much greater importance in the how to date a antique sofa enrichment of furniture.
Wood itself was often carved and gilded so heavily that it has almost the banjo clocks eli appearance of metal. This is especially true of the antique club golf shaft wood splendid stands made to support cabinets of oriental lacquer, brought to Europe by the antique gun box East India companies from China and Japan. In form, they followed the antique auto owner page Itahan pattern. More will be said of them when we consider their English usage in the sandwich antique mart reign of Charles II, but it is important to remember their popularity in France at a slightly earlier date, and the antique popcorn cart very strong influence that oriental art—not to mention European misconceptions of its real nature—had on Western culture in the antique bakers cabinet seventeenth Century.
It was at this time, too, that veneering in fine woods over a carcase of more common timber was extensively used for the antique japanese black lacquer corner cupboard first time since the antique blue book kelley arts of ancient Rome had dwindled and all but died. Veneering is by no means a modern process for jazzing up the antique garnet ring style glossy walnut bedroom-suites sold by the georgian oak coffer plain english 17c hire-purchase establishments in the antique chest hardware handles High Street, but an honourable technique for beautifying furniture. It involves cutting carefully selected woods with finely figured grain into thin sheets, and laying them down with glue on to a solid surface. Extensions of the duncan phyfe 18th century dining table use of veneer are many, but the gold guard/muff chains most important is the oak barley twist antique tables matching of veneers to form a symmetrical pattern. Thin slices taken from the antique ga show tractor same piece of wood will, obviously, all exhibit the orange circle antique mall same charac-teristics, and by turning them over, twisting them round, and so on, it is possible to make up a design that is perfectly balanced.
Building up a pattern with Veneers The four slices of wood cut from the antique diamond drop earrings same piece of timber all have the antique mosaic jewelry same grain. By turning them this way and that, they are used to make up a symmetrical pattern.

The Netherlands
We have already noted that it was in the antique vintage salt pepper shakers swedish people Low Countries that framed construction for chests and tables was developed in the porcelain loosdrecht -ebay mid-sixteenth Century. There was a powerful tradition of native craftsmanship in the antique wedding veils Netherlands, dating back to the antique surveying equipment middle Ages. Belgium did not exist as an independent State until the selling antique jewellery early nineteenth Century, and what is now Belgium and Holland was divided, at the antique limosines end of the antique roentgen mirrors sixteenth Century and for long after, into the antique rose emporium independence texas Northern and Southern Netherlands. The Northern provinces were Protestant, and the europe antique southern—known as the claw feet two tier table round Spanish Netherlands—were Catholic. (Ail this history, geography and religion may seem of little account to the antique reproductions furniture johnstown pa modem man or woman looking for a table or chair to put in the antique diamond ring uk spare bedroom, but these are the antique stoves ranges factors that decided the italian inlaid antique commode form that the victorian tortoise shell inlay chair table or chair should take.) The net outcome of this confused, war-ridden period of Dutch and Flemish history is that furniture made in the william cummins silver tea caddy Spanish, or Southern, Netherlands shows much more.
Spanish influence than that made in the chairs thonet austria round caned wein United Provinces in the argentina antique furniture north.
This means, in practice, a more florid style, with greater use of carving, and a readier acceptance of the lightolier antique lighting Baroque, in the heritage antique mall columbus southern work. In the turn of the century refectory table north, at least until the antique harp leg table entryway middle of the 19th century wardrobe furniture seventeenth Century, carving was restrained, and decoration was provided by the royal carved lion head chairs used for sale use of rather heavy mouldings arranged geometrically and applied to the antique cognac surface of doors and drawer-fronts with pins and glue. On the dummy waiter or sideboard best quality furniture of the antique and decorative arts first half of the antique leather complete works books seventeenth Century, these mouldings were carved out of the larkin antique desk solid. A very similar style of decoration was currently fashionable in Britain, where we know it by the tripod split pedestal table name of ‘ Jacobean’. Dutch mouldings, however, were rather heavier than the antique dish price guide English.
A characteristic Dutch article of this simple, solid sort is the antique crucifix cupboard. The doors are ‘fielded’—that is
to say, the george iii mahogany astragal glass bookcase panels are bevelled on the lions head coffee table cherry face side, exploiting bevelling as a decorative feature, and not merely as a practical device for making the antique horse carriage edges of the brass trestle hinges panel thinner for fitting into the vintage art and antique frame-work. (When this is the antique cushion cut rings sole consideration, the where can i sell antique books panel is roughly bevelled on the victorian antique buffet with scalloped legs reverse side.) Further decoration is provided by applied lozenges and split prisms. This article is known as a kais, and is typical not only of mid-seventeenth native Dutch work, but also of that made by emigrants from Holland to America.
Dutch influence on early American furniture was doubly strong because of direct emigration and also, directly, the like antiques collecting dust powerful impact on English styles that came about when William of Orange became King of England .
As with the where to find antique glass globes for small bureau lamp furniture of most countries, a distinction has to be drawn between the antique ship’s simpler styles made in the joes antique auto country towns and the antique engine gasoline more elaborate items devised to furnish the scythe antique homes of noble-men and rich merchants. In spite of powerful democratize traditions, this is as true of Holland as of any other country.
Of the antique auto carpenter dan part less pretentious pieces, one of the antique lalique jewelry most popular in Holland over a very long period was the antique bird print dresser. Originally, this article of furniture was simply a side-board with drawers and, sometimes, cupboards below, intended mainly for the antique minton porcelain display of whatever silver plate—or failing silver, then pewter—the proud householder could boast. In the antiquestradegazette.+com seventeenth Century, however, the antique largest mall Dutch East India Company brought blue-and-white porcelain home from China, and it became so popular that the antique eyelet duvet cover little town of Delft, famous for its beer, went over from brewing to pottery as its chief industry. These Delft wares had somehow to be accommodated, and the antique car show hershey pa furniture makers produced wall-racks —still known as Delft-racks—for the antique thomas clock spring alarm movements purpose. The next step was to attach them to the antique china sets pricing guide top of the real lotus leaf under glaze vases dresser as a super-structure. The same story is true of English dressers. The Dutch type usually has cupboards below and often small ones above, set at the tiffany lamps antique ends of the antique minneapolis tractor shelves. This was imitated in English North Country versions. A feature found in the antique gallery tractor Dutch variety only is a domed, or rounded, top to the antique rug rack of shelves.
The ‘Eighty Years War’ against Spanish tyranny ended with victory for Holland in 1648, and the bone china tea no mark second half of the black and brass mirror coffee table Century, though far from trouble-free, saw a growing irnprovement in the dinning table silver country’s fortunes and a consequent demand for finer furniture to meet the antique store insurance needs of a flourishing merchant class. Techniques were developed and acquired by native ingenuity and also from the antique riding toy tractor influx of French Protestant craftsmen escaping religious persecution.
Notably, the antique vintage watch wrist use of solid oak gave way to veneering in walnut, both plain and with marquetry decoration. The Dutch were especially fond of a rather florid style of marquetry, involving bold designs of flowers, foliage and birds. A more compact style followed a little later, composed of an all-over pattern of small and precise scrolls, or arabesques, known as ’seaweed’ marquetry. Both types persisted for a very long time, in Holland.
‘Joined’ stool, early- to mid-seventeenth century, showing correct
positions for dowel-pins.
‘Joined’ stool, showing incorrect positions for dowel-pins.
Bible-box, early seventeenth century type persisting to 1700 and
even later.
Detail of geometrically arranged mouldings for drawer-fronts,
Early-seventeenth century.

French Dressers

A fine Charles II period small antique French dresser, c.1670. The drawers illustrate the geometrical mouldings found on chests of the period  the swan-neck handles are a replacement and simple pear-drops or pulls would have been more likely. The legs show a fine example of Restoration turning with inverted cup and baluster forms. Although the legs finish square in section as though to take stretchers, these were not originally fitted. The top edge surface shows a simple thumb nail moulding and the cornice beneath shows a fine bold concave form.
Another fine larger oak French dresser of c.1680. The drawers show the same form as the previous example, with mitred decorative mouldings, but applied split baluster forms decorate the frame at the sides and between them. The legs show fine column turning of the same form as our gate-leg table illustrated in that section. Again the legs are squared above the turned feet as though to take stretcher joints, but in fact stretchers are only fitted at the side.
A fruitwood French dresser of c.1720 date. The drawers show a simpler form of the earlier moulded panels but the top edge mouldings retain the same form. The cupboard door panels are also moulded with mock drawer fronts in the top half to retain proportion.
A rather more countrified French dresser of c.1720, showing very simple leg turning. The shaped apron with projecting lip moulding follows that of side table styles of the period. The drawer fronts are very simple but there is a form of cock-bead around them on the frame. The top edge has a simple thumb-nail moulding.
Price Range: 140  160
An oak French dresser of c.1725 with upper shelves. The top cornice has an ogee moulding and shaped frieze beneath. The door panels are fielded and shaped, with the solid panel between them repeating this form. The drawers are simple, with no moulding, but the frame around them and the cupboard doors show a simple moulded edge. Note the panelled side to the lower section.
An oak French dresser of c.1725 also, but without the upper structure. The cupboard doors are again fielded and shaped. There is also the same moulded edge form on the frame around doors and drawers. The latter are simple; the handles are not original. Note that the sides are panelled; a form found on chests of drawers of the previous century.
A much simpler and cruder oak French dresser of c1730, with simple single cupboard doors. There is a simple thumb-nail moulding round the top edge and the frame also has a simple moulding around drawers and panel edges.
An oak French dresser of c.1750 period on cabriole legs. The upper part is fitted with three spice drawers, which adds to value. The top edge moulding is rather more sophisticated and the drawers have an ovolo lip moulding around the edge to lap over the carcase frame. The cabriole legs are well shaped ending in a pad foot.
An oak French dresser of c.1750. The top cornice shows a dentillated section in the moulding with a shaped frieze beneath. The side cupboard doors are panelled and moulded. The drawers are cock-beaded and the
swan-neck handles are possibly original. The shaped apron repeats the curves of the top frieze. It is interesting to note the C scroll behind the knee on the cabriole legs  a sign of quality coming from cabrioles of the Queen Anne period.
A cupboarded oak French dresser of c.1760, with fielded panels in doors and drawers. The cupboards on either side of the upper structure have a spice drawer beneath. The whole form of construction dates from a much earlier period, showing how country craftsmen retained these methods long after they were superseded elsewhere.
A later eighteenth century oak French dresser, of c.1′790, with drawers cross-banded in mahogany. The top cornice is well moulded and the row of spice drawers in the upper section adds greatly to value. The cross-banded drawers are cock-beaded and it can be seen that small drawers have been let into the frieze. The ‘gallery’ beneath with its useful floor-level shelf was used for larger kitchen utensils and pots.
Spice drawers
Original handles
A Welsh oak antiqueFrench dresser of last quarter of the eighteenth century. Note that the drawers are cock-beaded and that the shaped central apron reflects a form of much earlier origin. The apron is also cock-beaded like some Queen Anne forms. The panelled or boarded-in back gives a heavier appearance and it is well to remember that many may have had this removed.