'Paintings in Wood'- Marquetry and Parquetry
Towards the end of the Seventeenth Century the highly skilled art of veneering rose in popularity in British furniture-making. An expensive and technical skill, veneering is when thin sheets of wood are glued onto a carcase of wood in order to create striking decorative surfaces. These veneers can be made in a variety of materials including walnut, ivory, tortoiseshell, mother of pearl, and other exotic woods such as ebony, rosewood and satinwood. For information on how to identify these woods please take a look at our blog.
Commonly Found Woods in Antique English Furniture
When buying antique furntiure it is useful to be able to identify the woods used by the cabinet-maker. We have compiled a list of the most commonly found woods in antique English furniture in order to help you recognise wood when purchasing your antiques.
For a full glossary of imported woods used in English furniture please take a look at the extensive list compiled by Edward T Joy in The County Life Book of English Furniture.
The Rise of the Cabinet-maker
Of the antique furniture-making trade's many specialisms and subcategories, which in the eighteenth century ranged from upholsterers and carvers to chair- and bedstead-making, one of the most ''aristocratic'' and respected areas of the profession was the craft of the cabinet-maker. Adept at uniting form, function, spatial ingenuity and highly expensive and laboriously-cut timbers and veneers, the cabinet-maker emerged as the most reveered specialist of the profession during the century.
Do you know the difference between lacquer and japanning?
To the untrained eye lacquer and japanning can appear to be the same. However japanning is a European imitation of lacquer and is less refined.
A buyer's guide to antique desks, bureaux and writing tables.
Explore our buyer's guide to antique desks and writing tables.
Antique and Period Oak Furniture
From the late medieval period up until the 1720s, oak was the dominant timber used in furniture construction in England. The rise of the English furniture industry during these years concurred with the growth of the wool trade; sheep farming spread rapidly, and pastures for grazing were extended further and further across the landscape. They steadily ate into the ancient forests of Dean, Sherwood, Arden, and Epping, to name but a few, and brought about the felling of huge numbers of trees. Giant oaks, a sight all too rare in this day and age, littered the landscape, and found use in furniture construction.
Antique Regency Furniture
Our understanding of antique Regency furniture (c.1800-1835) stems from a handful of surviving houses and their interiors, the most famous of which is Brighton Pavilion, constructed for the Prince Regent from 1787 and finished by John Nash between 1815 and 1822.
Antique Bedroom Furniture
We always stock a large selection of antiques which are useful for decorating a bedroom.
George Hepplewhite, who was he?
George Hepplewhite is the most enigmatic of the triumvirate of famous Georgian furniture designers (Chippendale and Sheraton being the others). Despite there being no known pieces of furniture by Hepplewhite's hand his fame stems from the posthomous publication of The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide in 1788, 2 years after his death in 1786.
Wedgwood Museum to close
'Am I not a Man and a Brother?', cameo released by Josiah Wedgwood in 1787. Image copyright: British Museum.
