TERMS, WORDS, and SLANG Used by Appraisers, Curators, and Dealers in the Trades
  • A Piume (Italian): An internal feather-like decoration of fine filigree.
  • Addorsed, adorsed: A repetitive back-to-back carved or applied decoration of animals, clouds, or some other organic motif often on Chinese furniture.
  • African-American Furniture Makers: Thomas Day (NC), C. Lee (New Orleans), William Coons (MO), Henry Boyd (LA).
  • Air-trap: An air-filled void in glass.
  • Art Deco 1920-1940 American
  • Arts & Crafts 1900-1915 American
  • Anglo-Saxon period (927–1066)
  • Annealing Cycle: The period of time hot glass cures, becomes cold.
  • Annealing: A process for strengthening glass or metal under high temperature which is diminished slowly.
  • Anterior: Forward end or edge, closest: e.g. facing cabinet doors.
  • Anthemion: A pattern of honeysuckle or palm leaves in a radiating cluster, used as a motif in Greek art.
  • Anthony Quervelle (US-French: 1789-1856): Cabinet-maker, Philadelphia from ca.1817, known for ornate mahogany and giltwood pier tables and cabinets often decorated with ormolu mounts mirroring the style of his elite contemporaries in France (Empire) and England (Regency), both are similar very high-styles.
  • Antique: Personal property at least 100 years old. A standard set by U.S. Customs.
  • Applied: An element or component attached to, not carved or extruded from a primary surface.
  • Apposite Value: The value that is pertinent and fully relevant to the appraisal assignment.
  • Approach to Value: The method used to realize an opinion of value.
  • Apron: The facing board, often shaped decoratively, on the bottom of a cupboard between the front legs.
  • Arab Clothing: Want to know what the terms are for clothing traditional Arabs wear, so you won’t sound so goofy when you interact with Arab friends and clients? Here is a visual dictionary.
  • Ark: An English chest, ca.13th-19th centuries, consisting of pegged oak or elm planks and a canted lid used to store flour or meal.
  • Armillary Sphere: A type of astronomical model with solid rings, all circles of a single sphere, used to display relationships among the principal celestial circles.
  • Armorial: Of or relating to heraldry or heraldic arms; e.g. armorial porcelain wares.
  • Assembled Set: Objects of a kind (i.e. chairs) that are not identical which were gathered together to make a set.
  • Astragal Molding: The astragal is a raised bead with a narrow fillet on either side often used as muntins.
  • Aurato (Italian): Gold foil covers the hot gather of glass and breaks into a crackled pattern when the work expands.
  • Aventurine: Translucent glass with sparkling inclusions of gold, copper, or chromic oxide, first made in Venice in the 15th century.
  • Bauhaus 1919-1933
  • Bead: A decorative line, either scratched or raised, on furniture or any other object that provides a decorative effect.
  • Bergère (French): A wide, comfortable upholstered armchair with a curved and fully upholstered back and closed arms, much like a low wing chair in that it envelopes the body.
  • Berkemeyer (German): A type of drinking glass with a funnel-shaped mouth. It was made in Germany and the Low Countries in the 16th and 17th centuries.
  • Bisque: A color ranging in various industries from moderate yellowish pink to grayish yellow.
  • Block-front: Refers to the anterior surface of a cased furniture piece that has drawers with protruding edges. These drawers are often carved.
  • Bombé: A cased furniture piece that bulges.
  • Bonheur du jour (French): Literally “daytime delight”. A type of lady’s writing desk.
  • Book-matched veneers: The assembling of wood veneers from the same flitch so that successive sheets are alternated face up and face down. In figured wood, side-by-side sheets show a symmetrical mirror image about the joints between adjoining sheets.
  • Boteh: A pear-shaped device often used in Oriental rug designs similar to a Paisley figure.
  • Bow-front: Refers to the anterior surface of a cased furniture piece with a convex curve.
  • Braganza Foot: Named after Queen Catherine of Braganza, the English King’s (Charles II) Spanish wife in the 17th century, this rectilinear scrolled and ribbed foot replaced the William & Mary bun foot.
  • Breech: The rear end of a barrel on a firearm which houses the chamber containing the charge.
  • Bretstuhl (German): A four-legged chair with a single board backrest, no arms, and lateral narrow boards fixed to batons to which the splayed legs are attached.
  • British Arts & Crafts Period: 1880-1910.
  • Broken Pediment: A pediment with sloping or curving sides that terminate before reaching the apex; also broken-apex pediment.
  • Bull’s-eye Factor: Value is usually greater the closer one gets to an object’s point of origin. Weakness in demand increases concentrically away from an object’s point of origin, like rings on a target.
  • Bullicante (Italian): Air bubbles placed in a regular pattern within the glass; the surface is smooth.
  • Butt Hinge: A hinge composed of two plates attached to abutting surfaces of a door.
  • Cable: A stem with a rope-like appearance.
  • Canne (Italian): In glass-making, sections of glass rods cut from the end.
  • Caroline era (1625–1649)
  • Cased Furniture: Furniture pieces with doors, shelves, lids, or drawers which are designed to store.
  • Cased Glass: Two or more layers of different colored glass blown one over the other, sommerso.
  • Cavetto (Italian): The area between the tondo and the rim on a dish.
  • Celery: A stem or handle with vertical ribbing like a celery stalk.
  • Chalice: A gold, silver, or silver gilt goblet or cup for wine.
  • Chapter Ring: The dial around the face of a clock on which the numerals are situated.
  • Checking: The cracks that develop naturally in wood secondary to drying.
  • Chinese Federal Period (1911-1949). The Republic of China.
  • Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
  • Chinese Modern Period (1949 – ). The Peoples Republic of China.
  • Chinese Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
  • Chinoiserie: (shēn-wäz-rē), A style in art reflecting a Chinese or Japanese influence through the use of elaborate decoration and intricate patterns.
  • Chip-carved: A decorative or utilitarian wooden object embellished with repetitive tool or knife chips so as to render a pleasing aesthetic effect. Tramp art is often so decorated.
  • Claymore (Gaelic): Originally a large broadsword, ca.15th-17th centuries, with a cross-hilt wielded with both hands by Scottish mercenaries. Today, the same term is used for a rectilinear curved antipersonnel mine.
  • Cluthra Glass: A two-layered glass with small bubbles and powdered glass trapped
    between the layers.
  • Cock Bead: A raised line for decorative purposes, usually straight.
  • Coif: An embroidered close-fitting cap worn by women and men alike in the 17th century.
  • Cold Colors: Pigments applied as decoration to glass by cold painting.
  • Cold Painting: The technique of decorating an object by applying paint such as artists use on other materials. This is in contrast to enameling, in which powdered glasses of various colors are fused to the surface by heating.
  • Cold-Worked: Glass modified without the use of heat, i.e. ground, cut.
  • Concertina Action: A mechanical mechanism sometimes found in English and Irish gaming table but rarely in American versions whereby the frieze is hinged to collapse inward on itself as the top folds over to double.
  • Crenelated: Having a contiguously notched or  indented rim, wall, or edge.
  • Cristallo (Italian): A type of clear and transparent glass similar to rock crystal.
  • C-scroll: A roll-top desk with a quarter-lune tambour door.
  • Cullet: Melted glass.
  • Curule Chair: A seat with heavy curved legs and no back, reserved for the use of the highest officials in ancient Rome.
  • Cutlass: A short, single-edged, curved broad sword typically used aboard naval vessels where space is confined.
  • De Stijl 1917-1928
  • Deal: A type of European pine tree with wood that is similar to heart pine.
  • D-end: An extension table that has ends with rounded corners.
  • Diminutive: Smaller than regular size but not miniature.
  • Divvy (slang noun): One who has the divine ability to detect quality when others are oblivious.
  • Divvy (slang verb): To divvy is to detect quality, rarity, or some other value attribute with one’s divine ability.
  • Drawn Stem: The stem of a drinking or serving vessel that is drawn out from the main gather rather than formed from a separate gather and then applied.
  • Eames Furniture: RE article: “Charles Eames (1907-78) and Ray Eames (1912-88) gave shape to America’s twentieth century. Their lives and work represented the nation’s defining social movements: the West Coast’s coming-of-age, the economy’s shift from making goods to the producing information, and the global expansion of American culture. The Eameses embraced the era’s visionary concept of modern design as an agent of social change, elevating it to a national agenda. Their evolution from furniture designers to cultural ambassadors demonstrated their boundless talents and the overlap of their interests with those of their country. In a rare era of shared objectives, the Eameses partnered with the federal government and the country’s top businesses to lead the charge to modernize postwar [WWII] America.” Library of Congress.
  • Edwardian era (1901–1910)
  • Egg Tempera: A painting process in which the color is bound with egg instead of oil.
  • Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun (French: 1755-1842): Is recognized as the most famous woman painter of the eighteenth century.
  • Elizabethan era (1558–1603)
  • ENGLISH PERIODS OF STYLE
  • Erotic: Doing it on the hood of your car in the garage.
    Escritoire (French): A flat writing desk with a back section for books.
  • Estoppel (law term): A bar preventing one from making an allegation or a denial that contradicts what one has previously stated as the truth.
  • Art Deco 1920-1940 European
  • Art Nouveau 1890-1910 European
  • Exlibris: A former library book.
  • Fall-front: A central feature on a secretary that swings out toward the operator to provide a horizontal surface for writing.
  • Ferrous Metal: Iron and steel.
  • Fine Art: Either a single unique example or an edition of no more than 200 identical pieces that are signed and numbered by the artist – The Visual Arts Rights Act of 1990 (VARA).
  •  Finials and Pendants: Finials are vertical decorative termini (i.e. topping lampshades) and pendants are inverted decorative termini (i.e. under-hung fretwork on a table frieze).
  • Fire-back: A heavy cast-iron or wrought iron plate placed against the back wall of a hearth to protect the masonry and reflect heat.
  • Firescreen: A portable device to shield people from the heat of an open fire.
  • First-Growth Wood or Timber: Typically the lumber rendered from full-grown trees that were present when the Europeans first set foot in the New World. These boards are very wide, the grain dense and beautiful. Heart pine is usually this virgin wood.
  • Fleur-de-lis: A stylized design of an iris flower which is used both decoratively and symbolically.
  • Flitch: A longitudinal cut section from the trunk of a tree.
  • Floriform: Formed like flora, plants.
  • Foliate: Floriform.
  • Folk Art: Objects de art created by skilled untrained hands.
  • Footring: An separate or protruding ring of the same material upon which a vessel rests.
  • Frass: The powder residue created by powderpost beetles.
  • Frass: The saw dust residue created by a wood boring insect.
  • Furisode (Japanese): Literally translates as swinging sleeves. Furisode are the most formal kimono for unmarried women, with colorful patterns that cover the entire garment. They are usually worn at coming-of-age ceremonies and by unmarried female relatives of the bride at weddings and wedding receptions. RE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono.
  • George E. Ohr (American: 1857-1918): A studio potter from Biloxi, Mississippi, known for making irregular forms with iridescent glazes during the Arts & Crafts Period.
  • Georgian Period: (1714–1830)
  • Gesso: Plaster.
  • Gilding: The technique of applying gold leaf as a decorative finish or flourish, to gild.
  • Gilt: Gold leaf. (Also, interestingly enough to be mentioned, a young sow yet to farrow.)
  • Gimlet Nail: A relatively modern round wire nail.
  • Girandole (French from the Italian: jĭr’ən-dōl’): An ornamental branched candleholder backed by a mirror.
  • Glazed: Refers to glass in doors or frames.
  • Gold Tooling: Applied decoratively embossed gold leaf embellishments on leather.
  • Graining: The skilled application of paint in a purposeful manner to a lesser value wood to make it resemble a greater value wood.
  • Greek Key: A repetitive motif in the shape of a key.
  • Greene & Greene: A Pasadena California architectural firm (1894-1922) that specialized in fine quality bungalow style house designs and their decorative interior elements, and Arts & Crafts style furniture. The firm was established by brothersCharles Sumner Greene (1868-1957) and Henry Mather Greene (1870-1954).
  • Guéridon (French): A small, movable table of Continental origins, often used as a lamp or candle stand.
  • Hammer Price: The final bid at auction excluding any associated fees or commissions.
  • Hard Image: A type of photograph not on paper or celluloid, but on hard materials known as daguerreotypes (copper),ambrotypes (glass), or tintypes (tin).
  • Harigaki (Japanese): A decorative lacquer-work technique involving the use of a needle to scratch a lacquered surface before the object is dry.
  • Heart Pine: Refers to the densest center-cut planks from first-growth yellow pine trees.
  • High Country Furniture: Furniture made in the back country by a skilled craftsman with the intent to simulate the more formal styles of his urban contemporaries.
  • Hōmongi (Japanese): Literally translates as visiting wear. Characterized by patterns that flow over the shoulders, seams and sleeves…. Hōmongi may be worn by both married and unmarried women. Often friends of the bride will wear hōmongi at weddings (except relatives) and receptions. They may also be worn to formal parties.RE:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono.
  • Honey Gilding: The technique of applying a gilt finish or flourish consisting of fixing gold leaf with honey to decorative objects. After lightly firing, the gilt is softer and somewhat duller.
  • Huanghuali Wood: A type of extinct yellow rosewood once found in China now highly prized by collectors.
  • Inferior: At the bottom, lowest point: e.g. the feet on a chest.
  • Interwar Period: (1918–1939)
  • Istoriato (Italian): A story painting on Italian majolica ware.
  • Ivrene: Translucent art glass that is ivory-colored bearing a slight iridescence.
  • Jacobean Period (1603–1625)
  • Jambiyah (Arabic): A type of double-edged curved blade knife found throughout Arab world.
  • Japonaiserie: Like chinoiserie but Japanese.
  • Jelly Safe: A case furniture piece with punch-decorated tins on the sides; used as a food storage cabinet for canned goods (Mason jars) when canning was a major seasonal chore accomplished periodically in bulk. Not all jelly safes have tins.
  • Jet: Black lignite. Often used in Victorian mourning jewelry.
  • John Edwards (Boston: 1671-1746): Founder of the Edwards silversmith dynasty that included his sons Samuel (1705-1762) and Thomas (1701-1750) and his grandson Joseph.
  • Karelain Burl: Decorative burl wood often used in furniture.
  • Kas: A large cupboard used for storing clothes with its origins in The Low Countries and Germany. Immigrants from Europe brought the form to the New World.
  • Kerf: A cut made with a saw or knife. Kerfing is in simple terms the act of cutting a series of kerfs (cuts) into a board, all in close proximity, so the piece can be made to curve.
  • Knop: A component, usually spherical or oblate, of the stem of a drinking glass, hollow or solid, used either singly or in groups, and placed contiguously or with intermediate spacing; also the finial at the center of a lid.
  • Lambrequin Knee: The knee on a table leg carved in the manner of the ornamental drapery by the same name which typically adorns the top of a window or shelf.
  • Langerhaunbird (German): A type of Alpine grouse often depicted in silver or on porcelain.
  • Lappet: A rectilinear band of high quality lace which were hung in pairs from the back of ladies’ fashionable lace caps in the 18th century.
  • Lehnware: A type of treen made by Joseph Lehn from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
  • Lights: Panes of glass within a door or window.
  • Line Bead: An incised line for decorative purposes, straight or shaped.
  • Linocut: Similar to a woodcut, but the tool-worked medium is linoleum.
  • List: A narrow strip, especially of wood; a narrow border, fillet, or molding; a border or selvage of cloth; (verb) what a marine vessel does when it leans to one side.
  • Listed Artist: Any artist that appears in the on-line databases that feature auction results.
  • Loper: A slide-out board, usually bilateral, that supports a writing surface.
  • Lost Wax Casting: A technique adapted from metalworking. The object to be fashioned in glass is modeled in wax and encased in clay or plaster that is heated. The wax melts and is released through vents or “gates,” also made of wax, which have been attached to the object before heating; the clay or plaster dries and becomes rigid. This then serves as a mold, into which molten or powdered glass is introduced through the gates. If powdered glass is used, the mold is heated in order to fuse the contents. After annealing the mold is removed from the object, which is then finished by grinding, fire polishing, or acid etching.
  • Made: Slang for Antiques that have been drastically altered from a lesser value form to a greater value form for the purpose of enhancing marketability. Also, a reproduction made from scratch using antique materials, period tools, and period methods in order to achieve a product that has greater market demand. These “made” pieces can be but are not always designed to deceive.
  • Manual Typewriter: A non-electric typewriter is a manual typewriter.
  • Marbling: The decorative application of paint to resemble marble, hence faux marble tops, on furniture. Also used for decorating books.
  • Mechanical Bank: Similar in function to a still bank but with an additional feature that actually moves the coin into the saving slot in one swift motion.
  • Mercury Gilding: The technique of applying a gilt finish or flourish consisting of gold and mercury to decorative objects.
  • Mihrab: A prayer niche within a mosque often represented in Oriental prayer rugs by an arch.
  • Mill Saw Marks: Parallel, relatively straight lines made against the grain in wood caused by a straight saw blade driven by power other than a human arm.
  • Modern Britain: 1945-Present
  • Molesworth Furniture: Rustic western (U.S.) style furnishings made by the Shoshone Furniture Company started by Thomas C. Molesworth.
  • Motif: A distinct design or component thereof.
  • Mule Chest: A case furniture piece with a hinged-lid blanket box over drawers. Blanket boxes developed first. Chests of drawers developed later. The mule chest was a transitional form comprising both features, in effect a hybrid, as is the offspring of a horse and donkey – a mule, hence mule chest.
  • Muntins: The wooden stays within a window or door frame in which panes of glass are mounted.
  • Muraqqá [Mughal]: A Muraqqá is an album of artwork which predominated in the sixteenth century in the Safavid, Mughal and Ottoman empires. Pages were decorated with painting and calligraphy on paper.
  • Niello: A hard black alloy comprising copper, lead, silver, and sulfur used to fill engraved designs on silver pieces thereby providing a decorative contrast. The Russians are particularly adept at this art form.
  • Norman Period (1066–1154)
  • Obi: A waist sash worn with a kimono.
  • Obscene: Doing it on the hood of your car in the garage with the door open.
  • Openwork: A surface with sections removed completely through for decorative effect; common in chair splats and silver serving pieces.
  • Original Condition: See untouched.
  • Ormolu Mounts: Decorative ornate metal elements, typically gilt bronze or brass, applied to furniture.
  • Orrery: A planetarium.
  • Ovolo: A round, quarter section of a circle.
  • Oxbow-front: Refers to the anterior surface of a cased furniture piece with two convex curves flanking a concave one.
  • Pap Boat: A small flat 18th century invalid feeder with a spout used to serve a mixture of milk and bread.
  • Pap: A bread and milk mixture used to feed invalids.
  • Parcel Gilt: Any article partly decorated with gilt.
  • Pewter: An alloy of tin and lead often with small amounts of copper and antimony.
  • Picker: One who supplies another with antique or vintage merchandise.
  • Pie Safe: A case furniture piece with punch-decorated tins on the front or on the front and the sides; used as a food storage cabinet when baking was a major chore accomplished once a week in bulk.
  • Pintle Hinges: A stationary cylindrical male part upon which the female hinge part pivots. Sometimes referred to as “loose-pin hinges”.
  • Planetarium: A complex, hand-cranked brass instrument that demonstrates the motions of the planets with their respective moons, supported on a central pilaster resting on a tripod cabriole leg base, orrery.
  • Plantagenet period (1154–1485)
  • Posterior: In the back, the farthest away:  e.g. backboards on a cupboard.
  • Pricket: A candlestick made of bronze, brass, copper, or sometimes Limoges enamel which has a spike atop the capital on which the candle is impaled.
  • Primary Surface: The finished surfaces on furniture clearly visible with doors closed.
  • Pyriform: Shaped like a pear.
  • Qilin (Chinese): A hoofed Chinese chimerical (fanciful mythical) creature known throughout various East Asian cultures. It is said to appear sometimes with the arrival of a sage. Considered a good omen, it brings rui (serenity or prosperity). It varies in form, but is often depicted as a fiery deer with scales and an ox-like tail. Westerners sometimes refer to it as a “Chinese unicorn.” Often it is carved into hardwood furniture or applied as decoration to metal and ceramic objects d’art.
  • Raffia: Course fibers from the Giant Palm or Rafia (Raphia australis) used in weaving and ornamentation.
  • Rail: A horizontal element comprising furniture; i.e. bed rails, chair rails, etc.
  • Reciprocal Border: A border comprised of shapes that mirror one another: > < 》《 ╣╠
  • Refraichessoire (French): A tiered stand on casters with a full or half marble top holding inset buckets for ice in order that the occupants of a room may self-serve themselves libations without outside interruption.
  • Restoration era (1660–1800)
  • Ricasso: The unsharpened portion of the sword or knife blade near the hilt.
  • Rinceau (French): A continuous wavy or spiral ornament of acanthus leaves or vines.
  • Rive: To split. Oak and ash woods are rived to make splints for weaving baskets or chair seats.
  • Ruyi (Chinese): A curved decorative object often carved into a motif on Chinese furniture that represents a ceremonial scepter in Chinese Buddhism.
  • Sabots: Derived from the wooden shoes worn in the low countries, ormolu mounts on furniture feet.
  • Salor / Salyr: A tribe in south Turkmenistan. Salor is the western trade name for the Salyr peoples who are one of the original tribes of the Ohguz confederation.
  • Salver: A silver tray with feet.
  • Samuel Yellin (Polish-American: 1885-1940): Master blacksmith based in Philadelphia.
  • Sang de Boeuf (French for ox blood): A brilliant red or plum-colored glaze used on Chinese monochromatic Kangxi wares.
  • Saqqā-kāna School of Art: The term saqqā-ḵāna was first used to refer to a contemporary art movement in Iran in 1962. It was initially applied to painting and sculpture which used existing elements from votive Shiʿite art. It gradually came to be applied more widely to art works that used traditional-decorative elements. [Source: www.iranica.com]
  • Satin Finish: In glass making, a satin finish is achieved by dipping a piece in acid; also matte finish.
  • Scalp Level School of Art: “Scalp Level is an area near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where Paint Creek and Little Paint Creek converge. George T. Hetzel (American: 1846-1912) was so taken with the beauty of the woodlands he witnessed there while on a fishing trip in 1866 that he convinced his colleagues, with whom he taught at the Pittsburgh School of Design, to accompany him on a painting jaunt the following summer. Groups of artists and students returned to the area with Hetzel more or less regularly; thus was born the Scalp Level School. Today the overlook off PA Route 56 frames a distinctive landscape: a drift mine, a coal town, and a pile of coal refuse, legacies of the industrial 20th Century. A current visitor to the Mine 40 Overlook might be amazed to learn that this valley, once-pristine, inspired an entire genre of American art 150 years ago. Traveling by train and then horse and carriage, the artists would come to Scalp Level and set up outdoor studios in the wooded hills and along the banks of Paint Creek. There they would record for posterity what they saw.” RE:http://www.wolfsfineart.com/biographies2.htm
  • Scope of Work: Steps that comprise the extent of the work assignment.
  • Scribe Marks: Visible thin scratches or pencil lines left by a measuring tool called a scribe.
  • Scrimshaw: Scratched decorations on ivory or bone highlighted in black (soot) or brown (tobacco juice) typically made by sailors while at sea to pass the time.
  • Seat Furniture: Furniture on which one sits – chairs, benches, sofas, etc.
  • Seat Rail: The horizontal jointed structural members comprising the seat of a chair.
  • Secondary Market: Auctions, flea markets, antiques shops, yard sales, thrift stores, etc.
  • Secondary Surfaces: The unfinished surfaces on furniture within, under, and in back.
  • Secrétaire à Abattant (French): A tall French writing cabinet with a fall front in the middle of the case below a shallow drawer at the superior and above low cabinet doors.
  • Secrétaire à abattant (French): A writing desk with a fall-front that swings toward one to reveal a fitted array of cubbies and small drawers. It typically is supported on four tall turned or cabriole legs.
  • Secrétaire à Abattant (French): A writing desk with a fall-front that swings toward one to reveal a fitted array of cubbies and small drawers. It typically is supported on four tall turned or cabriole legs.
  • Serpentine-front: Opposite an oxbow front.
  • Sgraffito (Italian): Refers to scratching a decorative design through a surface coat to reveal a different color below; usually a potter’s technique employed on ceramics.
  • Shop-made: Slang for metalwork made in a blacksmith’s shop.
  • Shou (Chinese) Character: A Chinese symbol of longevity and happiness.
  • Silvering: A technique for decorating furniture, frames, and woodwork with silver leaf.
  • Sinumbra Lamps: A type of fluid lamp that does not cast a shadow because its reservoir is away from its flame.
  • Size Gilding: The technique of painting a gilt flourish on porcelains in gold size or animal glue when partially dried.
  • Skean Dhu (Gaelic): A small, straight, dirk-like knife worn at the top of the hose in Highland dress beginning in the Victorian era.
  • Skep: A woven straw or wicker beehive.
  • Skin (slang verb): To remove the original surface of a furniture piece down to fresh wood rendering as much as 95% of its value void.
  • Skinned: The colloquial term used to describe furniture so severely removed of its valuable original finish and patina as to render it essentially worthless to aficionados.
  • Skirt: The boards on a table under the top, sometimes shaped decoratively, that form the undercarriage; also frieze.
  • Slant-front: An inclined central feature on a secretary that swings out toward the operator to provide a horizontal surface for writing; sometimes referred to as a fall front.
  • Slat: The horizontal component in the backrest of a chair, often a shaped flat board with openwork. Also, the cross-support boards under a mattress or boxspring.
  • Slipware: Pottery with coating of fine liquefied clay often decorated with designs.
  • Smalls: Refers to small antiquevintage, or collectible merchandise, i.e. glassware, silver, etc.
  • Snipe Hinges: Cotter pin hinges.
  • Spelter: Zinc.
  • Splash: The vertical component, either a board or marble slab, that is attached to the top of a case furniture piece (i.e. sideboard, washstand, etc.) in the back; it sometimes will have flanking candle shelves.
  • Splat: The central vertical component in the backrest of a chair, often a shaped flat board with openwork.
  • Splint: Rived woven wooden strips comprising the chief component of baskets; sometimes chair seats.
  • Squab: A thick soft cushion. Also, a newly hatched or unfledged pigeon.
  • S-scroll: A roll-top desk with a serpentine tambour door.
  • Standing Proud: As wood ages around a tenon, it shrinks. The result is a tenon that protrudes from the mortise. This phenomenon can be detected in other features as well.
  • Stile: A vertical post on case furniture or a leg on seat furniture.
  • Still Bank: A type of storage container for saving coins typically made of cast iron, tin, or ceramic materials. There is usually a slot in which the coins are passed by hand. Piggy banks are still banks.
  • Stretcher: A horizontal cross member between legs on furniture implemented to provide strength.
  • Stringing: An inlaid line on furniture of contrasting color. Usually a contrasting wood type but can also be sulfur, brass, or ivory. Paint can simulate this effect.
  • Stuart Period (1603–1714)
  • Studio Art Glass Movement: A movement that began in the United States in the 1960s and has spread all over the world. It is characterized by the proliferation of glass artists who are not affiliated with factories, but work with hot glass in their own studios. The emergence of independent glass artists was made possible by Harvey Littleton and Dominick Labino’s development in 1962 of a small furnace and easy-to-melt glass.
  • Sumac Weaving: In rug-making, a technique creating a flat surface.
  • Summer Kitchen: In the old days before air conditioning, cooking and baking were accomplished daily in the summertime in an ancillary kitchen located adjacent to a manor house in a separate building. This kept the main house from overheating. As one would expect, the additional heat was welcome during the cooler seasons so cooking was then done in the main house.
  • Superior: At the top, highest point: e.g. a finial atop a table lamp.
SURNAMES
  • Cartwright: A tradesman named after his occupation, a maker of carts or wagons.
  • Chandler: A maker of candles.
  • Chandler: One who makes or sells candles; a retailer of specific goods, a ship’s chandler.
  • Collier, Colyer, Calyer: A tradesman named after his occupation, coal hauling or shoveling.
  • Cooper: A tradesman named after his occupation, barrel making.
  • Draper: A tradesman named after his occupation, cloth merchant.
  • Fisher: A fisherman by trade.
  • Ford: A tradesman named after the service he provides, river crossing.
  • Glazier: A tradesman named after his occupation, installing glass into windows and doors.
  • Hackney: A tradesman who drives a coach; today we call them taxis.
  • Hanger: A tradesman named after his occupation, wallpaper hanger.
  • Hunter: A tradesman named after his occupation, hunting.
  • Jager (German): A hunter by trade.
  • Miller: A tradesman named after his occupation, milling grain for bread.
  • Porter: A tradesman named after his occupation, carrying.
  • Saddler: A tradesman named after his occupation, making saddles.
  • Sawyer: A tradesman named after his occupation, one who saws wood.
  • Sexton: A blue collar employee of a church charged with ringing the bells, daily upkeep, and sometimes grave digging.
  • Shipwright: A tradesman named after his occupation, the maker of ships.
  • Skinner: A tradesman named after his occupation, skinning animals.
  • Smith: A tradesman who fashions a product from raw materials, e.g. blacksmith (steel), silversmith, etc.
  • Tanner: A tradesman named after his occupation, tanning animal hides.
  • Taylor: A tradesman named after his occupation, maker of clothes.
  • Thatcher: A tradesman who creates roofs from laying down rush or palm fronds.
  • Turner: A tradesman who turns wood or metal on a lathe, e.g. table legs, spokes, spindles, etc.
  • Verger: One who carries the verge or other emblem of authority before a scholastic, legal, or religious dignitary in a procession.
  • Weaver: A tradesman named after his occupation, the weaving of textiles.
  • Wheeler: A tradesman named after his occupation, a maker of wheels for carts or wagons.
  • Wright: A tradesman who makes certain objects, e.g. wagons, carts, sleds, ships, boats, etc.
  • Carder, Carter: A tradesman that uses a wire brush to straighten tangles fibers, e.g. wool, cotton, flax, hemp.
  • Fuller: A tradesman that gathers folds in cloth garments.
  • Sutherland Table: A wooden table with two drop leaves that nearly reach the floor, hinged from a very narrow central section top. When it is folded down it occupies very little space, but provides a large usable surface when open.
  • Swill Privilege: Once upon a time pigs were allowed to range loose in towns as mobile garbage disposals. The farmers who owned the pigs held the permit or permission of the town’s folk to let their pork roam. What the pigs ate was called swill, hence “swill privilege”.
  • Tambour Door: A rolling front or anterior door on a desk or table consisting of narrow strips of wood glued to canvas.
  • Tazza (Italian): A silver tray elevated on a central pedestal.
  • Teapoy: A small tripod stand or table designed for the storage and mixing of tea.
  • Teinturier: Any red- or rose-colored juice from a grape.
  • Terracotta (Italian): Literally ‘fired clay’, terracotta is a red earthenware clay left unglazed.
  • The Grand Tour: A continental European tour comprised of a visit to the major capitals beginning with Paris and ending in Italy for the purpose of completing one’s education. This was a sort of rite of passage especially for young English gentlemen that had its origins in the 16th century probably because part of France was occupied by the Brits.
  • The Interregnum (1649–1660)
  • The McKinley Tariff Act 1890: Required imports to be marked with the name of their country of origin.
  • Tight Seat: A seat on upholstered furniture designed to be without a loose cushion.
  • Tilt-top: A candlestand or tea table with a top that tilts on a hinge from the horizontal plane to vertical.
  • Tondo (Italian): The central part of a dish.
  • Tool Marks: Telltale marks of any kind left in a surface by a tool that was directed by the hand of the maker.
  • Tramp Art: During the Great Depression (1930s) many men were out of work. They road the rails around the country trying to find employment. In their spare time while sitting around campfires the more capable would use pen knives to whittle discarded wooden apple or orange crates into decorative utilitarian objects, like trinket boxes, and then barter them for a meal or lodging. Often these pieces were chip-carved. Today, tramp art is sought by collectors. The more elaborate examples can be quite valuable.
  • Traveler: A tool to measure length in cabinetmaking or linear distance when surveying.
  • Treen: Cookware, tableware, and table utensils fashioned from wood.
  • Trefoil: A three-lobed Gothic motif similar to a three-leaf clover. ♣
  • Trifid: Divided or cleft into three narrow parts or lobes.
  • Trumeau Mirror: A mirror having a painted or carved panel above or below the glass in the same frame.
  • Tudor Period: (1485–1603)
  • Union Case: A thermoplastic container ca.1840s-1870s, usually black or brown in color, typically square or rectilinear but sometimes round or oval, with a decorative pressed motif on the back and front, that opens on hinges to reveal one or twodaguerreotypeambrotype, or tintype photographs within.
  • Untouched: Original condition as if recently departed from the maker’s hand but inclusive of patina consistent with time.
  • Verdigris (French): The green oxidation on copper and brass.
  • Vermiform: Having a long thin cylindrical form like that of a worm.
  • Vernacular Furniture: Furniture constructed in a simple, less sophisticated manner but not necessarily in the country; urban makers made vernacular furniture, too.
  • Victorian Period: (1837–1901)
  • Wall Show: Usually an up-scale antiques show where each booth has had walls erected for displaying fine art and antiques. Typically the walls are covered with paper.
  • Whistle Walk: Usually a covered walkway leading from the summer kitchen to the manor house on which servants walked carrying freshly cooked food. Servants were forbidden to partake of their burdens and, to prevent delectable transgressions, they were required to whistle as they walked, hence, whistle walk. Whistling and chewing are incompatible simultaneous actions.
  • Widow’s Walk: A railed area atop a house located near a seacoast on which women would scout for their seafaring loved ones’ return.
  • Wiener Werkstätte (ca.1902-1932): A Viennese workshop founded by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser that lead to a craftsman association that produced a variety of home furnishings in a distinct design known today as progressive.
  • World War I (1914–1918)
  • World War II (1939–1945)
  • Wycinank(Polish): Papercuttings.