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17th century Antiques

Submitted: 07/07/2013 19:06:00

Following the 17th century the earliest accessories to drawers and doors were wooden knobs. Iron handles were used followed by the end of the century by brass. The pear shaped drop handle was favoured at this time.

Walnut was used as veneer and in the solid, great quantities being imported. Chests of drawers in veneered walnut were inlaid with holly, boxwood and sycamore. The style was far removed from that of oak. Chairs were more fragile and much lighter sometimes based on French and Italian styles. There were different types of feet on chairs, club, scrolled, ball-and-claw, hoof shaped. High-backed luxurious settees some with lavish embroidery, and rich upholstered stools with drop-in seats came to the fore. In the 1690's corner cupboards made their first appearance.

In 1709 walnut supplies were scarce due to a harsh winter. Eventually the foreign governments disallowed its export. Mahogany was thus used as a substitute to walnut. Those who worked in wood preferred mahogany as it did not mark easily, was very strong,polished easily, did not warp or crack easily, and proved to be resistant to woodworm which had proved to eat its way through walnut.

The first record of the Windsor chair appeared in 1724 and from approximately 1700 pine imported from America was an important supplier of this timber. It is said that the best pine furniture was made before about the middle of the 19th century. There is not much recollected before approximately 1780. This furniture took on a very distinctive character.

The use of woods such as rosewood, amboyna, and calamander became the norm during the Regency furniture period. Rosewood was used in bulk and in the solid and was very popular wood until the 1860's although it had been used between approximately 1660 and 1685. It is a strong-looking unmistakable wood with black streaking and proved well suited to the phase of Regency furniture.

in 1815 French polishing was discovered. French polish is shellac dissolved in spirit which gives an almost instant durable gloss far more impressive than with beeswax, turpentine and oils. Typical pieces of furniture of the Regency period were smaller items such as nests of tables, work tables with suspended bags, and cheval mirrors. Tea-caddies were often of sarcophagus shape and during the Regency period were known as a teapoy. However, one of the most important and useful pieces of furniture which took on many variations from 1795 was the Davenport desk which was neat , compact and with drawers at one side and dummy drawers at the other and often with an ornate brass gallery.

Whether the couch was ornate or simple it went under a variety of names - chaise-longue, recamier, confidante, veilleuse, duchesse or rest-bed or day-bed.

In 1834 iron furniture was being manufactured mostly as hall-stands and garden furniture, however the cast-iron bed proved cheap, and hygienic and very functional. And by 1870 the wooden bed was certainly out of date. Elaborate brass beds with twisted rails, knobs and intricate tracery were all the rage and usually strengthened with iron.

Most Victorian furniture made good sense. The balloon-back chair was gently curved giving maximum comfort and was the standard dining-room and drawing-room chair until approximately 1870. The cameo-back and camel-back chairs enabled women of the 1850's in their wide-spreading crinolines to sit more comfortably. This was due to their being low with short legs and with small arms. Another chair which had been invented at this time was the prie-dieu or vesper which was similar inasmuch as the high-back chair of Charles II. However it was unmistakably Victorian and ideal for prayers and were furnished with Berlin woolwork.

At the time the piano proved to be an extremely popular piece of furniture and often the centre piece of a room. 'Cottage' pianos often had an ornate fretted front with a curtain behind, and candleholders in ornate brass. Towards the end of the century pianos were ebonised. Pianos from an earlier period were compact in size and there were a large number of square pianos introduced to Britain in approximately 1742, however many of these have been converted to writing desks. Victorians spent a large percentage of their time music making in the home. Larger houses were fortunate enough to have a music-room where lived the piano and possibly the harp of which there were several varieties, the concert harps in Grecian or Gothic styles and the smaller Irish harp. The flute was possibly the favourite instrument for a man apart from the piano. Musical families often formed string quartets therefore violins and other string instruments were produced most bearing fake labes as being manufactured by Stradivarius.

Michael Davies