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Discover Mid-America — April 2004

Basic Vocabulary Part III: Obscure Furniture Forms

This latest entry in the continuing series “Common Sense Antiques Vocabulary” deals with furniture forms which are probably familiar visually but whose original appellations may escape you at the moment. Instead of resorting to more colloquial expressions such as “X-chair” and “tall buffet,” the following traditional names for familiar objects may come in handy.

CELLARETTE - Originally this was the very deep drawer found in older sideboards, sometimes as the bottom drawer and sometimes located on the side of the cabinet. This deep space was used as wine or liquor storage in the main cabinet. It later evolved as a separate cabinet for the storage of liquor and glass. The common application today is to a small tub used as a wine cooler.

CHESTERFIELD - An older English term that simply refers to an overstuffed couch or sofa whose closed ends are upholstered.

CHIFFONIER - This is a tall, slender chest similar to a lingerie chest but full size. The word “Chiffonier” in addition to being the precursor of such American Depression words as “Chifferobe” and “Chifferette,” literally means “rag picker” in French, an apparent reference to its use as a place to store personal linen. The chiffonier evolved from the French article called a “semainier,” a seven-drawer chest with each drawer devoted to each day of the week’s personal linen.

COURT CUPBOARD - A form of tall buffet originating in Tudor England with French and Italian influences. This large piece of furniture was the often the main furnishing of a house, providing storage of small items in the doors and drawers of the top section and allowing display of important personal objects on its lower, open shelving. It reached it’s highest form in the Jacobean style and largely disappeared after that until it’s rebirth in the great Colonial Revival period of the American 20th century. A version of the court cupboard was often included as the “buffet” in a 1920’s or 30’s William and Mary or Jacobean style dining set.

COFFER - We commonly refer to the modern variation of this article as a blanket chest or cedar chest. It originally was the jack-of-all-trades of the furniture world, serving ancient English folk as table, seating area and storage bin. Such compactness and utility was a plus in early, unsettled English history when mobility was often required on very short notice.

DAVENPORT - This one is tricky because it has several meanings, all equally valid and all virtually ignored in present day parlance. One name for the modern love seat or small sofa is “davenport.” The same term is sometimes applied to a sofa bed or a couch that folds out into a sleeping platform. The most common use of the term is to describe a small writing desk with drawers that open to the side rather than the front and having a lift up writing surface. These small desks, a favorite of sea captains, emerged in the late 18th century but reached their full-blown height in the late Victorian era of the 19th century.

PEMBROKE - This refers to a rectangular table with a drawer, having short drop leaves supported by pull out lopers or swinging brackets. This type table is sometimes referred to as a breakfast table. Thomas Sheraton alleged that the name derived from the Countess of Pembroke who commissioned the first such table. The table is shown in the 1754 edition of Chippendale’s “Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director.” The tables became popular in America in the late 1700’s and remain a mainstay of traditional decor.

DANTE - This, along with “Savonarola,” is the traditional name of the so-called “X-chair” with the crossing support members that usually terminate in a sled base. The seat is usually deeply contoured but the back is flat. This style chair was a favorite of 16th century Venice and has enjoyed numerous revivals over the years. The 16th century style itself was a revival of an ancient Roman design often known as the curule chair or the “sellas curule.”.

RECAMIER - This is the name of the lounge/couch made famous by Directoire and American Empire stylists such as Duncan Phyfe and Charles-Honore Lannuier. It was patterned after Roman or Greek couches with one gracefully curving arm significantly higher than the other and often having scrolled ends. It is a close relative to the “meridienne,” a short sofa of the French Empire period.

VITRINE - Essentially a display cabinet with a glass door and perhaps glass sides and top. The glass door, replacing the solid door of earlier storage cabinets, became important during the latter part of the 17th century when collecting Oriental porcelain became fashionable. The evolution of the vitrine is as much a tribute to the evolution of glass making techniques and the abilities of glaziers as to cabinetmakers. Development of the curved cabinet side and the bombe case challenged glass artisans to ever higher achievement, particularly in France and Italy.

If you have some favorite obscure furniture terms ones please let me know. I’ll try to include them in a later column.

Fred and Gail Taylor’s video, “IDENTIFICATION OF OLDER & ANTIQUE FURNITURE” is available for $29.95 ($33.95 U.S. funds from Canada) from Fred Taylor, P.O. Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423-0215 or call (800) 387-6377. Comments, questions and suggestions for future “COMMON SENSE ANTIQUES” columns are gladly accepted at the same address, by email at FMTAYLOR@AOL.COM or by fax at (352) 563-2916.

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