JACOBEAN, EARLY
Made in England from 1603 until 1660, the Early Jacobean style of furniture is quite similar to Elizabethan but not as ornately carved. Made of oak, it was finished in a very dark stain.
JACOBEAN, LATE
Made from 1660 until 1688 (often referred to as the Restoration Period), this English furniture showed a strong influence of Italian baroque. It was made of walnut or oak, ornately decorated with scrolls, and featured lacquered ornamentation and gilt.
LOUIS XIII
Taken from Italian Renaissance styling, Louis XIII furniture was made in France from 1610 until 1643. Many pieces featured spiral legs fashioned from walnut wood. Chairs were low-backed.
LOUIS XIV
Rectangular structure and straight lines characterized this heavy furniture built in France from 1643 until 1715. Made of dark wood until late in the period when some lighter-colored woods were introduced, most pieces of Louis XIV furniture had underbraces and were so heavy that it was extremely difficult to move them.
LOUIS XV
Made in France from 1723 until 1774, Louis XV furniture was small, light, and highly decorated with inlay, gilding, polychroming, or artistic painting. Chests often had fronts that curved outward (known as bombe). Mahogany or walnut woods were used for this furniture.
LOUIS XVI
Smaller and more delicate than Louis XV, this French furniture was produced from 1774 until 1789 and featured straight, rectangular lines. Decorations were less detailed and pieces were often painted. The straight, tapered legs added to the fragile look.
MISSION
Catching onto the Arts and Crafts movement, from about 1890 to 1920, some United States furniture manufacturers produced oak furniture in that style. Although it was machine made, and Arts and Crafts was handmade, Mission was of fine quality.
PAINTED ITALIAN
Decorated with raised designs made of gesso, painted Italian furniture was made in Italy from 1680 until 1820. Cheap woods were often used but the pieces were beautifully painted, sometimes by some of the leading artists of the time. Legs and arms were curved. Many pieces had a bombe front.
QUEEN ANNE
Produced in England from 1702 until 1714 and in the United States from 1725 to 1750, much Queen Anne furniture had club feet or ball and claw feet. Its delicate curved lines usually ended in cabriole legs. Spoon chairs were popular, stretchers were not. Shell ornamentation was used extensively. The wood of choice was walnut, although cheaper wood was sometimes used and topped with a walnut veneer.
REGENCE
Produced in France from 1715 to 1723, the Regence style of furniture offered more curves and fewer rectangles on chair rails than previous styles. The pieces themselves were of a small size, and the rather small decorations were often made of ornamental metal.
REGENCY
Noted for its uncomfortable chairs, the Regency style was made in England from 1795 until 1830. The simple form and decoration were fashioned from rosewood, mahogany, or other fine woods. There was no carving, but brass was frequently used to create dolphins, swans, scrolls, and other fancy additions.
SHAKER
Simple, functional, maple or pine, and handmade, Shaker furniture was turned out in the United States from 1790 until sometime around 1900. It wasn't until after 1860 that it was sold to the secular market.
SHERATON
This English style mimics Hepplewhite in many ways, and was popular from 1795 until 1810. Proportions were pleasing to the eye and were lighter and more graceful than Hepplewhite. Turned legs were generally reeded or fluted, tapering to small, turned feet. Combinations of woods were used, but mahogany was most prevalent; veneers and inlays, common. Striped material was generally used for upholstery.
VICTORIAN
From 1830 until 1900, the Victorian period in England, furniture was made both there and in the United States in three styles—all are called Victorian. The best known is the large, decorative type made usually of oak with lots of carving and ornate gingerbread. A smaller, less decorative style was also produced. The third, and least known, Victorian furniture was large and undecorated. This was usually made of mahogany or rosewood and was often of a better quality than the first two styles, which were considered poor both in design and construction.
WILLIAM AND MARY
Made in England from 1689 to 1702 and in the United States from 1700 to 1725, William and Mary furniture featured turned legs, often in the shape of trumpets. X-shaped stretchers, often with ornate finials in the middle, were common as were hooded cabinets and large ball or bun feet. Several woods were used, including beech and walnut.
Miscellaneous Antiques
COFFEE GRINDERS
In use from the 1890s until the 1930s, box-shaped coffee grinders usually had handles on the top and deposited the ground coffee in a drawer at the bottom of the grinder. The larger coffee grinders that stand on the floor were used in stores and are considerably more difficult to find than the home variety.
GUTTA-PERCHA
An early plastic material made from tree resins, guttapercha was used extensively to make the frame cases used to display daguerreotypes in the 1800s.
PHONOGRAPHS
Bringing music into the lives of millions, the phonograph made its debut in the 1880s. Examples with decorative horns are particularly desirable. Often the records that come with an old phonograph prove to be worth even more than the phonograph itself.
QUILTS
Made from the 1600s up to the present, quilts were originally handmade, usually from scraps of material left over from sewing projects. There are many designs and motifs. Look for hand stitching and clean examples. Don't bid on a quilt at auction unless both sides of it have been held up for examination. If possible, smell the material to ascertain that it isn't mildewed.
ROYCROFT
Leather articles, copper items, embroidery pieces, and jewelry were expertly hand-fashioned by the Roycrofters— followers of artist and writer Elbert Hubbard. Their community in Aurora, New York, flourished from the late 1800s until the early 1900s. The books, bookends, candlesticks, lamps, vases and many other articles they produced are marked with an R in a circle from which a symbol resembling a television antenna protrudes.
SNUFF BOXES
In the late 1700s and the early 1800s, ladies and gentlemen were fond of using snuff. It became fashionable to carry it in small receptacles made of gold, silver, enamel, and other materials. The material of a persons snuff box often indicated the class to which the individual belonged. Most snuffboxes were small, measuring an inch or two in length.
TEA CADDIES
In the 1700s, tea was so scarce that it was kept in locked boxes. These caddies were made of a variety of materials, from silver, copper, and brass to mahogany, fruitwood, and enameled wood. When tea became more abundant in the 1800s, caddies were still used, but they were no longer made with locks.
CHAPTER 3
Know Your Collectibles:
An Indispensable
Overview
What is a collectible? How does it differ from an antique? These questions aren't easily answered, because while some items definitely fall into the collectibles field and others can be only thought of as antiques, there's a gray area into which fall articles that are old or older and still are collected. Baseball cards, commemorative plates, Avon bottles, Hummel figurines, Disneyana, and salt and pepper shakers are a few examples of merchandise that anyone would place under the heading of collectibles. Articles from these categories can be as recent as last month or may go back several decades. People may look