Antique Furniture Glossary: Part II C
By Silas Finch
This is part three of a series of glossaries intended to instruct the novice or even experienced collector on some of the terms in common, or uncommon, use. I say uncommon because many of the most useful and detailed resource books available to antique furniture buyers are ones long out of print and sitting on the shelves of a local library. These old books often contain archaic words no longer in general use, making a glossary essential to mining the precious data within them.
Credence A prominent side table of Gothic style, usually in oak. Its origin is probably religious as the name comes from credere - "to believe". Primarily used in Northern European countries, it evolved into a buffet style side board on which meat was carved.
Crescent Stretcher Concave or bowed stretcher used on Windsor chairs - American/English 18th century. Also known as Crinoline Stretcher.
Cresting Carved decoration found on the top rail of chairs, daybeds, mirrors, etc..
Crewelwork Embroidery of fine worsted on linen - primarily found in English 16th and 17th century pieces.
Cricket Table Small Jacobean three-legged table, generally round in shape.
Crocket Gothic architectural ornament consisting of moldings terminating in a curve or roll. Used on medieval woodwork, and popularized again in the late 18th century.
Cross Fire Regular mottled figure across the grain of wood, yielding a brilliant transparency, particularly in some mahogany, walnut, satinwood, and other tropical woods.
Cross Stretcher Intersecting, X-stretcher, straight or curved, on tables, lowboys, and chairs. French Renaissance furniture makers used Italian inspired designs to create pieces used in England during the Willaim and Mary period and onwards.
Crossbranding Crossbranding as a different meaning in the antique furniture world. Crossbranding are border bands of veneer in which the grain runs across the band. Treatment is characteristic of walnut furniture after Charles II, and follows throughout the 18th century in England and on to the Continent.
Crotch The wood from the intersection of a branch with the trunk of the tree that has an unusual V-shaped figure when cut into veneers. The matching of these veneers produce striking patterns much favored by cabinetmakers.
Cup-And-Cover Turning Turned ornament consisting of a bulb, topped by a lid or cover. Jacobean and later.
C-Scroll Carved C-shaped design found in much late-16th and 17th-century French and Flemish work and later in England.
Cupboard A cabinet or box with doors, for storage. Sometimes a cupboard is considered an architectural feature only, the freestanding equivalent beign a cabinet. Early cupboards were known in England under various names suggesting use for food storage: almoner, ambry, dole, and livery (for delivery of food). The early forms had only one door and usually some device for ventilation. The cabinet forms developed simultaneously for all other storage uses, finally reaching a climax in the great decorative cabinets of the 17th century.
Cupid's Bow Double ogee curve, bowed shaped, such as favored by Chippendale for top rails of chairs.
Curricule Chair Thomas Sheraton's term for a classical type having a semicircular back and elongated seat. The term comes from Curule Chair - an X-shaped chair, the sella curule used by the Romans.
Cylinder Front Quarter round fall front on a desk. Also the name of desks having such rolltops, made during the late 18th century in France and England.
Cyma From the Greek for wave - used to describe molding...such as cyma recta - an ogee molding and cyna reversa a reversed form of cyma recta.
Cypress Dark reddish wood of very hard texture, valued for its durability. Chest were made of cypress as early as the 14th century. Scientific Name: Cupressus semperoneus.
Posted on February 3rd, 2008
Silas Finch is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Collectible Antiques Etc. He can be reached at Content and Solutions or by email at silas@collectibleantiquesetc.com.