Furniture

The general term “ furniture ” has wide meanings, but from the standpoint of the cabinet-maker its range will be limited to four main classes as follows:

Supporting units: tables, trolleys, desks, writing fitments, working tops, etc.

Seating units: chairs, stools, settees, etc.

Reclining units: beds, divans, daybeds, etc.

Storage units: cabinets, chests, sideboards, wardrobes, bookcases, wall fitments, etc.

Additionally there are miscellaneous items including mirrors, occasional furniture, and some kinds of wall panelling and small articles of woodware commonly known as treen which do not fit readily into any of the above categories.

A table is a form of furniture featuring a flat and stationary horizontal upper surface used to support objects of interest, for storage, display, and manipulation. Tables come in a wide variety of materials, shapes, and heights that depends on their origin, style and intended use. All tables are composed of a flat surface and a base with one or more supports, or legs.

Sideboards can be tall and fairly narrow or long and low, dependent on the size of the room. Most types provide storage space for bottles, glasses, china and table linen, etc., with orthodox drawers or interior trays, adjustable shelves, fall flaps or side-hung doors. Attached legs or independent stools or stands are favoured, as there are obvious disadvantages in taking cupboards down to or a little above floor level on a shallow plinth.

Chairs of compound curvature and subtle shaping require the application of special skills and in many richly ornamented traditional examples the designer prepared his sketches, leaving it to the actual maker to choose the wood and methods of jointing. As it was difficult to plot all the curves of an elaborate chair in two-dimensional drawings only, the final result was dependent in great measure on the skill and sensitivity of the individual craftsman, and such chairs were highly expensive to manufacture, requiring the wasteful use of heavy wood sections which were rough shaped, jointed and assembled and then sculptured and carved, using special chairmakers’ tools. Modern designs employ straight sectioned stock wherever possible, and steam bending or laminating for curved work, thereby effecting considerable economies in both time and materials. Such chairs are relatively simple to make and do not require the same measure of special skill.

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