Bail handles: half-loop metal pulls hanging from metal bolts.
Baluster: a turned pillar resembling the uprights in a staircase.
Blanket rail: a turned, revolving section which is attached to the footposts of a bed.
Bracket foot: a two-piece mitred support which can be cut from the moulding or attached separately. It can be plain, scrolled, or ogee-moulded.
Canadian Regency: a combination of Hepplewhite, Sheraton, Empire and Regency styles used with varying success in Upper Canadian furniture from about 1820.
Chippendale style: named after Thomas Chippendale, an English cabinet-maker. This style was popular first in England and then in the United States during the last half of the 18th century. Although its popularity had waned by the time Upper Canada was settled, vestiges of it can be found in the curved arms of chairs, lipped drawers, inset quarter columns and bracket feet of case pieces.
Classical revival: revived interest in the designs of classical Greece and Rome started about -1785. The earliest, neo-classic designs in furniture featured straight lines.
Cornice: projecting moulding at the top of a case piece.
Distress: scratches or other normal marks of wear and tear.
Dovetail: two pieces of wood cut in a pattern resembling doves' tails, and = interlocked to form a strong joint.
Ebonized: painted or stained black.
English Regency style: the somewhat restrained and lighter English version of the French Empire style.
French Empire style: a heavier, classical style based on archaeological evidence and developed in France. In Upper Canadian furniture, look for columns, scrolls, and leaf, pineapple, and animal-paw carving.
French foot: narrow, flaring, bracket foot joined to a valanced skirt.
Hepplewhite style: a classical style developed during the 1780's, named after George Hepplewhite, an English cabinetmaker. Remnants of this style found in Upper Canadian furniture include square, tapered legs on tables, outflaring French feet on case pieces, and the use of plain and fancy hardwoods.
Inset quarter column: one quarter of a turned column set into the front corner of a case piece.
Lipped drawer: drawer front with edges that overlap the opening.
Mortise and Tenon: joint created by a rectangular tongue which fits into a corresponding cut-out slot.
Mullions: glazing bars separating panes of glass.
Ogee: S curved.
Pilaster:half a pillar or column.
Pillow back: a chair's crest rail which has a pillow or bolster shape.
Rabbet joint: also called rebate. A corner joint created by matching rectangular slots.
Rabbit ears: a colloquial but descriptive term used to describe the front- flattened upper parts of the back post of a chair.
Reeding: multiple, carved, narrow, convex-rounded strings. Reverse painting: a painting on glass,painted in reverse order (starting with the details and proceeding through to the background) in order that it may be seen through the glass.
Sabre legs: curved legs shaped like sabres.
Sheraton style: an English classical style, contemporary with Hepplewhite, named after Thomas Sheraton who published The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer's Guide. Vestiges of this style found in Upper Canadian furniture include turned legs and feet, rectangular backs on chairs and the use of both fancy and plain hardwoods.
Slat-back chair: a chair with a back that resembles a ladder.
Snake feet: feet that are shaped like serpent's heads.
Spade feet: feet that are spade shaped.
Splayed legs: raked or slanted out legs.
Stretcher bases: refers to tables with legs that are supported by attached stretchers or rungs.
Tongue and groove: two boards joined by slotting one and narrowing the other to fit into it.
Turned legs: round legs, turned on a lathe.
Volutes: the scrolled capitals of lonic columns.
Windsor chair: the Windsor or stick chair, brought from England and further developed in the United States, might best be described as a stool with a spindled back attached to its slab seat.
Winged paw feet: carved feet that look like animal paws with wings attached to them.
