The Evolution of the Writing Desk
Writing furniture evolved with literacy, commerce, privacy and paperwork, from sloping boxes and bureaux to pedestal desks and compact mechanical forms. Lo
Read guideThe field notes / category
Antique History & Styles
56 published guides on repair, care and the stories behind well-made things.
What Makes an Object an Antique?
“Antique” is a market and cultural term, not a universal scientific category. In many contexts it suggests an object around a century old, but law, customs
Read guideHow Tea Changed the History of Furniture
Tea drinking created demand for specialised tables, caddies, trays, kettles and social rituals in European homes. Fold-over card and tea tables, tripod tab
Read guideBritish Country Furniture: Regional Making and Use
Country furniture was made outside elite metropolitan fashion using local materials, familiar forms and practical workshop methods. Oak, elm, ash, fruitwoo
Read guideA History of the Dining Chair
Dining chairs record changes in posture, room planning, manufacture and social convention. Sets became important in the eighteenth century; nineteenth-cent
Read guide
Why Victorian Furniture Includes So Many Different Styles
A clear guide to Victorian furniture's Gothic, Rococo, Renaissance, Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts strands, and how to describe them.
Read guide
Neoclassical Furniture: Order, Antiquity and Elegant Proportion
Understand Neoclassical furniture, its classical sources, signature forms and the evidence needed to separate period work from revivals.
Read guide
Baroque and Rococo Furniture: How to Tell the Styles Apart
Compare Baroque and Rococo furniture through shape, ornament, scale and historical context, with cautions for dating revival pieces.
Read guide