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The antique marks glossary - all the
B's covering everything from baccarat to burr.
Click for all the a's.
All the b's
Click for all the c's
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Below you will find antique related words or antique
terms begining with 'b' with everything from baccarat to burr
and many more that you might find useful.
The list is not exhaustive but we will add to it as time goes by.
The descriptions detailed are only intended to be relevant to how
the word or term relates to antiques and although the same word
may have other meanings in other contexts, we have not and do not
intend to detail those meanings here. In some instances we have
included pictures to enhance the meaning of the word or term and
we have also indexed each word in order that you may link to the
explanation when the word or term appears in other pages on the
site.
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baccarat (glass
- french - millefiori and sulphides)
-
A
leading French glassworks founded in 1764. First producing soda
glass then in 1816 it began to produce high-quality lead crystal
and decorative glass. Especially noted for its millefiori paperweights
and sulphides which are very collectable today.
-
-
A
Birmingham base glassworks foounded in the early 19thC. which
produced the first pressed glass in the UK. Exhibited at the
great exhibition of 1851 and specialised in cut, engraved and
coloured glass tableware and paperweights.
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A
term that describes a low, compact chest of drawers made during
the first half of the 18thC. with a top that folds out to form
a table. Also bachelors table which has compartments for dressing
and shaving equipment as well as surfaces for palaying cards
or writing.
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The
wooden backing to an item of case furniture or a mirror. !8thC
and early 19thC furniture had wooden back boards but late 19thC
furniture usually has plywood backing.
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The
hindmost member of the pair of metal plates that hold the mechanism
of a clock in place. sometimes engraved with decorative motifs
or the makers name.
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Early
19thC introduction of a chair backing, usually of woven cane,
that protected its user from the heat of a fire.
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backstaff
(scientific - navigational instrument)
-
Invented
by englishman john davis in 1594, a navigational instrument
supporting two scaled arcs. The precursor of the 18thC octant.
The user stood with his back to the sun and aligned one scale
on the horizon and the other on the shadow cast by his sighting
piece. The two scale readings added together gave the suns height
and allowed the latitude to be calculated.
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backstamp
(ceramics - base mark - makers mark)
-
The
term used for the mark printed by potteries on the underside
of pottery and porcelain to denote the makers name, pattern,
style, date, etc.
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backstool
(furniture - armless chair - stool)
-
A
three or four legged stool with a back extending from the rear
legs. Introduced in the late 16thC when the term 'chair' only
applied to a seat with arms. Became known as a single or side
chair in the 18thC.
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Mainly
farmhouse furniture and a type of settle made up of a long bench
with a panelled cupboard doubling as a backrest and sometimes
drawers set beneath. Dating from the middle ages to the 19thC..
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bada
(british antique dealers association)
-
An
organistation of antique shops and individual dealers formed
to try to maintain standards within the antiques trade. B.A.D.A
- British Antique Dealers Association.
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baff
(carpets - farsi - knot)
-
The
Farsi word for knot. Also armeni-baff for for carpets
knotted by armenians. Also bibi-baff for very finely woven rugs
knotted by a bibi (princess) of the bakhtairi nomads of central
persia, although normally referring to any bakhtiari rug.
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A
type of gemstone cut particularly in diamond cutting.
-
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A
simple curved metal handle such as a semi-circular drawer handle
or the handle of a kettle..
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-
British
architect of international repute who also designed furniture
with colourful inlay work and metalwork in the style of the
arts and crafts movement.
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alexander
bain (clocks and watches - clockmaker - electric
clock - 1811-1877)
-
A
scottish clock maker and scientist who patented the first electric
clock in 1840.
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baize
(textiles - billiard table)
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A
loose-woven woollen cloth usualy dyed green or red and the term
used since the 17thC. to describe a flannel like cloth produced
in the eastern counties of england. Commonly used to cover card
and billiard tables and for drawer linings.
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A
thermosetting plastic that is highly durable and easily dyed.
Patented by leo baekland in 1907. It is heat resistant, very
hard and opaque. Used for low cost art deco jewellery in imitation
of jet buckles and everything from ashtrays to radios.
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balance
(clocks and watches - mechanism)
-
The
wheel in a clock or watch that regulates the escapement. Erratic
prior to the invention of the balance sping in 1675 which uses
a spiral hairspring to make the movement of the balance wheel
more regular and isochronous. as significant a development for
portable clocks and watches as the pendulum was for standing
clocks. Not as accurate as a pendulum, as the spring balance
is susceptible to hot and cold, until various forms of compensation
balance were developed in the 18thC.
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A
sword belt, usually of leather that is worn over one shoulder
and diagonally across the chest to hold the sword at the wearers
waist or hip.
-
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Similar
to a gravity clock, where it is still powered by falling on
its own weight but a ball clock is suspended on a chain.
-
(furniture - feet )
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One
of the many types of feet used to finish the legs of tables
and chairs and to support bookcases and cabinets. The leg or
foot simply finishes in a sperical ball.
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A
form of bracket clock, usually wooden cased with tha case in
the form of a tall slender upright topped by a round or oval
clock housing.
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A
series of turned wooded spheres of equal size used to ornament
the legs and stretchers of tables and chairs. Used in the 17th
and 18th centures.
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baluster
(architectural - style - ornamentation)
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The
architectural shape of a turned column or post usually in a
series to form a balustrade. Also a shape used in the forming
of table legs, chair backs and silver & glass dinking glass
stems. Also a shape used in forming pottery and porcelain vases.
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-
Furniture
made in imitation of real bamboo in the 18thC and usually crafted
from strong woods such as beech and turned, carved and painted
to resemble bamboo. Also late victorian furniture made from
real bamboo which was rather fragile for the tables, chairs,
bookcases and what-nots produced..
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A
decorative inlay or veneer strip in contrasting wood or metal.
Often used as a border on door panels, table tops and drawer
fronts. Straight-banding is cut along the grain of the wood.
Cross-banding is cut across the grain. Feather or herringbone
banding if ormed from two narrow veneers laid at an angle to
each other to provide a chevron effect. Fine banding is known
as stringing or line inlay.
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banjo
clock (clocks and watches - wall clock - willard)
-
A
pendulum wall clock resembling an upturned banjo and introduced
by the willard family of clock makers in boston, USA. Many reproductions
produced in the late 19th to mid-20thC. An elaborate clock known
as the 'girandole' designed in the USA in 1818, resembles the
banjo clock but has gilded decoration including scrolls, bords
and festoons
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A
Silver coin struck for a few years at the beginning of the 19thC.
Circulating examples, also known as bank tokens, were all dated
1804, inscribed with the word ‘dollar’ beneath an
image of Britannia on the reverse, and had a face value of 5s
(25p). -- 3s and 1s6d dominations were struck in 1811. The entire
coinage was made obsolete in 1816.
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Pottery made by, or in the style of Japanese 18thC potter Numanami
Shigenaga. The wares are typically decorated with human figures,
monkeys or other animals picked out in enamels or glazes with
touches of underglaze blue. Rrevived in the 19thC. usually enamelled
grey stoneware teawares, in the form of a lotus or other flower.
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A needlework or painted wood panel, on a horizontal bar that
can be raised or lowered on a vertical pole, usually of wood
and sometimes of metal.
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Coloured
layers that are sometimes applied and then topped by a black
surface so that various decorative effects can be produced by
cutting through the stratified colours.
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A
shaving dish usually ceramic but sometimes silver or metal,
used by barbers in the 17th 18th and 19th centuiries. With a
semi-circular section cut out of the rim that fit beneath the
clients chin. Could also be placed around an arm and used as
a bleeding bowl for blood-letting (surgery was the barbers major
function until the 19th century).
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The
Barcelona Lounge Chair is a classic of 20th century modernist
furniture design by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and
his partner Lilly Reich.
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A
joint in which the tenon retains one or more of the original
sides of the timber.
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bargello
(textiles - embroidery - design)
-
An
embroidery design with colours worked in pointed or flame shaped
patterns that graduate through their various shades. Also --
flame stitch, florentine stitch or hungarian stitch.
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A
dark brown glazed earthenware with white clay relief patterns,
produced in Derbyshire c1860-1910. Bird and flower motifs were
tinted green, blue and pink. Usually as large teapots, with
miniature teapot finials, jugs and chamber pots. Sold at measham,
leicestershire on the ashby-de-la-zouch canal. Also - bargee
or measham ware.
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The
Vargueño (also Bargueño) is a desk produced in
the 15th century that is still produced today.
The
vargueño was sometimes used for sewing or as a jewel
chest instead of solely for reading and writing and storing
the necessary implements for these activities.
The
vargueño is a portable desk which resembles the top
half of a fall front desk. It is basically a chest with its
lid on the side, and an interior equipped with a good quantity
of small drawers and pigeon holes.
As
a general rule the interior of a vargueño is much more
richly decorated than the exterior. Thus a vargueño
looking very plain from the exterior will have a reasonably
rich and well sculpted interior while a vargueño with
impressive exterior decorations will have a truly ornate and
extremely rich interior with ivory inlays and velvet decoration.
It is one of the best examples of wood craftsmanship in Renaissance
Spain.
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A
type of gemstone cut particularly in diamond cutting.
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Turned
decoration mainly on wood furniture, particularly legs and chair
backs but also seen on victorian brass candlesticks. 
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German
microscope designer and inventor of the leica camera, launched
in 1925 by the german company leitz. The leica camera was the
first miniature precision camera of its kind.
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barograph
(scientific - instrument, barometer)
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An
aneroid barometer of the type that that records air pressure,
introduced in the 18thC. the aneroid mechanism moves a pen against
a slowly turning drum of graph paper.
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barometer
(scientific - instrument - weather)
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An
instrument for registering atmospheric pressure and forecasting
weather conditions, first produced in the late 17thC. Various
types of barometer exist including aneroid, stick, angle and
wheel.
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Pearls
of irregular shape widely used in baroque and renaissance jewellery
of the 15th to the 17th centuries. The pearls were often decorated
with gemstones or enamelling that took the form of mythological
figures.
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An
extravangant and ornate style based on the architecture of 17thC
italy, where sculptutors played a crucial role in the design
of furniture, ceramics, ivory and silver. By joining forces
with gilders and the sculptors earned recognition as craftsman
in their own right rather than as the employees of joiners and
cabinet makers. Their influence was evident in elaborate architectural
furniture and in the abundant use of cupids, cornucopia and
other symmetrical, curvaceous designs. A dominate style of the
decorative arts during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
A popular but less elaborate form developed in the USA during
the first half of the 18thC. Paved the way for the lighter more
frivolous and colourful rococo style.
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barrel
(clocks & watches - mechanism)
-
A hollow cylindrical metal box or drum in a clock or watch that
contains the driving or going spring and is connected to the
first wheel in the train. From c1580 to 1600 the casing was
almost always of brass. A going barrel has the first wheel of
the train mounted on the same arbor, doing away with the two
part fusee. It was used for striking trains of the 17thC german
renaissance clocks and for both going and striking trains of
French spring clocks.
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Name
of the partners and a period in the history of the royal worcester
porcelain company. Specifically between 1783 and 1813. See royal
worcester for full details.
- francesco
bartoluzzi (pictures - engraving -1727-1815)
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Pioneer of the process of stipple engraviing and owner of large
print works in london in the 18thC. He produced society portraits
and domestic and rural scenes.
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Earthenware pottery made in Barnstaple, North Devon, and popular
from c.1879 until the early 20thC. Specialities include simple
jugs and vases with respresentations of birds, flowers, marine
life or dragons painted in SLIP in soft colours, and sometimes
wuth outlines incised.
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French term for a low 18thC chest with double doors enclosing
cupboards and drawers.
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A method of sculpting which entails carving or etching away
the surface of a flat piece of stone or metal. The word is derived
from the Italian basso rilievo, the literal translation meaning
"low contrast" as opposed to "alto rilievo"
("high contrast"). To explain simply, it is a sculpture
portrayed as a picture. The portrayed image is raised above
the background flat surface.
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The term referring to a ceramic vessel with a curved rim.
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A very hard and fine grained stoneware produced by staffordshire
potters and ultimately improved by wedgwood around 1768. A relatively
cheap ceramic product that found a ready market for reproduction
bronzes and cameos that were popular in the late 18thC. Wares
included vases, bronze-glazed vases, large busts and general
pots.
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The general term for non-precious metals such as copper, lead,
iron and tin and their alloys such as brass, pewter, bronze
and nickel silver.
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The precursor to the modern wash-basin which is very similar
to its Victorian ancestor, but has replaced the pottery or metal
bowl on a wash stand that was used in previous periods and continued
in use for much of the 19th century.
The
wash-basin we use today was preceded by a bowl or dish, placed
on a piece of furniture known as a 'wash or basin stand'.
The top of this was often either of marble or else tiled.
The bowl was originally of a metal such as copper or pewter.
Earthenware and porcelain versions were widespread by the
mid-18th century. British bowls were decorated with transfer
designs, rather than being hand-painted. A jug or ewer was
used to fill and empty the bowl.
- john
baskerville (metalware - japanning - polychrome -
1706-1775)
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Best known as a typographer, but baskerville was also a key
manufacturer of japanned metalware. He was based in Birmingham
and is reputed to have introduced polychrome painting on japanned
bases.
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Glass container in the shape of a basket, for sweets or fruit.
Openwork sides attached to a moulded base are made from threads
of glass pincered together.
- basket-top
clock (clocks & watches - bracket clock - wood/metal
dome)
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A bracket clock with either a repousse metal dome or a cushion-moulded
(flat-topped with curved edges) wood dome.
- basketwork
(furniture - wickerwork - cane - lloyd loom)
-
A general term for chairs and other furniture made of wicker,
cane, or woven, coarse sea grass. In wickerwork the basket weave
is worked around a frame of stiff rods and it was popular in
Victorian times for both indoor and outdoor use. Pieces ranged
from round single chairs to full lounge chairs with foot rests.
Also -- lloyd loom.
- basse-taille
(decoration - enamelling - gold or silver)
-
Basse taille is a type of enamelling in which translucent enamel
(powdered glass with colorants) is applied over a metal surface
that has been textured by etching, engraving, stamping or chiselling
by hand. This results in the metal background and the pattern
over it being seen through the translucent enamel.
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The
enameling technique is used usually using gold or silver, where
it is engraved or carved in low relief and then covered with
translucent vitreous enamel. This technique dramatizes the play
of light and shade over the low-cut design and also gives the
object a brilliance of tone. It was developed in Italy in the
13th century. See also enamelling
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- bassine-cased
(clocks & watches - enamel decoration)
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A shallow pocket watch of circular shape dating from the mid-17thC.
With a rounded cover and back that curves gently into the central
band. The case is often finely decorated with enamel.
- bassinet
(woodwork - wickerwork - cradle)
-
A wickerwork basket used as a cradle, usually with an integral
hood. Also -- used to describe late 19thC baby
carriages with a hooded basketwork body.
- batavian
ware (cermics - chinese export ware)
-
Early 18thC chinese export porcelain named after the dutch east
india company trading station in Batvia (now Jakarta), Java.
It is typically in the form of tea services decorated with blue
and white, often fan-shaped panels, and with a coffee-brown
glaze on the outer side of bowls and saucers. Copies of the
style made at meissen in Germany
and leeds, england, were also known as Batavian and Kapuziner
ware.
- bateman
family (metalware - silver - london silversmiths
)
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London family of silversmiths producing domestic silverware
in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hester Bateman (1708-94), the
best known member, was trained by her husband John, and on his
death carried on the business with her sons. A vast amount of
domestic silver marked by its grace of line and simplicity of
decoration was produced with her mark, including tableware,
snuffboaxes, seals and wine labels. Hester retired in 1790,
and her sons Peter and Jonathan, and Jonathan's wife, Ann carried
on the firm. The change in management was marked by substituting
a thread decoration for Hester's beading. Ann Bateman's son
William took the business - and the style of Bateman silver
- into the Victorian era.
- bath
metal (metalware - alloy - bronze)
-
An inexpensive bronze-like alloy used by some independent 18thC
coiners (ass opposed to the Royal Mint) and from the late 18thC
for small bozes and buttons.
- batik
(textiles - hand-painted - 16thC.)
-
Distinctive patterned and dyed fabric from the East Indies,
brought to Europe by the Dutch in the 16thC. In the batik process,
melted wax is applied to parts of the design not intended to
take colour, and the cloth is then dyed. This is repeated as
necessary for other colours, the wax being washed out with hot
water after each dyeing. Some batik is also hand-painted. The
process was used in the 16th and 17thC Europe for dyeing expensive
facbrics such as velvet, but the bold batik colours and patterns
were printed on cotton and dyed by other processes from the
19thC.
- bat-print
(ceramic - decoration - transfer printing)
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A type of decoration on ceramics using a transfer print technique.
Bat-printing was used in Staffordshire in the early 19thC. The
designs were transferred to the glazed earthenware by means
of a flexible sheet - or bat -of glue or gelatine. see also
transfer printing
- battersea
(ceramics - enamel - chelsea porcelain)
-
Enamel factory based in Battersea, London, specialising in items
such as snuffboxes, plaques, wine labels, and watch and toothpick
cases. Early porcelain boxes made at chelsea had battersea enamel
lids. Designs were often transfer-printed onto a white enamel
ground, then painted in delicate colours. The factory, run by
John Brooks, pioneer of the transfer printing process, it only
survived for three years (1753-6) but its influence lived on
in enamelware produced in South Staffordshire and Birmingham.
- bauhaus
(design school - german)
-
A German school of design founded in Weimar in 1919 by Walter
Gropius, an architect-designer. The Bauhaus aimed to produce
prototype designs for everyday, mass-produced items. It explored
the amnufacturing processes and new materials of the machine
age such as stainless steel and plastics, and coordinated the
skills of architects, engineers, painters, sculptors and designers.
The school was closed by the Nazis in 1933, but revived in the
German city of Ulm after the war and inspired industrial design
in the mid-20thC.
- baywood
(woodwork - mahogany)
-
- bead
moulding (decoration - woodwork - moulding)
-
A narrow, half-round convex molding, which when repeated forms
reeding.
- beadwork
(textiles - decoration - beads)
-
A form of embroidering textiles using small, coloured glass
beads with, or instead of, needlework. Beadwork was a popular
covering for small boxes and mirror frames in late 16th and
17th-century Europe, particularly in Britain, and in the 19thC
for chair covers, purses, pictures and other objects.
- beaker
(drinking vessel - 11thC)
-
Drinking cup without handles or stem, and usually with a foot
rim. Early beakers were made in wood, glass and pottery, although
from the 11thC there were silver, silver-gilt and gold examples.
British beakers are usually more plainly decorated that their
continental counterparts. In the 18thC, glasses generally replaced
beakers for table use.
- bearskin
(militaria - headgear - Brigade of Guards)
-
Tall, military black fur hat, originally made from bear skin.
It has been worn by British guardsmen since the 18thC, and is
now part of their ceremonial dress.
- beauvais
(textiles - tapestry - france)
-
Centre for weaving in northern France. The Beauvais Tapestry
Factory was founded in 1664, and ultimately amalgamated with
gobelins in 1940.
Typical Beauvais tapestries - in the form of wall-hangings,
carpets and furniture covers - have commedia dell'art scenes
or extracts from contemporary paintings, framed by heavily festooned
drapes; Classical and chinoiserie motifs are also seen. They
are brilliantly coloured, often with a dominant yellow ground
known as 'Spanish tobacco'. From 1725, imitation Beauvais tapestries
were made in Berlin. The 19thC brought specialisation in furniture
covers.
-
carl becker
(coins - fakes & forgery - 19thC. german forger)
-
Notorious German forger of ancient Greek coins, who operated
in the early 19thC. Fortunately for modern collectors, his extensive
repertoire of copies was exposed and published after his death.
- bedstead
(furniture - bed - framework)
-
The framework of a bed, which raises mattress and bedding material
above floor level. Bedsteads only became widespread in Europe
from the early 17thC. Monument-like bedsteads with eleborately
carved wooden canopies were made during the renaisssance, the
canopies designed to provide privacy, protection from draughts,
dirt and insects. The emphasis shifted from woodwork to fabric
hangings in the mid-17thC, and a host of different bed styles
were introduced over the next century. 19thC bed designs tended
to be more functional.
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- beech
(wood - hardwood - country furniture)
-
A pale, smooth and straight grained wood, one of the most inexpensive
hardwoods available. Beech was often stained and used as a substitute
for walnut in country furniture, expecially chairs, of the 17th
and 18th centuries. It is also seen gilded or painted. Although
subject to woodworm, beech has the advantage of taking close
nailing without splitting.
- peter
behrens (designer - german - art nouveau -
1868-1940)
-
German illustrator, architect, craftsman and designer of industrial
and domestic fittings. Behrens's early furniture, ceramics,
jewellery and glass designs were in art
nouvea style, but by 1898 he was designing simple, stream-lined
household onjects for commercial production. He was a founder
member of the DEUTSCHER WERKBUND, 1907, a group of German artists
and manufacturers. le corbusier,
Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe all worked under
Behrens c.1910.
- william
and mary beilby (glass - decoration - white enamel)
-
A brother and sister team of glass enamellers in the late 18thC.
They decorated wine glasses and decanters with colourful heraldic
designs or rustic scenes with romantic ruins and creepers, usually
in white enamel.
- bellarmine
(ceramics - stoneware jug - bellarmino)
-
Bulbous brown stoneware jug with a bearded head in low relief
on the narrow neck, and frequently with relief coats of arms
on the body. Bellarmines originated in 16thC Germany, the bearded
head said to be that of Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino, a leader
of the counter reformation much hated by German Protestants.
Many Bellarmines were exported to Britain and copied particularly
at john dwights fulham pottery in London. Reproductions were
made in Germany until the late 19thC. Also known as greybeards.
- belle
epoque (decorative arts - fine period - 19thC.)
-
French for fine period, generally used to describe an elaborate
and sumptuous decorative arts style which was prevalent in Europe
from the end of the 19thC up until World War I.
- belleek
(ceramics - irish - parian porcelain)
-
A ceramics factory in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, founded
in 1857. Its speciality was a delicate PARIAN procelain. Wares
are wholly or partly treated with a clear or pearlised, and
sometimes iridescent, glaze. Belleek table and ornamental items
are often decorated with or in the shape of shells and other
marine life. Porcelain strips woven into baskets and perforated
designs are also typical.
- bell-metal
(metalware - bronze alloy)
-
A tough bronze alloy used for bells and occasioanlly for cooking
utensils such as skillets.
- john
belter (cabinet maker - rococo - rosewood)
-
(1804-63) German-born US cabinet-maker, after whom Belter Furniture
(carved and upholstered bentwood suites) was names. Belter's
revived ROCOCO style was very popular and he displaced cabinet-maker
Duncan PHYFE as New York's leading craftsman. He patented a
plywood process using rosewood which was then ornately carved.
- benares
brassware (metalware - brassware - indian)
-
Indian-style brassware, including trays and table tops. The
genuine articles were made in India, but imitations were produced
in Birmingham from the late 19thC, and sometimes exported to
India and imported back again to suggest authenticity.
- bends
(furniture - rocking chair)
-
The curved runners of rockers of a rocking chair located between
the back and front feet.
- william
benson (architect - arts
and crafts)
-
(1854-1924) British architect and leading furniture and metalwork
designer in the arts and crafts
movement. Unlike the more purist members of the movement, Benson
was not dismissive of mass-production methods, and his factory
at Hammersmith, London, produced commercial domestic objects
such as chandeliers, 1883-1923.
- bent-limb
doll (dolls - carved )
-
Doll with limbs that are in one carved piece rather than jointed.
The bent-limb style is normally reserved for baby dolls and
was first introduced on composition dolls in 1910, and on vinyl
models from the late 1930's.
- bentwood
(wood - curves - windsor chair)
-
Lightweight solid or laminated timber, usually birch, soaked
in hot water or steamed to make it pliable so that it is easily
worked into curves. The technique was originally used for 18thC
WINDSOR CHAIRS, but a distinctive style of bentwood furniture
really became established in the mid-19thC with the work of
the Austrian furniture-maker Michael THONET. Thonet Bentwood
is strong, light, graceful and made from solid timber; it was
soon seen in homes, cafes and hotels throughout Europe. In the
20thC, designers such as Alvar Aalto, marcel Breuer and others,
widened the range of the bentwood styles, usually by using laminated
timer.
- jean
berain (designer - louis xiv - 18thC berainesque)
-
(1637-1711) French draughtsman, engraver and designer, and one
of the originators of the LOUIS XIV style. Berain worked as
court designer from 1674, and his published symmetrical designs
influenced ornamentation on contemporary furniture, carpets
and silverware. Mid-18thC Moustiers FAIENCE was very often decorated
in so-called style Berainesque.
- bergere
(furniture - armchair)
-
French name for a deep, tub-chaped, upholstered armchair of
the early 19thC, with continuous top and arm rails and a slightly
concave back. Some versions are caned between the arms and seat
and have a loose seat cushion.
- berlin
(ceramics - manufacturer - rococo)
-
German ceramics centre with faeince factories from 1678, a minor
porcelain factory founded 1751, and a factory established 1763
which was known mainly for the production of dinner services
and figures in restrained rococo style. In the 19thC this factory
produced blanks which were sent to outside
decorators for painting.
- berlin
iron jewellery (metalware - cast iron jewellery)
-
Early 19thC cast-iron jewellery made principally in Germany.
People were given Berlin iron in exchange for their precious
jewellery to boost the Prussian State gold reserves. Items such
as brooches, necklaces and crosses in classical or gothic-style
designs were typically crafted in delicate openwork patterns
and laquered black. Production continued in Germany and Paris
until the end of the 19thC.
-
-
-
-
- berlin
woolwork (textiles - embroidery - german wool)
-
Home worked embroidery popular in the 19thC in Europe and the
USA, using wool which was originally dyed in Berlin. German
wool manufacturers marketed the wools by providing coloured
pattern charts that could be easily transferred onto canvas.
- beryl
(gemstone -
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