The antique marks glossary - antique terms g covering everything from gadroon to guinea and gainsborough to gun money.

• All the g's
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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.

gabbeh (carpets – iran - coarse)

Heavy coarsely woven rugs from west iran. gabbeh’s are woven in thick wool and brightly coloured with bold designs.

gadroon, gadrooning (decorative motif - silver - border)

The continuous convex curves or reeding on metalwork, also used on furniture and ceramics. Gadrooned borders are made up of interlocking, repeated common bosses, the resulting effect producing a circle that appears to be in motion. Some european tin-glaze earthenwares have painted gadroon borders known as false gadrooning, that attempt to produce a three dimensional effect.

 

gainsborough, chair (furniture - chair )

The 20thC term for an open-sided armchair with upholstered seat, back and arm pads, and with hollow concave arm supports.

gainsbrough, (artist - 1836-1906)

16th .

emile gaul (glass – designer - art nouveau - 1846-1904)

French designer and manufacturer of glass, ceramics and furniture. Highly influential in the art nouveau movement and founded the nancy school in the late 19thC. Also founded a glass factory at nancy, france, in 1867 that closed in 1931. He produced a great quantity of art glass and among the many techniques he developed were the surface decorations, 'marquetry sur-verre' and 'verreries parlentes'. Also -- from the mid-1880’s designed and produced furniture by drawing loosely on 18thC styles but adding carving or marquetry decoration. Experimented with porcelain and stoneware In the 1890’s.

gallery (decoration - railing - tray or cabinet)

A raised border or miniature railing of wood or metal used as an ornamental surround to the top of a table, tray, shelf or cabinet.

galloon (textiles - gold or silver trim)

Braid, lace or ribbon woven from silver, gold or silk threads used for trimming upholstery, uniforms or dresses.

gandhara (sculpture - buddha - pakistan)

Province in Pakistan form which came stone carvings combining Indian and Mediterranean influences. Early examples date from the 2nd and 3rd centuries and depict Buddha in Graeco-roman costume. Later examples usually heads, are made of stucco or terracotta. The sculpture was much collected in victiorian times. Most common items seen today are relief’s, Buddha figures and miniature stupas or shrines body.

garniture (decorative display - three five or seven items)
Matching set of three, five or seven ornaments, usually vases, for decorative display.

A garniture de cheminée is a set for the mantlepiece.

The ornaments were originally japanese or chinese export porcelain, or Dutch delft copies, comprising an odd number of baluster vases and covers with an even number of intervening beaker vases of cylindrical or waisted form.

Silver versions were made in small numbers in Europe, and in the late 18thC the term was also used to describe clock and candlestick sets.

Dressing-table sets are known as garnitures de toilette; a set for a side table as a garniture de table.

gauffering (books - textiles - decoration)
The term describing the impresssed decoration on gilded edges of book bindings, applied with heated finishing tools.

Also - The term gauffered describes the relief pattern on any textile other than velvet. Velvet decorated in this way is described as stamped velvet.

norman bel geddes (art deco, designer, 1893-1958)
After studying briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago, Bel Geddes worked in a Chicago advertising agency designing posters for General Motors and Packard.

In 1918 he began a successful career as a stage set designer before turning to industrial design in 1927. Despite commissions for the Toledo Scale Co. (1929), and the Standard Gas Equipment Corp. (1932).

It was as polemicist of Modernity that Bel Geddes gained greatest recognition. His book Horizons (1932) was a manifesto for Modern streamlining which promoted a series of futuristic designs for buildings and transport systems. Bel Geddes' positivist vision of a streamlined future reached its apogee with his' futurama '' Metropolis of Tomorrow' for the General Motors Highways and Horizons Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

georgian style (period - style - british)
British 18thC style characterised by the proportions and ornaments of classical architecture, applied universally to buildings, furniture and decorative art forms.

The Georgian era is divided into two main periods: the early Georgian period, 1720-60, under the reign of George I up to 1727 and George II thereafter, and the late Georgian period, 1760-1800, under the reign of George III. The term georgian style can also include the regency period to 1830.

gillows (furniture - robert gillow - 18thC)
The most successful firm of British 18thC furniture-makers outside London, founded in Lancaster by Robert Gillow (1704-72), a joiner.

The company was later renowned for its elegant, well-made, solid but simple pieces in georgian and regency styles, and also for its clock cases.

The company appears to be the first British firm to stamp its furniture. The stamped mark 'Gillows' or 'Gillows Lancaster' can usually be seen on the top of drawer fronts. The firm continues to flourish, changing its name to Waring & Gillow Ltd in the early years of the 20thC.

girandole (clock and watches - banjo clock - jewellery drops)
An elaborate US made clock, resembling a banjo clock, designed c1818 with gilded decorations, including scrolls, festoons and birds.

Also - In jewellery, pearl or gem drops suspended in groups of three or more from an earring, pendant or brooch.

glasgow school (design school - art nouveau - C R Mackintosh)
Group of designers and architects centred around the Glasgow School of Art in the late 19thC.

Hallmarks of the group's austere version of art nouveau include stylised floral motifs, celtic ornament, painted or inlaid stained glass and applied metalwork ornament on furniture which generally followed straight or gently curved lines.

Their work was exhibited widely in Europe, and influenced early European industrial designers, especially in Germany and Austria.

glaze (ceramics - glass like coating - decoration)
In ceramics, a vitreous (glass-like) coating which gives a decorative and impervious finish. Glazes can be matt or glossy, soft or hard, smoother textured, of varying opacity and colour. They are composed of a glass-forming ingredient (usually silica), a flux (to reduce the melting point of the silica), and alumina to help fix the glaze to the clay body.

Glazing takes place either before firing (known as green or raw-glazing), or after the first, biscuit firing when the body has been hardened off.

Lead glaze was perhaps the earliest manufactured glaze, known from 1700 bc, and using ground lead or lead oxide as the flux agent. The lead lent greater translucency and depth of colour to the glaze. It was used on earthenware and soft-paste porcelain in Europe until substituted in the 19thC by less toxic flux materials such as borax. also - salt-glazed stoneware, tin-glazed earthenware.

A smear glaze can be a deliberate, very light glaze applied to the marble-like parian ware or an unintentional coating of leftover glaze from a previous firing.

gobelins (carpets & tapestry - manufacturer - french)
Tapestry works established in 1662 in Paris and still in operation today.

Gobelins produced tapestries and carpets in traditional, classical styles taken from designs, or cartoons, by eminent painters, such as Raffaello Raphael.

In the mid to late 19thC, Gobelins produced tapestry portraits for royalty and panels for Parisian theatres. The quality of the work declined with the introduction of chemical, aniline dyes in the late 19thC and the use of these was suspended in the early 20thC.

Gustave Geoffroi, director 1919-25, set a new policy of commissioning cartoons from 20thC artists, such as Jean Weber, and of using improved synthetic dyes.

gold (metalware - precious metal)
The most versatile precious metal of all. It is more ductile than any other metal, with the capacity of being drawn out into a fine wire, and so malleable that it can be beaten into a leaf 4 millionths of an inch (a 10 thousandth of a millimetre) thick.

Gold is resistant to corrosion, and to the action of solvents. Pure, 24 carat gold is too soft and heavy to work on its own, and so it is usually alloyed with other metals such as copper.

In 14 carat gold, 14 parts of gold are mixed with 10 parts of other metal; the finest alloys are 18 and 22 carat.

The colour of the gold varies according to the type and quantity of metal used in the alloy. Copper lends a reddish tinge, silver a hint of pale green; a combination of copper and silver results in a brighter yellow than pure gold.

18 carat white gold is an alloy of 25 per cent platinum and 75 per cent pure gold.

gothic revival
The 19thC Gothic Revival started with poorly executed and over-elaborate Gothic motifs on European furniture and metalwork, dubbed by the Victorians as abbotsford style and known as Troubadour style in France and Dantesque in Italy.

British architect augustus pugin reacted against this excess in the 1830s, with more authentic methods of construction and decoration. Later furniture designers who followed his lead include william burges, william morris, bruce talbert and charles eastlake.

graining (coins - edge - furniture - decoration)
The patterned edge markings on a coin, also known as milling. The practice of graining or edge-lettering was usual in Britain from 1622 to guard against clipping.

Also - The decorative, painted imitation of wood grain or marble onto furniture. Graining was acceptable in the 18th and 19th centuries but was associated with cheap, low-grade furniture during the late Victorian period.

eileen gray (furniture - architect - lacquer -1878-1976)
Irish architect and furniture designer who became the best European lacquer artist of the period.

Gray made decorative ceramics, including, domestic earthenware, as well as wood, lacquer and modernist tubular steel furniture, characterised by plain, linear forms.

grotesque (decoration - figural - mythological)
Extravagant decorative motif in which figures of humans, mythological beasts, birds, animals and sphinxes are used at the whim of the artist.

The design elements are loosely linked by motifs such as intertwining scrolls, strapwork or foliage. Grotesque decoration was used in virtually every medium of the decorative arts -carved, inlaid or painted on furniture; engraved, chased or modelled on silver; woven into beauvais tapestries; and painted on maiolica.

Particularly popular during the renaissance and rococo periods, as well as later in the eclectic high Victorian period and in Germany at the same time.

The word stems from the Italian grotte, the subterranean ruins where ancient Roman motifs of this type were discovered during the Renaissance.

gueridon (furniture - stand - candelabrum)
Stand for holding a candelabrum or torch, a tray or a basket. Some early gueridons were in the form of a black human figures now known as blackamoors and were imported to Britain from Holland, Italy and France in the latter half of the 17thC.

The term has come to be commonly used for small occasional tables associated with the Louis XV and Louis XVI periods, with a frieze drawer and platform. interlacing circles derived from Greek and Roman architecture and used to decorate plain or moulded surfaces on furniture.

guinea (coins - british - charles II)
A British gold coin first struck under Charles II in 1663 and so named because some of the bullion gold used to make the first pieces was imported from Guinea by the Africa Company.

The provenance mark of an elephant or elephant and castle was the Africa Company symbol, and is found on some of the coins. After some fluctuation, the value of the coin settled at 21 shillings (£1.05).

The last golden guinea was struck in 1813, but the term denoted 21 shillings until the introduction of decimal currency.

Guineas with a pointed shield on the reverse side, issued 1787-99, are often known as spade guineas.