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The antique marks glossary - antique
terms h covering everything from hallmark to hunter and hamada to
huguenots.
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From hallmark to hunter and hamada to huguenots; below you will
find antique terms h and related words with definitions and meanings.
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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lead-glazed earthenwares, including steins, made by potters
best known for their oven tiles.
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A cabinetmaker and upholsterer who was the business partner
of thomas chippendale. When chippendale died in 1779, haig continued
in partnership with chippendales son, Thomas, until 1796.
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halberd
(militaria - medieval - pole arms)
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Also referred to as the halbard and the halbert. Used across
Europe from the 13th century. The halberd is probably the most
famous and recognizable weapon of the polearm group. The halberd
was used most extensively in the 15th and 16th centuries and
was the most versatile polearm ever developed. It incorporated
an axe blade, a spear point, and a pick/hammer beak.
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It
could be used to hook an enemy to the ground, even off horseback.
It could be thrust or used for chopping as well. Combat training
in the use of halberds was fairly extensive as they could be
used lethally or non-lethally (to trip, knock down, or otherwise
subdue an opponent). While halberds were uncommon as combat
weapons after the 17th century, they were carried as symbols
of authority and rank well into the 19th century. The Swiss
developed the halberd and were the most famous employers of
halberdsmen in their ranks. Even today, the Swiss guards at
the Vatican carry halberds (for appearances only; they keep
automatic weapons in the armory); the Tower of London Beefeaters
are also famous wielders of halberds today.
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A pocket watch housed within a metal case with a lid which has
a small round glazed window surrounded by roman numerals, the
time can be seen with lid closed
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A british coin with wieght value equivalent to half a silver
penny.
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The
earliest halfpence were minted in by viking and wessex kings
before the creation of an English nation. These coins, and those
of the later saxon kings are extremely rare.
After
the norman conquest, and prior to the reign of Henry I (1100-1135)
halfpence were produced by cutting a silver penny in half.
However, eventually coins half the penny in weight were produced.
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Coins
from the reigns of Henry I and Henry III have only been discovered
recently and it wasn't until the reign of Edward I (1272-1307)
that the denomination came into general use. The
early coins are often difficult to identify, especially as
there was a rash of Edwards and Henrys in this period, along
with a couple of Richards. In addition it is often difficult
to read the legend correctly.
The
last silver halfpence was produced during the commonwealth
and after the civil war.
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A
bed with a canopy or tester, supported by the head noard or
posts that covers a quarter to a third of the bed area. Half
testers were used in late medieval times and revived in the
17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
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Hard seated single chair, designed for the entrance hall and
dating from the early 18thC.
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An early Georgian cabinetmaker, who in 1752 became a business
partner in vile and cobb.
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hallmark
(metalware – gold - silver
– platinum)
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Official marks of an assay office or guild that is stamped on
articles with a precious metal content. In the modern age the
term applies more to the complete set of marks found on an article
of gold, silver or platinum and usually includes a date mark
and the makers mark. Hallmarking systems exist throughout europe
and america.
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In
Britain hallmark literally means the mark of the goldsmiths
hall, and the original assaying office was established in London
in 1300. All but the smallest articles should be hallmarked.
This includes any item over half an ounce or 15.5gms, except
where the items appearance would be ruined by a hallmark.
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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.
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shoji hamada (ceramics
- art pottery - bernard leach - 1894-1978)
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Associate and mentor of bernard leach the founder of the art
pottery movement in the Uk.
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Born
misonokuchi, kanagawa prefecture in japan; Shoji was interested
in art at an early age and as an 8 year old he would spend time
with a relative, who was studying at Tokyo School of Fine Art,
and go on painting excursions with him. By the time he was 16
his vocation in pottery and crafts was confirmed, contributing
woodcuts to magazines and winning school prizes for art.
In 1912, he saw etchings and
pottery by Bernard Leach in art galleries in the Ginza district
of Tokyo and the following year enrolled in the Ceramics department
of Tokyo Advanced Technical College. Shoji graduated in 1916
and went to work in Kyoto at the Municipal Ceramic Laboratory
and visited the potter Kenkichi Tomimoto for the first time.
He met Bernard Leach in 1919 at Leach's one-man exhibition
in Tokyo and was invited to Abiko where he met Yanagi and
travelled to Korea and China with Kawai.
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In
1920 Hamada arrived in England with Leach and studied early
English slipware in the British Museum before traveling to
St. Ives where he spent 3 years helping to set up the St.
Ives pottery. His knowledge and practical experience proved
critical in the successful establishment of the pottery which
has been in continuous production ever since.
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In
1955 he was recognised in Japan as a Living National Treasure,
the first award of the title, with Tomimoto, Arakawa and Ishiguro.
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Shoji
Hamada is among this century's most important figures in the
world of ceramics. His work is internationally acclaimed and
has a place in major American and European collections. Hamada
and Leach established new standards of craft in their own
countries and influenced artists, craftsmen and potters the
world over.
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A method of hand striking a coin design on to blank metal using
a pair of dies. The method was used until the mid-17thC. Also
– metal articles shaped by hand, a process used since
ancient times. The metal is gently hammered into shape over
a wooden block or leather pad. Also – martele.
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A goblin or mannikin (Little People) in Germanic folklore.
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A staffordshire born engraver whose work was the main source
of transfer printed designs on bow, Worcester, and caughley
porcelain, and possibly also on Battersea enamels.
- hand
cooler (paperweight – baccarat
– clichy)
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A small round or egg shaped piece of glass, crystal or stone
such as marble or agate used from the 18th to late 19th centuries
to keep the hands cool. Most were about one and a half to two
inches across. Some were eventually made into miniature paperweights
and others intricately carved by glass houses such as bacarrat
and clichy.
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A portable container for hot metal, coals or charcoal that was
used to keep the hands warm. Most examples have an outer case
of pierced, metalwork such as copper or brass surrounding the
inner container and heat source.
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A short general purpose sword used by huntsmen, horsemen and
sailors in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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A heugenot silversmith who together with his son Pierre II (1698-1717)
specialised in figural silver ornaments, decorated with chasing,
embossing gadrooning, pierced and cut card work. Their marks,
styles and designs are very similar.
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E.P.B.M. or electroplated Britannia metal is actually a lead,
zinc and antimony based alloy, the silverware that is made of
E.P.B.M. is usually of the highest quality. E.P.B.M. is also
the most difficult to repair.
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Hard-paste porcelain is a hard ceramic that was originally made
from a compound of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin
fired at very high temperature. It was first made in China around
the 9th century.
Historically,
"hard-paste" referred to the Asian porcelains that
had been prepared from the raw materials. The secret of its
manufacture was not known in Europe until 1709, when Böttger
of Meissen, Germany discovered the formula.
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Despite
attempts to keep it secret, the process spread to other German
ceramic factories and eventually throughout Europe.
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Hard-paste,
or just hard porcelain, now chiefly refers to formulatons
prepared from mixtures of kaolin, feldspar and quartz. Other
raw materials can also be used and these include porcelain
and pottery stones. These are the same as petunse, but this
name has long fallen out of use. Hard-paste porcelain is now
differentiated from soft-paste porcelain mainly by the firing
temperature, with the former being higher to around 1400 degrees
Celsius and the latter to around 1200 degrees Celsius.
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Depending
on the raw materials and firing methods used, hard-paste porcelain
can also resemble stoneware or earthenware. Hard-paste porcelain
can be utilized to make porcelain bisque, a particularly hard
type of porcelain. It is a translucent and bright, white ceramic.
With it being almost impermeable to water it is unnecessary
to glaze the body.
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hardstone
Gemstone whose colour and formation makes it suitable for carving
objects such as urns and also for use in decorative techniques such
as inlaid decoration, mosaic and cameo. Typical examples include agate,
lapis lazuli and malachite. |
hardwood
A botanical term for wood taken from a broad-leaved tree. Hardwoods
are generally harder than softwoods, although not necessarily stronger,
and include some of the finest furniture timbers such as mahogany,
oak and walnut. |
harewood
Sycamore pr maple wood which is stained with iron oxide to give a
green or silvery finish, and also known as silverwood. It was used
from the 17thC and especially popular in the second half of the 18thC.
The San Domingo satinwood, a bright yellow wood that turns grey when
it has seasoned, is also known as harewood. |
harlequin
set
A set of objects such as cups and saucers of a common style, but each
piece decorated differently. The term is also applied to originally
unrelated objects-of furniture, for example - which have been 'matched
up' to make a set. |
harlequin
table
A form of pembroke table with a small box-like structure concealed
in the central body which springs open to reveal a nest of drawers
and compartments. |
john
harrison (clocks and watches - 1693-1776)
A Lincolnshire-born carpenter who became an innovative clock-maker.
Most clock-makers used metal for mechanical parts of a clock, trying
different methods of lubrication to make them more reliable and
smooth-running. Harrison was unique in questioning the basic material,
and his early clocks have wooden wheels made of the naturally oily
lignum vitae.
He
also made the first chronometer, in a bid to win a reward offered
by Parliament in 1714 for a timekeeper accurate enough to be used
for navigation at sea, and was finally granted the £20,000
prize in 1773 thanks to the support of King George III.
In
1728 Harrison introduced the first gridiron pendulum with built-in
temperature compensation.
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haystack
A conical 19thC measure used in Irish taverns with a stepped neck,
and usually of pewter; English versions are slightly different in
form and of brass or copper. They are also known as haycocks or harvesters.
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ambrose
heal (furniture - arts and crafts - 1872-1959)
Artist-craftsman and furniture-maker and designer. He joined Heal
& Son, the London-based family furniture-making business, in 1893
and designed all of its furniture from 1896 to the 1930s. Early pieces
show the influence of the prevalent arts
and crafts movement, and his range of stylish but durable furniture
at reasonable prices had a considerable influence on furniture design
in the early part of the 20thC. Towards the end of his working life
(c.1939), Heal experimented with new materials, including steel and
aluminium. |
heartwood
The hard inner core and oldest part of a tree. It is denser and darker
than the outer layers of sapwood, and does not contain living cells;
as the tree grows, the area of heartwood increases. |
heat
treatment
Process of changing or eliminating the colour of a natural or synthetic
gemstone by controlled heating. |
hennell
family
Silver craftsmen working in a London-based family business, established
by David Hennell in 1735. Over 30 personal silver marks were registered
by the family until the last son, Samuel, died in 1837. A second Hennell
firm was established in 1809 by David's grandson, Robert (b.1769)
which operated until 1887. |
george
hepplewhite (furniture - cabinet-maker - 1786)
British neoclassical cabinet-maker whose pattern book The Cabinet-Maker
and Upholsterer's Guide illustrated fashions in a way that was easily
interpreted by ordinary cabinet-makers. |
herati
pattern
Common floral motif used on Oriental carpets, and said to originate
in the region of Herat, Iran. Typically it consists of a stylised
floral rosette arranged in two-way or four-way symmetry, enclosed
within a diamond shape. The motif is also known as the mahi or fish
pattern in the carpet trade because of its resemblance to fishes,
or more recently, as the in-and-out pattern. |
hibachi
Japanese term for a charcoal burner, usually of bronze or cast iron,
and used for warming rooms. |
high-temperature
colours
Certain metal oxide pigments that can withstand the high firing temperatures
used to fuse them onto an unglazed ceramic body. They are used as
underglaze colours painted onto the biscuit body of porcelain, or
painted onto the raw glaze (known as inglaze) of tin-glazed earthenware
before the glaze firing. Colours include green from copper, purple
from manganese, yellow from antimony and blue from cobalt and are
also known as grand feu colours. |
hilt
The hand grip of a sword or dagger. Until the 15thC, swords usually
had a straight hilt with a crossguard and pommel. Later hilts are
more elaborate, in terms of both protection and decoration. See sword.
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hinge
Folding metal joint which allows doors and lids to open and shut;
it can be decorative as well as functional. Before the 16thC, pin
hinges were used on boarded and panelled furniture (see joining):
a loose pin or barrel acts as a pivot which is pushed through corresponding
holes in the two parts to be joined. The wire hinge, consisting of
two interlocking loops of wire, was introduced in the 16thC, and is
often seen on 17thC coffers. From the beginning of the 18thC, hinges
tend to be concealed. A butt hinge is sunk into the edge of the surface
so that only a narrow line of metal is visible externally. And in
a blind hinge, the pivoting pin and tube are set within the hinge
plate so that they are flush with the surface. The join can be further
disguised by a rule joint - a hinged joint used on screens or the
fold-down leaves of tables so that there is no gap in the outer surface
when the leaves are down. On lidded metal and ceramic objects, a book
hinge with a rounded back like the spine of a book may be seen, sometimes
with the ends of the pin concealed by ornamental caps, and box hinge
is found on some stoneware jugs with silver or pewter lids and mouth
rims. |
hipped
Cabinet-making term for a cabriole leg which extends to or rises above
the level of the seat as opposed to ending at the base of the seat
rail, and which is often ornately carved from the knee upwards. |
hirado
ware
Sparsely painted blue and white porcelain made at the Mikawachi kilns
for the lords of Hirado, an island near arita, Japan. Most pieces
are likely to be 19thC, although production may have been as early
as the late 17thC. |
hispano-moresque
ware (ceramics - tin
glazed - spanish)
Spanish tin glazed eartheware that used techniques and designs brought
by the Moorish invaders in the 8thC. The most notable wares are decorated
with lustre introduced from the 13thC and used especially at Malaga,
and in the Valencia area in the 15thC. The ware inspired the development
of Italian maiolica and was arguably the first pottery of any artistic
value to be produced in Europe since the ancient civilisations. |
hochst
(ceramics - manufacturer - rococo)
German ceramics factory operating 1746-96. It began making faience
useful wares, painted in enamel colours, then produced hard-paste
porcelain from 1750, concentrating on Rococo-style tablewares and
statuettes, notably by Johann Peter Melchior (1742-1825). |
josef
hoffmann (designer - art deco - 1870-1956)
See art deco artists and wiener
werkstatte. |
william
hogarth (painter - georgian - 1697-1764)
British painter, caricaturist and silver engraver who depicted the
social classes of Georgian times in works such as A Rake's Progress
and Marriage a la Mode. |
holbein
carpets
Family of Turkish carpets incorporating various octagonal motifs,
named after the German painter Hans Holbein the Younger, who depicted
such carpets in his paintings. The designs actually date from the
second half of the 15thC, predating Holbein's paintings by nearly
a century. The term embraces small-pattern Holbeins with rows of alternating
lozenges and octagons, originating in the Ushak region of western
Anatolia, and large-pattern Holbeins with two or three large octagons,
woven in Turkey. |
holey
dollar
Australia's famous first coin - a Spanish piece of eight with the
centre cut out and counter-marked, and a face value of 25p (5 shillings).
Holey dollars were issued in New South Wales in 1813 and withdrawn
1829. The pieces cut from the centres formed coins in their own right
known as dumps and with a face value of 6.25p (1s 3d). |
henry
holland (architect - empire style - 1745-1806)
Late georgian architect and furniture designer whose work anticipated
that of the french empire style. |
hollow-ware
Term for gold, silver, pewter and ceramics ware that is hollow, such
as bowls and drinking vessels - as opposed to flatware. |
holly
Hard, white wood with a close grain and fine texture, often stained
a different colour. Holly was used for small pieces of inlaid decoration
in solid oak and walnut in the 16th and early 17th centuries and for
marquetry from the late 17th to late 18th centuries. |
hood
1 Removable part of a clock which hides the mechanism and surrounds
the dial. 2 Semi-circular top of a mirror frame or a cabinet. |
thomas
hope (1769-1831)
Dutch-born author-traveller, collector, furniture designer and patron
of the arts. He moved to England in 1795 with a huge collection of
antique vases and sculpture. His Household Furniture and Interior
Decoration, published 1807, became a 'bible' for Regency style containing
designs for solid pieces of furniture, based on Classical lines and
decorated with symbolic motifs taken from Ancient Greek and Egyptian
architecture. |
horoldt
See meissen. |
horse-brass
Flat or slightly curved brass plate with pierced, engraved or stamped
decoration designed to ward off evil, advertise the trade of the horse's
owner or to bring good luck. Horse-brasses were familiar harness trappings
in Britain in the 19thC; examples before 1860 are rare, although similar
badges were used in the Middle Ages. Most examples seen today are
reproductions. |
horsehair
Coarse stuffing from the mane and tail of horses used to upholster
seat furniture from the mid-18thC, and widely used throughout the
19thC. |
horseshoe
table
Table introduced in the `8thC which is shaped like a segment of a
ring, sometimes with rounded flaps at either end for extending the
surface area. There is often a central pivoted device to move bottles
to any point of the radius. |
victor
horta (architect - art nouveau - 1861-1947)
Belgian art nouveau architect,
teacher and designer. His interiors and furniture are characterised
by sinuous lines and contrasting areas of space, and by the use of
wrought iron, curved metalwork and inlaid decoration. They were much
copied throughout Europe. |
huguenots
Protestant refugees from France, known for their highly skilled craftsmanship
and who influenced decorative arts in Europe from the end of the 17thC.
In 1685, Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had
allowed French Protestants religious freedom of worship. As a consequence,
Britain and other European countries received a flood of Huguenots
fleeing persecution. Many of these were cabinet-makers, tapestry and
cloth weavers or silversmiths, and their work was of the highest quality.
They introduced several new cabinet-making techniques, including marquetry,
veneering, japanning and gesso work. Many of the finest silks from
the major 18thC spitalfields silk factories in London were the work
of Huguenot designer James Leman. Particularly influential was the
silverwork produced by Huguenot craftsmen such as David willaume.
It is generally solid, decorated with cut-card work, strap work, intricate
engraving and the application of cast ornaments in human and animal
form. The distinctive Huguenot styles gradually merged with native
styles from around 1725. The refugees also brought with them several
new vessels, including the soup tureen and the ecuelle. |
humpen
Large German 17th-18thC drinking vessels. Glass examples were almost
cylindrical in shape, often lidded and decorated with enamel. Reichsadlerhumpen,
or adlerglas, carry the double eagle of the Holy Roman Empire, with
the armorial bearings of 56 imperial families on its wings. Kurfiirstenhumpen
are painted with pictures of the Holy Roman Emperor and his Electors,
and others, called Apostelhumpen, with religious scenes. |
hunter-cased
watch
Pocket watch with a hinged metal cover over the dial. These were first
used, from c. 1840, in the hunting field, as the unprotected glass
of an open-faced watch in a rider's waistcoat pocket was liable to
be knocked and broken. A half-hunter case has an opening cut in the
centre of the lid with an additional chapter ring engraved around
it to allow the hands to be read without exposing the full dial. |
hyalith
Opaque scarlet or black bohemian glass, often with gilding, developed
in the early 19thC, probably in imitation of Wedgwood's rosso antico
and basaltes ware. It was used mainly for ornaments |
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