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The antique
marks glossary - antique terms l covering everything from lace
to limoges to lustre.
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From lace to lustre, you will find below antique related words
or antique terms begining with the letter 'L' together with their
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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Common Laburnum is a small deciduous tree (20 ft) introduced
to Britain from the Continent. It is native to Central and Southern
Europe. Scots Laburnum is native to the Alps and the mountain
of Italy and the Balkans down to Albania. Laburnum has naturalised
itself in various localised places in Britain.
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It
is a hard, dense yellowish wood with variegated brown streaks.
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It
was a popular choice for inlaid and veneered decoration, especially
oystering after the Restoration, and for crossbanding at the
end of the 18thC.
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French term for Oriental lacquer work with mother-of-pearl INLAID
DECORATION .
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Italian term for cheap, imitation lacquer, used on furniture
in Italy, especially Venice, since the 18thC. Paper scraps or
cut-out prints are stuck to the surface and covered in layers
of varnish.
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lace (textiles
- trimming - cordonnet)
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Lace
is a lightweight, openwork fabric, patterned with open holes
in the work, made by machine or by hand.
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The
holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously
woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part
of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace
was not made until the late 15th and early 16th centuries. A
true lace is created when a thread is looped, twisted or braided
to other threads independently from a backing fabric.
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Originally
linen, silk, gold, or silver threads were used. Now lace is
often made with cotton thread. Manufactured lace may be made
of synthetic fiber. A few modern artists make lace with a
fine copper or silver wire instead of thread
Designs
generally take the form of central motifs made up of numerous
threads, several of which may be collected at the edge with
a whipping stitch to create a ridged effect known as a cordonnet.
The elements are joined either by slender threads known as brides
or by a fine mesh, known as the reseau. Any additional decorative
motifs used to replace the reseau are known as modes.
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Lace
developed from an embroidery technique known as drawn thread
work. Two distinct types evolved in Italy and Flanders (an area
now mainly in Belgium) during the 16thC. In bobbin lace (also
known as pillow or bone lace), threads attached to bobbins are
intertwined to form the pattern. Needlepoint lace is sewn with
a needle and a single thread, using embroidery buttonhole stitches.
The various forms of needlepoint are often named after their
supposed town or country of origin, such as point de Venise.
However, point d'Angleterre is not, as the name suggests, English
needlepoint, but a very fine pillow lace made in Flanders, notably
Brussels, during the 17thC. Flemish and Belgian lace are often
interchangeable terms although strictly speaking Flemish should
be restricted to 18thC laces and Belgian to 19thC ones.
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Machine-made
lace was a product of the Industrial Revolution. The net was
machine-made and later hand-embroidered. The first machine-made
net appeared around 1764. Chemical lace is an imitation lace
produced in Germany and Switzerland in the 1880s. It is in fact
a machine-embroidered technique identified by the soft, fuzzy
texture of the design .
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Is glass decorated with a maze of thread-like lines resembling
lace fabric. An example of lace glass is Fenton’s Spanish
Lace Milk Glass.
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lacework
(ceramic - decoratio - meissen)
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A
very fine openwork technique for decorating porcelain developed
in the 18thC, probably at meissen. A mesh-like gauze is dipped
into liquid clay. When fired, the gauze burns away, leaving
a hard skeleton behind. The technique was used on porcelain
figures by many European factories from the 19thC onwards .
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Hard .
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lacloche
(jewellery - manufacturer - paris - art deco)
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Parisian firm of manufacturing and retail jewellers established
by the four Lacloche brothers, 1897. The brothers originally
made luxurious, Oriental-style enamelled jewellery, and in the
1920s adopted the art deco style .
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lacquer
(furniture - decoration - chinese tree )
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A
hard, glossy, natural resin made from the sap of the Chinese
lacquer tree.
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The
sap is applied in thin layers - sometimes as many as 100 - to
a base material, normally wood or fabric. Each layer is dried
and polished before the next is applied. Eventually a thick,
smooth surface is built up which can be dusted with gold or
silver flecks or worked in relief.
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Colours,
usually black and red, can be added to the opaque or transparent
lacquer. Differently coloured layers were sometimes applied
and topped by a black surface, so that various decorative effects
could be produced by cutting through the stratified colours.
This was known as guri incised lacquer, or coromandel lacquer
or bantam work.
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In
Japan a technique known as shibayama was produced by adhering
pieces of mother-of-pearl, ivory and stones to a surface - rather
like inlaid decoration - and then surrounding with lacquer.
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Small easy chair, with buttoned upholstery, introduced in the
mid-19thC and often paired with a larger gentleman's chair.
The seat is deep and low, and the back inclined and high. There
are both low-armed and armless versions.
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A bisque doll designed to look like an adult woman in face,
figure and dress.
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A.
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lambrequin
(decorative motif - furniture - textiles - border)
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A design based on a pendent drapery effect. The word originally
described a scarf worn across a knight's helmet which was stylised
in heraldic designs as the mantel around a coat of arms. In
the latter part of the 17thC, the French applied the term to
swagged or festooned drapery. The theme was adapted by furniture-makers
and carved on picture and mirror frames. Around 1700, a lambrequin
border pattern was developed for ceramics decoration at rouen
in France, and was much used over the next 50 years. Style rayonnant
is a variation in which the lambrequin motif radiates from a
central point. A similar motif is seen on mid-17th to mid-18thC
English silver cups. See decorative motifs .
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Glass shaped by heating it over a small flame. The technique
is used to make small figures and ornaments .
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lance
(militaria - spear - horsemen)
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A spear designed to be carried by mounted soldiers. Although
superseded by the sword and firearms from the 17thC, the lance
was re-introduced by the French cavalry who adopted it from
the Polish lancers during the Napoleonic Wars, and in Britain
in 1816 .
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) French cabinet-maker based in London c. 1760-70 and an exponent
of Louis XV and Louis XVI styles. His commodes are noted for
their fine marquetry decoration and gilt-bronze mounts, and
a number of Adam-style card tables and pier tables are attributed
to him .
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1779-1819) French-born cabinet-maker who from 1805 was the leading
furniture-maker in New York, USA. His work shows a delicate
interpretation of the French directoire style, featuring Classical
forms and motifs .
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Simple brass clock introduced in Britain in the 1620s, and the
most common type of domestic clock throughout the 17thC. Its
distinguishing features include a posted-frame construction
containing the movement, side panels that can be opened, and
a bell on top surrounded by a fretwork gallery. True lantern
clocks - or Cromwellian clocks, as they were also called - are
weight-driven wall clocks which were sometimes mounted on oak
brackets. The first examples were controlled by a balance wheel
and verge escapement; by the 1660s, they were fitted with a
verge and bob pendulum, and later by a long pendulum with an
anchor escapement. A revival of demand for the clocks in the
second half of the 19thC produced spring-driven versions, or
earlier examples were fitted with spring-driven movements within
the original posted frame.
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lapada
The london and provincial antique dealers association, an organisation
of antique shops and individual dealers formed to maintain standards
within the antigues trade. |
lapis
lazuli
Semiprecious, opaque blue gemstone containing golden flecks of pyrite
('fool's gold'). |
lapping
Method of finishing edges on metal ware by soldering thin strips of
metal over them. It was used particularly for concealing the copper
visible on the edges of sheffield plate objects. |
larch
Yellowish to reddish-brown timber used for the carcass work of case
furniture in the late 18thC. It is fairly hard and durable, but has
a tendency to warp. |
latticino
Term used to describe glass decorated with a pattern of white, or
sometimes coloured, threads of glass. Latticino is from the Italian
for 'milk'. The technique is also known as filigrana (thread-grained).
It was developed in 16thC Venice and has been used to produce three
main effects on glass: vetro a retorti, which has twists embedded
in clear glass; vetro a reticello, which has a fine network of crossed
threads; and vetro a fili, which has a spiral or helix pattern. |
Laub
und bandelwerk
German for 'foliage and scrollwork', a baroque-style framing motif
similar to strapwork, common in early 18thC. |
lava
glass
Dark blue lustre art glass developed by the US designer Louis C. tiffany
in the late 19thC. It has iridescent gold streaks - supposed to resemble
flows of lava - and was originally called volcanic glass. |
laver
Large vessel of brass, bronze or other metal with one or two spouts,
used to hold water for washing hands or feet. Earliest lavers, orlavabo,
date from the 14thC and continued in use until c. 1800. |
lazy
Susan
A revolving stand placed in the centre of a dining table and used
to hold condiments. |
le
corbusier (1887-1965)
Swiss-born architect whose real name was Charles
Edward Jeanneret. Many of his furniture designs of the 1920s were
for the leading European furniture-makers thonet, and were exhibited
in his building for the exposition internationale in Paris in 1925,
the Pavilion de L'Esprit. Le Corbusier's vision of a world where technology
and fine design combined to create the ideal living environment was
highly influential, although his theories were often misapplied. |
bernard
leach (ceramics - art pottery - 1887-1979)
Founder of the 20thC art pottery movement. 
Bernard
Leach was born and brought up in the Far East. His father was
a colonial Judge in Hong Kong and his maternal grandparents were
missionaries in Japan. His mother died soon after he was born
and he spent the first four years of his life with his grandparents
before rejoining his father. At the age of 10 he was sent to England
to be educated and in 1903 he persuaded his father to allow him
to study at the Slade School of Art. After his father died in
1904,
Bernard
joined the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, but banking was not for
him and in 1906 he enrolled in the London School of Art where
he met Henry Lamb. He also met Frank Brangwyn who was at the height
of his fame as an etcher
Leach
went to Japan to study graphics but was instead captivated by
the pottery tradition. He returned to Britain to and founded the
St Ives pottery in Cornwall. His own work is greatly influenced
by Korean and Japanese forms and glaze.
Throughout
his life Leach travelled extensively, passing on his knowledge
to hundreds of potters around the world. Bernard Leach died in
1979 at the age of 92.
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lead
crystal
Glass containing a high proportion - 25-30 per cent - of lead oxide.
Lead glass refracts (bends) the light more than non-lead glass, thus
giving extra brilliance. It can be blown more thickly than soda glass
and is therefore more suitable for cutting and engraving. The original
but incorrect name for English lead crystal is flint glass. The misnomer
came about when George ravenscroft, a British manufacturer trying
to produce a substitute for Venetian cristallo, used finely ground
flints and potash instead of the traditional Venetian sources of silica
and soda. These new ingredients led to the formation of fine cracks
-grizzling - which was remedied by replacing a proportion of the potash
with lead oxide. |
leeds
pottery (ceramics - creamware - richard humble)
Founded in Leeds in 1770 by brothers John and Joshua Green in partnership
with Richard Humble.
Success
came
with the production of household goods in a variety of ceramic
bodies, the most popular being CREAMWARE, a type of earthenware
made by several companies from white Cornish Clay with a translucent
glaze, producing the pale cream colour from which it took its
name.
Leeds
creamware was widely exported throughout Europe. It is light in
weight, and pierced decoration was a speciality. A common Leeds
feature is a handle formed of two intertwined strips ending in
a relief motif of flowers, leaves or berries. Most was undecorated,
but some black transfer-printing and blue-printed or painted and
enamelled ware exists.
Leeds
pottery also produced fine-grained agate, PEARL, LUSTRE and tortoiseshell
wares, some fine stoneware and small figures similar to those
of Staffordshire potter Ralph wood. Few genuine products carry
factory marks, but other factories copied Leeds ware, often using
a Leeds mark, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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legend
The lettering on a coin, including the monarch's titles and sometimes
a motto. |
pierre
legrain (1889-1929)
Eminent Parisian furniture designer, interior decorator and bookbinder
who contributed significantly to art deco style. Most of his furniture
was designed in the 1920s. It reflected African and cubist influences
and was often incorporated from luxury materials such as ebony, silver,
sharkskin and lacquer. |
kaspar
lehmann (1565-1622)
German engraver of glass and precious stones, who did much to perfect
the technique of wheel engraving. He was given the monopoly on glass
engraving throughout the Habsburg Empire. He worked mainly on fragile
cristallo glass and trained a number of people who later became eminent
engravers, including Johannes Hess and Caspar Schindler. |
lenticle
Glass panel in the door of a longcase clock, through which the pendulum
may be seen. It is sometimes known as a bull's eye. |
william
lethaby (1857-1931)
British architect and designer of furniture, metalwork and ceramics
who influenced the arts and crafts movement. He was principal of London's
Central School of Arts and Crafts 1896-1911, and Professor of Design
at London's Royal College of Art 1900-18. His furniture was mainly
rustic and unvarnished, and often decorated with floral marquetry.
He also designed pottery for wedgwood. |
liberty
& co
British retail firm established in 1875 by Arthur
Lasenby Liberty (1843-1917).
The
company specialised in imported Moorish, Eastern and Egyptian
furniture for resale in Europe, commissioned Art
Nouveau designs in fabrics, pottery, silver and pewter, and
had a major influence on style in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries.
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library
steps
Steps for reaching high bookshelves, which came into general use in
the libraries of private households in the mid-18thC. Some library
steps folded or converted into stools with padded seats or even elbow
chairs and were called metamorphic chairs. |
lignum
vitae
Extremely hard, oily, dense, dark brown wood from the West Indies
- one of the earliest woods to be imported to Britain before 1650.
The wood was made into drinking bowls, pestles and mortars, and similar
items; the 18thCclockmakerJohn harrison even used it for the wheels
in his early clocks because of its natural lubrication. Lignum vitae
was used for oyster parquetry on late 17thC furniture, and in the
18thC for small areas of veneer. |
lime
Soft, fine-grained, creamy-white European wood. Lime proved a great
success with woodcarvers as it cuts well with or across the grain.
The master carver Grinling gibbons and his school used it extensively.
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limehouse
The Limehouse porcelain manufactory was amongst the very first of
the English porcelain production centres, founded in the mid-18th
century within a year of Bow and Chelsea.
The
pothouse was functioning by early 1745, but production was short-lived
and it went out of business by early 1748. It was a vital missing
link in the early development of English
porcelain.
Excavations
in 1990 revealed a kiln, kiln furniture, as well as both glazed
and unglazed wasters, of tableware and miniatures. Analysis showed
that the standard of craftsmanship was low. The pothouse went out
of business not only because the wares failed to capture a market,
but because profits from sales were not enough to cover costs incurred
during the initial development period.
In
its brief period of operation, c1745-8, it became the first British
factory to produce blue and white soft-paste porcelain, and possibly
the first to add soapstone successfully to the formula for whiteness
and plasticity. Teapots and sauceboats, many echoing the silver
shapes of the day, and shell-shaped dishes were the main lines.
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limning
An archaic expression derived from the old English word for illuminating
(as in manuscripts), and which is now coming back into use to describe
the technique of miniature painting. |
limoges
A major centre for European enamel work production since the 12thC,
and French ceramic production since the late 18thC.
The
Limoges manufactory of hard-paste porcelain was established by
Turgot in 1771 and placed under the patronage of the comte d'Artois,
brother of Louis XVI. Limoges had been the site of a minor industry
producing plain faience earthenwares since the 1730s, but the
first identified French source of kaolin and a material similar
to petuntse, the ingredients used for the production of hard-paste
porcelain similar to Chinese porcelain, were discovered at Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche,
near Limoges, in an economically distressed area, and began to
be quarried in 1768.
The
manufactory was purchased by the king in 1784, apparently with
the idea of producing hard-paste bodies for decoration at Sèvres.
After
the french revolution several families of potters established
factories in the city which is in Limousin, in central France,
including the Franco-American Haviland family. Most production
was of domestic wares, often finely transfer-printed botanical
designs.
Limoges
enamel ware is painted on copper predominantly in white, blue
and gold on a dark blue or black ground. The enamelling industry
declined in the 18thC, but was revived c1820-50 by craftsmen such
as Julian Robillarda
So,
Limoges porcelain is a generic term for porcelain produced in
Limoges rather than the output of a specific factory. Limoges
maintains the premier manufacturing city of porcelain in France
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Linen
Durable textile made from the fibre of the flax plant, which is bleached
to improve whiteness and texture. Among the best quality is 15th-
18thC Dutch linen from Haarlem. Linen production declined in the 18thC
as the yarn broke easily on a power loom. When the problem was overcome
in the late 19thC, cotton had taken over the market. |
linen
press
1 Device for pressing linen, known in various forms from medieval
times to the 18thC. It basically consists of two flat boards which
can be pressed tightly together (with the linen between) by means
of a spiral screw. 2 A term for a cupboard for the storage of linen,
normally with sliding trays enclosed by doors with drawers below.
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linen
smoother
Glass object used for pressing linen in the 18thC. The vertical handle
projecting from the middle of the heavy, circular base is often ribbed
to give a better grip. In Britain, linen smoothers were also known
as slickers, slick stones or smoothing irons. |
linen-fold
Style of woodcarving, especially on panelling, to resemble hanging
folds of fabric. See DECORATIVE MOTIFS. |
liner
Glass container, often blue, that fits snugly inside metal objects
such as sugar basins and salt cellars. The glass lining prevents the
contents corroding the metal and perhaps being contaminated by it.
Blue glass also helps to show off any pierced decoration on the metal
container. |
john
linnell
(1729-96) Furniture designer and cabinet-maker. Linnell's early chinoiserie
pieces included Rococo-style beds and sofas. His later furniture was
designed to fit the interiors of houses by architects Robert Adam
and Henry holland, among others, and became increasingly influenced
by the neoclassical style. |
linthorpe
(ceramics - christopher dresser - 1879-89)
British studio pottery, near middlesbrough, yorkshire.
Established
in 1879 by John Harrison, a local entrepreneur and Christopher
Dresser, an important designer of the time, the pottery went on
to produce over 2000 different shapes of ceramic ware in its short
10 year life.
The
pottery produced decorative wares, including teapots, distinguished
by simple lines, thick richly coloured glazes often with Japanese
or Peruvian influences. Later wares used slips and sgraffito as
decorative techniques.
Today
Linthorpe pottery is highly collectable. It is very popular locally,
but is also known and respected world-wide. Its distinctive mark
has made it easily recognizable .
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lit-en-bateau
French for 'boat-shaped bed' - an EMPIRE-style bed with curving head
and footboards, often forming S-shaped scrolls. |
lithography
A printing process in which an image is drawn on a stone or metal
surface with a greasy crayon. When water and then ink are poured over
the surface the crayonned areas repel the water but retain the ink.
These areas transfer to paper, metal, and other surfaces when printed
under pressure. |
lithophanes
Thin, translucent porcelain panels or plaques that on being held to
the light reveal a picture or design with a three-dimensional effect.
Lithophanes were usually made of unglazed, biscuit porcelain, and
were set into lampshades and lanterns, hung in windows or moulded
into the base of mugs. A wax master of the design was modelled from
which a plaster mould was made as a cast for the porcelain paste.
Subjects were typically on religious themes or based on paintings.
The process was invented in France in 1827 and taken up on a large
scale at meissen and berlin 1830-50, and also at minton, belleek and
worcester. |
lithyalin
glass
An opaque or translucent marbled glass with a surface resembling polished
gemstones in a wide range of colours. It was first made by the Bohemian
glass artist Friedrich Egermann in 1829, and was copied by other Bohemian
and French manufacturers, sometimes with engraved, cut or painted
decoration. |
liverpool
Centre for ceramics from 1710 producing tin-glazed earthenware. Specialities
of the period were blue-painted punchbowls, and tiles transfer-printed
in black or red with contemporary subjects and characters. From the
1780s, cream ware was the main output, decorated in cobalt blue, enamel
colours, or with blue or black transfer-printed designs. A number
of porcelain factories sprang up in Liverpool, such as Gilbody (1754-61),
Chaffers (1754-65), Philip Christian (est.1765) and, in the final
decades of the 18thC, Pennington. The history of Liverpool porcelain
is still incomplete; fluctuations in the make-up of the porcelain
paste and cross-fertilisation of designs between the factories, make
identification very difficult without chemical analysis. |
livery
bed
16th and 17thC term for a servant's bed. Until the last decades of
the 19thC, this would be simply a straw-stuffed mattress lying on
a wooden pallet. |
livery
cupboard
15th to 17thC cupboard. It was used for storing food and drink and
sometimes rested upon a stand known as a livery board, which doubled
as a bench. |
lloyd
loom
Patent name for a tough material woven from wires covered in machine-twisted
paper so as to resemble wicker. It was popular in the 1920s and 30s,
for linen baskets, chairs and small tables. |
loading
A filler such as pitch or resin used to add density and weight to
a hollow article made from a thin sheet of metal such as a silver
candlestick. |
lobing
Rounded decoration which projects horizontally, as on the rim of a
plate or dish, or vertically as on the cover of a tureen. |
lobmeyr
Glassworks in Vienna, Austria, that achieved an international reputation
from 1864 under the leadership of Ludwig Lobmeyr. The company produced
fine cut and engraved glass and iridescent art NOUveau glass until
c. 1900. |
mathias
lock
(fl.1740-69) Master carver and Rococo-style furniture designer. Lock
published several influential books of his designs, and his carving
featured natural themes and Rococo shells and scrolls. He is believed
to have been employed by Thomas chippendale. |
long
arm
A long-barrelled shoulder gun |
long
eliza
Attenuated figure of a Chinese woman seen as a decoration on 18thC
Chinese porcelain, some Dutch and English delftware, and on worcester
porcelain of the 1760s. The name comes from the Dutch Lange Leizen.
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longcase
clock
Tall, narrow, floorstanding clock, also known as a grandfather clock.
The case protected the pendulum, and was introduced soon after its
invention in 1657. The clocks were produced from the 18thC until c.
1820 in London, c.1845 in the provinces, and revived c.1880-1910.
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longton
hall
Probably one of the first Staffordshire producers of soft-paste porcelain.
In its decade of operation (1750-60), distinctive wares included dishes,
sauceboats and tureens moulded in the form of overlapping leaves,
and what came to be known as 'Snowmen' figures -because of their poorly
defined features and unpainted but thickly glazed bodies. Although
many later figures were based on meissen designs, some were original
and notable for their exuberance of form and fresh colours (such as
a vivid yellow-green) based on those used for salt-glazed STONEWARE.
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loo
table
19thC oval tilt-top table supported on a central pillar, designed
for an early 19thC card game called lanterloo, or 'loo'. |
adolf
loos
(1870-1933) Austrian Modernist architect who was an early practitioner
of functionalism and industrial design that emphasised practicality
and minimal decoration. After working briefly with the architect Frank
Lloyd wright in the USA, Loos settled in Vienna where he produced
several documents, including Ornament und Verbrechen (Ornament and
Crime), denouncing the use of ornament. He designed simple furniture
in strong, vigorous shapes, and glassware for the Viennese firm J.
& L. lobmeyr. |
lopers
Sliding wooden rails that support the desk panel of a bureau or the
leaf of an open folding table. |
lost
wax
Method of casting metal or glass objects, used since ancient times,
which achieves greater definition than straightforward mould-casting
methods. It is also known by its French name of cire perdue. A plaster
cast is made of the original model that is to be reproduced. When
set, this plaster mould is separated into several pieces and the original
model removed. The inside of the mould is coated with wax to the required
thickness of the finished article. For hollow objects, the central
cavity of the mould is filled with clay and the mould is reassembled.
The whole lot is heated to melt the wax so that it drains, or is 'lost',
through holes in the mould. The space left by the wax is then filled
with the molten material. When cool, the mould is separated and the
clay core removed leaving a replica in the new material. Most lost-wax
processes use flexible rubber moulds which can be easily removed and
reused, and investment casting in which metal is forced into the mould
centrifugally. |
lotto
carpets
Carpets with a distinctive geometrical pattern of alternating rows
of octagons and crosses made up of stylised foliage. Motifs are invariably
in yellow with blue details on a red ground. They are named after
the 16thC Italian painter Lorenzo Lotto who in fact depicted a far
wider range of designs in his paintings. 'Lotto' carpets were made
throughout the 16th, 17thand 18th centuries; most are thought to come
from the Ushak region of western anatolia. Later examples tend to
be coarser in style. |
john
claudius loudon
(1783-1843) Landscape gardener, architect and author, best known for
his comprehensive Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture
and Furniture, published 1833. It was used as a pattern book by builders
and furniture-makers throughout the Victorian period. |
louis
Phillipe style
An extravagant style prevalent in France during the reign of King
Louis Phillipe (1830-48). It featured flamboyant curves and heavy
ornamentation including enamel plaques, bronze mounts and marquetry.
The style followed on from the empire style of Napoleonic times. |
louis
XIV style
The style inspired by the Court of the 'Sun King', Louis XIV (reigned
1643-1715) and his palace at Versailles, which made France the leading
influence in European decorative arts. It coincided with the puritan,
restoration, william and mary and queen anne periods in Britain. Louis
XIV style was opulent baroque modified by Classical lines, and marked
by flamboyant craftsmanship. Cabinet-making was notable for fine veneers
and intricate marquetry, with lavish expenditure on materials such
as pietre dure, exotic woods, tortoiseshell, lacquer work and even
precious metals. In ceramics, it was the time of radiating lambrequin
designs at rouen potteries and chinoiserie vases at nevers. The king
encouraged industries such as these with generous financial incentives.
Louis XIV style spread throughout Europe, aided by a flourishing export
trade, and the dispersal, to Britain, Holland and Germany in particular,
of skilled French huguenot craftsmen after 1685. |
louis
XV style
The height of the frivolous excesses of Rococo style in France, roughly
covering the period 1720-50, although the king continued to reign
until 1774. Although the style had a less wide-ranging impact on fashions
elsewhere in Europe, it is notable for some of the finest gobelins
tapestries, delicately painted chantilly and marseilles faience and
sÈvres porcelain, and the high-legged commode with serpentine
front and ormolu ornament. |
louis
XVI style
A French style which coincided with the late Georgian period in Britain.
Its main characteristic - a Classical reaction against the fussiness
of Rococo style -actually predated King Louis XVI's accession to the
throne in 1774 by 20 years. The Classical influence gave the style
its contemporary 1760s name of goût Grec (Greek taste). |
love
seat
Small settee or wide armchair popular from the late 17thC in Europe.
Love seats were just wide enough to seat two people in intimate proximity.
Love seats are also known as courting chairs and the French version
as marquise chairs. |
lowboy
Term for a small, elegant side or dressing table of the late 17th
and early 18th centuries, usually with two deep drawers flanking a
short central drawer. |
lowestoft
A Suffolk pottery operating c.1757-1802, and making soft-paste porcelain,
mostly for the local market. Its output included commemorative souvenirs,
tablewares decorated with the words 'A Trifle from Lowestoft' and
naive Chinese-influenced landscapes. In the 1770s, an anonymous painter
produced memorable tulip designs, often featuring a fully blown bloom.
'Lowestoft' was also a misleading name given to what is now described
as chinese export porcelain, possibly because the Chinese wares were
unloaded at the port. |
lunette
Derived from the French word lune (moon), applied to a semicircular
decoration either carved or inlaid on furniture or incorporated into
a textile design. See decorative motifs. |
Luster
1 Glass or crystal drop, either smooth or faceted, used to decorate
light fittings, as on a chandelier, and ornamental glasswares. 2 Vase
with crystal drops hanging from the rim, 19thC English style. |
lustreware
Pottery with an iridescent or metallic finish. A metal oxide is dusted
or painted on the glaze and fired in a reduced atmosphere, converting
the oxide back to metal. Gold, silver, copper and metallic pink, purple
and dark red are the most common pigments. Lustre finishes are a characteristic
technique of hispano-moresque ware, and of some Italian maiolica.
In the 18thC meissen used a lustre technique developed by Böttger
and known as Böttger lustre or Perlmutter (mother-of-pearl).
Towards the end of the 19thC, they were adopted by British studio
potters such as Bernard moore and at William de morgan's Fulham factory.
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lute
string
A glossed silk fabric with a ribbed pattern, used from the 14th to
16th centuries. It applied specifically in the 17thC to a form of
taffeta which was stretched and then coated with a glossy gum. Lutestring
or lustring was used in the 17th and 18th centuries particularly as
a dress fabric and for bed and window curtains. |
lynn
glasses
18thC drinking glasses, tumblers and decanters attributed to glass
houses in King's Lynn, Norfolk. The vessels are decorated with horizontal
ribbing |
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