Whether made to display the family china and silver or just to provide storage, the best pieces of dining room or kitchen furniture, from aristocratic Adam sideboards to humble dressers, are now worth thousands of pounds.

The sideboard can be traced back to the side table, originally used for serving food. The dresser, on the other hand, probably developed from the 17th-century court cupboard used to display plate. (more…)

Early Sofas

During the late 18th century, both Thomas Chippendale and Robert Adam produced gilded sofas that were strongly influenced by the contemporary French Neoclassical-style canapé’. These masterpieces have a padded oval back, padded arms and seat in contemporary Aubusson tapestry, and can be worth tens of thousands of pounds. Good 19thC and 2oth-century copies themselves fetch £1500£2200, while lesser examples may change hands for £300-£500. The canapé proved an enduring design in Britain, and was produced throughout the 19th century. (more…)

Space-saving, multi-seat furniture fetches surprisingly low prices and plays a highly practical role in these days of cramped living accommodation.

The terms sofa and settee are virtually interchangeable today, although they originated from very different sources.

`Sofa‘ comes from the Arabic word suffah or the Turkish sopha (the dais on which the Grand Vizier received guests) but came to refer to any movable seat on which it was possible to recline. ‘Settee‘, on the other hand, probably comes from the earlier English `settle‘, and described a seat with back and arms for two or more people. (more…)

The creation of the easy chair was an inevitable development in the search for comfortable seating. Today, the upholstery can be just as important as the frame in determining the value of these chairs.

It was a natural progression from the simple padded chair to one with arms and an upholstered back, and then to the fully upholstered easy armchair: This was first seen towards the end of the 17th century, and has remained popular ever since.

Most 20th-century easy chairs are mass- produced and consequently of little or no interest to collectors. However, there are some exceptions, including chairs by the Modernist architect-designers of the 1920s and 3os, such as Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe, and by the new generation of 1950s and 60s designers such as Ernest Race and Charles Eames, whose tubular steel and leather chairs already fetch £800-£ 1500. (more…)

Midway between the dining chair with arms and the comfortable easy chair are practical but elegant padded armchairs, best known as library chairs.

The distinction between the armchair and the upright, armless dining chair stems from the Middle Ages, when authority was symbolised by the lord’s more elaborate, armed seat of office. But although most early armchairs are an extension of dining-room furniture, specialist armchairs hat introduced in the early 18th century are distinctly different in form and use. (more…)

Dining and other upright chairs are among the most abundant of antiques and range in price from a few pounds to many thousands. Persistent hunting may enable you to assemble a set, one or two at a time, for a bargain price.

Among chairs with an upright back, comfortvaries a good deal. Dining chairs generally have an upholstered or caned seat and a wooden back, and may have arms — in which case they are known as arm or elbow chairs, or carvers. Upright dining chairs without any arms are also known as side chairs because they were placed around the sides of the room when not in use. Virtually identical chairs were also used as occasional chairs in the drawing room. (more…)

When the monarchy was restored in Britain in 166o, and Charles II became king, he and his courtiers brought back a desire for the luxurious style of life they had briefly shared during their exile in the royal households of Europe, especially at the French court. Released from the pious austerity of the Commonwealth, Britain’s upper classes indulged in lavish comforts in the home, sensuous clothing, enjoyment ofthe arts, and robust entertainments at the theatre, at horseraces and at the gaming table.

With parliament and monarch in accord, a standing army established to back up their authority, and new banking, investment and insurance organisations growing to fund commerce, the nation prospered. Overseas trade grew and London was rapidly becoming the greatest port in the world, bringing in spices, tea, coffee, chocolate, pineapples, Oriental porcelain and lacquerwork, cane, tortoiseshell, ivory, rugs and Indian chintzes. (more…)

Country-house life with the family was the ideal of Elizabethan and Jacobean gentlefolk. They could set themselves up with fine silver, rich textiles, lavish clothes and coveted goods from abroad.

A new kind of household had been established for people of power and influence by the mid-16th century.

No longer did they share a communal life with a motley assembly of officials, military supporters and other retainers. Now they lived in families in substantial homes on their country estates, some on lands that were previously owned by the Church, until they were seized after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 5536 and bestowed on supporters of the monarch as rewards for their loyalty. Some families had more than one estate. (more…)

In the twentieth century it is difficult to imagine eating meals without the aid of cutlery, yet it was not until the eighteenth century that it became the general custom to use forks, knives and spoons. The habit spread only gradually. Towards the later years of the seventeenth century a host might be expected to provide cutlery at table and although this tendency increased, many travellers carried with them their own personal set of a fork, knife and spoon, in a case often made of tooled leather, until as late as around the middle of the eighteenth century. (more…)