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A two-pronged, generally brass, clip which slides into sockets to link two table leaves .

A one-part case piece with five, six or seven layers of drawers.

A flexible, sliding shutter, which is made of strips of wood laid longways, side-by-side, and stuck to a canvas backing. Frequently found on bureaux and roll-top desks.

A lockable liquor rack, usually holding three cut-glass decanters, that allowed the liquor to be seen but not drunk. A Victorian invention designed to ensure that the master of the house controlled its alcohol.

A small bowl, with one or two handles, made of silver or pewter, and used for tasting wine, beer, or other whiskey. They were sometimes hung on a cord round the neck of the cellar master as he moved round the cellar sampling his maturing stock.

A small general purpose country table often found in a tavern.

A small table from which to serve tea. Often circular with a tilting top on tripod base but earlier ones were rectangular with four legs.

A small spoon used for stirring tea. Usually made in sets of six or more. The earliest teaspoons were made c 1700 and are rare; Georgian and Victorian ones are readily available.

A square or rectangular projection cut on the end of one piece of wood (tenon) and which fits into a hole or slot of identical size, shape (and depth) that's been cut into the other piece (mortice). See Mortice and tenon , and Stub tenon .

The name is originally derived from the name for the stones used in antiquity to make boundaries, but is now used to describe a pedestal or pilaster tapered to its base, culminating in a human figure, which is often an armless torso and head (see caryatid ).

A flat wooden canopy, especially over a bed, in which case it's usually supported by two or four wooden posts. If it extends over the whole bed, it's called a full tester, and if only half of it, always the bedhead, it's called a half tester.

Atenon where where the mortice is cut right through a piece of wood. See Stub-tenon .

A small ladle, sometimes with a long handle, sometimes with a pouring lip, used for serving hot toddy. Sometimes from shells, sometimes with a coin set into the bottom of the bowl, sometimes with turned wooden handles or baleen (whalebone).

An eighteenth century name, now fallen into disuse, for a side table for holding drinks. Its alliterative aptness makes it a term worth reviving. The interior design guru David Hicks advises readers of Antique Interiors International that drinks should always be served on a marble- or stone-topped table and never from a *censored*tail cabinet, which he disdains as suitable only for the outer reaches of suburbia.

Often used in wall panelling (and floors, of course), this is a long joint formed by cutting male and female interlocking shapes (the tongue and the groove) in the centre of the edge of a board, usuaTrefoil: AGothic motif of three arcs or lobes, looks a bit like a shamrock.

A spoon with a flat stem that widens at the top and has two notches on the finial that make it a three-lobed shape. The bowl is oval with a rattail. Trefid spoons were made from c 1670-1700 of silver and pewter.

A form of club foot which is generally found on a cabriole leg , it's formed of three parts (hence its name), and sometimes has foliate decoration.

See Harlequin .

A low bed on wheels that was kept under a large bed and trundled out at night for use, probably by a child.

The style period from 1485-1600 in England. A small number of chests, cupboards, and chairs are all that have survived from this era. King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I are the best-known Tudor monarchs

Objects decorated with an inlay composed of small-scale mosaic of various coloured woods which have been bundled together and cut into sections. It was usually used geometrically, but sometimes pictorially with quite elaborate scenes. It was introduced in the mid C17th, and was popular in the C19th, especially on tea-caddies and work-boxes.

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