Bureau Bookcase Or Cabinet

This article was practically coincident with the simple bureau, the upper portions being used for the display of china or other purposes. The bookcase was not made until the Mahogany period.

Burjair

See Bergere.

Burnishing

The process introduced about 1730 for giving carved woodwork the appearance of modelling, by rounding and smoothing it with a tool.

Burnt Work

Designs drawn on wood in lines incised by a heated metal instrument or by shading by means of hot sand. Burnt work is often found upon chests of minor importance, but occasionally upon important pieces. It appears to be of Italian origin. See Poker-Work.

Burr

This veneer, so popular in the period between the Revolution and the death of Queen Anne, was made from transverse slices of the gnarled roots or the small branches of the walnut tree. See Oystering.

Butter Cupboard

In general use in the early Jacobean period, usually in oak, with perforations at the front or sides for ventilation.

C-Scroll

A carved ornamental feature in the form of the letter C, in various shapes more or less elaborated and grouped together. It was of French origin but was copied in England in the reign of Queen Anne and used, often with great delicacy, by Chippendale.

Cable-Flutings Or Mouldings

Round mouldings worked in the flutes of a column, to about one-third its height.

Cabochon

An ornamental carved feature on furniture, borrowed from the French, in vogue in England from about 1735 to 1740. As the French word implies, it resembles a round or oval convex polished stone. The cabochon was usually surrounded by ornamental leaf carving, and at times was concave instead of convex.

Cabriole Leg

The cabriole or "bandy leg" springs from under the seat or table-framing, with a sharp outward curve called the " knee," and then tapers downwards in a reverse curve to the foot, which assumes various forms. It probably originated in China, and was introduced into the Continent by the Dutch, and into England in the reign of William and Mary, or even earlier. At first with a smooth surface it was in the Queen Anne period carved with the shell, and in the early Georgian period with the lion-mask, satyr-mask, and cabochon and leaf ornament. Sometimes the curve is broken below the "knee" as in the ancient Roman manner, and the leg is then termed a "hock leg" or broken cabriole leg. The sides of the "knees" are frequently ornamented with carved spiral scrolls, called "ears." In the Chippendale period the cabriole leg gradually gave place to the straight leg.

Jacques Caffieri (1678-1755)

A famous French sculptor in bronze, especially in the rocaille style of Louis XV. His son Philippe (1714-1774) assisted him.

Caffoy

A rich fabric imported from the Continent in the eighteenth century, and used for hangings in State rooms.

Camel-Back Chair

The name originally given to the shield-back chair, in reference to the curvature of the top rail, which bears some resemblance to a camel's hump.

Camlet (Fr. Camelot)

A rich material of Oriental origin supposed to have been made of camel's hair. In France as early as the fourteenth century camelot was a rich cloth made of hair, silk and wool. It was manufactured in England in the seventeenth century and continued to be used in the eighteenth.