Mohair

A cloth sometimes used by the upholsterer, made from the hair of the Angora (Asia Minor) goat, or an imitation of it in silk, or in wool and cotton. In the eighteenth century the imitation was made of silk.

Monk's Seat Or Table Chair

A table-top supported and hinged on the arms of a chair, so that when it was raised on its hinges it formed the back of the chair. It was in use in England until Jacobean times. Sometimes settles were treated in a similar manner and called Monks' Benches.

Moreen

See Morine.

Moresque

Decoration in the Moorish style. It will be remembered that the Saracens and Moors possessed a large part of Spain for many centuries; consequently architecture and other arts had time to be deeply affected by Moslem feeling. This feeling was reflected in some of the furniture introduced from Spain and Portugal in the seventeenth century.

Morine

A thick woollen material, sometimes mixed with cotton either plain or figured, used by upholsterers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After that time the present term, Moreen, became used.

Mortising

A method of securely bolting two pieces of timber together. On the one piece a socket (the mortise) is cut out, and on the other a projecting piece (the tenon) is left, which corresponds in size to the mortise. When fitted together a peg is usually driven through both mortise and tenon to prevent a separation. Ancient Egyptian chests have been found mortised or dowelled. Sockets and tenons are mentioned in Exodus xxvi. 19.

Mortlake Tapestry

A silk tapestry woven at the Mortlake factory which was established in 1619 by James I., and placed under the direction of Sir Francis Crane. The technique and colouring were not so fine as in the pieces produced at the Gobelin factory in Paris.

Mosaic

See Pietra-Dura.

Motive, Motif

A word used in either form in connection with furniture to denote a distinctive manner, style, or fashion, as, for example, "a French motif."

Mother-Of-Pearl

The iridescent lining of the pearl-oyster and other shells. In the seventeenth century it was often used as an inlay upon furniture, and in very recent times Oriental potentates have been known to have suites of furniture entirely over-laid with mother-of-pearl.

Mouldings

The curves and fillets worked along the length of a projecting or receding feature of a piece of furniture, in order to produce light and shade. The term is also applied to lengths of wood with mouldings formed on them, such as those used for making a picture frame, or for "applied mouldings."

Mounts

Enrichments of metal or other materials on furniture, such as the ormolu decoration on French furniture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and also the simpler details such as escutcheon plates, handles, etc. They originated in the iron corner-pieces, locks and hinges used in the Middle Ages to give strength and security to the coffres-forts in which documents and other valuables were kept. In Tudor times mounts were often highly enriched with piercing and engraving, and they were afterwards applied to furniture very often for merely ornamental purposes.