There are certain things which it is worth while to remember. We not unfrequently come across chairs or chests of old oak which are short in the leg. In the case of the chair the lower cross rails, in the chest the whole length of the rails, except where they are shaped or notched, rest on the floor. It is probable that in these cases the legs have been so rotted by damp as to have been found unsightly, and therefore were sawn off by some former possessor. There is no doubt that to very early pieces of furniture infinite harm has been done by their contact with the damp filth which must have been the natural adjunct of a floor strewn with rushes not too often renewed.

The same is the case with even later furniture. Cabriole legs rot or break, or are even sawn off because a chest of drawers or a cabinet has been found too high for some particular room. A Queen Anne chest of drawers with boldly shaped lower rail resting upon the floor, appears to be of a rare type until one observes that it is merely an object without the short cabriole legs which raised it.

It is possible to be led astray by pieces of furniture consisting almost entirely of old carved wood, which yet are by no means what they pretend to be. A very vraisemblant court cupboard can be manufactured out of an old oak bedstead. The metamorphosis is not apparent until one notices that the back board of the cupboard has on its edges at each end those scroll-shaped jutting brackets or side-pieces which, as we have noticed, are found on each side of the upper back of a certain type of oak chair, and also are the customary finish of bed-heads.

A not uncommon contemporary use for odd pieces of wainscot panelling would seem to have been to turn them into chests. I have seen an old and very much worm-eaten chest which seemed to be a rarity, as it was carved not only on the front panels but all round, the top and back included. Very probably it was put together at an early date, but from its construction it seems that it was not a chest of original intention, as the stiles lacked the usual good proportion and beading of a properly designed coffer.

It would be difficult to say at what date the regular traditional making of oak furniture died out, but it would be reasonable to suppose that in the remoter parts of the country the usual shapes continued to be made quite late in the eighteenth century. To cite one instance, an antique furniture dealer of taste and experience informs me that he was completely deceived by a soi-disant antique 'gate table' which turned out to have been made, along with a good many others, for farm use and in good faith, by the deceased husband of the woman in whose cottage it was. The ordinary wear and tear of cottage life had brought it into proper condition.1

The carving up of genuine old pieces of oak furniture to increase their attractions has, of course, to be guarded against. Clever as some carvers are, it should be possible - given time and sufficient light, which in buying from a shop one seldom has - to note inordinate sharpness or inferiority of cuts, or doubtful patterns. This carving up is but too prevalent also in mahogany furniture. I have seen a set of Heppelwhite or Sheraton style chairs which have been filled in with carving and have had rosettes stuck on to their corners. The original carving was mainly the serrated or 'tulip-leaf pattern, and its freedom and ' patina' was entirely superior to that of the added work.

Where a piece of furniture consists, as in the case of some bureau bookcases, of two or three pieces, it is not impossible to find that a dealer has added a glass-fronted cupboard from one quarter to a bureau from another, and topped the whole with a cornice which never previously saw the other two. The discrepancy, if not observed in the style, will very probably be seen in the want of exact fit between the cupboard and the bureau part, and also in the difference of the quality of the woods employed. I am acquainted with a case in point where the lower part is an admirably made solid mahogany bureau with all its old handles on the front, and also those for lifting at the sides. The glass cupboard above is slightly too deep from back to front for the top of the bureau, and is but coarsely veneered. The cornice is ornate, and has an inlaid frieze. This is really of satin-wood veneer which has been stained down to resemble mahogany. The marked parallel bars of the shiny satin-wood grain betray it. Occasionally bureaux with bookcases over them have been made to fit close to the wainscot and the wall above it. The projection of the wainscot in that case makes it necessary that the bookcase should be deeper from front to back than the top of the bureau on which it rests.

A genuine example of this has been mentioned to me, but everything was a complete fit, except as regards the projection backwards of the upper over the lower part.

1 Mr. F. Hockliffe of Bedford has a settle from Wales of 1725. It has raised and splayed panels, with semi-circles, the guilloche, and the 'upright flute' or scoop.