Banner Screen

About the middle of the eighteenth century the banner screen, also called a fire-screen or a pole-screen, became very fashionable, tapestry, needlework or less expensive materials forming the banner. The tripod or banner-screen of Chippendale was a favoured variety. Some screens were made of carved mahogany in cheval form with glass, silk, etc., forming the screen. They were often made to move up and down the pole.

Bar-Back

A term used by Hepplewhite to describe an open shield-back sofa or chair with upright carved and shaped bars curved to accord with the rest of the shield.

Barber's Chair

A corner or writing arm-chair (q.v.) with a rest for the head rising from the back portion of the semicircular arm-rail. Sometimes the rest was formed by a broad splat or back fixed on the seat-framing and supported by the arms only. These so-called barber's chairs, often elaborately carved and upholstered, were very popular in the eighteenth century.

Barjier

See Bergere.

Barometer Case

The barometer case of the later eighteenth century was usually of mahogany, banded with box-wood or satin-wood with a broken or swan-necked pediment, and an ivory button for moving the indicator. The dial was often surmounted by a circular mirror enclosed in a reeded frame. Barometer cases of this period are, as a rule, decidedly elegant in form. The most familiar shape was known as the "Banjo type," in allusion to the wide circular dial surmounted by a bulbous upper part. Chippendale made these cases in flamboyant rococo, and Robert Adam in his characteristic severely simple fashion.

Baroque

See Rococo.

Basin Stand

The name usually given to the stand made to hold the ridiculously small wash-hand basins in vogue in the time of Chippendale and Hepplewhite. Many of them still exist and serve as curiosities or as stands for flowers or ornaments.

Basset Table

A table made in the Queen Anne period for playing basset, a card game for five persons which was very popular in all the Courts of Europe at the time and at which Royal personages and others won or lost vast sums of money. See Ombre.

Basso-Relievo

The Italian equivalent of the French bas-relief and English low-relief.

Batty Langley Style

See Langley.

Bead

A narrow semicircular moulding, an astragal. Sometimes it is grouped side by side in a series forming a "reed-moulding," sometimes cut like a series of beads or pearls, forming a "bead-moulding."

Bear's Paw Foot

See Paw Foot.

Beaufait Or Buffet Cupboard

An alcove in the wall or panelling fitted with shelves, with or without glass doors, and cupboards underneath forming a receptacle for china, glass, plate and other articles which in the latter part of the eighteenth century were usually kept in the sideboard.

Bed Posts

See Posts.

Bedstead

The framework supporting a bed. The variety is infinite, ranging from the simple truckle-bedstead running on "truckles" or castors, up to the four-poster in vogue in the time of Queen Elizabeth, with its ponderous tester, elaborate carving and bulbous legs. The four-poster remained in fashion during the whole of the eighteenth century and after. In the time of William and Mary and Anne the tester was raised much higher and made lighter, the framework being tightly covered over with silk and other material. Later in the century the covering was disused, and by the time of Sheraton bedsteads assumed the delicate contour characteristic of his designs, with a tester which consisted of a simple frame from which the valances and curtains hung.