Gilded Or Gilt Furniture

The vogue in England for gilt furniture, copied from the Italians and French, began in the early Queen Anne period and declined in the time of Chippendale. Much of the sumptuous furniture designed by William Kent was gilt.

Gilding

The art or practice of ornamenting articles of furniture with gold-leaf or gold-dust. A method is to coat the woodwork with a thin priming of a chalk composition, paint it yellow or red, and then apply the gold-leaf or dust over a coating of gold-size or varnish.

Robert Gillow

A notable designer and cabinetmaker of the early part of the eighteenth century, who about 1695 founded at Lancaster the firm now known as Waring & Gillow. His successors claim to have invented the billiard-table ; they made the first Davenport (q.v), and in 1800 invented and patented the telescopic dining-table.

Girandole

A branched candlestick or chandelier for use on the table, or fixed as a bracket to a wall, frequently with a mirror attached. It was made in the seventeenth century, and became a highly decorative piece of furniture in the eighteenth.

Glass

Transparent window glass, first made in any considerable quantities in England in the sixteenth century, has to do with the building rather than its furniture, although its use in the glazed tracery doors of cabinets and other show cases from the time of William and Mary must not be forgotten. Domestic glass needs no mention here. Decorative articles and ornamental utensils in glass form an art apart, with perhaps a few exceptions, for instance, the art of cutting the crystals used in candelabra and chandeliers, brought over by the French refugees in 1685. The Hampton Court chandeliers are notable examples. See Mirror.

Glastonbury Chairs

A chair with X-shaped legs and sloping arms and back, most frequently used for ecclesiastical purposes. It was so made that it could easily be taken to pieces for removal.

Glazed Tracery Doors

See Tracery.

Globes

Artificial globes are of Egyptian origin and one was made in England in the sixteenth century. They became fashionable in the eighteenth century, and towards its end George Adams (d. 1773) was a recognized London maker of both terrestrial and celestial globes mounted on stands.

Gobelins

The renowned factory founded in Paris by Colbert in 1663, and directed by Le Brun, for making the Royal furniture, but afterwards used for the weaving of tapestry only, as at the present day.

Godroon

See Gadroon.

Gothic

The Gothic phase in English furniture arose soon after the middle of the eighteenth century and lasted a few years. Probably its inception was due to the influence of Horace Walpole. Chippendale both designed and made furniture in the style, but it never became generally popular.

Pierre Gouthiere (1740-1806)

A French cabinetmaker celebrated chiefly as a founder and chaser in most delicate and minute detail of gilded bronze furniture mounts, an art in which he was unsurpassed.

Gouty Stool

A leg-rest with an adjustable top for the support of a gouty leg. The stools were extensively used in the eighteenth century when gout, produced by excessive indulgence in rich wines and highly-seasoned foods, was an exceedingly common complaint among the leisured and well-to-do.