Low-Back Chair

In the middle of the seventeenth century, as the prosperity of the middle classes increased, single chairs with low backs began to replace stools and benches. A notable example of such a chair is what is often termed the Cromwellian chair, with leather back and seat.

Low-Boy

The name given to a small table, with drawers, made in the reign of William and Mary, to support a chest of drawers on top, the combined piece being called a "high-boy." When one chest of drawers is mounted on another, the combined piece is called a "tall-boy." The small tables or "low-boys" were often used separately as dressing-tables.

Lozenge

A figure having four equal sides with two acute and two obtuse angles. It was a favourite design for carving and inlay work on the oak furniture of the seventeenth century.

Lunette

A semicircular, half-moon, or fanshape design. It is sometimes repeated or intersected, foliated or otherwise elaborated in line to form a decorative band. It was much favoured as a carving or inlay in Jacobean times.

Lustre

A candlestick or chandelier enriched with glass drops or pendants. The Huguenot refugees of 1685 introduced the manufacture of crystal chandeliers into this country.

Lute

An obsolete musical instrument with a pear-shaped back played upon by strings. It had affinities with the guitar and the mandolin.

Lyre

A musical instrument of the harp kind, of ancient origin. The lyre-design was a distinctive feature of Sheraton's chair-backs, but whether he or the brothers Adam first used it for that purpose is not clear. It was also employed by Hepplewhite.

Macquoid, Percy, R.I

Son of the late T. R. Macquoid, artist, and Katherine S. Macquoid, a well-known writer of travel and other books. A distinguished expert and writer of art and furniture. He is the author of "A History of English Furniture" (4 vols.) and editor of "The Dictionary of English Furniture" (3 vols.), of which the first volume was published in 1924.

Mahogany

The wood of the Swietenia mahogani, a tree found in Central America and the West Indies, introduced into this country in 1595 by Sir Walter Raleigh, but not generally used for furniture, owing to its toughness, until about 1720. It varies in colour in its natural state from a golden to a rich red brown, with a fine clouded grain, and takes a high polish. The best timber from San Domingo and Cuba was referred to as Spanish mahogany. From 1720 it gradually superseded walnut. The name is applied to other woods resembling mahogany.

Mantelpiece

See Chimney Piece.

Mantelshelf

See Chimney Piece.

Robert Manwaring

One of the best known of Chippendale's contemporaries. He published in 1765, "The Cabinet and Chairmaker's Real Friend and Companion," and in 1766, "The Chairmaker's Guide," in 8vo form. He is best known as a maker of chairs, as the titles to the two books mentioned indicate. Distinctive features of his work are said to be a small bracket in the angle between the square leg and front seat rail of the chair, and the lattice work in its splat.