Patina

The colour and bloom on the surface of furniture, the result of age, wear and polishing.

Paw-Foot

This foot is of remote origin and can be seen in designs made centuries before the Christian era. It was probably introduced into England through the French at the end of the seventeenth century. The lion's and the bear's foot are the two designs most frequently used. They ceased to be fashionable after the middle of the eighteenth century.

Paw And Ball Foot

This foot is chiefly interesting because just before the Chippendale period it to some extent supplanted the claw and ball foot.

Pear

This wood is somewhat similar to boxwood but softer and darker in colour. It is used in marquetry for carving and sometimes for small pieces of furniture.

Pear-Drop Handle

A small pendent brass handle in pear-shape form, which came into use in England in the Restoration period. It was hinged on a shaft consisting of two narrow plates, usually of iron, which passed through a rosette on the surface of the door or drawer and also through the woodwork, and was then bent back on the other side like a paper fastener in present-day use.

Pear-Drop Ornament

An ornament usually decorating the upper portion of a plain frieze, in use in some of the best work of Hepplewhite and Sheraton, consisting of a series of Gothic arches in relief with drops at the lower points suggesting capitals.

Pearling

A series of rounded forms of the same size or graded, in more or less relief, used as a decoration on furniture, in straight or curved lines.

Pediment

A decorative feature above the cornice of a cabinet or other piece of furniture, resembling the triangular crown or pediment over the portico of a Greek temple. The design was much used by cabinetmakers of the eighteenth century, with the many variations of the Roman and Renaissance periods, such as the segmental or rounded top, and the swan-neck or scroll pediment. When "broken," that is to say when the raking lines are stopped before reaching the apex, the pediment often centres in a pedestal or other ornament.

Peg

A wooden pin, or spike, used for fastening together the parts of furniture in lieu of nails.

Pelmet

A word used by upholsterers and sometimes by art dealers, who prefer the word "palmette," to denote the horizontal stiff curtain or valance hiding the rod, rings and headings of the hanging curtains decorating a door, window, bed, etc. Daniel Marot, Court Architect to William III., designed pelmets in many forms under the French name lambrequins. They were also made in France in the fifteenth century and called pentes. Although the word "pelmet" is now in very general use in England it has not found its way into many dictionaries; but a description of a throne in the "Annual Register" for 1821 shows that the word was used at that period.

Pembroke

A small table with a drawer and brackets in the frame to support rectangular side flaps, said to have been named after the Earl of Pembroke; but according to Sheraton after the lady who first gave orders for one of them. Since one was made by Chippendale for Nostell Priory, and another for Garrick in 1771, it clearly originated at an earlier date than Sheraton's reference would suggest.