Pierced Work

Ornamental woodwork in which portions forming the background are cut by chisel or fretsaw through the substance and removed, leaving the design in openwork.

Pier Glasses And Tables

These articles for the decoration of the piers or wall spaces between windows were in vogue during the whole of the eighteenth century. In the early years, owing to the high price of glass, these long panels of looking-glass, often elaborately framed, were found only in the houses of the wealthy. The pier or side-tables under them were even more richly furnished with rare marble tops, sometimes in bracket form. They were also called console tables.

Pietra-Dura

An inlay of rare marbles and other fine stones, formed into beautiful designs and then highly polished for use as table-tops, the incrustations of cabinets, etc. It was of Italian Renaissance origin.

Pigeon-Holes

The small compartments in a bureau or secretary, resembling the entrance to a dove-cot. They were present in pieces of the late seventeenth century.

Pilaster

A carved architectural feature often used on furniture, representing a flat pier or engaged column with base and capital very slightly projecting from the surface.

Pillar, Or Column

Usually these words are interchangeable, but "pillar" seems more appropriate when a single column is meant, and "column" when in a series such as in an arcade. The so-called "Pillar and Claw" tables with central support and projecting feet were introduced in the Chippendale period.

Pillow

A word of Anglo-Saxon origin used by English writers of all succeeding times to denote a cushion for the bed made with hair, feathers, or other soft material covered with linen or like stuff.

Pine

The name given to various coniferous trees, the timber of which (deal), now coming principally from the Baltic, is soft, white, and straight-grained, and is extensively used by carpenters for floors, doors, windows, etc. It is also used by cabinet-makers for parts of cheap furniture. Scotch fir, which was then of fine quality, was frequently used in English furniture of the eighteenth century.

Pinnacle

A feature of Gothic architecture, consisting of a turret or other upright member, often richly carved, used to give extra weight to a buttress or wall in order to oppose the thrust of vault, spire, etc. In Gothic furniture the feature was copied for ornamental purposes only.

Pique

A beautiful French minor art, originally confined to the inlay of tortoiseshell and metal pins, used sometimes for the decoration of small cabinets, but more often for smaller articles such as snuff-boxes, needle-cases, etc. Major H. C. Dent, in his book "Pique: A Beautiful Minor Art" (1923), suggests the following definition: "Gold or silver in point or strip on either shell or ivory, and if mother-of-pearl be included as a very frequent added decoration, it would, with but few exceptions, cover all pique work from the time of Louis XIII. to the present day."