Driscolls Antiques – Antique Furniture Blog

How to Remove Candle Wax from Antique Furniture

On pieces of antique furniture it can be a good effect to have lit candles in a candelabra but this can cause the wax to drip onto the wood surface and leave bobbles of wax. The best way to remove the wax is to firstly wipe off with a clean cloth as soon as you notice it has dripped but this will only work if the wax is still warm and soft. If the wax has cooled and hardened then the best way to deal with this is to put some crushed ice into a plastic sealable bag (a sandwich bag will do) and put this into a soft cloth. Put the ice in cloth onto the hard wax and leave it on there for approximately 5 minutes. Take the cold cloth off and the wax will now be very brittle so now you can carefully scrape off the wax with preferably with your fingernail or a blunt square end of a small piece of wood.

To finish off we always recommend putting some antique furniture wax on the area with a soft cloth and waxing the entire surface around the mark to blend in any marks left. The wax will also protect the surface for any future wax spilling and will enhance the patina. We do stock good quality antique furniture wax so see our website for details.

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How to treat antique furniture with woodworm

Most people panic on the sight of woodworm holes but if there are holes this does not necessarily mean the woodworm is alive or it will be spreading throughout your home. Most people can easily treat their antique furniture themselves unless the furniture is so badly infested, it is structurally weakened. If this is the case then always seek professional advice from a good antiques restorer.

If the woodworm damage is slight and there are the usual small holes then the best thing to do is to purchase a commercial woodworm killing fluid as these are very effective due to modern liquids. Usually you need to paint it over the areas or inject direct into the hole. Some bottles come with an injecting nozzle and these are usually the best as you simply Insert the nozzle into the holes and squirt the liquid. Treat the entire affected area where holes can be seen and as a precaution maybe re treat after a few days. We also recommend to, brush the liquid over all the area as well to be on the safe side. Please also wear gloves as it is quite nasty stuff and you do not want it on your skin.

All our pieces of antique furniture are treated as soon as they come into our warehouse if there is any sign of worm dead or alive and we also treat our items before they leave our warehouse so rest assured that any purchase from us is wood worm free. We not only spray the areas but we also brush lots of liquid into all the areas seen with any holes.

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Types of antique seating we sell

Driscolls Antiques sell many different pieces of antique furniture and we offer lots of different types of antique seating. below is a list of different antique seating we sell with a short explanation of what they mean.

Antique dining chairs are chairs to sit around your dining table and sre the most used type of antique seating.

A Slat back chair is a dining chair with parallel horizontal slats and can also be known as a ladder back chair.

A Fan back chair is a chair with a fan shaped back or curved like a comb back Windsor chair.

A fiddle back chair has a shaped back splat in the form of a violin shape.

A plank chair is an early chair in the form of a chair with boards forming the back and seat.

A joint stool is also an early form of seating and is a joined stool with turned legs.

A riddle back chairs back has a series of pierced slats.

A Rod back chair has a rectangular back composed of bamboo turned spindles.

A Rush seat can be seen on many country chairs and the seats are made from twisted stems of rush or reeds.

A spindle back chair has a back composed of spindles.

A Saddle seat on a chair is a concave shaped seat of a chair.

A camel back settee is a settee with the back in the shape of two humps downward and three humps upward like a camel back.

A drawing room chair an armchair with upholstered back.

An easy chair is an upholstered armchair also known as a wing chair.

A chaise longue has a single high armrest which can also be used as a back to lay down on.

A hall chair is a chair used in a hallway.

A settee is a small sofa used for a comfy seating in a living room.

A settle is a wooden bench usually in oak with high back and arms, from the 17^th and 18^th century.

A spoon back chair has a back which curves like a spoon.

A voltaire chair is an easy chair with a tall back and can have a rolled top with wood trim.

A square back chair back in the form of a square or rectangle.

A Windsor chair is a period chair with high back, with spindles and stands on turned legs.

A Wainscot armchair is a 17th century chair with panelled back and plank seat, very simple in design and most were built in oak.

We have many of these types of chairs for sale to see our seating section on our website for further details.

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Whatnots uses

An antique whatnot is an unusual piece of antique furniture, it it gets its name due to its many uses. The whatnot is a piece with many shelves for either occasional use like displaying cakes and tea when guests are around or it was used as a display of your finest decorative items and collectables. Some come with a drawer or cupboard and most are on castors so can be moved around when in use. They all have turned uprights and many come with carvings, burr walnut veneers and turned legs.

We have recently put a very unusual whatnot up for sale and it is unusual as this has a cupboard, this is more rare than a drawer and more useful. It has 3 shelves with moulded edges, turned twist upright supports and turned finials. The cupboard is moulded and the edges are canted. It has corbels and stands on shaped feet with brass castors so it can be moved around the room.

This is a very useful occasional piece of antique furniture and is the ideal piece if you are limited for space but want an impressive show piece to put decorative items on.

Have a look under our occasional tables section to see further details on this piece or we may have others in stock that might be suitable.

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Plinth, Cornice and Pediments.

In our descriptions of our antique furniture you will see the words plinth, cornice and pediments used and often customers ask us what these names mean. Here are the explanations of the terms –

A Plinth is at the lowest section of the antique furniture, it is basically the base. They are usually plain with some moulding at the top.

A cornice is the large section of moulding at the top of the antique furniture and usually lifts off for removal. It is mainly seen on antique wardrobes, presses, bookcases and tall cupboards.

A Pediment is above the cornice and is a decoration to finish the piece off. It can be in the form of scrolls or be triangular.

A Broken arch pediment is a triangular or curved pediment and the two ascending sides do not meet at the top, so there is a central gap.

A Pointed arch pediment is a decorative pediment in the shape of a peaked arch.

A Swan neck pediment is a curved broken arch pediment on top of the cornice in the shape of two swan necks pointing at each other.

A latticework pediment is a decorative pediment with blind fretwork on top.

We have many antiques for sale so keep looking on our website and see if you can spot any items with a Plinth, Cornice or Pediment.

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What is a Pilaster on antique furniture

A Pilaster can be seen on many different pieces of antique furniture and is a flattened column on the sides of furniture and is used for ornamental purposes. They are usually reeded and seen on the sides of chest of drawers and bookcases.
If you look on my website you can see lots of pieces of antique furniture with this decorative feature like the antique Victorian mahogany glazed cabinet with a rectangular top above two glazed doors with arched moulding and on both sides it has moulded pilasters.

Or look at our antique Regency mahogany chiffonier with a shaped back, rectangular top above a concealed frieze drawer, two cupboard doors with beautiful figured panels. The sides have carved corbels with pilasters down both sides.

On many earlier pieces of antique furniture you can see this like on our antique Georgian period oak corner cupboard with reeded pilasters down either side and a central cupboard door with arched fielded panel.

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Do you fancy some false teeth for over £15000?

Many different items of antiques are collectable and in July this year some false teeth also became collectable when they sold for over £15000. They were not even a full set of teeth but only a partial set. The difference with these teeth to any other false teeth is that this set belonged to Sir Winston Churchill so they are rather special. With an estimate of £5,000 it was quite a surprise that they actually made £15200 at auction.

The false teeth were owned by the son of a dentist who made them, but when he realised the potential value it was time to sell them, after all where can you display teeth (with your fine china in your display cabinet).

The teeth were made to preserve Churchill’s natural lisp and he always had the teeth with him at all times, as he suffered from terrible teeth and gum problems and needed complicated dentistry from a young age.

Churchill’s dentists work was so important to Churchill he would not let him join up to fight so he was around when needed. When his call up papers came, Churchill tore them up and said he would be more important to the war effort by staying in London to repair his false teeth.

The false teeth were bought by a private collector and although they are a great piece of history I personally think they would be better in a in a museum for all to see but I am sure they will make a great dinner party speech and possibly a good table setting to start the conversation. We do not sell antique teeth but we do have some very nice pieces of antique furniture for sale so have a look at what nice pieces we currently have.

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What is a dentil moulding on antique furniture?

There are many different sorts of moulding on antique furniture used for decoration and most were done by very skilful craftsmen and cabinet makers. One particular type of moulding that can look very nice and was often used on period Georgian furniture is dentil moulding. Dentil moulding is moulding in the form of a series of little rectangles under a cornice usually on an antique bookcase or occasionally a wardrobe cornice. Dentil moulding gets its mane due to the fact it looks like a row of teeth. As they are very small blocks many can go missing over time so you have to be careful when moving the cornice and if any fall off, glue it back on immediately.

Dentil moulding can often be seen on an antique chest on chest like the one displayed for sale on our antiques website with a moulded cornice with dentil moulding above 2 over 2 oak lined drawers with brass handles. As with most antique chests from this period it stands on shaped bracket feet.

Dentil moulding can also be seen on antique bookcases like this beautiful bookcase with a moulded cornice with dentil moulding above 2 glazed cupboard doors with moulded edge and original brass handle. The lower section of the antique bookcase has a moulded top above two cupboard doors with central, raised fielded panels and original brass handle.

we always have beautiful pieces of antique furniture for sale with dentil moulding.

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Antique linen presses converted to all hanging

Antique linen presses usually have lots of sliding linen trays in the interiors of the upper section but many people would prefer more hanging space in these pieces as they are deeper than antique wardrobes so make very useful pieces for hanging clothes. On occasion we do convert antique linen press to suit our customers by removing all the slides and we add a hanging rail.

To ensure the antique linen press holds its value for the future, you can keep the slides and they will still be fully working, just in case they decide to sell the piece in the future. So you can have hanging and it will not damage the value as you are not permanently changing the original design of the piece of antique furniture. If you see an antique linen press that looks of interest, ask us about adding a hanging rail as we do not charge any extra for this service.

We also get pieces of antique furniture that has already been converted for full hanging like our Georgian oak linen press with a cornice above two cupboard doors and an all hanging converted interior.

Or our antique Victorian mahogany linen press with a cornice above two cupboard doors and the interior has an all hanging rail with the trays removed. The lower section has 2 over 2 graduating cock beaded drawers with brass handles.

These are very useful pieces of antique furniture for hanging clothes.

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What is a loper on an antique bureau

Many of my customers often ask what a loper is on an antique bureau. The loper is a rectangular length of wood with a moulded front and handle, under a bureau fall which pulls out to support the fall front when open. This is a very important part of the antique bureau as it is the main support of the writing section and the reason so many fall fronts get damaged is because people forget to pull out the lopers before opening the fall, so this pulls off the hinges. The antique bureau is a very nice and very useful piece of antique furniture as it is a writing desk above drawers so it has the maximum storage.

Just recently we have had two stunning antique bureaux that we have put up for sale and they can be seen on our antiques website.

We have an antique Regency mahogany bureau with a moulded fall front with lopers to support fall front. The interior has a leather writing insert, central cupboard, several small mahogany lined drawers with turned handles and two pull out slides. The antique bureau has 2 over 3 cock beaded drawers with turned handles.

We also have a period antique oak bureau with a rectangular moulded fall front with brass key escutcheon, fitted interior with pigeon holes, small drawers with small brass handles, cupboard door and secret drawer slide. The lower section of the antique bureau has pull out lopers to support the fall front with 2 over 2 cock beaded drawers with brass handles and stands on shaped bracket feet.

Both are very nice examples of antique bureaux and would look stunning in any home.

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