Dictionary of English Pieces - Settles,
Sideboards and Sidetables, Sofa Tables, Stands
Settles
A settle is a bench with arms and a back. Many of them
had seats that were hinged to reveal lockers. They date back to the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, but most surviving examples are of seventeenth-century make and are
usually of oak. By about 1700 they were being made on legs and without lockers beneath the
seats, and cannot be distinguished from settees.
Sideboards and Sidetables
The dresser, mentioned earlier, before it was fitted
with shelves, was a sidetable. Early in the eighteeenth century these were highly carved
and often gilt, had no drawers, and were topped with a slab of coloured or white marble.
By 1760, they were of mahogany with a top of the same timber, and Chippendale prints
designs for several of this type. It was Robert Adam who added a pair of pedestals, one at
either end of the table, but it was nearly 1780 before the sideboard was given drawers and
became the article recognized today. One of the drawers was usually fitted with divisions
lined with lead or zinc to hold wine-bottles. Until about 1800 they were supported on
square tapered legs, but later these were turned. Great care was lavished by their makers
on sideboards, and the choicest figured woods were chosen for veneering and inlay. In the
first quarter of the nineteenth century a further modification in design took place, and
the sideboard comprised a pair of pedestals with a single drawer between, but unlike the
earlier Adam type these were in one piece.
Sofa Tables
A sofa table is not unlike a Pembroke table, having similar folding
flaps which are hinged and can be raised and held by concealed brackets. The flaps are,
however, at the narrow ends of the top, and the supports of the table vary in design; they
are never straight, as in the Pembroke. Those with supports in the form of a lyre are the
most esteemed. The sofa table came into use about 1800, many were made of rare woods and
were highly finished, and good examples fetch high prices.
Stands
A number of types of stands were made at all periods, and they include
candle and lamp stands and urn stands. The first were made in pairs or sets, and varied in
height from three to four feet. The urn stand was a small table on which a tea-urn was
placed when tea was taken; tea being expensive and teapots therefore of small size, the
latter needed refilling frequently. Thus, a kettle on a stand with a spirit-lamp beneath
was a part of the tea service during the eighteenth century, and a small table on which it
could stand was made for the purpose. Most have four legs, there is a low gallery or rim
round the top, and a slide on which the teapot could rest while being filled.
Circular-topped small tables on tripod bases were perhaps made for the same purpose, but
nowadays are usually called
wine tables.
Collectable Antiques: