Makers, Periods & Styles Library

Spode is a pottery company based in Stoke-on-Trent founded in 1770 by by Josiah Spode (1733–1797). It continued uninterrupted production until 2008 when it went into administration and was bought by Portmeirion Group who continue to produce some of the Spode lines. Josiah Spode set up his factory in...

A Sutherland table is a folding table that had a narrow top so that when its folded it does not take up much space. When folded out, its gate legged leaves form a small table. The earliest examples were usually made from mahogany, with later versions being veneered with either birdseye maple, burr walnut, yew...

Sycamore is a tree with broad leaves and is native tree to the more temperate parts of Europe. It is likely it was introduced to the British Isles in the Middle Ages and is now considered a naturalised species. Mature trees can live for over 400 years and grow to 35 meters in height. The […]

A Tallboy is furniture piece comprising a stack of drawers sometimes with a wardrobe on top. A Lowboy is a set of drawers of table-height designed to be a clothes chest. The tallboy traditionally has five, six or seven long drawers and two short ones. It became popular in the late 17th century and was […]

Is the name given to a type of decanter which have their bottle stoppers tightly locked down by a metal bar. They were originally introduced to prevent servants stealing the contents, as they needed a key to be unlocked. A Tantalus usually holds three decanters, although versions are available that only hold two....

A Tea caddy is a receptacle used to store tea. The word ‘caddy’ is thought to derive from ‘catty’ which was the term for the Chinese weight measurement roughly equivalent to a pound. The earliest examples came from China and were made from blue and white Chinese porcelain in the shape of the ginger-jar with...

A Teapoy – is a small three-legged table with an attached tea caddy box on the tripod base. The tea caddy was used to store loose leaf tea and the table often served as a small tea table. The word is not derived from ‘tea’ but from the Hindi phrase meaning ‘three-footed’. Teapoys came into […]

A Telescope is an optical device that enables the observation of distant objects. The first practical telescopes were produced in Holland in the early 17th Century Known as refracting telescopes they used glass lenses to focus the light. In 1609 Galileo became the first ever person to observe celestial objects with...

The Discobolus of Myron (“discus thrower” ) is a Greek sculpture that was completed around 460-450 BC in the Early Classical Style. It was executed by Myron of Eleutherae in bronze, and the original is now lost. However the work is known through various copies made in Roman times. The first copy ever discovered was...