A to Z

The first carpet company at Axminster, Devon, UK was established in 1755. It supplied a Chinoiserie carpet for the Brighton Pavilion and a Turkish one for Sir John Sloane´s House. In 1835 it closed and its equipment was taken over by the Wilton factory. Since then the term Axminster has applied to carpets produced mechanically by Wilton and those from the Kidderminster carpet factory.

A glass made by mixing copper crystals with molten glass. The process was discovered by chance at Murano in the 1500´s. The result is gold-like flecks in the, usually, coloured glass. A similar type was produced in antiquity, and the effect was also used in both Japanese and European lacquer making.

A serpentine form characteristic of the finest Louis XV commodes, buffets, and consoles.

Copper sulphide ore.

Copper-aluminium alloys with up to 13% of aluminium, usually also with other additions such as iron, manganese, nickel and/or silicon. These alloys are strong, hard and have excellent resistance to marine corrosion. They are therefore commonly used for making propellers, bearings, gears, valves, and pipe fittings for seawater use.

High copper brass with aluminium added for improved corrosion resistance. This is often used for condenser tubes.

Al - Chemical symbol for Aluminium.

Element with atomic weight 26.98, atomic number 13, mp 660.37 ºC, specific gravity 2.69. It is the most abundant of the metallic elements but is very difficult to extract and was not properly known until 1827. 

Aluminium is an easy metal to polish. It is soft enough that even the roughest aluminium parts can be quickly polished to a bright shine.

Polished aluminium has a fault, it tarnishes quickly. Most factory polished aluminium parts are sprayed with a clear lacquer, acrylic or urethane to seal the part.

Like stainless steel, aluminium is relatively resistant to corrosion, but it is very susceptible to attack by strong acids and alkalis used in some cleaning products.

A special glass used for glass-to-metal seals, particularly suitable when operating temperatures of electrical components are high (up to 750°C). Alumina (aluminium oxide Al2O3) is added to the glass batch in the form of commonly found feldspars containing alkalis in order to help improve chemical resistance and mechanical strength, and to increase viscosity at lower temperatures.

Generic term for Nickel silver, also argentan.

A metallic mixture two or more elements. An alloy can be formed from a mixture of two or more metals e.g. copper and tin to form bronze, or by a mixture of a metallic and non-metallic element e.g. iron and carbon to form steel, or cast iron. 

It has been suggested that the term alloy should only be used when there is a suggestion that the mixing was deliberate. In the study of ancient metallurgy it is difficult to prove deliberate mixing in some cases, e.g. when the ‘alloy’ could have arisen by co-smelting e.g. Cu-As and Fe-C-P 1 alloys. So, an alternative use of the term would be - any metallic mixture of elements whose physical, mechanical, or metallurgical properties differed substantially from the constituent elements. 

In silver, the base metals are added for strength.

Iron as a solid exists in different allotropic crystalline forms. The most important are alpha iron (ferrite) and gamma iron (austenite). The crystal lattice arrangement of alpha iron is one which is body centred whereas that of gamma iron is a face-centred cubic arrangement. The iron-carbon equilibrium diagram (technically the iron-iron carbide meta-stable phase diagram) shows the temperature ranges in which each form of iron is most stable as well as the carbon solubility range for these allotropes or phases. 

The great importance of the two crystalline forms of iron lies in the difference of the solubility in solid solution of carbon between the two. Carbon is virtually insoluble in the body-centred ferrite form, the lattice structure of which will only accept a maximum of 0.04% of carbon. The face-centred cubic lattice of austenite will accept carbon atoms more readily and up to about 2.1% carbon is soluble in alpha iron. 

Certain substances can exist in more than one crystalline form; for example carbon can be found as graphite, diamond, or the recently discovered buckminster-fullerene. Pure iron has three main allotropes alpha (ferrite) , and gamma (austenite) and delta, which are stable at different temperatures. 

A popular yellow wood working glue.

A tall, trumpet shaped glass with a long or short stem and spreading foot, used in the 1700´s Britain for beer and ale drinking. If engraved, the most common motif is the hop vine.

A light brown hardwood from the Birch family.

Alabaster is a fine grained white, grey, yellow or reddish lime-stone, or form of the mineral gypsum which can be cut so thinly as to be translucent and polished to a smooth and waxy finish. It was even used for glazing small church windows in the Middle Ages. From the middle of the 1300's Nottingham was known as a centre for small-scale religious carvings in alabaster, but the British industry was killed in the 1500's by the Reformation. Often used in sculpture, decorative stone panelling, beads and cabochons.

Pierced, used to describe the surface of an ornament or element. Literally 'to let the light pass through.' feminine: ajourée.

A 1700's British method for stretching bubbles into single or double spirals in the stems of glasses. Sometimes the spirals were coloured.

Loose term covering some surface treatment techniques used to make objects look old. Also a metallurgical term to describe hardening an alloy by heating to a temperature where a precipitate forms from a super-saturated solid solution.

An agate like pottery made with blended clay by the Romans, and latterly by Wedgwood and other Staffordshire potters.

A Renaissance technique of blending molten glass of two or more colours to imitate semi-precious stones. The mixture was then turned into decorative objects, depending on the mix.

This might be called the árty´end of the Arts and Crafts Movement. It was a reaction to the flamboyant ornamentations loved by the Victorians. From the 1840´s a new purity of design was championed by Pugin and Owen Jones, and in the 1860´s the ideal of Art for Art´s Sake was taken up by the culturally aware. The Movement drew on diverse sourses, from Japanese and Chinese to Queen Anne and traditional metalwork. Walter Crane summarised it well in 1889, “plain materials and surfaces are infinately preferable to inorganic or inappropriate ornament”.

70% Copper, 29% nickel, 1% tin alloy for resistance to corrosion and heat.

An out-dated term for an alpha brass in which some zinc is replaced by tin; usually only about 1-2% tin is added.

70/30 brass with 1% tin added for extra corrosion resistance.

Neo-classical style, first introduced into the UK by the Scottish architect/designer Robert Adam, typified by classical motifs such as palmettos and festoons

Cups made from silver and gold in the form of giant acorns, they were popular in the late 1500´and early 1600´s Britain. They are usually on twiggy stems, and the cover, the acorn itself, may well be engraved with a coat of arms. In the 1700´s and 1800´s the acorn appears in wood as a treen novelty, and sometimes in pottery for pepper and salt pots.

The process of acid etching a trademark or signature into glass after it has been annealed, using a device that resembles a rubber stamp.

A process used in the production of cut crystal to remove the opacity of etched surfaces where decoration has been applied. Items to be polished are immersed in a mixture of de-mineralized water, sulphuric acid and hydrofluoric acid, and then rinsed. There may be a single short immersion in a stronger solution or, alternatively, a series of immersions in a weaker solution.

This process for the decoration of glass involves the application of hydrofluoric acid to the glass surface. Hydrofluoric acid vapours or baths of hydrofluoric acid salts may be used to give glass a matt, frosted appearance (similar to that obtained by surface sandblasting), as found in lighting glass. Glass designs can be produced by coating the glass with wax and then inscribing the desired pattern through the wax layer. When applied, the acid will corrode the glass but not attack the wax-covered areas.

Classical ornament in the form of a stylized leaf decoration based on the scalloped leaves of the acanthus plant. It was frequently found on furniture as carved decoration or cast bronze ornament, particularly from the French, Louis XVI period. The acanthus leaf decoration is also found on mahogany furniture from the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian periods.

The acanthus leaf was the most prolific foliage to flourish as a decorative motif on architecture, furniture and works of art of all kinds. Derived from the Mediterranean acanthus spinosus, in the hands of artists it can also resemble thistle, poppy or parsley leaves. It is the basis of the Corinthian and Composite Orders, and easily turned into a scroll. Even Gothic and Romanesque architects and craftsmen employed it, and from the Renaissace to the mid 1800´s it was consistently in favour. Eventually, however, one critic was complaining of “the inevitable acanthus leaf as if in the whole range of vegetable life this was the only kind of foliage worth imitating”, and another that “it requires so little thought”.