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| C-Clamp | A metal clamp shaped like the letter C. |
| C-scroll | A scroll in the shape of a letter C, a favourite Rococo motif. |
| Cabinet | A piece of furniture having compartments such as drawers, shelves, or other divisions built into a case. |
| Cabochon | An oval or round boss used decoratively, usually in conjunction with other motifs. |
| Cabriole Leg | A cyma-curved leg that swells outward at the knee. and turns inward at the ankle. It is found principally on Chippendale, Queen Anne, and Louis XV furniture. |
| Calipers | A measuring instrument with two jaws which are used to measure diameters, or distances between two surfaces. There are two kinds: outside and inside calipers. |
| Cambric | For upholstering, an inexpensive cotton fabric which resembles a fine linen fabric of higher quality. |
| Canapé | A French sofa with arms. |
| Canopy | The frame or tester over a high four-poster bedstead, with or without its covering material. |
| Canted | When legs or projected members are set at an angle to the corner of a piece they are known as canted legs or canted corners. |
| Capital | The head of a column, usually decorated according to the different architectural orders, i.e. Doric (plain disc-like capital), Ionic (with four scroll corners), Corinthian (decorated with bands of acanthus leaves), Composite (a combination of Ionic and Corinthian). |
| Carcass | The frame or body of a piece of cabinet furniture. |
| Carlton House desk | A contemporary term for a Dshaped writing table with a bank of drawers and cupboards following the curve of the back, which was presumably named after the palace of the then Prince of Wales, later George IV. |
| Carriage Bolt | A bolt with a thin dome-shaped head. |
| Cartonnier | A filing cabinet also known as a serrepapiers, introduced in France during the 18th century. Fitted with pigeonholes, the cartonnier could be an independent piece of furniture, or an accessory intended to stand on or at the end of a bureau plat. |
| Cartouche | An ornamental panel, often a stylised shield, which is decorative itself but can also carry an inscription, a monogram or a crest. |
| Carve | To sculpture, shape, or form by cutting with chisels or knife. |
| Carving In The Round | Carving freestanding forms or objects on all sides. |
| Caryatid | An architectural motif consisting of a column in the form of a male or female fixture which is also often found on carved furniture and as a bronze mount. |
| Cassapanca | Italian settle with arms and back. |
| Cassone | An Italian form of low chest, richly carved and made as a formal piece of furniture. |
| Castors | Small swiveling wheels attached to the bottom of furniture, to make it easier to move the piece. |
| Caul | A form made of wood or metal, used with clamps to hold veneers in place on shaped surfaces while the glue sets. |
| Cavetto | A moulding which is concave in section. The section being in the shape of a quadrant. |
| Chai Back Sofa | A sofa whose back rest gives the appearance of two to four chairs set side by side. |
| Chaise Longue | French term for a long, upholstered seat with a back rest, intended for only one person to recline on. |
| Chamfer | A narrow flat surface formed by cutting away the apex of an angle between two surfaces, thus removing the sharp edge. |
| Chasing | The tooling of a metal's surface. Bronze furniture mounts were chased after casting to remove blemishes and sharpen the detail before gilding. |
| Cheek Of Tenon | The wide side of a tenon. |
| Chest Of Drawers | A piece of cabinet furniture in which the compartments are composed of drawers. |
| Chest On Chest | A chest of drawers divided into two sections by a prominent horizontal molding. In most instances the upper section may be lifted off the lower section if the piece of furniture needs moving. |
| Chesterfield | An upholstered sofa with the arms and back forming a low, unbroken line. Deeply padded and often buttoned. |
| Chests | Boxlike receptacles of wood with hinged lids. |
| Chinese Chippendale | A type of furniture in which the structural members were made to simulate bamboo, or with fret-carved stretchers, or with members having other Chinese characteristics. |
| Chinoiserie | A Western imitation of Chinese decoration, usually more fanciful than accurate and frequently used to give an exotic touch to a basically European design. |
| Chintz | Cotton or calico with a printed pattern which is sometimes glazed. |
| Chippendale Style | Refers to the style originated by Thomas Chippendale. |
| Chippendale Thomas | An English cabinetmaker, born in Yorkshire in 1718 he became one of the most famous furniture designers of the eighteenth century. He moved to London where his work found a ready market. Furniture bearing his name is still produced although often designs in the style of Chippendale owe little to his original work. |
| Chuck | 1. An attachment for a machine, used to hold tile piece being worked. Adjustable metal chucks may hold drills or pieces of metal. 2. For Wood turning, a wheel like disk of almost any thickness, mounted on a faceplate and having a recess cut into its center on one side. Work to be turned is held in this recessed area by a friction fit. |
| Circular Saw | 1. A circular disk of steel having sawteeth around its perimeter. 2. A machine on which such a saw is mounted. |
| Ciseleur | French for craftsman who used a variety of chisels and other tools to finish bronze mounts once they had been cast by a fondeur or founder. After finishing they were usually gilded by a doreur. |
| Classical | Term usually referring to the superb work of Greece and Rome, which was controlled by rules such as the Five Orders of Architecture. |
| Classicism | Various interpretations of the Classical tradition. |
| Claw & Ball | Same as ball and claw. |
| Cleat | A narrow strip of wood joined to another piece, often across the grain, to provide added strength or finish to the member. |
| Clock Dial | The face of a clock on which time is measured by graduations and a pointer. |
| Closed Coat | Backings of paper or cloth on which abrasives are packed closely together. |
| Cock Bead | A narrow, raised beading surrounding the edge of a veneered surface as a form of protection and finish. Often seen as a very fine half-round moulding applied around the edges of drawer-fronts. |
| Coffre-Fort | A French term for the strong-box which was often incorporated into good quality writing desks. |
| Colonnette | A column in miniature. |
| Column | A round shaft or pillar, usually having a capital and a base. |
| Compass | An instrument for describing or drawing a circle. |
| Confident | A sofa with attached chairs set at either end; sometimes two sofas set back to back with a chair set between at either end. |
| Consulate | The period of government in France between 1799 and 1804. |
| Contact Cement | An adhesive with a neoprene rubber base that bonds two surfaces, to which it is applied, together on contact, without the use of pressure to accomplish this. |
| Contre-Partie | see boulle. |
| Conversation | A sofa with seats arranged back to back or facing, so that the sitters can converse discreetly. In some Victorian pattern books, these are described as ottomans. |
| Coped Joint | One in which the end of a wood molding is shaped so it will conform to and fit over the molded shape of another molding to which it is to be joined. |
| Coping Saw | A saw having a thin and narrow blade, held in a U-shaped frame under tension to cut intricate patterns in ood. |
| Corbel | When used as a furniture term a corbel is a decorative support positioned under a mantel or horizontal shelf. More properly it is an architectural term for a projecting piece of masonary which can be either for support or purely decorative. |
| Cording | A cord around which upholstering material is stitched. It is used as trim, or to round sharp edges on upholstered chairs. |
| Core Stock | The center of a plywood panel, or base to which veneer is glued. |
| Corner Cupboard | A cupboard which is triangular in plan, so made to be placed in the corner of a room. |
| Cornice | An architectural term used in the description of furniture for the top moulding of bookcases and other large pieces. Also known as a Crown Moulding |
| Cornucopia | A horn of plenty, used decoratively as a shell-like horn overflowing with fruit. |
| Corrugated Fastener | A small piece of sheet steel used to fasten two pieces of wood together. Its sides have been shaped into equally spaced curved ridges and hollows, and one end of these ground to a chisellike edge so it may be hammered into the wood. |
| Cove | The concave section of a molding or some other object. |
| Cresting | The carved ornament on the top rail of a chair-back. |
| Cresting Rail | See top rail. |
| Cretonne | Strong, unglazed cotton with a printed pattern. |
| Crinoline Stretcher | An inward-curving stretcher designed to accommodate a full skirt. |
| Crocket | A leaf-like projection frequently used in gothic architecture and found as a decorative device on gothic style furniture. |
| Cross Stretcher | A stretcher that runs across a piece of furniture. |
| Cross-Section | A cutting off at right angles to an axis of an object in order to give a more comprehensive idea of its shape, or the representation of such a cutting. Cross-sections also can be made to show two or more constituents and their relations to each other more clearly. In many instances the constituents in the representations are shaded with lines going in different directions, or with other identifying markings, to distinguish one from the other. |
| Crossbanding | See banding. |
| Crosscut Fence | The adjustable metal bar or strip mounted on a table saw to hold and guide a board or other piece of wood while it is being pushed across the saw to cut it to various lengths. |
| Crosscut Saw | A saw used to cut wood across the grain. Its teeth are filed at an angle in front and back and to a point at the top. |
| Crosspiece | A member that stretches across a piece of furniture. |
| Crotch Wood | Timber whch comes from the fork (crotch) of a tree. When sawn 'through and through' the timber can have the most beatiful grain. Because of the wildness of the grain it is not always stable in the solid and is most often used as veneer. Flame mahogany, which is used for decorative panels and table tops, is a type of crotch wood. |
| Crown Moldings | See Cornice |
| Crows Nest | Two square boards joined together with four colonnettes to form the support for a piecrust or tilting tabletop. |
| Cup Center | The dead center of the lathe held in the tailstock. |
| Curled Hair | A high-grade filling material for upholstered furniture. It is manufactured for this purpose from horsetails and manes, cattle switches, and hog bristles. |
| Curly Maple | Maple having a grain that, when finished, produces the effect of rippling water. |
| Curved-Bottom Plane | A hand plane having a flexible steel shoe which may be adjusted to conform to the curvature of the work being planed. |
| Cusps | Those parts off a wood turning on which the curves being turned reverse their direction; sharp edges formed by exact reversal of direction in a turning. |
| Cut Card Work | A form of slightly raised decoration mainly used on silverware, consisting of thin sheets cut into patterns and soldered onto the surface. |
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