The Patina Journal

The Patina Journal

Furniture

37 pieces in this section

This section covers the furniture itself: what each form is, how it was built and what to check before buying. Antique chest of drawers and what is a secretary desk? are good places to start, each built around Met examples. The credenza, display cabinets and French Art Deco furniture have their own guides.

Rococo style vs Baroque furniture: the Baroque side, a Rome console table with scrolled legs carved with female busts, a gilded base and a green porphyry top

Rococo Style vs Baroque Furniture: How to Tell the Two Apart

Rococo style vs Baroque furniture, shown through seven Metropolitan Museum pieces: how weight, line and ornament differ, and how to tell period Rococo from its heavier revival.

Baroque & Rococo27 October 2026 · 6 min read

The catalogue

Antique chest of drawers in mahogany by John Townsend, 1765: a blockfront with three carved shells across the top and four tiers of drawers with brass handles on bracket feet

Antique Chest of Drawers: How to Identify and Date One

Red-and-gold japanned secretary cabinet of about 1735 with both upper doors open to show rows of small decorated drawers, and the writing front lowered to reveal pigeonholes and tiny drawers above three long drawers; a secretary desk shown open

What Is a Secretary Desk? Types, History and How to Identify One

Ivory-and-gold Herter Brothers cabinet of about 1883, an antique display cabinet with a glazed center, a glazed compartment above and open shelves at each end, the interiors lined in deep red and set with small vessels

Antique Display Cabinets: History, Vitrines and What to Look For

What is a credenza? An Italian example of 1440-50, a long walnut cabinet on a plinth, its front divided into three pairs of doors carved with rose-window forms above rows of pointed lancets and square panels of geometric inlay

What Is a Credenza? Meaning, Origin and Renaissance Examples

French Art Deco furniture and decoration in Ruhlmann's small salon, 1925 colour plate: pale panelled walls edged in gilt, a tiered crystal chandelier, a gilded relief above a mirror, a dark desk with a slatted lid, a cream armchair and a round painted panel of birds before the fireplace

French Art Deco Furniture: Ruhlmann’s Pavilion at the 1925 Paris Exposition

Art Nouveau & Art Deco

Baroque furniture: a tall state bed hung with blue silk damask, with a deep fringed canopy and curtains, shown in a dark museum gallery beside an upholstered armchair

Baroque Furniture: The Roman Baroque Bed

Baroque & Rococo

Bow-fronted mahogany sideboard on slender tapered legs with inlaid oval panels and a curved box on top, photographed in a period room

What Is a Sideboard? A History of the Form and How to Read an Antique One

Tapering mahogany cabinet in the form of an Egyptian gateway, one door open to show rows of small drawers with silver mounts and a silver winged disk below the cornice

French Empire Style Furniture: Forms, Mounts and How to Recognize It

Gilded carved console table with a shaped dark red marble top, a gilt mask at the centre of the frieze, S-shaped legs topped with carved dragons and a stretcher with a helmet at the centre

Antique French Console Table: Periods, Carving and What to Check

High chest of drawers in sweet gum, yellow poplar, yellow pine and white oak

Buying Vintage Furniture: A Complete Guide

What to inspect, which repairs are worth paying for, how to read the economics of a saleroom, and when to walk away.