Pine furniture ranges and manufacturers
At Right Price Furniture we offer over 50 different pine furniture collections, sourced from, at the last count, nine different furniture manufacturers and suppliers. Some of these companies, such as the little Suffolk-based supplier
DFP, or Direct Forest Products, only account for one range – which in their case is the charming
Radstock range in reclaimed pine.
Other companies such as
PD Global are much larger operations and provide no less than six of our solid pine ranges, five of which are also offered in Right Price Furniture’s own finishes. PDG also supplies four unbranded pine collections, this time of benches, tables, chairs and wall cupboards. A comparison of the size of these two companies can be gained from a brief study of their respective websites at dfpl.co.uk and pdglobal.co.uk.
The
Ascot range from PD Global offers Victorian-inspired pine or painted bedroom furniture and this is sold as the
Epsom range in Right Price wax and lacquer finishes. The
Grosvenor range is more classical in style, with fluted column decoration to the corners of cabinets. Its Right Price Furniture equivalent is the
Westminster range. For more contemporary tastes, the company supplies the
Auckland and
Boston ranges, this latter also available as the
Camber range.
Another contemporary bedroom collection is the
Bristol range, made in a dark stain reclaimed pine. Concluding the line up with, once again, a more traditional collection is the
Rossendale range of bedroom furniture. This can be supplied in painted or wood finishes or again in our choice of wax or lacquer finishes as the
Whitworth range.
If that was too confusing, it is much easier to understand the line up from our other big pine furniture supplier,
Devonshire Pine Ltd. This company has its headquarters in Bideford, North Devon and is one of the only large-scale manufacturers remaining in the UK. Devon Pine ranges include the
Tarka range, which is perhaps the standard for contemporary-style pine furniture; and the slightly more ornate Old Mill range.
Both Tarka and
Old Mill ranges concentrate mainly on bedroom furniture, but the
Badger range, which features additional ‘flourishes’ to plinths and door panels, also offers a living and dining room collection. A new addition to the Devonshirepine.co.uk offer is the Chunky collection of pine ranges. The ‘standard’
Chunky Pine range comprises both bedroom and living/dining furniture and there is also a dark stain version called the
Chunky Mocha range as well as a painted range.
Although perhaps not as high profile as Devonshire, the Sussex company
CPW or, to give it its full title, Country Pine Warehouse, produces an enormous and diverse range of traditional-style products that are sold by type rather than in branded ranges. These include everything from chairs, desks and cabinet furniture to wall cupboards, plate racks and even plant stands. In keeping with modern times however, cpwfurniture.co.uk also produces three branded ranges of pine furniture.
The
Rough Sawn range is split into bedroom and living/dining ranges and comprises some very attractive, roughly sawn, furniture that is just perfect for creating outdoors or frontier-style interiors. Its
Provencal range is more refined and ornate, with unusual curved tops to many items. Closer to its Sussex roots, the CPW’s
Romney range is a collection of charming traditional pine bedroom furniture.
By way of something different, there is an array of surprisingly good quality self-assembly pine furniture from our specialist supplier,
Core Products Ltd. The image of flat pack furniture has suffered from poor quality materials and poorly made and fitted components, but Core is very careful to use only good quality materials and the highest standards of manufacture and construction for its ranges. One of its most popular ranges is the
Cotswold range which, when assembled, compares favourably with many fully assembled ranges.
The company’s
Lincoln range differs in having bun feet and metal handles, while a slightly different style with a darker finish can be found in the
Dovedale range. Mexican furniture styles seem popular amongst self-assembly furniture buyers and the coreproducts.co.uk stable includes the
Amalfi range, complete with metal handles and hinges and the similarly styled
Santa Fe range. One of the biggest selling of all Mexican furniture ranges has got to be the Corona range. Supplied from Seconique,
Corona furniture can be found on numerous internet sites and amongst high street retailers.
Back to fully assembled pine furniture ranges and the last of the companies to supply more than just one pine range is
Kettle Containers Ltd of Northamptonshire. Although the company is now changing its name to Kettle Interiors, its origins lay in importing container loads of furniture through the port of Corby. Its established ranges include the highly-respected
Regency range of bedroom furniture and the Victorian-inspired
Hampshire range, which has the unusual feature of ceramic drawer handles. Newer additions to the company’s product list can be found at kettle-containers.co.uk and include the
Harringworth bedroom range featuring rebated drawer fronts reminiscent of Spanish Colonial style and the
Cottingham range in a simple, chunky, contemporary style.
A different take on contemporary pine styles is provided by
Furniture Link from Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. As can be seen on its UK website, furniturelink.co.uk, the company supplies two contemporary pine ranges, the
Carolina range of bedroom, living and dining room furniture and the
Hudson range of bedroom furniture.
Finally, although not strictly pine furniture, the
Maison range from
YP Furniture is a refined collection of dining room furniture in a French style and made in Poplar wood. Suppliers yp-furniture.co.uk enjoy a reputation for good quality furniture and supply several ranges to well-known high street department stores. We hope you have found this description of our suppliers and ranges of some interest but if you have further questions our sales staff will be happy to help.
The History of Furniture
Many students and customers with an interest in furniture ask us about the history and development of different furniture types. We have therefore chosen to reproduce the
Illustrated History of Furniture by Frederick Litchfield in instalments, beginning here and continuing on the Dark Furniture page.
Chapter 1
Biblical references, Assyrian furniture and Egyptian furniture
The first reference to woodwork is to be found in the Book of Genesis, in the instructions given to Noah to make an Ark of gopher wood, "to make a window," to "pitch it within and without with pitch," and to observe definite measurements. From the specific directions thus handed down to us, we may gather that mankind had acquired at a very early period of the world's history a knowledge of the different kinds of wood, and of the use of tools. We know, too, from the bas reliefs and papyri in the British Museum, how advanced were the Ancient Egyptians in the arts of civilization, and that the manufacture of comfortable and even luxurious furniture was not neglected.
In them, the Hebrews must have had excellent workmen for teachers and taskmasters, to have enabled them to acquire sufficient skill and experience to carry out such precise instructions as were given for the erection of the Tabernacle, some 1,500 years before Christ—as to the kinds of wood, measurements, ornaments, fastenings ("loops and taches"), curtains of linen, and coverings of dried skins. We have only to turn for a moment to the 25th chapter of Exodus to be convinced that all the directions there mentioned were given to a people who had considerable experience in the methods of carrying out work, which must have resulted from some generations of carpenters, joiners, weavers, dyers, goldsmiths, and other craftsmen.
A thousand years before Christ, we have those descriptions of the building and fitting by Solomon of the glorious work of his reign, the great Temple, and of his own, "the King's house," which gathered from different countries the most skilful artificers of the time, an event which marks an era of advance in the knowledge and skill of those who were thus brought together to do their best work towards carrying out the grand scheme. It is worth while, too, when we are referring to Old Testament information bearing upon the subject, to notice some details of furniture which are given, with their approximate dates as generally accepted, not because there is any particular importance attached to the precise chronology of the events concerned, but because, speaking generally, they form landmarks in a history of furniture.
One of these is the verse (Kings ii. chap. 4) which tells us the contents of the "little chamber in the wall," when Elisha visited the Shunamite, about B.C. 895; and we are told of the preparations for the reception of the prophet: "And let us set for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick." The other incident is some 420 years later, when, in the allusion to the grandeur of the palace of Ahashuerus, we catch a glimpse of Eastern magnificence in the description of the drapery which furnished the apartment: "Where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple, to silver rings and pillars of marble; the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble." (Esther i. 6.) There are, unfortunately, no trustworthy descriptions of ancient Hebrew furniture.
The illustrations in Kitto's Bible. Mr. Henry Soltan's "The Tabernacle, the Priesthood, and the Offerings," and other similar books, are apparently drawn from imagination, founded on descriptions in the Old Testament. In these, the "table for shew-bread" is generally represented as having legs partly turned, with the upper portions square, to which rings were attached for the poles by which it was carried. As a nomadic people, their furniture would be but primitive, and we may take it that as the Jews and Assyrians came from the same stock, and spoke the same language, such ornamental furniture as there was would, with the exception of the representations of figures of men or animals, be of a similar character.
Assyrian Furniture.
The discoveries which have been made in the oldest seat of monarchical government in the world, by such enterprising travellers as Sir Austin Layard, Mr. George Smith, and others, who have thrown so much light upon domestic life in Nineveh, are full of interest in connection with this branch of the subject. We learn from these authorities that the furniture was ornamented with the heads of lions, bulls, and rams; tables, thrones, and couches were made of metal and wood, and probably inlaid with ivory; the earliest chair, according to Sir Austin Layard, having been made without a back, and the legs terminating in lion's feet or bull's hoofs. Some were of gold, others of silver and bronze.
On the monuments of Khorsabad, representations have been discovered of chairs supported by animals, and by human figures, probably those of prisoners. In the British Museum is a bronze throne found by Sir A. Layard amidst the rains of Nirnrod's palace, which shews ability of high order for skilled metal work. Mr. Smith, the famous Assyrian excavator and translator of cuneiform inscriptions, has told us in his "Assyrian Antiquities" of his finding close to the site of Nineveh portions of a crystal throne somewhat similar in design to the bronze one mentioned above, and in another part of this interesting book we have a description of an interior that is useful in assisting us to form an idea of the condition of houses of a date which can be correctly assigned to B.C. 860:—"Altogether in this place I opened six chambers, all of the same character, the entrances ornamented by clusters of square pilasters, and recesses in the rooms in the same style; the walls were coloured in horizontal bands of red, green, and yellow, and where the lower parts of thechambers were panelled with small stone slabs, the plaster and colours were continued over these."
Then follows a description of the drainage arrangements, and finally we have Mr. Smith's conclusion that this was a private dwelling for the wives and families of kings, together with the interesting fact that on the under side of the bricks he found the legend of Shalmeneser II. (B.C. 860), who probably built this palace. Assyrian Chair from Khorsabad. (In the British Museum.) Assyrian Chair from Xanthus. (In theBritish Museum.) Assyrian Throne. (In the British Museum.) In the British Museum is an elaborate piece of carved ivory, with depressions to hold colored glass, etc., from Nineveh, which once formed part of the inlaid ornament of a throne, shewing how richly such objects were ornamented. This carving is said by the authorities to be of Egyptian origin. The treatment of figures by the Assyrians was more clumsy and more rigid, and their furniture generally was more massive than that of the Egyptians.
An ornament often introduced into the designs of thrones and chairs is a conventional treatment of the tree sacred to Asshur, the Assyrian Jupiter; the pine cone, another sacred emblem, is also found, sometimes as in the illustration of the Khorsabad chair on page 4, forming an ornamental foot, and at others being part of the merely decorative design. The bronze throne, illustrated on page 3, appears to have been of sufficient height to require a footstool, and in "Nineveh and its Remains" these footstools are specially alluded to. "The feet were ornamented like those of the chair with the feet of lions or the hoofs of bulls."
Egyptian Furniture.
In the consideration of ancient Egyptian furniture we find valuable assistance in the examples carefully preserved to us, and accessible to everyone, in the British Museum, and one or two of these deserve passing notice. "Stool", "Stand for a Vase, Head Rest or Pillow", "Workman's Stool", "Vase on a Stand", "Folding Stool", "Ebony Seat Inlaid with Ivory" (From Photos by Mansell & Co. of the originals in the British Museum.) Nothing can be more suitable for its purpose then the "Workman's Stool:" the seat is precisely like that of a modern kitchen chair (all wood), slightly concaved to promote the sitter's comfort, and supported by three legs curving outwards.
This is simple, convenient, and admirably adapted for long service. For a specimen of more ornamental work, the folding stool in the same glass case should be examined; the supports are crossed in a similar way to those of a modern camp-stool, and the lower parts of the legs carved as heads of geese, with inlayings of ivory to assist the design and give richness to its execution. An Egyptian of High Rank Seated. (From a Photo by Mansell & Co. of the Original Wall Painting in the British Museum.) PERIOD: B.C. 1500-1400. Portions of legs and rails, turned as if by a modern lathe, mortice holes and tenons, fill us with wonder as we look upon work which, at the most modern computation, must be 3,000 years old, and may be of a date still more remote. In the same room, arranged in cases round the wall, is a collection of several objects which, if scarcely to be classed under the head of furniture, are articles of luxury and comfort, and demonstrate the extraordinary state of civilisation enjoyed by the old Egyptians, and help us to form a picture of their domestic habits. An Egyptian Banquet. (From a Wall Painting at Thebes.)
Amongst these are boxes inlaid with various woods, and also with little squares of bright turquoise blue pottery let in as a relief; others veneered with ivory; wooden spoons, carved in most intricate designs, of which one, representing a girl amongst lotus flowers, is a work of great artistic skill; boats of wood, head rests, and models of parts of houses and granaries, together with writing materials, different kinds of tools and implements, and a quantity of personal ornaments and requisites. "For furniture, various woods were employed, ebony, acacia or sont, cedar, sycamore, and others of species not determined. Ivory, both of the hippopotamus and elephant, was used for inlaying, as also were glass pastes; and specimens of marquetry are not uncommon. In the paintings in the tombs, gorgeous pictures and gilded furniture are depicted. For cushions and mattresses, linen cloth and colored stuffs, filled with feathers of the waterfowl, appear to have been used, while seats have plaited bottoms of linen cord or tanned and dyed leather thrown over them, and sometimes the skins of panthers served this purpose. For carpets they used mats of palm fibre, on which they often sat.
On the whole, an Egyptian house was lightly furnished, and not encumbered with so many articles as are in use at the present day." The above paragraph forms part of the notice with which the late Dr. Birch, the eminent antiquarian, formerly at the head of this department of the British Museum, has prefaced a catalogue of the antiquities alluded to. The visitor to the Museum should be careful to procure one of these useful and inexpensive guides to this portion of its contents. Some illustrations taken from ancient statues and bas reliefs in the British Museum, from copies of wall paintings at Thebes, and other sources, give us a good idea of the furniture of this interesting people. In one of these will be seen a representation of the wooden head-rest which prevented the disarrangement of the coiffure of an Egyptian lady of rank. A very similiar head-rest, with a cushion attached for comfort to the neck, is still in common use by the Japanese of the present day.
...continues at the bottom of the Dark Furniture page
Dear Diary December 1, 2009
Further to my comments yesterday about side tables (see the bottom of the painted furniture page) one of the other items that is just perfect for teaming up with a side table is a wall mirror. Choosing a suitable mirror and placing it behind the side table can create a really charming feature. The reflection adds depth and light to the area and can double the enjoyment of a flower arrangment or similar feature because it allows the wall-facing side of the arrangement to be seen. Our wall mirrors section includes styles and sizes to suit most interiors - and many are from the same ranges as the side tables. Add a tough of style and sparkle, with a wall mirror behind the hall table.