Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/318

 294 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. 55a for a portable table. The piece of board, a, is made fast to the wall, either by holdfasts, or by being nailed or screwed to wooden bricks. The flap, b d, is hinged to it, and, when raised up, is supported in its place by the hinged folding legs, of which c c, fig. 550, is a plan, and d an elevation. Fig. 552 is an insulated fixed table, or ironing-board, supported by cast-iron framing, which is fixed by screw nails to the floor, and also to the under side of the top. Mr. Mallet, junior, of Dublin, who has sent us this Design, observes that all manner of kitclien tables may be supported in this manner, most securely and firmly, and at very little expense. Fixed insulated tables occupy more room than wall flaps ; but in roomy cottages, and especially where the mistress is a washer- woman, they admit of two or four persons ironing at the same time, instead of one or two. Fig. 551 is an ironing-Ijoard, or side-table, supported by cast-iron brackets ; the dotted lines showing the ge- neral disposition of the framing to support the table, and the diagonal rib, e, introduced to prevent lateral action. Figs. 553 and 554 show two modes of fastening sideboard framing to walls ; the first by an eye-l)olt, with a round key, passing through holes jumped (the expression for boring stone with a blunt chisel, called a jumper) in two superincumbent stones in tlie wall ; the latter shows the bolt passed through the wall, and secured with a nut. Fig. 555 is a sideboard suitable for a lobby, wide passage, or dining-parlour. The board or flap, /J is hinged at the joint, to fall down, and is supported by two jib brackets, fig. 556, which 556 ^ 554 f 1 J shut into the frame when the flap is let down, and are concealed by it. There is a slip of board, g, above the flap, to keep things from rubbing against the wall. In the construction, the brackets are fixed to the frame, by having round pins worked in both ends of their upright piece, which turn in corresponding holes of the top and bottom rails of the frame. 614. Dressers are fixtures essential to every kitchen, but more especially to that of the cottager, to whom they serve both as dressers and sideboards. They are generally made of deal by joiners, and seldom painted, it being the pride of good housewives, in most parts of England, to keep the boards of which they are composed as white as snow, by frequently scouring them with fine white sand. The dishes, plates, &c., which they contain are also kept perfectly clean and free from dust, by being wiped every day, whether used or not. In old farm-liouses, the dressers are generally of oak rubbed bright, and the shelves are filled with rows of pewter plates, &c., polished by frequent cleaning, till they shine like silver. The dresser may be called the cottager's sideboard, and in the dining-rooms of the first nobleman's houses in Britain, the splendid mahogany sideboards, set out with gold and silver plate, diil'er only in the costliness of the materials employed from the cottage dresser : nor do the essentials of human food differ more in the palace and in the cottage than the furniture ; for, in Britain and America at least, good meat, good bread, and good potatoes are the main dishes on all tables, and may be obtained by the workman who has good wages and full employ- ment, as well as by the wealthy merchant or hereditary aristocrat. VVlien there is a pot-board affixed to the dresser, it is usually painted black or chocolate colour ; and ■when the shelves and fronts are painted, it is generally white, or, what is in better taste, the same colour as the walls or doors of the apartment. Gothic dressers would be more appropriate if made of oak, or painted to resemble that wood. The price of a deal dresser, in London, is from £2 to £5,