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| MAIN GLOSSARY | GLOSSARY OF wood |
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EBENISTE
Ebony was so prized in France that a cabinetmaker became known as an ebeniste. A cabinetmaker specializing in luxury case furniture incorporating marquetry or veneer of various kinds during the late 17th and 18th centuries in France.

EBONY
A precious hardwood dark brown to black in color, sometimes streaked with yellow and brown. Comes from Africa and India or Ceylon.

EGG-AND-DART
A decorative motif of classical origin consisting of egg shapes alternating with arrowheads.

EGLOMISE
An adjective designating an 18th century technique for engraving and gilding glass. It derives from the name of the technique?s inventor, Glomy.

ELECTROPLATE
Wares made of a base metal, generally nickel, and plated with another metal such as silver deposited by electrolysis; a process used commercially from the middle of the 19th century. Designated as E.P.

EMPIRE (1804-1815)
A French style intended to clearly express the imperial majesty of Napoleonic France. Neoclassic in style it is inspired by the decorative motifs and characteristics of Greco-Roman models and characterized as ?spare, noble and massive?. Mahogany, rosewood and ebony were the rule with brass or gilt mounts in the form of swags, festoons, wreaths of laurel, torches, mythological figures and the Napoleonic emblems of the bee, the crown and the letter ?N?. Later, sphinxes and other Egyptian figures were used after Napoleon conquered Egypt.

ENAMEL
A vitreous substance, usually colored, fused to a metal surface under heat; a similar substance fused to ceramic material is called a glaze.

ENGRAVING
In its broadest sense, the art of cutting lines in metal, wood, or other material either for decoration or for reproduction through printing. A surface decoration on metal made by cutting fine V-shaped grooves with a sharp tool. Most commonly used in silver. Should not be confused with etching where an artist removes a material with acid to create a design. In its narrowest sense, it is an intaglio printing process in which the lines are cut in a metal plate with a graver, or burin. Furrows are cleanly cut out, raising no burr, and then filled with ink which is transferred under high pressure to the printing surface of the press. The earliest known engravings printed on paper date from about the middle of the 15th century. Wood engraving differs from true engraving in that it is a relief process. During the 19th century, steel engraving enjoyed a short popularity as a reproduction process because it made possible a large number of proofs, but it was superseded by photomechanical processes.

ENTABLATURE
The upper part of a classical order above the capital, consisting of the architrave, the frieze and the cornice.

ESCUTCHEON
Ornamental bronze or ormolu plate surrounding a keyhole opening. Less commonly made of ivory, bone or inlaid veneers.

ESPAGNOLETTE
Used to designate the decorative French iron hardware of this type on furniture or window closings.

ESTAMPILLE
A stamp by which, beginning in 1744 Parisian master Cabinetmakers were obligated to certify their work until 1751. After 1751 most of the major Cabinetmakers used the stamp to designate their work. They were occasionally used before that time; the earliest surviving examples date from the 1720s.

ETAGERE
Set of freestanding or wall shelves used to display objects beginning in the Louis XVI period.

ETCHING
The art of engraving with acid on metal; also the print taken from the metal plate so engraved. In hard-ground etching the plate, usually of copper or zinc, is given a thin coating or ground of acid-resistant resin. This is sometimes smoked so that lines scratched through the resin will be clearly visible. A needle exposes the metal without penetrating it. When the design is completed, the plate is submerged in an acid solution that attacks the exposed lines. The lines receiving the longest exposure to the acid will be the heaviest and darkest in the print. It is also possible to apply the acid locally to the plate. In printing, all varnish is removed, the plate is warmed, coated with etcher's ink, and then carefully wiped so that the ink remains in the depressions but is largely or wholly removed from the surface. It is then covered with a soft, moist paper and run through an etching press. There are many variations in the technique of etching. The techniques seem to have originated in Germany, where D?rer's etchings on iron, made between 1510 and 1520, were probably the earliest important examples of an art that in the following centuries was practiced by many of the greatest draftsmen and painters. Among the foremost in the history of etching are the works of D?rer, Callot, Rembrandt, the Tiepoli, the Piranesi, Goya, and Whistler.

EVOLUTE
Recurring wave scroll used to decorate friezes and bands.

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