Furniture is of endless scope.  Rather than wear you down, my dear Reader, with trivia, permit me instead to mention those articles of peculiarity in our possession. I shall begin with the object which captured my domestic interest not long after having purchased my first home.  It is the snail table. I believe it was manufactured in Italy. The retailer I bought it from was in the By Ward Market in Ottawa. Basically it’s a coffee table consisting of a large wooden snail carving to the top of which is attached by a brass circular plate and a large screw a round glass top with indented edge.

Another piece of  distinction is the wine cellarette.  It houses five levels of three bottles each (plus what can be stood on the floor at the front). The door is three bifurcated levels of bevelled glass windows. The top and bottom are graduated mahogany. Upon the top rests a small brass lamp with a dark green glass shade (from an antique store on Cape Cod) and three decanters for Porto, sherry and Cognac.

A magazine rack stands beside my desk.  The rack (woven wood with wooden handle) was a relic when I bought it and I then had it refinished at Henderson Furniture in Ottawa.  In it I store mostly ancient Country Life magazines which I preserve in particular because some of the editions are so old as to have black and white photographs. Sadly in my opinion that tradition has now disappeared.

Though there is clearly nothing wrong with veneer I have always preferred solid wood.  Many years ago Gibbard Furniture was one of the foremost celebrated places to buy solid wooden furniture, mahogany in particular. My desk for example is a Gibbard. It has the further appeal to me of brass handles on the drawers.  We have another Gibbard piece (a bedroom bureau) which sports the more traditional wooden knobs on the drawers (with matching but independent mahogany swivel mirror on its own stand). We have also an expandable Gibbard side table.

Early in my career I commissioned a local craftsman to make a solid oak library bookcase for my law office.  Over the years the patina has become enriched to a dark brownish-yellow. It now stands in the study where it performs its duty (though the law books – Halsbury’s Laws of England – have long been removed) and now replaced with Breyer plastic farm animals from the Canadian Co-Operative Wool Growers Limited in Carleton Place.

To my delight I discovered another outlet for solid wood at the New Oak Tree in nearby Carleton Place. The first purchase there was a solid oak filing cabinet.  It is heavy enough to sink a ship and extremely sturdy. Naturally it stands in the study. Subsequently we ordered from the same store a mahogany cabinet which I account among the most functional of our pieces.

There is a pecan corner table which I purchased at Ogilvy’s department store in Montréal on the fashionable Rue Saint-Cathérine. Also an antique (though refinished) corner chair formerly belonging to my paternal grandfather. As well as an odd pine armchair (also refinished) which I bought from a former neighbour on St. George Street. Chairs have always been important to me.  All of ours are solid wood and durable.  We’ve had pillows custom made for them as well.

We have three small tables or benches. One is an antique almost biblical piece serving as a tiny side table; another is a predictable 4-legged square style bench; the third is round with curved legs from top seating to bottom base. The items are especially useful in a small apartment where the convenience of quick seat or a place to store a bag for removal or toss something overnight is not lost.

The umbrella stand is another of my favs.  It is a tall porcelain piece with Asian design impressions. In it we keep not only three umbrellas and four walking sticks but also a shooting stick which my father owned. The last time I used the shooting stick was at a cricket match at St. Andrew’s College in Aurora.

Though they don’t qualify as furniture, I want to mention pillows because I have found they form an important part of the enjoyment of seating arrangements.  I especially like the lumbar effect to correct my dissolving spine. The pillows come from all over including our beloved Hilton Head Island where handmade goods (in this instance an embroidered pillow case) are popular.

Finally I hesitate (because the subject is so out of custom) to mention a piece which I absolutely adore.  When we moved into this apartment we abandoned our large oak wooden dining table. Instead we thought we’d settle for a small wooden number my mother had used.  We began by attaching some equally ancient wooden chairs to the mix.  It did not work.  The table (drop leaf) was tolerable but the chairs were extraordinarily uncomfortable.  The problem was locating a small solid wooden table with matching chairs. It proved to be near impossibility.  They just don’t make them.  And why should they?  Who needs them but old fogeys in an apartment. To my astonishment I discovered exactly – and I mean exactly – what I was looking for at Leon’s Furniture (a place I would never have mentioned in polite company and most certainly not as evidence of my whereabouts). To this undeserved snobbery I willingly crawl.  So doubtful was I of the recommendation of the product on the internet, I traveled at some length and some difficulty into the city to get a closer look at the product in person.  It was a huge warehouse; and of course the product I wanted to see was at the furthest end of the entire place and there was no employee in sight the entire time I was there (even though I had called for one on my phone when once I stopped to refresh myself upon my initial warehouse exploration). But it turns out to be ideal for our purposes. It’s made in Vietnam. The wood is a fruit tree but it’s solid. Same for the chairs. And the drop leaf is mechanical genius!