Painter examines a piece of furniture (9)
I believe the answer is:
constable
'painter' is the definition.
(I know that Constable is a painter)
'examines a piece of furniture' is the wordplay.
'examines' becomes 'cons' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a piece of furniture' becomes 'table' (table is a kind of piece of furniture).
'cons'+'table'='CONSTABLE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for constable that I've seen before include "English landscape painter for a policeman" , "Copper - artist" , "Policeman - landscape artist" , "See 1" , "In England, a great painter or lowly policeman" .)