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diff --git a/12254-0.txt b/12254-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..397d8a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/12254-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8999 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12254 *** + +[Illustration: Interior of a French Chateau Shewing Furniture of the Time. +Period: Late XIV. or Early XV. Century.] + + + + +Illustrated History Of Furniture: + +_From the Earliest to the Present Time._ + +by + +Frederick Litchfield. + +With numerous Illustrations + + +1893. + + + + +Preface. + + + +In the following pages the Author has placed before the reader an account +of the changes in the design of Decorative Furniture and Woodwork, from +the earliest period of which we have any reliable or certain record until +the present time. + +A careful selection of illustrations has been made from examples of +established authenticity, the majority of which are to be seen, either in +the Museums to which reference is made, or by permission of the owners; +and the representations of the different "interiors" will convey an idea +of the character and disposition of the furniture of the periods to which +they refer. These illustrations are arranged, so far as is possible, in +chronological order, and the descriptions which accompany them are +explanatory of the historical and social changes which have influenced the +manners and customs, and directly or indirectly affected the Furniture of +different nations. An endeavour is made to produce a "panorama" which may +prove acceptable to many, who, without wishing to study the subject +deeply, may desire to gain some information with reference to it +generally, or with regard to some part of it, in which they may feel a +particular interest. + +It will be obvious that within the limits of a single volume of moderate +dimensions it is impossible to give more than an outline sketch of many +periods of design and taste which deserve far more consideration than is +here bestowed upon them; the reader is, therefore, asked to accept the +first chapter, which refers to "Ancient Furniture" and covers a period of +several centuries, as introductory to that which follows, rather than as a +serious attempt to examine the history of the furniture during that space +of time. The fourth chapter, which deals with a period of some hundred and +fifty years, from the time of King James the First until that of +Chippendale and his contemporaries, and the last three chapters, are more +fully descriptive than some others, partly because trustworthy information +as to these times is more accessible, and partly because it is probable +that English readers will feel greater interest in the furniture of which +they are the subject. The French _meubles de luxe_, from the latter half +of the seventeenth century until the Revolution, are also treated more +fully than the furniture of other periods and countries, on account of the +interest which has been manifested in this description of the cabinet +maker's and metal mounter's work during the past ten or fifteen years. +There is evidence of this appreciation in the enormous prices realised at +notable auction sales, when such furniture has been offered for +competition to wealthy connoisseurs. + +In order to gain a more correct idea of the design of Furniture of +different periods, it has been necessary to notice the alterations in +architectural styles which influenced, and were accompanied by, +corresponding changes in the fashion of interior woodwork. Such comments +are made with some diffidence, as it is felt that this branch of the +subject would have received more fitting treatment by an architect, who +was also an antiquarian, than by an antiquarian with only a limited +knowledge of architecture. + +Some works on "Furniture" have taken the word in its French +interpretation, to include everything that is "movable" in a house; other +writers have combined with historical notes, critical remarks and +suggestions as to the selection of Furniture. The author has not presumed +to offer any such advice, and has confined his attention to a description +of that which, in its more restricted sense, is understood as "Decorative +Furniture and Woodwork." For his own information, and in the pursuit of +his business, he has been led to investigate the causes and the +approximate dates of the several changes in taste which have taken place, +and has recorded them in as simple and readable a story as the +difficulties of the subject permit. + +Numerous acts of kindness and co-operation, received while preparing the +work for the press, have rendered the task very pleasant; and while the +author has endeavoured to acknowledge, in a great many instances, the +courtesies received, when noticing the particular occasion on which such +assistance was rendered, he would desire generally to record his thanks to +the owners of historic mansions, the officials of our Museums, the Clerks +of City Companies, Librarians, and others, to whom he is indebted. The +views of many able writers who have trodden the same field of enquiry have +been adopted where they have been confirmed by the writer's experience or +research, and in these cases he hopes he has not omitted to express his +acknowledgments for the use he has made of them. + +The large number of copies subscribed for, accompanied, as many of the +applications have been, by expressions of goodwill and confidence +beforehand, have been very gratifying, and have afforded great +encouragement during the preparation of the work. + +If the present venture is received in such a way as to encourage a larger +effort, the writer hopes both to multiply examples and extend the area of +his observations. + +F. L. Hanway Street, London, _July_, 1892. + + + + +Contents. + + + +Chapter I. + + BIBLICAL REFERENCES: Solomon's House and Temple--Palace of Ahashuerus. + ASSYRIAN FURNITURE: Nimrod's Palace--Mr. George Smith quoted. EGYPTIAN + FURNITURE: Specimens in the British Museum--The Workman's + Stool--Various articles of Domestic Furniture--Dr. Birch quoted. GREEK + FURNITURE: The Bas Reliefs in the British Museum--The Chest of + Cypselus--Laws and Customs of the Greeks--House of Alcibiades--Plutarch + quoted. ROMAN FURNITURE: Position of Rome--The Roman House--Cicero's + Table--Thyine Wood--Customs of wealthy Romans--Downfall of the Empire. + + + +Chapter II. + + Period of 1000 years from Fall of Rome, A.D. 476, to Capture of + Constantinople, 1453--The Crusades--Influence of Christianity--Chairs + of St. Peter and Maximian at Rome, Ravenna and Venice--Edict of Leo + III. prohibiting Image worship--The Rise of Venice--Charlemagne and his + successors--The Chair of Dagobert--Byzantine character of + Furniture--Norwegian carving--Russian and Scandinavian--The + Anglo-Saxons--Sir Walter Scott quoted--Descriptions of Anglo-Saxon + Houses and Customs--Art in Flemish Cities--Gothic Architecture--The + Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey--Penshurst--French Furniture in + the 14th Century--Description of rooms--The South Kensington + Museum--Transition from Gothic to Renaissance--German carved work: the + Credence, the Buffet, and Dressoir. + + + +Chapter III. + + THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY: Leonardo da Vinci and Raffaele--Church of St. + Peter, contemporary great artists--The Italian Palazzo--Methods of + gilding, inlaying and mounting Furniture--Pietra-dura and other + enrichments--Ruskin's criticism. THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE: Francois I. + and the Chateau of Fontainebleau--Influence on Courtiers-Chairs of the + time--Design of Cabinets--M.E. Bonnaffe on The Renaissance--Bedstead of + Jeanne d'Albret--Deterioration of taste in time of Henry IV.--Louis + XIII. Furniture--Brittany woodwork. THE RENAISSANCE IN THE NETHERLANDS: + Influence of the House of Burgundy on Art--The Chimney-piece at Bruges, + and other casts of specimens in South Kensington Museum. THE + RENAISSANCE IN SPAIN: The resources of Spain in the sixteenth and + seventeenth centuries--Influence of Saracenic Art--High-backed leather + chairs--The Carthusian Convent at Granada. THE RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY: + Albrecht Dürer--Famous Steel Chair of Augsburg--German seventeenth + century carving in St. Saviour's Hospital. THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND: + Influence of Foreign Artists in the time of Henry VIII.--End of + Feudalism--Hampton Court Palace--Linen pattern Panels--Woodwork in the + Henry VII. Chapel at Westminster Abbey--Livery Cupboards at + Hengrave--Harrison quoted--The "parler"--Alteration in English + customs--Chairs of the sixteenth century--Coverings and Cushions of the + time, extract from old Inventory--South Kensington + Cabinet--Elizabethan Mirror at Goodrich Court--Shaw's "Ancient + Furniture"--The Glastonbury Chair--Introduction of Frames into + England--Characteristics of Native Woodwork--Famous Country + Mansions--Alteration in design of Woodwork and Furniture--Panelled + Rooms in South Kensington--The Charterhouse--Gray's Inn Hall and Middle + Temple--The Hall of the Carpenters' Company--The Great Bed of + Ware--Shakespeare's Chair--Penshurst Place. + + + +Chapter IV. + + English Home Life in the Reign of James I.--Sir Henry Wootton + quoted--Inigo Jones and his work--Ford Castle--Chimney Pieces in South + Kensington Museum--Table in the Carpenters' Hall--Hall of the Barbers' + Company--The Charterhouse--Time of Charles I.--Furniture at + Knole--Eagle House, Wimbledon--Mr. Charles Eastlake--Monuments at + Canterbury and Westminster--Settles, Couches, and Chairs of the Stuart + period--Sir Paul Pindar's House--Cromwellian Furniture--The + Restoration--Indo-Portuguese Furniture--Hampton Court Palace--Evelyn's + description--The Great Fire of London--Hall of the Brewers' + Company--Oak Panelling of the time--Grinling Gibbons and his work--The + Edict of Nantes--Silver Furniture at Knole--William III. and Dutch + influence--Queen Anne--Sideboards, Bureaus, and Grandfather's + Clocks--Furniture at Hampton Court. + + + +Chapter V. + + CHINESE FURNITURE: Probable source of artistic taste--Sir William + Chambers quoted--Racinet's "Le Costume Historique"--Dutch + influence--The South Kensington and the Duke of Edinburgh + Collections--Processes of making Lacquer--Screens in the Kensington + Museum. JAPANESE FURNITURE: Early History--Sir Rutherford Alcock and + Lord Elgin--The Collection of the Shogun--Famous Collections--Action of + the present Government of Japan--Special characteristics. INDIAN + FURNITURE: Early European influence--Furniture of the Moguls--Racinet's + Work--Bombay Furniture--Ivory Chairs and Table--Specimens in the India + Museum. PERSIAN WOODWORK: Collection of Objets d'Art formed by Gen. + Murdoch Smith, R.E.---Industrial Arts of the Persians--Arab + influence--South Kensington specimens. SARACENIC WOODWORK: Oriental + customs--Specimens in the South Kensington Museum of Arab Work--M. + d'Aveune's Work. + + + +Chapter VI. + + PALACE OF VERSAILLES: "Grand" and "Petit Trianon"--The three Styles of + Louis XIV., XV., and XVI.--Colbert and Lebrun--André Charles Boule and + his Work--Carved and Gilt Furniture--The Regency and its + Influence--Alteration in Condition of French Society--Watteau, Lancret, + and Boucher. Louis XV. FURNITURE: Famous Ébenistes--Vernis Martin + Furniture--Caffieri and Gouthière Mountings--Sêvres Porcelain + introduced into Cabinets--Gobelins Tapestry--The "Bureau du Roi." LOUIS + XVI. AND MARIE ANTOINETTE: The Queen's Influence--The Painters Chardin + and Greuze--More simple Designs--Characteristic Ornaments of Louis XVI. + Furniture--Riesener's Work--Gouthière's Mountings--Specimens in the + Louvre--The Hamilton Palace Sale--French influence upon the design of + Furniture in other countries--The Jones Collection--Extract from "The + Times". + + + +Chapter VII. + + Chinese style--Sir William Chambers--The Brothers Adams' + work--Pergolesi, Cipriani, and Angelica Kauffmann--Architects of the + time--Wedgwood and Flaxman--Chippendale's Work and his + Contemporaries--Chair in the Barbers' Hall--Lock, Shearer, Hepplewhite; + Ince, Mayhew, Sheraton--Introduction of Satinwood and + Mahogany--Gillows, of Lancaster and London--History of the + Sideboard--The Dining Room--Furniture of the time. + + + +Chapter VIII. + + The French Revolution and First Empire--Influence on design of + Napoleon's Campaigns--The Cabinet presented to Marie Louise--Dutch + Furniture of the time--English Furniture--Sheraton's later work--Thomas + Hope, architect--George Smith's designs--Fashion during the + Regency--Gothic revival--Seddon's Furniture--Other Makers--Influence on + design of the Restoration in France--Furniture of William IV. and early + part of Queen Victoria's reign--Baroque and Rococo styles--The + panelling of rooms, dado, and skirting--The Art Union--The Society of + Arts--Sir Charles Barry and the new Palace of Westminster--Pugin's + designs--Auction Prices of Furniture--Christie's--The London Club + Houses--Steam--Different Trade Customs--Exhibitions in France and + England--Harry Rogers' work--The Queen's cradle--State of Art in + England during first part of present reign--Continental + designs--Italian carving--Cabinet work--General remarks. + + + +Chapter IX. + + THE GREAT EXHIBITION: Exhibitors and contemporary Cabinet + Makers--Exhibition of 1862, London; 1867, Paris; and + subsequently--Description of Illustrations--Fourdinois, Wright and + Mansfield--The South Kensington Museum--Revival of + Marquetry--Comparison of Present Day with that of a Hundred Years + ago--Æstheticism--Traditions--Trades-Unionism--The Arts and Crafts + Exhibition Society--Independence of Furniture--Present + Fashions--Writers on Design--Modern Furniture in other + Countries--Concluding Remarks. + + + +APPENDIX. + + List of Artists and Manufacturers of Furniture--Woods--Tapestry used + for French Furniture--The processes of Gilding and Polishing--The + Pianoforte. + + +Index. + +List of Subscribers. + + + + +List of Illustrations. + + + +Frontispiece--Dwelling Room of a French Chateau + + + +Chapter I. + + +Vignette of Bas-relief--egyptian Seated, as Ornament to Initial Letter. +Assyrian Bronze Throne and Footstool +Chairs From Khorsabad and Xanthus and Assyrian Throne +Repose of King Asshurbanipal +Examples of Egyptian Furniture in the British Museum: Stool; Stand + for a Vase; Head-rest or Pillow; Workman's Stool; Vase on a Stand; + Folding Stool; Ebony Seat inlaid with ivory +An Egyptian of High Rank Seated +An Egyptian Banquet +Chair with Captives as Supports, and an Ivory Box +Bacchus and Attendants Visiting Icarus +Greek Bedstead with a Table +Greek Furniture +Interior of an Ancient Roman House +Roman State Chair +Bronze Lamp and Stand +Roman Scamnum or Bench +Bisellium, or Seat for Two Persons +Roman Couch, Generally of Bronze +A Roman Study +Roman Triclinium or Dining Room + + + +Chapter II. + + +Vignette of Gothic Oak Armoire, as Ornament to Initial Letter +Chair of St. Peter, Rome +Dagobert Chair +A Carved Norwegian Doorway +Scandinavian Chair +Cover of a Casket Carved in Whalebone +Saxon House (IX. Century) +Anglo-saxon Furniture of About the X. Century +The Seat on the Daïs +Saxon State Bed +English Folding Chair (XIV. Century) +Cradle of Henry V +Coronation Chair, Westminster Abbey +Chair in York Minster +Two Chairs of the XV. Century +Table at Penshurst +Bedroom (XIV. Century) +Carved Oak Bedstead and Chair +The New Born Infant +Portrait of Christine De Pisan +State Banquet with Attendant Musicians (Two Woodcuts) +A High-backed Chair (XV. Century) +Medieval Bed and Bedroom +A Scribe or Copyist +Two German Chairs +Carved Oak Buffet (French Gothic) +Carved Oak Table +Flemish Buffet +A Tapestried Room +A Carved Oak Seat +Interior of Apothecary's Shop +Court of the Ladies of Queen Anne of Brittany + + + +Chapter III. + + +Vignette of the Caryatides Cabinet, as Ornament to Initial Letter +Reproduction of Decoration by Raffaele +Salon of M. Bonnaffé +A Sixteenth Century Room +Chair in Carved Walnut +Venetian Centre Table +Marriage Coffer in Carved Walnut +Marriage Coffer +Pair of Italian Carved Bellows +Carved Italian Mirror Frame, XVI. Century +A Sixteenth Century Coffre-fort +Italian Coffer +Italian Chairs +Ebony Cabinet +Venetian State Chair +Ornamental Panelling in St. Vincent's Church, Rouen +Chimney Piece (Fontainebleau) +Carved Oak Panel (1577) +Fac-Similes of Engraving On Wood +Carved Oak Bedstead of Jeanne D'albret +Carved Oak Cabinet (Lyons) +Louis XIII. and His Court +Decoration of a Salon in Louis XIII. Style +An Ebony Armoire (Flemish Renaissance) +A Barber's Shop (XVI. Century) +A Flemish Citizen at Meals +Sedan Chair of Charles V. +Silver Table (Windsor Castle) +Chair of Walnut or Chesnut Wood, Spanish, with Embossed Leather +Wooden Coffer (XVI. Century) +The Steel Chair (Longford Castle) +German Carved Oak Buffet +Carved Oak Chest +Chair of Anna Boleyn +Tudor Cabinet +The Glastonbury Chair +Carved Oak Elizabethan Bedstead +Oak Wainscoting +Dining Hall in the Charterhouse +Screen in the Hall of Gray's Inn +Carved Oak Panels (Carpenters' Hall) +Part of an Elizabethan Staircase +The Entrance Hall, Hardwick Hall +Shakespeare's Chair +The "Great Bed of Ware" +The "Queen's Room," Penshurst Place +Carved Oak Chimney Piece in Speke Hall + + + +Chapter IV. + + +A Chair of XVII. Century, as Ornament to Initial Letter +Oak Chimney Piece in Sir W. Raleigh's House +Chimney Piece in Byfleet House +"The King's Chamber," Ford Castle +Centre Table (Carpenters' Hall) +Carved Oak Chairs +Oak Chimney Piece From Lime Street, City +Oak Sideboard +Seats at Knole +Arm Chair, Knole +The "Spangle" Bedroom, Knole +Couch, Chair, and Single Chair (Penshurst Place) +"Folding" and "Drawinge" Table +Chairs, Stuart Period +Chair Used by Charles I. During His Trial +Two Carved Oak Chairs +Settle of Carved Oak +Staircase in General Treton's House +Settee and Chair (Penshurst Place) +Carved Ebony Chair +Sedes Busbiana +The Master's Chair in the Brewers' Hall +Carved Oak "Livery" Cupboard +Carved Oak Napkin Press +Three Chairs From Hampton Court, Hardwick, and Knole +Carved Oak Screen in Stationers' Hall +Silver Furniture at Knole +Three Chimney Pieces by James Gibbs + + + +Chapter V. + + +Pattern of a Chinese Lac Screen +An Eastern (Saracenic) Table, as Ornament to Initial Letter +Japanese Cabinet of Red Chased Lacquer Ware +Casket of Indian Lacquer-work +Door of Carved Sandal Wood From Travancore +Persian Incense Burner of Engraved Brass +Governor's Palace, Manfulut +Specimen of Saracenic Panelling +A Carved Door of Syrian Work +Shaped Panel of Saracenic Work + + + +Chapter VI. + + +Boule Armoire (Hamilton Palace) +Vignette of a Louis Quatorze Commode, as Ornament to Initial Letter. +Boule Armoire (Jones Collection) +Pedestal Cabinet by Boule (Jones Collection) +A Concert in the Reign of Louis XIV. +A Screen Panel by Watteau +Decoration of a Salon in the Louis XIV. Style +A Boule Commode +French Sedan Chair +Part of a Salon (Louis XV.) +Carved and Gilt Console Table +Louis XV. Fauteuil (Carved and Gilt) +Louis XV. Commode (Jones Collection) +A Parqueterie Commode +"Bureau Du Roi" +A Boudoir (Louis XVI. Period) +Part of a Salon in Louis XVI. Style +A Marqueterie Cabinet (Jones Collection) +Writing Table (Riesener) +The "Marie Antoinette" Writing Table +Bedstead of Marie Antoinette +A Cylinder Secretaire (Rothschild Collection) +An Arm Chair (Louis XVI.) +Carved and Gilt Settee and Arm Chair +A Sofa En Suite +A Marqueterie Escritoire (Jones Collection) +A Norse Interior, Shewing French Influence +A Secretaire with Sêvres Plaques +A Clock by Robin (Jones Collection) +Harpsichord, About 1750 +Italian Sedan Chair + + + +Chapter VII. + + +Vignette of a Chippendale Girandole, as Ornament to Initial Letter +Fac-simile of Drawings by Robert Adam +English Satinwood Dressing Table +Chimney-piece and Overmantel, Designed by W. Thomas +Two Chippendale Chairs in the "Chinese" Style +Fac-simile of Title Page of Chippendale's "Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's + Director" +Two Book Cases From Chippendale's "Director" +Tea Caddy Carved in the French Style (Chippendale) +A Bureau From Chippendale's "Director" +A Design for a State Bed From Chippendale's "Director" +"French" Commode and Lamp Stands +Bed Pillars +Chimney-piece and Mirror +Parlour Chairs by Chippendale +Clock Case by Chippendale +China Shelves, Designed by W. Ince +Girandoles and Pier Table, Designed by W. Thomas +Toilet Glass and Urn Stand, From Hepplewhite's Guide +Parlour Chairs, Designed by W. Ince +Ladies' Secretaires, Designed by W. Ince +Desk and Bookcase, Designed by W. Ince +China Cabinet, Designed by J. Mayhew +Dressing Chairs, Designed by J. Mayhew +Designs of Furniture From Hepplewhite's "Guide" +Plan of a Room. (Hepplewhite) +Inlaid Tea Caddy and Tops of Pier Tables, From Hepplewhite's "Guide" +Kneehole Table by Sheraton +Chairs by Sheraton +Chair Backs, From Sheraton's "Cabinet Maker" +Urn Stand +A Sideboard in the Style of Robert Adam +Carved Jardiniere by Chippendale +Cabinet and Bookcase with Secretaire, by Sheraton + + + +Chapter VIII. + + +Vignette of an Empire Tripod, as Ornament to Initial Letter +Cabinet Presented to Marie Louise +Stool and Arm Chair (Napoleon I. Period) +Nelson's Chairs by Sheraton +Drawing Room Chair, Designed by Sheraton +Drawing Room Chair, Designed by Sheraton +"Canopy Bed" by Sheraton +"Sisters' Cylinder Bookcase" by Sheraton +Sideboard and Sofa Table (Sheraton) +Design of a Room, by T. Hope +Library Fauteuil, From Smith's "Book of Designs" +Parlor Chairs +Bookcase by Sheraton +Drawing Room Chairs, From Smith's Book +Prie-dieu in Carved Oak, Designed by Mr. Pugin +Secretaire and Bookcase (German Gothic Style) +Cradle for H.M. the Queen by H. Rogers +Design for a Tea Caddy by J. Strudwick +Design for One of the Wings of a Sideboard by W. Holmes +Design for a Work Table. H. Fitzcook +Venetian Stool of Carved Walnut + + + +Chapter IX. + + +Examples of Design in Furniture in the 1851 Exhibition:-- + Sideboard, in Carved Oak, by Gillow + Chimney-piece and Bookcase by Holland and Sons + Cabinet by Grace + Bookcase by Jackson and Graham + Grand Pianoforte by Broadwood + Vignette of a Cabinet, Modern Jacobean Style, as Ornament to Initial + Letter + Lady's Escritoire by Wettli, Berne + Lady's Work Table and Screen in Papier Maché + Sideboard (Sir Walter Scott) by Cookes, Warwick + A State Chair by Jancowski, York + Sideboard, in Carved Oak, by Dorand, Paris + Bedstead, in Carved Ebony, by Roulé, Antwerp + Pianoforte by Leistler, Vienna + Bookcase, in Lime Tree, by Leistler, Vienna + Cabinet, with Bronze and Porcelain, by Games, St. Petersburg + Casket of Ivory, with Ormolu Mountings, by Matifat, Paris + Table and Chair, in the Classic Style, by Capello, Turin +Cabinet of Ebony, with Carnelions, by Litchfield & Radclyffe (1862 + Exhibition, London) +Cabinet of Ebony, with Boxwood Carvings, by Fourdinois, Paris (1867 + Exhibition, Paris) +Cabinet of Satinwood, with Wedgwood Plaques, by Wright and Mansfield (1867 + Exhibition, Paris) +Cabinet of Ebony and Ivory by Andrea Picchi, Florence (1867 Exhibition, + Paris) +The Ellesmere Cabinet +The Saloon at Sandringham House +The Drawing Room at Sandringham House +Carved Frame by Radspieler, Munich +Carved Oak Flemish Armoire, as Tail Piece +A Sixteenth Century Workshop + + + + +Chapter I. + +Ancient Furniture. + + + + BIBLICAL REFERENCES: Solomon's House and Temple--Palace of Ahashuerus. + ASSYRIAN FURNITURE: Nimrod's Palace--Mr. George Smith quoted. EGYPTIAN + FURNITURE: Specimens in the British Museum--the Workman's + Stool--various articles of Domestic Furniture--Dr. Birch quoted. GREEK + FURNITURE: The Bas Reliefs in the British Museum--the Chest of + Cypselus--Laws and Customs of the Greeks--House of Alcibiades--Plutarch + quoted. ROMAN FURNITURE: Position of Rome--the Roman House--Cicero's + Table--Thyine Wood--Customs of wealthy Romans--Downfall of the Empire. + + +Biblical References. + + +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[1] 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. + + +[Illustration: Part of Assyrian Bronze Throne and Footstool, about B.C. +880, Reign of Asshurnazirpat. (_From a photo by Mansell & Co. of the +original in the British Museum._)] + +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 the chambers 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. + +[Illustration: Assyrian Chair from Khorsabad. (_In the British Museum._)] + +[Illustration: Assyrian Chair from Xanthus. (_In the British Museum._)] + +[Illustration: 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." + +The furniture represented in the following illustration, from a bas relief +in the British Museum, is said to be of a period some two hundred years +later than the bronze throne and footstool. + +[Illustration: Repose of King Asshurbanipal. (_From a Bas relief in the +British Museum._)] + + + +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. + +[Illustration: "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. + +[Illustration: 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. + +[Illustration: 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. + +[Illustration: Chair with Captives As Supports. (_From Papyrus in British +Museum._)] + +[Illustration: An Ivory Box.] + +[Illustration: Bacchus and Attendants Visiting Icarus. (_Reproduced from +a Bas-relief in the British Museum._) Period: About A.d. 100.] + + + +Greek Furniture. + + +An early reference to Greek furniture is made by Homer, who describes +coverlids of dyed wool, tapestries, carpets, and other accessories, which +must therefore have formed part of the contents of a great man's residence +centuries before the period which we recognise as the "meridian" of Greek +art. + +In the second Vase-room of the British Museum the painting on one of these +vases represents two persons sitting on a couch, upon which is a cushion +of rich material, while for the comfort of the sitters there is a +footstool, probably of ivory. On the opposite leaf there is an +illustration of a has relief in stone, "Bacchus received as a guest by +Icarus," in which the couch has turned legs and the feet are ornamented +with carved leaf work. + +[Illustration: GREEK BEDSTEAD WITH A TABLE. (_From an old Wall +Painting._)] + +We know, too, from other illustrations of tripods used for sacred +purposes, and as supports for braziers, that tables were made of wood, of +marble, and of metal; also folding chairs, and couches for sleeping and +resting, but not for reclining at meals, as was the fashion at a later +period. In most of the designs for these various articles of furniture +there is a similarity of treatment of the head, legs, and feet of lions, +leopards, and sphinxes to that which we have noticed in the Assyrian +patterns. + +[Illustration: Greek Furniture. (_From Antique Bas reliefs._)] + +The description of an interesting piece of furniture may be noticed here, +because its date is verified by its historical associations, and it was +seen and described by Pausanias about 800 years afterwards. This is the +famous chest of Cypselus of Corinth, the story of which runs that when his +mother's relations, having been warned by the Oracle of Delphi, that her +son would prove formidable to the ruling party, sought to murder him, his +life was saved by his concealment in this chest, and he became Ruler of +Corinth for some 30 years (B.C. 655-625). It is said to have been made of +cedar, carved and decorated with figures and bas reliefs, some in ivory, +some in gold or ivory part gilt, and inlaid on all four sides and on the +top. + +The peculiar laws and customs of the Greeks at the time of their greatest +prosperity were not calculated to encourage display or luxury in private +life, or the collection of sumptuous furniture. Their manners were simple +and their discipline was very severe. Statuary, sculpture of the best +kind, painting of the highest merit--in a word, the best that art could +produce--were all dedicated to the national service in the enrichment of +Temples and other public buildings, the State having indefinite and almost +unlimited power over the property of all wealthy citizens. The public +surroundings of an influential Athenian were therefore in direct contrast +to the simplicity of his home, which contained the most meagre supply of +chairs and tables, while the _chef d'oeuvres_ of Phidias adorned the +Senate House, the Theatre, and the Temple. + +There were some exceptions to this rule, and we have records that during +the later years of Greek prosperity such simplicity was not observed. +Alcibiades is said to have been the first to have his house painted and +decorated, and Plutarch tells us that he kept the painter Agatharcus a +prisoner until his task was done, and then dismissed him with an +appropriate reward. Another ancient writer relates that "the guest of a +private house was enjoined to praise the decorations of the ceilings and +the beauty of the curtains suspended from between the columns." This +occurs, according to Mr. Perkins, the American translator of Dr. Falke's +German book "Kunst im Hause," in the "Wasps of Aristophanes," written B.C. +422. + +The illustrations, taken from the best authorities in the British Museum, +the National Library of Paris, and other sources, shew the severe style +adopted by the Greeks in their furniture. + + + +Roman Furniture. + + +As we are accustomed to look to Greek Art of the time of Pericles for +purity of style and perfection of taste, so do we naturally expect the +gradual demoralisation of art in its transfer to the great Roman Empire. +From that little village on the Palatine Hill, founded some 750 years +B.C., Rome had spread and conquered in every direction, until in the time +of Augustus she was mistress of the whole civilised world, herself the +centre of wealth, civilisation, luxury, and power. Antioch in the East and +Alexandria in the South ranked next to her as great cities of the world. + +From the excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii we have learned enough to +conceive some general idea of the social life of a wealthy Roman in the +time of Rome's prosperity. The houses had no upper story, but were formed +by the enclosure of two or more quadrangles, each surrounded by courts +opening into rooms, and receiving air and ventilation from the centre open +square or court. The illustration will give an idea of this arrangement. + +In Mr. Hungerford Pollen's useful handbook there is a description of each +room in a Roman house, with its proper Latin title and purpose; and we +know from other descriptions of Ancient Rome that the residences in the +Imperial City were divided into two distinct classes--that of _domus_ and +_insula_, the former being the dwellings of the Roman nobles, and +corresponding to the modern _Palazzi_, while the latter were the +habitations of the middle and lower classes. Each _insula _ consisted of +several sets of apartments, generally let out to different families, and +was frequently surrounded by shops. The houses described by Mr. Pollen +appear to have had no upper story, but as ground became more valuable in +Rome, houses were built to such a height as to be a source of danger, and +in the time of Augustus there were not only strict regulations as to +building, but the height was limited to 70 feet. The Roman furniture of +the time was of the most costly kind. [Illustration: Interior of an +Ancient Roman House. Said to have been that of Sallust. Period: B.C. 20 TO +A.D. 20.] + +Tables were made of marble, gold, silver, and bronze, and were engraved, +damascened, plated, and enriched with precious stones. The chief woods +used were cedar, pine, elm, olive, ash, ilex, beech, and maple. Ivory was +much used, and not only were the arms and legs of couches and chairs +carved to represent the limbs of animals, as has been noted in the +Assyrian, Egyptian, and Greek designs, but other parts of furniture were +ornamented by carvings in bas relief of subjects taken from Greek +mythology and legend. Veneers were cut and applied, not as some have +supposed for the purpose of economy, but because by this means the most +beautifully marked or figured specimens of the woods could be chosen, and +a much richer and more decorative effect produced than would be possible +when only solid timber was used. As a prominent instance of the extent to +which the Romans carried the costliness of some special pieces of +furniture, we have it recorded on good authority (Mr. Pollen) that the +table made for Cicero cost a million sesterces, a sum equal to about +£9,000, and that one belonging to King Juba was sold by auction for the +equivalent of £10,000. + +[Illustration: Roman State Chair. (_From the Marble example in the Musée +du Louvre._)] + +[Illustration: Roman Bronze Lamp and Stand. (_Found in Pompeii._)] + +Cicero's table was made of a wood called Thyine--wood which was brought +from Africa and held in the highest esteem. It was valued not only on +account of its beauty but also from superstitious or religious reasons. +The possession of thyine wood was supposed to bring good luck, and its +sacredness arose from the fact that from it was produced the incense used +by the priests. Dr. Edward Clapton, of St. Thomas' Hospital, who has made +a collection of woods named in the Scriptures, has managed to secure a +specimen of thyine, which a friend of his obtained on the Atlas Mountains. +It resembles the woods which we know as tuyere and amboyna.[2] + +Roman, like Greek houses, were divided into two portions--the front for +reception of guests and the duties of society, with the back for household +purposes, and the occupation of the wife and family; for although the +position of the Roman wife was superior to that of her Greek contemporary, +which was little better than that of a slave, still it was very different +to its later development. + +The illustration given here of a repast in the house of Sallust, +represents the host and his eight male guests reclining on the seats of +the period, each of which held three persons, and was called a triclinium, +making up the favorite number of a Roman dinner party, and possibly giving +us the proverbial saying--"Not less than the Graces nor more than the +Muses"--which is still held to be a popular regulation for a dinner party. + +[Illustration: Roman Scamnum or Bench.] + +[Illustration: Roman Bisellium, or Seat for Two Persons. But generally +occupied by one, on occasions of festivals, etc.] + +From discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii a great deal of information +has been gained of the domestic life of the wealthier Roman citizens, and +there is a useful illustration at the end of this chapter of the furniture +of a library or study in which the designs are very similar to the Greek +ones we have noticed; it is not improbable they were made and executed by +Greek workmen. + +It will be seen that the books such as were then used, instead of being +placed on shelves or in a bookcase, were kept in round boxes called +_Scrinia_, which were generally of beech wood, and could be locked or +sealed when required. The books in rolls or sewn together were thus easily +carried about by the owner on his journeys. + +Mr. Hungerford Pollen mentions that wearing apparel was kept in +_vestiaria_, or wardrobe rooms, and he quotes Plutarch's anecdote of the +purple cloaks of Lucullus, which were so numerous that they must have been +stored in capacious hanging closets rather than in chests. + +In the _atrium_, or public reception room, was probably the best furniture +in the house. According to Moule's "Essay on Roman Villas," "it was here +that numbers assembled daily to pay their respects to their patron, to +consult the legislator, to attract the notice of the statesman, or to +derive importance in the eyes of the public from an apparent intimacy with +a man in power." + +The growth of the Roman Empire eastward, the colonisation of Oriental +countries, and subsequently the establishment of an Eastern Empire, +produced gradually an alteration in Greek design, and though, if we were +discussing the merits of design and the canons of taste, this might be +considered a decline, still its influence on furniture was doubtless to +produce more ease and luxury, more warmth and comfort, than would be +possible if the outline of every article of useful furniture were decided +by a rigid adherence to classical principles. We have seen that this was +more consonant with the public life of an Athenian; but the Romans, in the +later period of the Empire, with their wealth, their extravagance, their +slaves, their immorality and gross sensuality, lived in a splendour and +with a prodigality that well accorded with the gorgeous colouring of +Eastern hangings and embroideries, of rich carpets and comfortable +cushions, of the lavish use of gold and silver, and meritricious and +redundant ornament. + +[Illustration: Roman Couch, Generally of Bronze. (_From an Antique Bas +relief._)] + +This slight sketch, brief and inadequate as it is, of a history of +furniture from the earliest time of which we have any record, until from +the extraordinary growth of the vast Roman Empire, the arts and +manufactures of every country became as it were centralised and focussed +in the palaces of the wealthy Romans, brings us down to the commencement +of what has been deservedly called "the greatest event in history"--the +decline and fall of this enormous empire. For fifteen generations, for +some five hundred years, did this decay, this vast revolution, proceed to +its conclusion. Barbarian hosts settled down in provinces they had overrun +and conquered, the old Pagan world died as it were, and the new Christian +era dawned. From the latter end of the second century until the last of +the Western Caesars, in A.D. 476, it is, with the exception of a short +interval when the strong hand of the great Theodosius stayed the avalanche +of Rome's invaders, one long story of the defeat and humiliation of the +citizens of the greatest power the world has ever known. It is a vast +drama that the genius and patience of a Gibbon has alone been able to deal +with, defying almost by its gigantic catastrophes and ever raging +turbulence the pen of history to chronicle and arrange. When the curtain +rises on a new order of things, the age of Paganism has passed away, and +the period of the Middle Ages will have commenced. + +[Illustration: A Roman Study. Shewing Scrolls or Books in a "Scrinium;" +also Lamp, Writing Tablets, etc.] + +[Illustration: The Roman Triclinium, or Dining Room. + +The plan in the margin shews the position of guests; the place of honor +was that which is indicated by "No. 1," and that of the host by "No. 9." + +(_The Illustration is taken from Dr. Jacob von Falke's "Kunst im +Hause."_)] + +[Illustration: Plan of a Triclinium.] + + + + +Chapter II. + +The Middle Ages. + + + + Period of 1000 years from Fall of Rome, A.D. 476, to Capture of + Constantinople, 1453--the Crusades--Influence of Christianity--Chairs + of St. Peter and Maximian at Rome, Ravenna and Venice--Edict of Leo + III. prohibiting Image worship--the Rise of Venice--Charlemagne and his + successors--the Chair of Dagobert--Byzantine character of + Furniture--Norwegian carving--Russian and Scandinavian--the + Anglo-Saxons--Sir Walter Scott quoted--Descriptions of Anglo-Saxon + Houses and Customs--Art in Flemish Cities--Gothic Architecture--the + Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey--Penshurst--French Furniture in + the 14th Century--Description of rooms--the South Kensington + Museum--Transition from Gothic to Renaissance--German carved work: the + Credence, the Buffet, and Dressoir. + + +[Illustration] + +The history of furniture is so thoroughly a part of the history of the +manners and customs of different peoples, that one can only understand and +appreciate the several changes in style, sometimes gradual and sometimes +rapid, by reference to certain historical events and influences by which +such changes were effected. + +Thus, we have during the space of time known as the Middle Ages, a stretch +of some 1,000 years, dating from the fall of Rome itself, in A.D. 476, to +the capture of Constantinople by the Turks under Mahomet II. in 1453, an +historical panorama of striking incidents and great social changes bearing +upon our subject. It was a turbulent and violent period, which saw the +completion of Rome's downfall, the rise of the Carlovingian family, the +subjection of Britain by the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans; the +extraordinary career and fortunes of Mahomet; the conquest of Spain and a +great part of Africa by the Moors; and the Crusades, which, for a common +cause, united the swords and spears of friend and foe. + +It was the age of monasteries and convents, of religious persecutions and +of heroic struggles of the Christian Church. It was the age of feudalism, +chivalry, and war; but, towards the close, a time of comparative +civilisation and progress, of darkness giving way to the light which +followed; the night of the Middle Ages preceding the dawn of the +Renaissance. + +With the growing importance of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern +Empire, families of well-to-do citizens flocked thither from other parts, +bringing with them all their most valuable possessions; and the houses of +the great became rich in ornamental furniture, the style of which was a +mixture of Eastern and Roman: that is, a corruption of the Early Classic +Greek developing into the style known as Byzantine. The influence of +Christianity upon the position of women materially affected the customs +and habits of the people. Ladies were allowed to be seen in chariots and +open carriages, the designs of which, therefore, improved and became more +varied; the old custom of reclining at meals ceased, and guests sat on +benches; and though we have, with certain exceptions, such as the chair of +St. Peter at Rome, and that of Maximian in the Cathedral at Ravenna, no +specimens of furniture of this time, we have in the old Byzantine ivory +bas-reliefs such representations of circular throne chairs and of +ecclesiastical furniture as suffice to show the class of woodwork then in +vogue. + +The chair of St. Peter is one of the most interesting relics of the Middle +Ages. The woodcut will shew the design, which is, like other work of the +period, Byzantine, and the following description is taken from Mr. +Hungerford Pollen's introduction to the South Kensington catalogue:--"The +chair is constructed of wood, overlaid with carved ivory work and gold. +The back is bound together with iron. It is a square with solid front and +arms. The width in front is 39 inches; the height in front 30 inches, +shewing that a scabellum or footstool must have belonged to it.... In the +front are 18 groups or compositions from the Gospels, carved in ivory with +exquisite fineness, and worked with inlay of the purest gold. On the outer +sides are several little figures carved in ivory. It formed, according to +tradition, part of the furniture of the house of the Senator Pudens, an +early convert to the Christian faith. It is he who gave to the Church his +house in Rome, of which much that remains is covered by the Church of St. +Pudenziana. Pudens gave this chair to St. Peter, and it became the throne +of the See. It was kept in the old Basilica of St. Peter's." Since then it +has been transferred from place to place, until now it remains in the +present Church of St. Peter's, but is completely hidden from view by the +seat or covering made in 1667, by Bernini, out of bronze taken from the +Pantheon. + +Much has been written about this famous chair. Cardinal Wiseman and the +Cavaliere de Rossi have defended its reputation and its history, and Mr. +Nesbitt, some years ago, read a paper on the subject before the Society of +Antiquaries. + +[Illustration: Chair of St. Peter, Rome.] + +Formerly there was in Venice another chair of St. Peter, of which there is +a sketch from a photograph in Mrs. Oliphant's "Makers of Venice." It is +said to have been a present from the Emperor Michel, son of Theophilus +(824-864), to the Venetian Republic in recognition of services rendered, +by either the Doge Gradonico, who died in 1864, or his predecessor, +against the Mahommedan incursions. Fragments only now remain, and these +are preserved in the Church of St. Pietro, at Castello. + +There is also a chair of historic fame preserved in Venice, and now kept +in the treasury of St. Mark's. Originally in Alexandria, it was sent to +Constantinople and formed part of the spoils taken by the Venetians in +1204. Like both the other chairs, this was also ornamented with ivory +plaques, but these have been replaced by ornamental marble. + +The earliest of the before-mentioned chairs, namely, the one at Ravenna, +was made for the Archbishop about 546 to 556, and is thus described in Mr. +Maskell's "Handbook on Ivories," in the Science and Art series:--"The +chair has a high back, round in shape, and is entirely covered with +plaques of ivory arranged in panels carved in high relief with scenes from +the Gospels and with figures of saints. The plaques have borders with +foliated ornaments, birds and animals; flowers and fruits filling the +intermediate spaces. Du Sommerard names amongst the most remarkable +subjects, the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Wise Men, the Flight into +Egypt, and the Baptism of Our Lord." The chair has also been described by +Passeri, the famous Italian antiquary, and a paper was read upon it, by +Sir Digby Wyatt, before the Arundel Society, in which he remarked that as +it had been fortunately preserved as a holy relic, it wore almost the same +appearance as when used by the prelate for whom it was made, save for the +beautiful tint with which time had invested it. + +Long before the general break up of the vast Roman Empire, influences had +been at work to decentralise Art, and cause the migration of trained and +skilful artisans to countries where their work would build up fresh +industries, and give an impetus to progress, where hitherto there had been +stagnation. One of these influences was the decree issued in A.D. 726 by +Leo III., Emperor of the Eastern Empire, prohibiting all image worship. +The consequences to Art of such a decree were doubtless similar to the +fanatical proceedings of the English Puritans of the seventeenth century, +and artists, driven from their homes, were scattered to the different +European capitals, where they were gladly received and found employment +and patronage. + +It should be borne in mind that at this time Venice was gradually rising +to that marvellous position of wealth and power which she afterwards held. + + "A ruler of the waters and their powers: + And such she was;--her daughters had their dowers + From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East + Pour'd in her lap all gems in sparkling showers; + In purple was she robed and of her feasts + Monarchs partook, and deemed their dignity increased." + +Her wealthy merchants were well acquainted with the arts and manufactures +of other countries, and Venice would be just one of those cities to +attract the artist refugee. It is indeed here that wood carving as an Art +may be said to have specially developed itself, and though, from its +destructible nature, there are very few specimens extant dating from this +early time, yet we shall see that two or three hundred years later +ornamental woodwork flourished in a state of perfection which must have +required a long probationary period. + +[Illustration: Dagobert Chair. Chair of Dagobert, of gilt bronze, now in +the Museé de Souverains, Paris. Originally as a folding chair said to be +the work of St. Eloi, 7th century; back and arms added by the Abbe Suger +in 12th century. There is an electrotype reproduction in the South +Kensington Museum.] + +Turning from Venice. During the latter end of the eighth century the star +of Charlemagne was in the ascendant, and though we have no authentic +specimen, and scarcely a picture of any wooden furniture of this reign, we +know that, in appropriating the property of the Gallo-Romans, the Frank +Emperor King and his chiefs were in some degree educating themselves to +higher notions of luxury and civilisation. Paul Lacroix, in "Manners, +Customs, and Dress of the Middle Ages," tells us that the trichorium or +dining room was generally the largest hall in the palace: two rows of +columns divided it into three parts: one for the royal family, one for the +officers of the household, and the third for the guests, who were always +very numerous. No person of rank who visited the King could leave without +sitting at his table or at least draining a cup to his health. The King's +hospitality was magnificent, especially on great religious festivals, such +as Christmas and Easter. + +In other portions of this work of reference we read of "boxes" to hold +articles of value, and of rich hangings, but beyond such allusions little +can be gleaned of any furniture besides. The celebrated chair of Dagobert +(illustrated on p. 21), now in the Louvre, and of which there is a cast in +the South Kensington Museum, dates from some 150 years before Charlemagne, +and is probably the only specimen of furniture belonging to this period +which has been handed down to us. It is made of gilt bronze, and is said +to be the work of a monk. + +For the designs of furniture of the tenth to the fourteenth centuries we +are in a great measure dependent upon old illuminations and missals of +these remote times. They represent chiefly the seats of state used by +sovereigns on the occasions of grand banquets, or of some ecclesiastical +function, and from the valuable collections of these documents in the +National Libraries of Paris and Brussels, some illustrations are +reproduced, and it is evident from such authorities that the designs of +State furniture in France and other countries dominated by the +Carlovingian monarchs were of Byzantine character, that pseudo-classic +style which was the prototype of furniture of about a thousand years +later, when the Cæsarism of Napoleon I., during the early years of the +nineteenth century, produced so many designs which we now recognise as +"Empire." + +No history of mediaeval woodwork would be complete without noticing the +Scandinavian furniture and ornamental wood carving of the tenth to the +fifteenth centuries. There are in the South Kensington Museum, plaster +casts of some three or four carved doorways of Norwegian workmanship, of +the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, in which scrolls are entwined +with contorted monsters, or, to quote Mr. Lovett's description, "dragons +of hideous aspect and serpents of more than usually tortuous +proclivities." The woodcut of a carved lintel conveys a fair idea of this +work, and also of the old Juniper wood tankards of a much later time. + +[Illustration: A Carved Norwegian Doorway. Period: X. to XI. Century.] + +There are also at Kensington other casts of curious Scandinavian woodwork +of more Byzantine treatment, the originals of which are in the Museums of +Stockholm and Copenhagen, where the collection of antique woodwork of +native production is very large and interesting, and proves how wood +carving, as an industrial art, has flourished in Scandinavia from the +early Viking times. One can still see in the old churches of Borgund and +Hitterdal much of the carved woodwork of the seventh and eighth centuries; +and lintels and porches full of national character are to be found in +Thelemarken. + +Under this heading of Scandinavian may be included the very early +Russian school of ornamental woodwork. Before the accession of the +Romanoff dynasty in the sixteenth century, the Ruric race of kings came +originally from Finland, then a province of Sweden; and, so far as one can +see from old illuminated manuscripts, there was a similarity of design to +those of the early Norwegian and Swedish carved lintels which have been +noticed above. + +[Illustration: Carved Wood Chair, Scandinavian Work. Period: 12th to 13th +Century.] + +The covers and caskets of early mediaeval times were no inconsiderable +items in the valuable furniture of a period when the list of articles +coming under that definition was so limited. These were made in oak for +general use, and some were of good workmanship; but of the very earliest +none remain. There were, however, others, smaller and of a special +character, made in ivory of the walrus and elephant, of horn and +whalebone, besides those of metal. In the British Museum is one of these, +of which the cover is illustrated on the following page, representing a +man defending his house against an attack by enemies armed with spears and +shields. Other parts of the casket are carved with subjects and runic +inscriptions which have enabled Mr. Stephens, an authority on this period +of archæology, to assign its date to the eighth century, and its +manufacture to that of Northumbria. It most probably represents a local +incident, and part of the inscription refers to a word signifying +treachery. It was purchased by Mr. A.W. Franks, F.S.A., and is one of the +many valuable specimens given to the British Museum by its generous +curator. + +[Illustration: Cover of a Casket Carved in Whalebone. (_Northumbrian, 8th +Century. British Museum._)] + +Of the furniture of our own country previous to the eleventh or twelfth +centuries we know but little. The habits of the Anglo-Saxons were rude and +simple, and they advanced but slowly in civilisation until after the +Norman invasion. To convey, however, to our minds some idea of the +interior of a Saxon thane's castle, we may avail ourselves of Sir Walter +Scott's antiquarian research, and borrow his description of the chief +apartment in Rotherwood, the hospitable hall of Cedric the Saxon. Though +the time treated of in "Ivanhoe" is quite at the end of the twelfth +century, yet we have in Cedric a type of man who would have gloried in +retaining the customs of his ancestors, who detested and despised the +new-fashioned manners of his conquerors, and who came of a race that had +probably done very little in the way of "refurnishing" for some +generations. If, therefore, we have the reader's pardon for relying upon +the _mise en scéne_ of a novel for an authority, we shall imagine the +more easily what kind of furniture our Anglo-Saxon forefathers indulged +in. + +[Illustration: Saxon House of 9th or 10th Century. (_From the Harleian +MSS. in the British Museum._)] + +"In a hall, the height of which was greatly disproportioned to its extreme +length and width, a long oaken table--formed of planks rough hewn from the +forest, and which had scarcely received any polish--stood ready prepared +for the evening meal.... On the sides of the apartment hung implements of +war and of the chase, and there were at each corner folding doors which +gave access to the other parts of the extensive building. + +"The other appointments of the mansion partook of the rude simplicity of +the Saxon period, which Cedric piqued himself upon maintaining. The floor +was composed of earth mixed with lime, trodden into a hard substance, such +as is often employed in flooring our modern barns. For about one quarter +of the length of the apartment, the floor was raised by a step, and this +space, which was called the daïs, was occupied only by the principal +members of the family and visitors of distinction. For this purpose a +table richly covered with scarlet cloth was placed transversely across the +platform, from the middle of which ran the longer and lower board, at +which the domestics and inferior persons fed, down towards the bottom of +the hall. The whole resembled the form of the letter <b>T</b>, or some of +those ancient dinner tables which, arranged on the same principles, may +still be seen in the ancient colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. Massive +chairs and settles of carved oak were placed upon the daïs, and over these +seats and the elevated table was fastened a canopy of cloth, which served +in some degree to protect the dignitaries who occupied that distinguished +station from the weather, and especially from the rain, which in some +places found its way through the ill-constructed roof. The walls of this +upper end of the hall, as far as the daïs extended, were covered with +hangings or curtains, and upon the floor there was a carpet, both of +which were adorned with some attempts at tapestry or embroidery, executed +with brilliant or rather gaudy colouring. Over the lower range of table +the roof had no covering, the rough plastered walls were left bare, the +rude earthen floor was uncarpeted, the board was uncovered by a cloth, and +rude massive benches supplied the place of chairs. In the centre of the +upper table were placed two chairs more elevated than the rest, for the +master and mistress of the family. To each of these was added a footstool +curiously carved and inlaid with ivory, which mark of distinction was +peculiar to them." + +A drawing in the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum is shewn on page 25, +illustrating a Saxon mansion in the ninth or tenth century. There is the +hall in the centre, with "chamber" and "bower" on either side; there being +only a ground floor, as in the earlier Roman houses. According to Mr. +Wright, F.S.A., who has written on the subject of Anglo-Saxon manners and +customs, there was only one instance recorded of an upper floor at this +period, and that was in an account of an accident which happened to the +house in which the Witan or Council of St. Dunstan met, when, according to +the ancient chronicle which he quotes, the Council fell from an upper +floor, and St. Dunstan saved himself from a similar fate by supporting his +weight on a beam. + +The illustration here given shews the Anglo-Saxon chieftain standing at +the door of his hall, with his lady, distributing food to the needy poor. +Other woodcuts represent Anglo-Saxon bedsteads, which were little better +than raised wooden boxes, with sacks of straw placed therein, and these +were generally in recesses. There are old inventories and wills in +existence which shew that some value and importance was attached to these +primitive contrivances, which at this early period in our history were the +luxuries of only a few persons of high rank. A certain will recites that +"the bed-clothes (bed-reafes) with a curtain (hyrite) and sheet +(hepp-scrytan), and all that thereto belongs," should be given to his son. + +In the account of the murder of King Athelbert by the Queen of King Offa, +as told by Roger of Wendover, we read of the Queen ordering a chamber to +be made ready for the Royal guest, which was adorned for the occasion with +what was then considered sumptuous furniture. "Near the King's bed she +caused a seat to be prepared, magnificently decked and surrounded with +curtains, and underneath it the wicked woman caused a deep pit to be dug." +The author from whom the above translation is quoted adds with grim +humour, "It is clear that this room was on the ground floor." + +[Illustration: Anglo Saxon Furniture of About the Tenth Century. + +(_From old MSS. in the British Museum._) + + 1. A Drinking Party. + 2. A Dinner Party, in which the attendants are serving the meal on the + spits on which it has been cooked. + 3. Anglo-Saxon Beds. +] + +There are in the British Museum other old manuscripts whose illustrations +have been laid under contribution representing more innocent occupations +of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. "The seat on the däis," "an Anglo-Saxon +drinking party," and other illustrations which are in existence, prove +generally that, when the meal had finished, the table was removed and +drinking vessels were handed round from guest to guest; the storytellers, +the minstrels, and the gleemen (conjurers) or jesters, beguiling the +festive hour by their different performances. + +[Illustration: The Seat on The Daïs.] + +[Illustration: Saxon State Bed.] + +Some of these Anglo-Saxon houses had formerly been the villas of the +Romans during their occupation, altered and modified to suit the habits +and tastes of their later possessors. Lord Lytton has given us, in the +first chapter of his novel "Harold," the description of one of such +Saxonised Roman houses, in his reference to Hilda's abode. + +The gradual influence of Norman civilisation, however, had its effect, +though the unsettled state of the country prevented any rapid development +of industrial arts. The feudal system by which every powerful baron became +a petty sovereign, often at war with his neighbour, rendered it necessary +that household treasures should be few and easily transported or hidden, +and the earliest oak chests which are still preserved date from about this +time. Bedsteads were not usual, except for kings, queens, and great +ladies; tapestry covered the walls, and the floors were generally sanded. +As the country became more calm, and security for property more assured, +this comfortless state of living disappeared; the dress of ladies was +richer, and the general habits of the upper classes were more refined. +Stairs were introduced into houses, the "parloir" or talking room was +added, and fire places were made in some of the rooms, of brick or +stonework, where previously the smoke was allowed to escape through an +aperture in the roof. Bedsteads were carved and draped with rich hangings. +Armoires made of oak and enriched with carving, and Presses date from +about the end of the eleventh century. + +[Illustration: English Folding Chair, 14th Century.[3]] + +[Illustration: Cradle Of Henry V.] + +It was during the reign of Henry III., 1216-1272, that wood-panelling was +first used for rooms, and considerable progress generally appears to have +been made about this period. Eleanor of Provence, whom the King married in +1236, encouraged more luxury in the homes of the barons and courtiers. Mr. +Hungerford Pollen has quoted a royal precept which was promulgated in this +year, and it plainly shows that our ancestors were becoming more refined +in their tastes. The terms of this precept were as follows, viz., "the +King's great chamber at Westminster be painted a green colour like a +curtain, that in the great gable or frontispiece of the said chamber, a +French inscription should be painted, and that the King's little wardrobe +should be painted of a green colour to imitate a curtain." + +In another 100 or 150 years we find mediaeval Art approaching its best +period, not only in England, but in the great Flemish cities, such as +Bruges and Ghent, which in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries played +so important a part in the history of that time. The taste for Gothic +architecture had now well set in, and we find that in this as in every +change of style, the fashion in woodwork naturally followed that of +ornament in stone; indeed, in many cases it is more than probable that the +same hands which planned the cathedral or monastery also drew the designs +for furniture, especially as the finest specimens of wood-carving were +devoted to the service of the church. + +The examples, therefore, of the woodwork of this period to which we have +access are found to be mostly of Gothic pattern, with quaint distorted +conceptions of animals and reptiles, adapted to ornament the structural +part of the furniture, or for the enrichment of the panels. + +To the end of the thirteenth century belongs the Coronation chair made for +King Edward I., 1296-1300, and now in Westminster Abbey. This historic +relic is of oak, and the woodcut on the following page gives an idea of +the design and decorative carving. It is said that the pinnacles on each +side of the gabled back were formerly surmounted by two leopards, of which +only small portions remain. The famous Coronation stone which, according +to ancient legend, is the identical one on which the patriarch Jacob +rested his head at Bethel, when "he tarried there all night because the +sun was set, and he took of the stones of that place and put them up for +his pillows," Gen. xxviii., can be seen through the quatrefoil openings +under the seat.[4] + +The carved lions which support the chair are not original, but modern +work; and were regilt in honour of the Jubilee of Her Majesty in 1887, +when the chair was last used. The rest of the chair now shows the natural +colour of the oak, except the arms, which have a slight padding on them. +The wood was, however, formerly covered with a coating of plaster, gilded +over, and it is probably due to this protection that it is now in such +excellent preservation. + +Standing by its side in Henry III.'s Chapel in Westminster Abbey is +another chair, similar, but lacking the trefoil Gothic arches, which are +carved on the sides of the original chair; this was made for and used by +Mary, daughter of James II. and wife of William III., on the occasion of +their double coronation. Mr. Hungerford Pollen has given us a long +description of this chair, with quotations from the different historical +notices which have appeared concerning it. The following is an extract +which he has taken from an old writer: + +"It appears that the King intended, in the first instance, to make the +chair in bronze, and that Eldam, the King's workman, had actually begun +it. Indeed, some parts were even finished, and tools bought for the +clearing up of the casting. However, the King changed his mind, and we +have accordingly 100s. paid for a chair in wood, made after the same +pattern as the one which was to be cast in copper; also 13s. 4d. for +carving, painting, and gilding two small leopards in wood, which were +delivered to Master Walter, the King's painter, to be placed upon and on +either side of the chair made by him. The wardrobe account of 29th Ed. I. +shows that Master Walter was paid £1 19s. 7d. 'for making a step at the +foot of the new chair in which the Scottish stone is placed; and for the +wages of the carpenters and of the painters, and for colours and gold +employed, and for the making a covering to cover the said chair.'" + +[Illustration: Coronation Chair. Westminster Abbey.] + +In 1328, June 1, there is a royal writ ordering the abbot to deliver up +the stone to the Sheriff of London, to be carried to the Queen-Mother; +however, it never went. The chair has been used upon the occasion of every +coronation since that time, except in the case of Mary, who is said to +have used a chair specially sent by the Pope for the occasion. + +[Illustration: Chair in the Vestry of York Minster. Late 14th century.] + +The above drawing of a chair in York Minster, and the two more throne-like +seats on the full-page illustration, will serve to shew the best kind of +ornamental Ecclesiastical furniture of the fourteenth century. In the +choir of Canterbury Cathedral there is a chair which has played its part +in history, and, although earlier than the above, it may be conveniently +mentioned here. This is the Archbishop's throne, and it is also called the +chair of St. Augustine. According to legend, the Saxon kings were crowned +therein, but it is probably not earlier than the thirteenth century. It is +an excellent piece of stonework, with a shaped back and arms, relieved +from being quite plain by the back and sides being panelled with a carved +moulding. + +[Illustration: Chair. In St. Mary's Hall, Coventry. Chair. From an Old +English Monastery. Period: XV. Century.] + +Penshurst Place, near Tonbridge, the residence of Lord de l'Isle and +Dudley, the historic home of the Sydneys, is almost an unique example of +what a wealthy English gentleman's country house was about the time of +which we are writing, say the middle of the fourteenth century, or during +the reign of Edward III. By the courtesy of Lord de l'Isle, the writer has +been allowed to examine many objects of great interest there, and from the +careful preservation of many original fittings and articles of furniture, +one may still gain some idea of the "hall" as it then appeared, when that +part of the house was the scene of the chief events in the life of the +family--the raised daïs for host and honoured guests, the better table +which was placed there (illustrated) and the commoner ones for the body of +the hall; and though the ancient buffet which displayed the gold and +silver cups is gone, one can see where it would have stood. Penshurst is +said to possess the only hearth of the time now remaining in England, an +octagonal space edged with stone in the centre of the hall, over which was +once the simple opening for the outlet of smoke through the roof, and the +old andirons or firedogs are still there. + +[Illustration: "Standing" Table at Penshurst, Still on the Daïs in the +Hall.] + +[Illustration: Bedroom in which a Knight and His Lady are Seated. (_From a +Miniature in "Othea," a Poem by Christine de Pisan. XIV. Century, +French._)] + +An idea of the furniture of an apartment in France during the fourteenth +century is conveyed by the above illustration, and it is very useful, +because, although we have on record many descriptions of the appearance +of the furniture of state apartments, we have very few authenticated +accounts of the way in which such domestic chambers as the one occupied by +"a knight and his lady" were arranged. The prie dieu chair was generally +at the bedside, and had a seat which lifted up, the lower part forming a +box-like receptacle for devotional books then so regularly used by a lady +of the time. + +[Illustration: Bedstead and Chair in Carved Oak. _From Miniatures in the +Royal Library, Brussels._ Period: XIV. Century.] + +Towards the end of the fourteenth century there was in high quarters a +taste for bright and rich colouring; we have the testimony of an old +writer who describes the interior of the Hotel de Bohême, which after +having been the residence of several great personages was given by Charles +VI. of France in 1388 to his brother the Duke of Orleans. "In this palace +was a room used by the duke, hung with cloth of gold, bordered with +vermilion velvet embroidered with roses; the duchess had a room hung with +vermilion satin embroidered with crossbows, which were on her coat of +arms; that of the Duke of Burgundy was hung with cloth of gold embroidered +with windmills. There were besides eight carpets of glossy texture with +gold flowers, one representing 'the seven virtues and seven vices,' +another the history of Charlemagne, another that of Saint Louis. There +were also cushions of cloth of gold, twenty-four pieces of vermilion +leather of Aragon, and four carpets of Aragon leather, 'to be placed on +the floor of rooms in summer.' The favourite arm-chair of the Princess is +thus described in an inventory--'a chamber chair with four supports, +painted in fine vermilion, the seat and arms of which are covered in +vermilion morocco, or cordovan, worked and stamped with designs +representing the sun, birds, and other devices bordered with fringes of +silk and studded with nails.'" + +The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had been remarkable for a general +development of commerce: merchants of Venice, Geneva, Florence, Milan, +Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, and many other famous cities had traded +extensively with the East and had grown opulent, and their homes naturally +showed signs of wealth and comfort that in former times had been +impossible to any but princes and rich nobles. Laws had been made in +answer to the complaints of the aristocracy to place some curb on the +growing ambition of the "bourgeoisie"; thus we find an old edict in the +reign of Philippe the Fair (1285-1314)--"No bourgeois shall have a +chariot, nor wear gold, precious stones, nor crowns of gold and silver. +Bourgeois not being prelates or dignitaries of state shall not have tapers +of wax. A bourgeois possessing 2,000 pounds (tournois) or more, may order +for himself a dress of 12[5] sous 6 deniers, and for his wife one worth 16 +sous at the most," etc., etc., etc. + +This and many other similar regulations were made in vain; the trading +classes became more and more powerful, and we quote the description of a +furnished apartment in P. Lacroix's "Manners and Customs of the Middle +Ages." + +"The walls were hung with precious tapestry of Cyprus, on which the +initials and motto of the lady were embroidered, the sheets were of fine +linen of Rheims, and had cost more than 300 pounds, the quilt was a new +invention of silk and silver tissue, the carpet was like gold. The lady +wore an elegant dress of crimson silk, and rested her head and arms on +pillows ornamented with buttons of oriental pearls. It should be remarked +that this lady was not the wife of a great merchant, such as those of +Venice and Genoa, but of a simple retail dealer who was not above selling +articles for 4 sous; such being the case, we cannot wonder that Christine +de Pisan should have considered the anecdote 'worthy of being immortalized +in a book.'" + +[Illustration: "The New Born Infant." Shewing the interior of an Apartment +at the end of the 14th or commencement of the 15th century. (_From a +Miniature in "Histoire de la Belle Hélaine," National Library of Paris_)] + + +As we approach the end of the fourteenth century, we find canopies added +to the "chaires" or "chayers á dorseret," which were carved in oak or +chesnut, and sometimes elaborately gilded and picked out in color. The +canopied seats were very bulky and throne-like constructions, and were +abandoned towards the end of the fifteenth century; and it is worthy of +notice that though we have retained our word "chair," adopted from the +Norman French, the French people discarded their synonym in favour of its +diminutive "chaise" to describe the somewhat smaller and less massive seat +which came into use in the sixteenth century. + +[Illustration: Portrait of Christine de Pisan, Seated on a Canopied Chair +of carved wood, the back lined with tapestry. (_From Miniature on MS., in +the Burgundy Library, Brussels._) Period: XV. Century.] + +The skilled artisans of Paris had arrived at a very high degree of +excellence in the fourteenth century, and in old documents describing +valuable articles of furniture, care is taken to note that they are of +Parisian workmanship. According to Lacroix, there is an account of the +court silversmith, Etienne La Fontaine, which gives us an idea of the +amount of extravagance sometimes committed in the manufacture and +decorations of a chair, into which it was then the fashion to introduce +the incrustation of precious stones; thus for making a silver arm chair +and ornamenting it with pearls, crystals, and other stones, he charged the +King of France, in 1352, no less a sum than 774 louis. + +The use of rich embroideries at state banquets and on grand occasions +appears to have commenced during the reign of Louis IX.--Saint Louis, as +he is called--and these were richly emblazoned with arms and devices. +Indeed, it was probably due to the fashion for rich stuffs and coverings +of tables, and of velvet embroidered cushions for the chairs, that the +practice of making furniture of the precious metals died out, and carved +wood came into favour. + +[Illustration: State Banquet, with Attendant Musicians. (_From Miniatures +in the National Library, Paris._) Period: XV. Century.] + +Chairs of this period appear only to have been used on very special +occasions; indeed they were too cumbersome to be easily moved from place +to place, and in a miniature from some MSS. of the early part of the +fifteenth century, which represents a state banquet, the guests are seated +on a long bench with a back carved in the Gothic ornament of the time. In +Skeat's Dictionary, our modern word "banquet" is said to be derived from +the banes or benches used on these occasions. + +[Illustration: A High Backed Chair, in Carved Oak (Gothic Style). Period: +XV. Century. French.] + +[Illustration: Mediaeval Bed and Bedroom. (_From Viollet-le-Duc._) +Period: XIV. to XV. Century. French.] + +The great hall of the King's Palace, where such an entertainment as that +given by Charles V. to the Emperor Charles of Luxemburg would take place, +was also furnished with three "dressoirs" for the display of the gold and +silver drinking cups, and vases of the time; the repast itself was served +upon a marble table, and above the seat of each of the princes present was +a separate canopy of gold cloth embroidered with fleur de lis. + +[Illustration: Scribe or Copyist. Working at his desk in a room in which +are a reading desk and a chest with manuscript. (_From an Old Minature_) +Period: XV. Century.] + +The furniture of ordinary houses of this period was very simple. Chests, +more or less carved, and ornamented with iron work, settles of oak or of +chestnut, stools or benches with carved supports, a bedstead and a prie +dieu chair, a table with plain slab supported on shaped standards, would +nearly supply the inventory of the furniture of the chief room in a house +of a well-to-do merchant in France until the fourteenth century had +turned. The table was narrow, apparently not more than some 30 inches +wide, and guests sat on one side only, the service taking place from the +unoccupied side of the table. In palaces and baronial halls the servants +with dishes were followed by musicians, as shewn in an old-miniature of +the time, reproduced on p. 39. + +Turning to German work of the fifteenth century, there is a cast of the +famous choir stalls in the Cathedral of Ulm, which are considered the +finest work of the Swabian school of German wood carving. The magnificent +panel of foliage on the front, the Gothic triple canopy with the busts of +Isaiah, David, and Daniel, are thoroughly characteristic specimens of +design; and the signature of the artist, Jorg Syrlin, with date 1468, are +carved on the work. There were originally 89 choir stalls, and the work +occupied the master from the date mentioned, 1468, until 1474. + +The illustrations of the two chairs of German Gothic furniture formerly in +some of the old castles, are good examples of their time, and are from +drawings made on the spot by Prof. Heideloff. + + +[Illustration: Two German Chairs (Late 15th Century). (_From Drawings made +in Old German Castles by Prof. Heideloff._)] + + + +There are in our South Kensington Museum some full-sized plaster casts of +important specimens of woodwork of the fifteenth and two previous +centuries, and being of authenticated dates, we can compare them with the +work of the same countries after the Renaissance had been adopted and had +completely altered design. Thus in Italy there was, until the latter part +of the fifteenth century, a mixture of Byzantine and Gothic of which we +can see a capital example in the casts of the celebrated Pulpit in the +Baptistry of Pisa, the date of which is 1260. The pillars are supported by +lions, which, instead of being introduced heraldically into the design, as +would be the case some two hundred years later, are bearing the whole +weight of the pillars and an enormous superstructure on the hollow of +their backs in a most impossible manner. The spandril of each arch is +filled with a saint in a grotesque position amongst Gothic foliage, and +there is in many respects a marked contrast to the casts of examples of +the Renaissance period which are in the Museum. + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Buffet in Gothic Style (Viollet le Duc). +Period: XV. Century. French.] + +This transition from Mediaeval and Gothic, to Renaissance, is clearly +noticeable in the woodwork of many cathedrals and churches in England and +in continental cities. It is evident that the chairs, stalls, and pulpits +in many of these buildings have been executed at different times, and the +change from one style to another is more or less marked. The Flemish +buffet here illustrated is an example of this transition, and may be +contrasted with the French Gothic buffet referred to in the following +paragraph. There is also in the central hall of the South Kensington +Museum a plaster cast of a carved wood altar stall in the Abbey of Saint +Denis, France: the pilasters at the sides have the familiar Gothic +pinnacles, while the panels are ornamented with arabesques, scrolls, and +an interior in the Renaissance style; the date of this is late in the +fifteenth century. + +The buffet on page 43 is an excellent specimen of the best fifteenth +century French Gothic oak work, and the woodcut shows the arrangement of +gold and silver plate on the white linen cloth with embroidered ends, in +use at this time. + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Table. Period: Late XV. or Early XVI. Century. +French.] + +[Illustration: Flemish Buffet. Of Carved Oak; open below with panelled +cupboards above. The back evidently of later work, after the Renaissance +had set in. (_From a Photo, by Messrs. R. Sutton & Co. from the Original +in the S. Kensington Museum._) Period: Gothic To Renaissance, XV. +Century.] + +[Illustration: A Tapestried Room in a French Chateau, With Oak Chests as +Seats.] + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Seat, With moveable Backrest, in front of +Fireplace. Period: Late XV. Century. French.] + +We have now arrived at a period in the history of furniture which is +confused, and difficult to arrange and classify. From the end of the +fourteenth century to the Renaissance is a time of transition, and +specimens may be easily mistaken as being of an earlier or later date than +they really are. M. Jacquemart notices this "gap," though he fixes its +duration from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, and he quotes as an +instance of the indecision which characterised this interval, that workers +in furniture were described in different terms; the words coffer maker, +carpenter, and huchier (trunk-maker) frequently occurring to describe the +same class of artisan. + +It is only later that the word "menuisier," or joiner, appears, and we +must enter upon the period of the Renaissance before we find the term +"cabinet maker," and later still, after the end of the seventeenth +century, we have such masters of their craft as Riesener described as +"ebenistes," the word being derived from ebony, which, with other eastern +woods, came into use after the Dutch settlement in Ceylon. Jacquemart also +notices the fact that as early as 1360 we have record of a specialist, +"Jehan Petrot," as a "chessboard maker." + + +[Illustration: Interior of An Apothecary's Shop. Late XIV. or Early XV. +Century. Flemish. (_From an Old Painting._)] + +[Illustration: Court of the Ladies of Queen Anne of Brittany. (_From a +Miniature in the Library of St. Petersburg_) Representing the Queen +weeping on account of her Husband's absence during the Italian War. +Period: XV. Century.] + + + + +Chapter III. + +The Renaissance. + + + + THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY: Leonardo da Vinci and Raffaele--Church of St. + Peter, contemporary great artists--The Italian Palazzo--Methods of + gilding, inlaying and mounting Furniture-Pietra-dura and other + enrichments--Ruskin's criticism. THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE: Francois I. + and the Chateau of Fontainebleau--Influence on Courtiers, Chairs of the + time--Design of Cabinets--M.E. Bonnaffé on The Renaissance, Bedstead of + Jeanne d'Albret--Deterioration of taste in time of Henry IV., Louis + XIII. Furniture--Brittany woodwork. THE RENAISSANCE IN THE NETHERLANDS: + Influence of the House of Burgundy on Art--The Chimney-piece at Bruges, + and other casts of specimens at South Kensington Museum. THE + RENAISSANCE IN SPAIN: The resources of Spain in the sixteenth and + seventeenth centuries--Influence of Saracenic Art, high-backed leather + chairs, the Carthusian Convent at Granada. THE RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY: + Albrecht Dürer--Famous Steel Chair of Augsburg--German seventeenth + century carving in St. Saviour's Hospital. THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND: + Influence of Foreign Artists in the time of Henry VIII.--End of + Feudalism--Hampton Court Palace--Linen pattern Panels--Woodwork in the + Henry VII. Chapel at Westminster Abbey--Livery Cupboards at + Hengrave--Harrison quoted--the "parler," alteration in English + customs--Chairs of the sixteenth century--Coverings and Cushions of the + time, extract from old Inventory--South Kensington Cabinet--Elizabethan + Mirror at Goodrich Court--Shaw's "Ancient Furniture" the Glastonbury + Chair--Introduction of Frames into England--Characteristics of Native + Woodwork--Famous Country Mansions, alteration in design of Woodwork and + Furniture--Panelled Rooms at South Kensington--The Charterhouse--Gray's + Inn Hall and Middle Temple--The Hall of the Carpenter's Company--The + Great Bed of Ware--Shakespeare's Chair--Penshurst Place. + + +[Illustration] + +It is impossible to write about the period of the Renaissance without +grave misgivings as to the ability to render justice to a period which has +employed the pens of many cultivated writers, and to which whole volumes, +nay libraries, have been devoted. Within the limited space of a single +chapter all that can be attempted is a brief glance at the influence on +design by which furniture and woodwork were affected. Perhaps the simplest +way of understanding the changes which occurred, first in Italy, and +subsequently in other countries, is to divide the chapter on this period +into a series of short notes arranged in the order in which Italian +influence would seem to have affected the designers and craftsmen of +several European nations. + +Towards the end of the fifteenth century there appears to have been an +almost universal rage for classical literature, and we believe some +attempt was made to introduce Latin as a universal language; it is certain +that Italian Art was adopted by nation after nation, and a well known +writer on architecture (Mr. Parker) has observed:--"It was not until the +middle of the nineteenth century that the national styles of the different +countries of Modern Europe were revived." + +As we look back upon the history of Art, assisted by the numerous examples +in our Museums, one is struck by the want of novelty in the imagination of +mankind. The glorious antique has always been our classic standard, and it +seems only to have been a question of time as to when and how a return was +made to the old designs of the Greek artists, then to wander from them +awhile, and again to return when the world, weary of over-abundance of +ornament, longed for the repose of simpler lines on the principles which +governed the glorious Athenian artists of old. + + + +The Renaissance in Italy. + + +Italy was the birthplace of the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci and +Raffaele may be said to have guided and led the natural artistic instincts +of their countrymen, to discard the Byzantine-Gothic which, as M. Bonnaffe +has said, was adopted by the Italians not as a permanent institution, but +"faute de mieux" as a passing fashion. + +It is difficult to say with any certainty when the first commencement of a +new era actually takes place, but there is an incident related in Michael +Bryan's biographical notice of Leonardo da Vinci which gives us an +approximate date. Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, had appointed this great +master Director of Painting and Architecture in his academy in 1494, and, +says Bryan, who obtained his information from contemporary writers, +"Leonardo no sooner entered on his office, than he banished all the Gothic +principles established by his predecessor, Michelino, and introduced the +beautiful simplicity and purity of the Grecian and Roman styles." + +A few years after this date, Pope Julius II. commenced to build the +present magnificent Church of St. Peter's, designed by Bramante d'Urbino, +kinsman and friend of Raffaele, to whose superintendence Pope Leo X. +confided the work on the death of the architect in 1514, Michael Angelo +having the charge committed to him some years after Raffaele's death. + +These dates give us a very fair idea of the time at which this important +revolution in taste was taking place in Italy, at the end of the fifteenth +and the commencement of the following century, and carved woodwork +followed the new direction. + +[Illustration: Reproduction of Decoration By Raffaelle. In the Loggie of +the Vatican. Period: Italian Renaissance.] + +[Illustration: A Sixteenth Century Room. Reproduced from the "Magazine of +Art" (By Permission)] + +[Illustration: Salon of M. Edmond Bonnaffé, Decorated and Furnished in +the Renaissance Style.] + +Leo X. was Pope in 1513. The period of peace which then ensued after war, +which for so many decades had disturbed Italy, as France or Germany had in +turn striven to acquire her fertile soil, gave the princes and nobles +leisure to rebuild and adorn their palaces; and the excavations which were +then made brought to light many of the works of art which had remained +buried since the time when Rome was mistress of the world. Leo was a +member of that remarkable and powerful family the Medicis, the very +mention of whom is to suggest the Renaissance, and under his patronage, +and with the co-operation of the reigning dukes and princes of the +different Italian states, artists were given encouragement and scope for +the employment of their talents. Michael Angelo, Titian, Raffaele Sanzio, +Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, and many other great artists were raising up +monuments of everlasting fame; Palladio was rebuilding the palaces of +Italy, which were then the wonder of the world; Benvenuto Cellini and +Lorenzo Ghiberti were designing those marvellous chef d'oeuvres in gold, +silver, and bronze which are now so rare; and a host of illustrious +artists were producing work which has made the sixteenth century famous +for all time. + +[Illustration: Chair in Carved Walnut. Found in the house of Michael +Angelo.] + +The circumstances of the Italian noble caused him to be very amenable to +Art influence. Living chiefly out of doors, his climate rendered him less +dependent on the comforts of small rooms, to which more northern people +were attached, and his ideas would naturally aspire to pomp and elegance, +rather than to home life and utility. Instead of the warm chimney corner +and the comfortable seat, he preferred furniture of a more palatial +character for the adornment of the lofty and spacious saloons of his +palace, and therefore we find the buffet elaborately carved, with a free +treatment of the classic antique which marks the time; it was frequently +"garnished" with the beautiful majolica of Urbino, of Pesaro, and of +Gubbio. The sarcophagus, or _cassone_, of oak, or more commonly of chesnut +or walnut, sometimes painted and gilded, sometimes carved with scrolls and +figures; the cabinet designed with architectural outline, and fitted up +inside with steps and pillars like a temple; chairs which are wonderful to +look upon as guardians of a stately doorway, but uninviting as seats; +tables inlaid, gilded, and carved, with slabs of marble or of Florentine +Mosaic work, but which from their height are as a rule impossible to use +for any domestic purpose; mirrors with richly carved and gilded frames are +so many evidences of a style which is palatial rather than domestic, in +design as in proportion. + +[Illustration: Venetian Centre Table, Carved and Gilt. In the South +Kensington Museum.] + +The walls of these handsome saloons or galleries were hung with rich +velvet of Genoese manufacture, with stamped and gilt leather, and a +composition ornament was also applied to woodwork, and then gilded and +painted; this kind of decoration was termed "gesso work." + +[Illustration: Marriage Coffer in Carved Walnut. (Collection of Comte de +Briges.) Period: Renaissance (XVI. Century) Venetian.] + +[Illustration: Marriage Coffer, Carved and Gilt with Painted Subject. +Italian. XVI. Century.] + +A rich effect was produced on the carved console tables, chairs, stools +and frames intended for gilding, by the method employed by the Venetian +and Florentine craftsmen, the gold leaf being laid on a red preparation, +and then the chief portions highly burnished. There are in the South +Kensington Museum several specimens of such work, and now that time and +wear have caused this red groundwork to shew through the faded gold, the +harmony of color is very satisfactory. + +[Illustration: Pair of Italian Carved Bellows, in Walnut Wood. (_South +Kensington Museum._)] + +Other examples of fifteenth century Italian carving, such as the old +Cassone fronts, are picked out with gold, the remainder of the work +displaying the rich warm color of the walnut or chesnut wood, which were +almost invariably employed. + +Of the smaller articles of furniture, the "bellows" and wall brackets of +this period deserve mention; the carving of these is very carefully +finished, and is frequently very elaborate. The illustration on page 51 is +that of a pair of bellows in the South Kensington collection. + +[Illustration: Carved Italian Mirror Frame, 16th Century. (_In the South +Kensington Museum._)] + +The enrichment of woodwork by means of inlaying deserves mention. In the +chapter on Ancient Furniture we have seen that ivory was used as an inlaid +ornament as early as six centuries before Christ, but its revival and +development in Europe probably commenced in Venice about the end of the +thirteenth century, in copies of geometrical designs, let into ebony and +brown walnut, and into a wood something like rosewood; parts of boxes and +chests of these materials are still in existence. Mr. Maskell tells us in +his Handbook on "Ivories," that probably owing to the difficulty of +procuring ivory in Italy, bone of fine quality was frequently used in its +place. All this class of work was known as "Tarsia," "Intarsia," or +"Certosina," a word supposed to be derived from the name of the well-known +religious community--the Carthusians--on account of the dexterity of those +monks at this work.[6] It is true that towards the end of the fourteenth +century, makers of ornamental furniture began to copy marble mosaic work, +by making similar patterns of different woods, and subsequently this +branch of industrial art developed from such modest beginnings as the +simple pattern of a star, or bandings in different kinds of wood in the +panel of a door, to elaborate picture-making, in which landscapes, views +of churches, houses and picturesque ruins were copied, figures and animals +being also introduced. This work was naturally facilitated and encouraged +by increasing commerce between different nations, which rendered available +a greater variety of woods. In some of the early Italian "intarsia" the +decoration was cut into the surface of the panel piece by piece. As +artists became more skilful, veneers were applied and the effect +heightened by burning with hot sand the parts requiring shading; and the +lines caused by the thickness of the sawcuts were filled in with black +wood or stained glue to give definition to the design. + +[Illustration: A Sixteenth Century "Coffre-Fort."] + +The "mounting" of articles of furniture with metal enrichments doubtless +originated in the iron corner pieces and hinge plates, which were used to +strengthen the old chests, of which mention has been already made, and as +artificers began to render their productions decorative as well as useful, +what more natural progress than that the iron corners, bandings, or +fastenings, should be of ornamental forged or engraved iron. In the +sixteenth century, metal workers reached a point of excellence which has +never been surpassed, and those marvels of mountings in steel, iron and +brass were produced in Italy and Germany, which are far more important as +works of art, than the plain and unpretending productions of the coffer +maker, which are their _raison d'etre._ The woodcut on p. 53 represents a +very good example of a "Coffre-fort" in the South Kensington Collection. +The decoration is bitten in with acids so as to present the appearance of +its being damascened, and the complicated lock, shewn on the inside of the +lid, is characteristic of these safeguards for valuable documents at a +time when the modern burglar-proof safe had not been thought of. + +The illustration on the following page is from an example in the same +museum, shewing a different decoration, the oval plaques of figures and +coats of arms being of carved ivory let into the surface of the coffer. +This is an early specimen, and belongs as much to the last chapter as to +the present. + +"Pietra-dura" as an ornament was first introduced in Italy during the +sixteenth century, and became a fashion. This was an inlay of +highly-polished rare marbles, agates, hard pebbles, lapis lazuli, and +other stones; ivory was also carved and applied as a bas relief, as well +as inlaid in arabesques of the most elaborate designs; tortoiseshell, +brass, mother of pearl, and other enrichments were introduced in the +decoration of cabinets and of caskets; silver plaques embossed and +engraved were pressed into the service as the native princes of Florence, +Urbino, Ferrara, and other independent cities vied with Rome, Venice, and +Naples in sumptuousness of ornament, and lavishness of expense, until the +inevitable period of decline supervened in which exaggeration of ornament +and prodigality of decoration gave the eye no repose. + +Edmond Bonnaffe, contrasting the latter period of Italian Renaissance with +that of sixteenth century French woodwork, has pithily remarked: "_Chez +cux, l'art du bois consiste à le dissimuler, chez nous à le faire +valoir._" + +[Illustration: Italian Coffer with Medallions of Ivory. 15th Century. +(_South Kensington Museum._)] + +In Ruskin's "Stones of Venice," the author alludes to this +over-ornamentation of the latter Renaissance in severe terms. After +describing the progress of art in Venice from Byzantine to Gothic, and +from Gothic to Renaissance he subdivides the latter period into three +classes:--1. Renaissance grafted on Byzantine. 2. Renaissance grafted on +Gothic. 3. Renaissance grafted on Renaissance, and this last the veteran +art critic calls "double darkness," one of his characteristic terms of +condemnation which many of us cannot follow, but the spirit of which we +can appreciate. + +Speaking generally of the character of ornament, we find that whereas in +the furniture of the Middle Ages, the subjects for carving were taken from +the lives of the saints or from metrical romance, the Renaissance carvers +illustrated scenes from classical mythology, and allegories, such as +representations of elements, seasons, months, the cardinal virtues, or the +battle scenes and triumphal processions of earlier times. + +[Illustration: Carved Walnut Wood Italian Chairs. 16th Century. (_From +Photos of the originals in the South Kensington Museum._)] + +[Illustration: Ebony Cabinet. With marble mosaics, and bronze gilt +ornaments, Florentine work. Period: XVII. Century.] + +The outlines and general designs of the earlier Renaissance cabinets were +apparently suggested by the old Roman triumphal arches and sarcophagi; +afterwards these were modified and became varied, elegant and graceful, +but latterly as the period of decline was marked, the outlines as shewn in +the two chairs on the preceding page became confused and dissipated by +over-decoration. + +The illustrations given of specimens of furniture of Italian Renaissance +render lengthy descriptions unnecessary. So far as it has been possible to +do so, a selection has been made to represent the different classes of +work, and as there are in the South Kensington Museum numerous examples of +cassone fronts, panels, chairs, and cabinets which can be examined, it is +easy to form an idea of the decorative woodwork made in Italy during the +period we have been considering. + +[Illustration: Venetian State Chair. Carved and Gilt Frame, Upholstered +with Embroidered Velvet. Date about 1670. (_In the possession of H.M. the +Queen at Windsor Castle._)] + + + +The Renaissance In France. + + +From Italy the great revival of industrial art travelled to France. +Charles VIII., who for two years had held Naples (1494-96), brought +amongst other artists from Italy, Bernadino de Brescia and Domenico de +Cortona, and Art, which at this time was in a feeble, languishing state in +France, began to revive. Francis I. employed an Italian architect to build +the Chateau of Fontainebleau, which had hitherto been but an old fashioned +hunting box in the middle of the forest, and Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea +del Sarto came from Florence to decorate the interior. Guilio Romano, who +had assisted Raffaele to paint the loggie of the Vatican, exercised an +influence in France, which was transmitted by his pupils for generations. +The marriage of Henry II. with Catherine de Medici increased the influence +of Italian art, and later that of Marie de Medici with Henri Quatre +continued that influence. Diane de Poietiers, mistress of Henri II., was +the patroness of artists; and Fontainebleau has been well said to "reflect +the glories of gay and splendour loving kings from Francois Premier to +Henri Quatre." + +Besides Fontainebleau, Francis I. built the Chateau of Chambord,[7] that +of Chenonceaux on the Loire, the Chateau de Madrid, and others, and +commenced the Louvre. + +Following their King's example, the more wealthy of his subjects rebuilt +or altered their chateaux and hotels, decorated them in the Italian style, +and furnished them with the cabinets, chairs, coffers, armoires, tables, +and various other articles, designed after the Italian models. + +The character of the woodwork naturally accompanied the design of the +building. Fireplaces, which until the end of the fifteenth century had +been of stone, were now made of oak, richly carved and ornamented with the +armorial bearings of the "_seigneur_." The _Prie dieu_ chair, which +Viollet le Due tells us came into use in the fifteenth century, was now +made larger and more ornate, in some cases becoming what might almost be +termed a small oratory, the back being carved in the form of an altar, and +the utmost care lavished on the work. It must be remembered that in +France, until the end of the fifteenth century, there were no benches or +seats in the churches, and, therefore, prayers were said by the +aristocracy in the private chapel of the chateau, and by the middle +classes in the chief room of the house. + +[Illustration: Ornamental Panelling in St. Vincent's Church, Rouen. +Period: Early French Renaissance. Temp. Francois I.] + +[Illustration: Chimney Piece. In the Gallery of Henri II., Chateau of +Fontainebleau. Period: French Renaissance, Early XVI. Century.] + +The large high-backed chair of the sixteenth century "_chaire à haut +dossier,"_ the arm chair "_chaire à bras," "chaire tournante_," for +domestic use, are all of this time, and some illustrations will show the +highly finished carved work of Renaissance style which prevailed. + +Besides the "_chaire_" which was reserved for the "_seigneur_," there were +smaller and more convenient stools, the X form supports of which were +also carved. + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Panel, Dated 1577.] + +Cabinets were made with an upper and lower part; sometimes the latter was +in the form of a stand with caryatides figures like the famous cabinet in +the Chateau Fontainebleau, a vignette of which forms the initial letter of +this chapter; or were enclosed by doors generally decorated with carving, +the upper, part having richly carved panels, which when open disclosed +drawers with fronts minutely carved. + +M. Edmond Bonnaffé, in his work on the sixteenth century furniture of +France, gives no less than 120 illustrations of "_tables, coffres, +armoires, dressoirs, sieges, et bancs_, manufactured at Orleans, Anjou, +Maine, Touraine, Le Berri, Lorraine, Burgundy, Lyons, Provence, Auvergne, +Languedoc, and other towns and districts, besides the capital," which +excelled in the reputation of her "menuisiers," and in the old documents +certain articles of furniture are particularized as "_fait à Paris_." + +He also mentions that Francis I. preferred to employ native workmen, and +that the Italians were retained only to furnish the designs and lead the +new style; and in giving the names of the most noted French cabinet makers +and carvers of this time, he adds that Jacques Lardant and Michel Bourdin +received no less than 15,700 livres for a number of "_buffets de salles," +"tables garnies de leurs tréteaux," "chandeliers de bois_" and other +articles. + +[Illustration: Facsimiles of Engravings on Wood, By J. Amman, in the 16th +century, showing interiors of Workshops of the period.] + +The bedstead, of which there is an illustration, is a good representation +of French Renaissance. It formed part of the contents of the Chateau of +Pau, and belonged to Jeanne d'Albret, mother of Henri Quatre, who was born +at Pau in 1553. The bedstead is of oak, and by time has acquired a rich +warm tint, the details of the carving remaining sharp and clear. On the +lower cornice moulding, the date 1562 is carved. + +This, like other furniture and contents of Palaces in France, forms part +of the State or National collection, of which there are excellent +illustrations and descriptions in M. Williamson's "Mobilier National," a +valuable contribution to the literature of this subject which should be +consulted. + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Bedstead of Jeanne D'albret. From the Chateau +of Pau. (Collection "Mobilier National.") Period: French Renaissance (Date +1562).] + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Cabinet. Made at Lyons. Period: Latter Part of +XVI. Century.] + +Another example of four-post bedsteads of French sixteenth century work +is that of the one in the Cluny Museum, which is probably some years later +than the one at Pau, and in the carved members of the two lower posts, +more resembles our English Elizabethan work. + +Towards the latter part of Henri IV. the style of decorative art in France +became debased and inconsistent. Construction and ornamentation were +guided by no principle, but followed the caprice of the individual. +Meaningless pilasters, entablatures, and contorted cornices replaced the +simpler outline and subordinate enrichment of the time of Henri II., and +until the great revival of taste under the "_grand monarque,"_ there was +in France a period of richly ornamented but ill-designed decorative +furniture. An example of this can be seen at South Kensington in the +plaster cast of a large chimney-piece from the Chateau of the Seigneur de +Villeroy, near Menecy, by Germain Pillon, who died in 1590. In this the +failings mentioned above will be readily recognized, and also in another +example, namely, that of a carved oak door from the church of St. Maclou, +Rouen, by Jean Goujon, in which the work is very fine, but somewhat +overdone with enrichment. This cast is in the same collection. + +During the 'Louis Treize' period chairs became more comfortable than those +of an earlier time. The word "chaise" as a diminutive of "chaire" found +its way into the French dictionary to denote the less throne-like seat +which was in more ordinary use, and, instead of being at this period +entirely carved, it was upholstered in velvet, tapestry or needlework; the +frame was covered, and only the legs and arms visible and slightly carved. +In the illustration here given, the King and his courtiers are seated on +chairs such as have been described. Marqueterie was more common; large +armoires, clients of drawers and knee-hole writing tables were covered +with an inlay of vases of flowers and birds, of a brownish wood, with +enrichments of bone and ivory, inserted in a black ground of stained wood, +very much like the Dutch inlaid furniture of some years later but with +less colour in the various veneers than is found in the Dutch work. +Mirrors became larger, the decoration of rooms had ornamental friezes with +lower portions of the walls panelled, and the bedrooms of ladies of +position began to be more luxuriously furnished. + +It is somewhat singular that while Normandy very quickly adopted the new +designs in her buildings and her furniture, and Rouen carvers and joiners +became famous for their work, the neighbouring province, Brittany, was +conservative of her earlier designs. The sturdy Breton has through all +changes of style preserved much of the rustic quaintness of his furniture, +and when some three or four years ago the writer was stranded in a +sailing trip up the Ranee, owing to the shallow state of the river, and +had an opportunity of visiting some of the farm houses in the country +district a few miles from Dinan, there were still to be seen many examples +of this quaint rustic furniture. Curious beds, consisting of shelves for +parents and children, form a cupboard in the wall and are shut in during +the day by a pair of lattice doors of Moorish design, with the wheel +pattern and spindle perforations. These, with the armoire of similar +design, and the "huche" or chest with relief carving, of a design part +Moorish, part Byzantine, used as a step to mount to the bed and also as a +table, are still the _garniture_ of a good farm house in Brittany. + +The earliest date of this quaint furniture is about the middle of the +fifteenth century, and has been handed down from father to son by the more +well-to-do farmers. The manufacture of armoires, cupboards, tables and +doors, is still carried on near St. Malo, where also some of the old +specimens may be found. + + +[Illustration: Louis XIII. And His Court in a Hall, Witnessing a Play. +(_From a Miniature dated_ 1643.)] + +[Illustration: Decoration for a Salon in Louis XIII. Style.] + + + +The Renaissance in the Netherlands. + + +In the Netherlands, the reigning princes of the great House of Burgundy +had prepared the soil for the Renaissance, and, by the marriage of Mary of +Burgundy with the Archduke Maximilian, the countries which then were +called Flanders and Holland, passed under the Austrian rule. This +influence was continued by the taste and liberality of Margaret of +Austria, who, being appointed "Governor" of the Low Countries in 1507, +seems to have introduced Italian artists and to have encouraged native +craftsmen. We are told that Corneille Floris introduced Italian +ornamentation and grotesque borders; that Pierre Coech, architect and +painter, adopted and popularised the designs of Vitruvius and Serlio. Wood +carvers multiplied and embellished churches and palaces, the houses of the +Burgomasters, the Town Halls, and the residences of wealthy citizens. + +Oak, at first almost the only wood used, became monotonous, and as a +relief, ebony and other rare woods, introduced by the then commencing +commerce with the Indies, were made available for the embellishments of +furniture and wood work of this time. + +One of the most famous examples of rich wood carving is the well known +hall and chimney piece at Bruges with its group of cupidons and armorial +bearings, amongst an abundance of floral detail. This over ornate _chef +d'oeuvre_ was designed by Lancelot Blondel and Guyot de Beauregrant, and +its carving was the combined work of three craftsmen celebrated in their +day, Herman Glosencamp, André Rash and Roger de Smet. There is in the +South Kensington Museum a full-sized plaster cast of this gigantic chimney +piece, the lower part being coloured black to indicate the marble of which +it was composed, with panels of alabaster carved in relief, while the +whole of the upper portion and the richly carved ceiling of the room is of +oak. The model, including the surrounding woodwork, measures thirty-six +feet across, and should not be missed by any one who is interested in the +subject of furniture, for it is noteworthy historically as well as +artistically, being a monument in its way, in celebration of the victory +gained by Charles V. over Francis I. of France, in 1529, at Pavia, the +victorious sovereign being at this time not only Emperor of Germany, but +also enjoying amongst other titles those of Duke of Burgundy, Count of +Flanders, King of Spain and the Indies, etc., etc. The large statues of +the Emperor, of Ferdinand and Isabella, with some thirty-seven heraldic +shields of the different royal families with which the conqueror claimed +connection, are prominent features in the intricate design. + +There is in the same part of the Museum a cast of the oak door of the +Council Chamber of the Hotel de Ville at Audenarde, of a much less +elaborate character. Plain mullions divide sixteen panels carved in the +orthodox Renaissance style, with cupids bearing tablets, from which are +depending floral scrolls, and at the sides the supports are columns, with +the lower parts carved and standing on square pedestals. The date of this +work is 1534, somewhat later than the Bruges carving, and is a +representative specimen of the Flemish work of this period. + +[Illustration: An Ebony Armoire, Richly Carved, Flemish Renaissance. (_In +South Kensington Museum._)] + +The clever Flemish artist so thoroughly copied the models of his different +masters that it has become exceedingly difficult to speak positively as to +the identity of much of the woodwork, and to distinguish it from German, +English, or Italian, although as regards the latter we have seen that +walnut wood was employed very generally, whereas in Flanders, oak was +nearly always used for figure work. + +After the period of the purer forms of the first Renaissance, the best +time for carved woodwork and decorative furniture in the Netherlands was +probably the seventeenth century, when the Flemish designers and craftsmen +had ceased to copy the Italian patterns, and had established the style we +recognise as "Flemish Renaissance." + +Lucas Faydherbe, architect and sculptor (1617-1694)--whose boxwood group +of the death of John the Baptist is in the South Kensington Museum--both +the Verbruggens, and Albert Bruhl, who carved the choir work of St. +Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, are amongst the most celebrated Flemish wood +carvers of this time. Vriedman de Vriesse and Crispin de Passe, although +they worked in France, belong to Flanders and to the century. Some of the +most famous painters--Francis Hals, Jordaens, Rembrandt, Metsu, Van +Mieris--all belong to this time, and in some of the fine interiors +represented by these Old Masters, in which embroidered curtains and rich +coverings relieve the sombre colors of the dark carved oak furniture, +there is a richness of effect which the artist could scarcely have +imagined, but which he must have observed in the houses of the rich +burghers of prosperous Flanders. + +[Illustration: A Barber's Shop. From a Wood Engraving by J. Amman. 16th +Century. Shewing a Chair of the time.] + +In the chapter on Jacobean furniture, we shall see the influence and +assistance which England derived from Flemish woodworkers; and the +similarity of the treatment in both countries will be noticed in some of +the South Kensington Museum specimens of English marqueterie, made at the +end of the seventeenth century. The figure work in Holland has always been +of a high order, and though as the seventeenth century advanced, this +perhaps became less refined, the proportions have always been well +preserved, and the attitudes are free and unconstrained. + +A very characteristic article of seventeenth century Dutch furniture is +the large and massive wardrobe, with the doors handsomely carved, not +infrequently having three columns, one in the centre and one at each side, +and these generally form part of the doors, which are also enriched with +square panels, carved in the centre and finished with mouldings. There are +specimens in the South Kensington Museum, of these and also of earlier +Flemish work when the Renaissance was purer in style and, as has been +observed, of less national character. + +The marqueterie of this period is extremely rich, the designs are less +severe, but the colouring of the woods is varied, and the effect +heightened by the addition of small pieces of mother of pearl and ivory. +Later, this marqueterie became florid, badly finished, and the colouring +of the veneers crude and gaudy. Old pieces of plain mahogany furniture +were decorated with a thin layer of highly coloured veneering, a +meretricious ornamentation altogether lacking refinement. + +There is, however, a peculiarity and character about some of the furniture +of North Holland, in the towns of Alkmaar, Hoorn, and others in this +district, which is worth noticing. The treatment has always been more +primitive and quaint than in the Flemish cities to which allusion has been +made--and it was here that the old farm houses of the Nord-Hollander were +furnished with the rush-bottomed chairs, painted green; the three-legged +tables, and dower chests painted in flowers and figures of a rude +description, with the colouring chiefly green and bright red, is extremely +effective. + + +[Illustration: A Flemish Citizen at Meals. (_From a XVI, Century MS._)] + + + +The Renaissance in Spain. + + +We have seen that Spain as well as Germany and the Low Countries were +under the rule of the Emperor Charles V., and therefore it is unnecessary +to look further for the sources of influence which brought the wave of +Renaissance to the Spanish carvers and cabinet makers. + +[Illustration: Sedan Chair Of Charles V. Probably made in the Netherlands. +Arranged with moveable back and uprights to form a canopy when desired. +(_In the Royal Armoury, Madrid._)] + +After Van Eyck was sent for to paint the portrait of King John's daughter, +the Low Countries continued to export to the Peninsula painters, +sculptors, tapestry weavers, and books on Art. French artists also found +employment in Spain, and the older Gothic became superseded as in other +countries. Berruguete, a Spaniard, who had studied in the atelier of +Michael Angelo, returned to his own country with the new influence strong +upon him, and the vast wealth and resources of Spain at this period of her +history enabled her nobles to indulge their taste in cabinets richly +ornamented with repoussé plaques of silver, and later of tortoiseshell, of +ebony, and of scarce woods from her Indian possessions; though in a more +general way chesnut was still a favorite medium. + +Contemporary with decorative woodwork of Moorish design there was also a +great deal of carving, and of furniture made, after designs brought from +Italy and the North of Europe; and Mr. J.H. Pollen, quoting a trustworthy +Spanish writer, Senor J.F. Riario, says:--"The brilliant epoch of +sculpture (in wood) belongs to the sixteenth century, and was due to the +great impulse it received from the works of Berruguete and Felipe de +Borgoña. He was the chief promoter of the Italian style, and the choir of +the Cathedral of Toledo, where he worked so much, is the finest specimen +of the kind in Spain. Toledo, Seville, and Valladolid were at the time +great productive and artistic centres." + +[Illustration: Silver Table, Late 16th or Early 17th Century. (_In the +Queen's Collection, Windsor Castle._)] + +The same writer, after discussing the characteristic Spanish cabinets, +decorated outside with fine ironwork and inside with columns of bone +painted and gilt, which were called "Varguenos," says:--"The other +cabinets or escritoires belonging to that period (sixteenth century) were +to a large extent imported from Germany and Italy, while others were made +in Spain in imitation of these, and as the copies were very similar it is +difficult to classify them." * * * + +[Illustration: Chair of Walnut or Chesnut Wood, Covered in Leather with +embossed pattern. Spanish, (Collection of Baron de Vallière.) Period: +Early XVII. Century.] + +[Illustration: Wooden Coffer. With wrought iron mounts and falling flap, +on carved stand. Spanish. (Collection of M. Monbrison.) Period: XVII. +Century.] + +"Besides these inlaid cabinets, others must have been made in the +sixteenth century inlaid with silver. An Edict was issued in 1594, +prohibiting, with the utmost rigour, the making and selling of this kind +of merchandise, in order not to increase the scarcity of silver." The +Edict says that "no cabinets, desks, coffers, braziers, shoes, tables, or +other articles decorated with stamped, raised, carved, or plain silver +should be manufactured." + +The beautiful silver table in Her Majesty's collection at Windsor Castle, +illustrated on page 68, is probably one of Spanish make of late sixteenth +or early seventeenth century. + +Although not strictly within the period treated of in this chapter, it is +convenient to observe that much later, in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries, one finds the Spanish cabinet maker ornamenting his productions +with an inlay of ivory let into tortoiseshell, representing episodes in +the history of _Don Quichotte_, and the National pastime of bull-fighting. +These cabinets generally have simple rectangular outlines with numerous +drawers, the fronts of which are decorated in the manner described, and +where the stands are original they are formed of turned legs of ebony or +stained wood. In many Spanish cabinets the influence of Saracenic art is +very dominant; these have generally a plain exterior, the front is hinged +as a fall-down flap, and discloses a decorative effect which reminds one +of some of the Alhambra work--quaint arches inlaid with ivory, of a +somewhat bizarre coloring of blue and vermilion--altogether a rather +barbarous but rich and effective treatment. + +To the seventeenth century also belong the high-backed Spanish and +Portuguese chairs, of dark brown leather, stamped with numerous figures, +birds and floral scrolls, studded with brass nails and ornaments, while +the legs and arms are alone visible as woodwork; they are made of chesnut, +with some leafwork or scroll carving. There is a good representative +woodcut of one of these chairs. + +Until Baron Davillier wrote his work on Spanish art, very little was known +of the different peculiarities by which we can now distinguish examples of +woodwork and furniture of that country from many Italian or Flemish +contemporary productions. Some of the Museum specimens will assist the +reader to mark some characteristics, and it may be observed generally that +in the treatment of figure subjects in the carved work, the attitudes are +somewhat strained, and, as has been stated, the outlines of the cabinets +are without any special feature. Besides the Spanish chesnut (noyer), +which is singularly lustrous and was much used, one also finds cedar, +cypress wood and pine. + +In the Chapel of Saint Bruno, attached to the Carthusian Convent at +Granada, the doors and interior fittings are excellent examples of inlaid +Spanish work of the seventeenth century; the monks of this order at a +somewhat earlier date are said to have produced the "tarsia," or inlaid +work, to which some allusion has already been made. + + + +The Renaissance in Germany. + + +German Renaissance may be said to have made its debut under Albrecht +Dürer. There was already in many of the German cities a disposition to +copy Flemish artists, but under Dürer's influence this new departure +became developed in a high degree, and, as the sixteenth century advanced, +the Gothic designs of an earlier period were abandoned in favour of the +more free treatment of figure ornament, scrolls, enriched panels and +mouldings, which mark the new era in all Art work. + +Many remarkable specimens of German carving are to be met with in +Augsburg, Aschaffenburg, Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Gotha, Munich, Manheim, +Nuremberg, Ulm, Regensburg, and other old German towns. + +Although made of steel, the celebrated chair at Longford Castle in +Wiltshire is worthy of some notice as a remarkable specimen of German +Renaissance. It is fully described in Richardson's "Studies from Old +English Mansions." It was the work of Thomas Rukers, and was presented by +the city of Augsburg to the Emperor of Germany in 1577. The city arms are +at the back, and also the bust of the Emperor. The other minute and +carefully finished decorative subjects represent different events in +history; a triumphal procession of Caesar, the Prophet Daniel explaining +his dream, the landing of Aeneas, and other events. The Emperor Rudolphus +placed the chair in the City of Prague, Gustavus Adolphus plundered the +city and removed it to Sweden, whence it was brought by Mr. Gustavus +Brander about 100 years ago, and sold by him to Lord Radnor. + +As is the case with Flemish wood-carving, it is often difficult to +identify German work, but its chief characteristics may be said to include +an exuberant realism and a fondness for minute detail. M. Bonnaffé has +described this work in a telling phrase: "_l'ensemble est tourmenté, +laborieux, touffu tumultueux_." + +[Illustration: The Steel Chair, At Longford Castle, Wiltshire.] + +There is a remarkable example of rather late German Renaissance oak +carving in the private chapel of S. Saviour's Hospital, in Osnaburg +Street, Regent's Park, London. The choir stalls, some 31 in number, and +the massive doorway, formed part of a Carthusian monastery at Buxheim, +Bavaria, which was sold and brought to London after the monastery had +been secularised and had passed into the possession of the territorial +landlords, the Bassenheim family. At first intended to ornament one of the +Colleges at Oxford, it was afterwards resold and purchased by the author, +and fitted to the interior of S. Saviour's, and so far as the proportions +of the chapel would admit of such an arrangement, the relative positions +of the different parts are maintained. The figures of the twelve +apostles--of David, Eleazer, Moses, Aaron, and of the eighteen saints at +the backs of the choir stalls, are marvellous work, and the whole must +have been a harmonious and well considered arrangement of ornament. The +work, executed by the monks themselves, is said to have been commenced in +1600, and to have been completed in 1651, and though a little later than, +according to some authorities, the best time of the Renaissance, is so +good a representation of German work of this period that it will well +repay an examination. As the author was responsible for its arrangement in +its present position, he has the permission of the Rev. Mother at the head +of S. Saviour's to say that any one who is interested in Art will be +allowed to see the chapel. + +[Illustration: German Carved Oak Buffet, 17th Century. (_From a Drawing by +Prof. Heideloff._)] + + + +The Renaissance In England. + + +England under Henry the Eighth was peaceful and prosperous, and the King +was ambitious to outvie his French contemporary, Francois I., in the +sumptuousness of his palaces. John of Padua, Holbein, Havernius of Cleves, +and other artists, were induced to come to England and to introduce the +new style. It, however, was of slow growth, and we have in the mixture of +Gothic, Italian and Flemish ornament, the style which is known as "Tudor." + +It has been well said that "Feudalism was ruined by gunpowder." The +old-fashioned feudal castle was no longer proof against cannon, and with +the new order of things, threatening walls and serried battlements gave +way as if by magic to the pomp and grace of the Italian mansion. High +roofed gables, rows of windows and glittering oriels looking down on +terraced gardens, with vases and fountains, mark the new epoch. + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Chest in the Style of Holbein.] + +The joiner's work played a very important part in the interior decoration +of the castles and country seats of this time, and the roofs were +magnificently timbered with native oak, which was available in longer +lengths than that of foreign growth. The Great Hall in Hampton Court +Palace, which was built by Cardinal Wolsey and presented to his master, +the halls of Oxford, and many other public buildings which remain to us, +are examples of fine woodwork in the roofs. Oak panelling was largely used +to line the walls of the great halls, the "linen scroll pattern" being a +favorite form of ornament. This term describes a panel carved to represent +a napkin folded in close convolutions, and appears to have been adopted +from German work; specimens of this can be seen at Hampton Court, and in +old churches decorated in the early part of the sixteenth century. There +is also some fine panelling of this date in King's College, Cambridge. + +In this class of work, which accompanied the style known in architecture +as the "Perpendicular," some of the finest specimens of oak ornamented +interiors are to be found, that of the roof and choir stalls in the +beautiful Chapel of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey, being world famous. +The carved enrichments of the under part of the seats, or "misericords," +are especially minute, the subjects apparently being taken from old German +engravings. This work was done in England before architecture and wood +carving had altogether flung aside their Gothic trammels, and shews an +admixture of the new Italian style which was afterwards so generally +adopted. + +There are in the British Museum some interesting records of contracts made +in the ninth year of Henry VIII.'s reign for joyner's work at Hengrave, in +which the making of 'livery' or service cupboards is specified. + + "Ye cobards they be made ye facyon of livery y is w'thout doors." + +These were fitted up by the ordinary house carpenters, and consisted of +three stages or shelves standing on four turned legs, with a drawer for +table linen. They were at this period not enclosed, but the mugs or +drinking vessels were hung on hooks, and were taken down and replaced +after use; a ewer and basin was also part of the complement of a livery +cupboard, for cleansing these cups. In Harrison's description of England +in the latter part of the sixteenth century the custom is thus described: + +"Each one as necessitie urgeth, calleth for a cup of such drinke as him +liketh, so when he hath tasted it, he delivereth the cup again to some one +of the standers by, who maketh it clean by pouring out the drinke that +remaineth, restoreth it to the cupboard from whence he fetched the same." + +It must be borne in mind, in considering the furniture of the earlier part +of the sixteenth century, that the religious persecutions of the time, +together with the general break-up of the feudal system, had gradually +brought about the disuse of the old custom of the master of the house +taking his meals in the large hall or "houseplace," together with his +retainers and dependants; and a smaller room leading from the great hall +was fitted up with a dressoir or service cupboard, for the drinking +vessels in the manner just described, with a bedstead, and a chair, some +benches, and the board on trestles, which formed the table of the period. +This room, called a "parler" or "privée parloir," was the part of the +house where the family enjoyed domestic life, and it is a singular fact +that the Clerics of the time, and also the Court party, saw in this +tendency towards private life so grave an objection that, in 1526, this +change in fashion was the subject of a court ordinance, and also of a +special Pastoral from Bishop Grosbeste. The text runs thus: "Sundrie +noblemen and gentlemen and others doe much delighte to dyne in corners and +secret places," and the reason given, was that it was a bad influence, +dividing class from class; the real reason was probably that by more +private and domestic life, the power of the Church over her members was +weakened. + +[Illustration: Chair Said To Have Belonged to Anna Boleyn, Hever Castle. +(_From the Collection of Mr. Godwin, F.S.A._)] + +In spite, however, of opposition in high places, the custom of using the +smaller rooms became more common, and we shall find the furniture, as time +goes on, designed accordingly. + +[Illustration: Tudor Cabinet in the South Kensington Museum. (_Described +below._)] + +In the South Kensington Museum there is a very remarkable cabinet, the +decoration of which points to its being made in England at this time, that +is, about the middle, or during the latter half, of the sixteenth century, +but the highly finished and intricate marqueterie and carving would seem +to prove that Italian or German craftsmen had executed the work. It should +be carefully examined as a very interesting specimen. The Tudor arms, the +rose and portcullis, are inlaid on the stand. The arched panels in the +folding doors, and at the ends of the cabinet are in high relief, +representing battle scenes, and bear some resemblance to Holbein's style. +The general arrangement of the design reminds one of a Roman triumphal +arch. The woods employed are chiefly pear tree, inlaid with coromandel and +other woods. Its height is 4 ft. 7 in. and width 3 ft. 1 in., but there is +in it an immense amount of careful detail which could only be the work of +the most skilful craftsmen of the day, and it was evidently intended for a +room of moderate dimensions where the intricacies of design could be +observed. Mr. Hungerford Pollen has described this cabinet fully, giving +the subjects of the ornament, the Latin mottoes and inscriptions, and +other details, which occupy over four closely printed pages of his museum +catalogue. It cost the nation £500, and was an exceedingly judicious +purchase. + +Chairs were during the first half of the sixteenth century very scarce +articles, and as we have seen with other countries, only used for the +master or mistress of the house. The chair which is said to have belonged +to Anna Boleyn, of which an illustration is given on p. 74, is from the +collection of the late Mr. Geo. Godwin, F.S.A., formerly editor of "_The +Builder_," and was part of the contents of Hever Castle, in Kent. It is of +carved oak, inlaid with ebony and boxwood, and was probably made by an +Italian workman. Settles were largely used, and both these and such chairs +as then existed, were dependent, for richness of effect, upon the loose +cushions with which they were furnished. + +If we attempt to gain a knowledge of the designs of the tables of the +sixteenth, and early part of the seventeenth centuries, from interiors +represented in paintings of this period, the visit to the picture gallery +will be almost in vain, for in nearly every case the table is covered by a +cloth. As these cloths or carpets, as they were then termed, to +distinguish them from the "tapet" or floor covering, often cost far more +than the articles they covered, a word about them may be allowed. + +Most of the old inventories from 1590, after mentioning the "framed" or +"joyned" table, name the "carpett of Turky werke" which covered it, and +in many cases there was still another covering to protect the best one, +and when Frederick, Duke of Wurtemburg, visited England in 1592 he noted a +very extravagant "carpett" at Hampton Court, which was embroidered with +pearls and cost 50,000 crowns. + +The cushions or "quysshens" for the chairs, of embroidered velvet, were +also very important appendages to the otherwise hard oaken and ebony +seats, and as the actual date of the will of Alderman Glasseor quoted +below is 1589, we may gather from the extract given, something of the +character and value of these ornamental accessories which would probably +have been in use for some five and twenty or thirty years previously. + +"Inventory of the contents of the parler of St. Jone's, within the cittie +of Chester," of which place Alderman Glasseor was vice-chamberlain:-- + + "A drawinge table of joyned work with a frame," valued at "xl + shillings," equilius Labour £20 your present money. + + Two formes covered with Turkey work to the same belonginge. xiij + shillings and iiij pence + + A joyned frame xvj_d_. + + A bord ij_s_. vj_d_. + + A little side table upon a frame ij_s_. v_d_. + + A pair of virginalls with the frame xxx_s_. + + Sixe joyned stooles covr'd with nedle werke xv_s_. + + Sixe other joyned stooles vj_s_. + + One cheare of nedle worke iij_s_. iiij_d_. + + Two little fote stooles iiij_d_. + + One longe carpett of Turky werke vil_i_. + + A shortte carpett of the same werke xiij_s_. iij_d_. + + One cupbord carpett of the same x_s_. + + Sixe quysshens of Turkye xij_s_. + + Sixe quysshens of tapestree xx_s_. + + And others of velvet "embroidered wt gold and silver armes in the + middesle." + + Eight pictures xls. Maps, a pedigree of Earl Leicester in "joyned + frame" and a list of books. + +This Alderman Glasseor was apparently a man of taste and culture for those +days; he had "casting bottles" of silver for sprinkling perfumes after +dinner, and he also had a country house "at the sea," where his parlour +was furnished with "a canapy bedd." + +As the century advances, and we get well into Elizabeth's reign, wood +carving becomes more ambitious, and although it is impossible to +distinguish the work of Flemish carvers who had settled in England from +that of our native craftsmen, these doubtless acquired from the former +much of their skill. In the costumes and in the faces of figures or busts, +produced in the highly ornamental oak chimney pieces of the time, or in +the carved portions of the fourpost bedsteads, the national +characteristics are preserved, and, with a certain grotesqueness +introduced into the treatment of accessories, combine to distinguish the +English school of Elizabethan ornament from other contemporary work. + +Knole, Longleaf, Burleigh, Hatfield, Hardwick, and Audley End are familiar +instances of the change in interior decoration which accompanied that in +architecture; terminal figures, that is, pedestals diminishing towards +their bases, surmounted by busts of men or women, elaborate interlaced +strap work carved in low relief, trophies of fruit and flowers, take the +places of the more Gothic treatment formerly in vogue. The change in the +design of furniture naturally followed, for in cases where Flemish or +Italian carvers were not employed, the actual execution was often by the +hand of the house carpenter, who was influenced by what he saw around him. + +The great chimney piece in Speke Hall, near Liverpool, portions of the +staircase of Hatfield, and of other English mansions before mentioned, are +good examples of the wood carving of this period, and the illustrations +from authenticated examples which are given, will assist the reader to +follow these remarks. + +[Illustration: The Glastonbury Chair. (_In the Palace of the Bishop of +Bath, and Wells._)] + +There is a mirror frame at Goodrich Court of early Elizabethan work, +carved in oak and partly gilt; the design is in the best style of +Renaissance and more like Italian or French work than English. +Architectural mouldings, wreaths of flowers, cupids, and an allegorical +figure of Faith are harmoniously combined in the design, the size of the +whole frame being 4 ft. 5 ins. by 3 ft. 6 ins. It bears the date 1559 and +initials R. M.; this was the year in which Roland Meyrick became Bishop of +Bangor, and it is still in the possession of the Meyrick family. A careful +drawing of this frame was made by Henry Shaw, F.S.A., and published in +"Specimens of Ancient Furniture drawn from existing Authorities," in 1836. +This valuable work of reference also contains finished drawings of other +noteworthy examples of the sixteenth century furniture and woodwork. +Amongst these is one of the Abbot's chair at Glastonbury, temp. Henry +VIII., the original of the chair familiar to us now in the chancel of most +churches; also a chair in the state-room of Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, +covered with crimson velvet embroidered with silver tissue, and others, +very interesting to refer to because the illustrations are all drawn from +the articles themselves, and their descriptions are written by an +excellent antiquarian and collector, Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick. + +The mirror frame, described above, was probably one of the first of its +size and kind in England. It was the custom, as has been already stated, +to paint the walls with subjects from history or Scripture, and there are +many precepts in existence from early times until about the beginning of +Henry VIII.'s reign, directing how certain walls were to be decorated. The +discontinuance of this fashion brought about the framing of pictures, and +some of the paintings by Holbein, who came to this country about 1511, and +received the patronage of Henry VIII. some fourteen or fifteen years +later, are probably the first pictures that were framed in England. There +are some two or three of these at Hampton Court Palace, the ornament being +a scroll in gold on a black background, the width of the frame very small +in comparison with its canvas. Some of the old wall paintings had been on +a small scale, and, where long stories were represented, the subjects +instead of occupying the whole flank of the wall, had been divided into +rows some three feet or less in height, these being separated by battens, +and therefore the first frames would appear to be really little more than +the addition of vertical sides to the horizontal top and bottom which such +battens had formed. Subsequently, frames became more ornate and elaborate. +After their application to pictures, their use for mirrors was but a step +in advance, and the mirror in a carved and gilt or decorated frame, +probably at first imported and afterwards copied, came to replace the +older mirror of very small dimensions for toilet use. + +Until early in the fifteenth century, mirrors of polished steel in the +antique style, framed in silver and ivory, had been used; in the wardrobe +account of Edward I. the item occurs, "A comb and a mirror of silver +gilt," and we have an extract from the privy purse of expenses of Henry +VIII. which mentions the payment "to a Frenchman for certayne loking +glasses," which would probably be a novelty then brought to his Majesty's +notice. + +Indeed, there was no glass used for windows[8] previous to the fifteenth +century, the substitute being shaved horn, parchment, and sometimes mica, +let into the shutters which enclosed the window opening. + +The oak panelling of rooms during the reign of Elizabeth was very +handsome, and in the example at South Kensington, of which there is here +an illustration, the country possesses a very excellent representative +specimen. This was removed from an old house at Exeter, and its date is +given by Mr. Hungerford Pollen as from 1550-75. The pilasters and carved +panels under the cornice are very rich and in the best style of +Elizabethan Renaissance, while the panels themselves, being plain, afford +repose, and bring the ornament into relief. The entire length is 52 ft. +and average height 8 ft. 3 in. If this panelling could be arranged as it +was fitted originally in the house of one of Elizabeth's subjects, with +models of fireplace, moulded ceiling, and accessories added, we should +then have an object lesson of value, and be able to picture a Drake or a +Raleigh in his West of England home. + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Elizabethan Bedstead.] + +A later purchase by the Science and Art Department, which was only secured +last year for the extremely moderate price of £1,000, is the panelling of +a room some 23 ft. square and 12 ft. 6 in. high, from Sizergh Castle, +Westmoreland. The chimney piece was unfortunately not purchased, but the +Department has arranged the panelling as a room with a plaster model of +the extremely handsome ceiling. The panelling is of richly figured oak, +entirely devoid of polish, and is inlaid with black bog oak and holly, in +geometrical designs, being divided at intervals by tall pilasters fluted +with bog oak and having Ionic capitals. The work was probably done +locally, and from wood grown on the estate, and is one of the most +remarkable examples in existence. The date is about 1560 to 1570, and it +has been described in local literature of nearly 200 years ago. + +[Illustration: Oak Wainscoting, From an old house in Exeter. S. Kensington +Museum. Period: English Renaissance (About 1550-75).] + +While we are on the subject of panelling, it may be worth while to point +out that with regard to old English work of this date, one may safely take +it for granted that where, as in the South Kensington (Exeter) example, +the pilasters, frieze, and frame-work are enriched, and the panels plain, +the work was designed and made for the house, but, when the panels are +carved and the rest plain, they were bought, and then fitted up by the +local carpenter. + +Another Museum specimen of Elizabethan carved oak is a fourpost bedstead, +with the arms of the Countess of Devon, which bears date 1593, and has all +the characteristics of the time. + +There is also a good example of Elizabethan woodwork in part of the +interior of the Charterhouse, immortalised by Thackeray, when, as +"Greyfriars," in "The Newcomes," he described it as the old school "where +the colonel, and Clive, and I were brought up," and it was here that, as a +"poor brother," the old colonel had returned to spend the evening of his +gentle life, and, to quote Thackeray's pathetic lines, "when the chapel +bell began to toll, he lifted up his head a little, and said 'Adsum!' It +was the word we used at school when names were called." + +This famous relic of old London, which fortunately escaped the great fire +in 1666, was formerly an old monastery which Henry VIII. dissolved in +1537, and the house was given some few years later to Sir Edward, +afterwards Lord North, from whom the Duke of Norfolk purchased it in 1565, +and the handsome staircase, carved with terminal figures and Renaissance +ornament, was probably built either by Lord North or his successor. The +woodwork of the Great Hall, where the pensioners still dine every day, is +very rich, the fluted columns with Corinthian capitals, the interlaced +strap work, and other details of carved oak, are characteristic of the +best sixteenth century woodwork in England; the shield bears the date of +1571. This was the year when the Duke of Norfolk, who was afterwards +beheaded, was released from the Tower on a kind of furlough, and probably +amused himself with the enrichment of his mansion, then called Howard +House. In the old Governors' room, formerly the drawing room of the +Howards, there is a specimen of the large wooden chimney piece of the end +of the sixteenth century, painted instead of carved. After the Duke of +Norfolk's death, the house was granted by the Crown to his son, the Earl +of Suffolk, who sold it in 1611 to the founder of the present hospital, +Sir Thomas Sutton, a citizen who was reputed to be one of the wealthiest +of his time, and some of the furniture given by him will be found noticed +in the chapter on the Jacobean period. + +[Illustration: Dining Hall in the Charterhouse. Shewing Oak Screen and +front of Minstrels' Gallery, dated 1571. Period: Elizabethan.] + +[Illustration: Screen in the Hall of Gray's Inn. With Table and Desks +referred to.] + + +There are in London other excellent examples of Elizabethan oak carving. +Amongst those easily accessible and valuable for reference are the Hall of +Gray's Inn, built in 1560, the second year of the Queen's reign, and +Middle Temple Hall, built in 1570-2. An illustration of the carved screen +supporting the Minstrels' Gallery in the older Hall is given by permission +of Mr. William R. Douthwaite, librarian of the "Inn," for whose work, +"Gray's Inn, its History and Associations," it was specially prepared. The +interlaced strap work generally found in Elizabethan carving, encircles +the shafts of the columns as a decoration. The table in the centre has +also some low relief carving on the drawer front which forms its frieze, +but the straight and severe style of leg leads us to place its date at +some fifty years later than the Hall. The desk on the left, and the table +on the right, are probably later still. It may be mentioned here, too, +that the long table which stands at the opposite end of the Hall, on the +daïs, said to have been presented by Queen Elizabeth, is not of the design +with which the furniture of her reign is associated by experts; the heavy +cabriole legs, with bent knees, corresponding with the legs of the chairs +(also on the daïs), are of unmistakable Dutch origin, and, so far as the +writer's observations and investigations have gone, were introduced into +England about the time of William III. + +The same remarks apply to a table in Middle Temple Hall, also said to +have been there during Elizabeth's time. Mr. Douthwaite alludes to the +rumour of the Queen's gift in his book, and endeavoured to substantiate it +from records at his command, but in vain. The authorities at Middle Temple +are also, so far as we have been able to ascertain, without any +documentary evidence to prove the claim of their table to any greater age +than the end of the seventeenth century. + +The carved oak screen of Middle Temple Hall is magnificent, and no one +should miss seeing it. Terminal figures, fluted columns, panels broken up +into smaller divisions, and carved enrichments of various devices, are all +combined in a harmonious design, rich without being overcrowded, and its +effect is enhanced by the rich color given to it by age, by the excellent +proportions of the Hall, by the plain panelling of the three other sides, +and above all by the grand oak roof, which is certainly one of the finest +of its kind in England. Some of the tables and forms are of much later +date, but an interest attaches even to this furniture from the fact of its +having been made from oak grown close to the Hall; and as one of the +tables has a slab composed of an oak plank nearly thirty inches wide, we +can imagine what fine old trees once grew and flourished close to the now +busy Fleet Street, and the bustling Strand. There are frames, too, in +Middle Temple made from the oaken timbers which once formed the piles in +the Thames, on which rested "the Temple Stairs." + +In Mr. Herbert's "Antiquities of the Courts of Chancery," there are +several facts of interest in connection with the woodwork of Middle +Temple. He mentions that the screen was paid for by contributions from +each bencher of twenty shillings, each barrister of ten shillings, and +every other member of six shillings and eightpence; that the Hall was +founded in 1562, and furnished ten years later, the screen being put up in +1574: and that the memorials of some two hundred and fifty "Readers" which +decorate the otherwise plain oak panelling, date from 1597 to 1804, the +year in which Mr. Herbert's book was published. Referring to the +furniture, he says:--"The massy oak tables and benches with which this +apartment was anciently furnished, still remain, and so may do for +centuries, unless violently destroyed, being of wonderful strength." Mr. +Herbert also mentions the masks and revels held in this famous Hall in the +time of Elizabeth: he also gives a list of quantities and prices of +materials used in the decoration of Gray's Inn Hall. + +[Illustration: Three Carved Oak Panels. Now in the Court Room of the Hall +of the Carpenters' Company. Removed from the former Hall. Period: +Elizabethan.] + +In the Hall of the Carpenters' Company, in Throgmorton Avenue, are three +curious carved oak panels, worth noticing here, as they are of a date +bringing them well into this period. They were formerly in the old Hall, +which escaped the Great Fire, and in the account books of the Corporation +is the following record of the cost of one of these panels:-- + + "Paide for a planke to carve the arms of the Companie iij_s_." + + "Paide to the Carver for carvinge the Arms of the Companie xxiij_s_. + iiij_d_." + +The price of material (3s.) and workmanship (23s. 4d.) was certainly not +excessive. All three panels are in excellent preservation, and the design +of a harp, being a rebus of the Master's name, is a quaint relic of old +customs. Some other oak furniture, in the Hall of this ancient Company, +will be noticed in the following chapter. Mr. Jupp, a former Clerk of the +Company, has written an historical account of the Carpenters, which +contains many facts of interest. The office of King's Carpenter or +Surveyor, the powers of the Carpenters to search, examine, and impose +fines for inefficient work, and the trade disputes with the "Joyners," the +Sawyers, and the "Woodmongers," are all entertaining reading, and throw +many side-lights on the woodwork of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. + +[Illustration: Part of an Elizabethan Staircase.] + +The illustration of Hardwick Hall shews oak panelling and decoration of a +somewhat earlier, and also somewhat later time than Elizabeth, while the +carved oak chairs are of Jacobean style. At Hardwick is still kept the +historic chair in which it is said that William, fourth Earl of +Devonshire, sat when he and his friends compassed the downfall of James +II. In the curious little chapel hung with ancient tapestry, and +containing the original Bible and Prayer Book of Charles I., are other +quaint chairs covered with cushions of sixteenth or early seventeenth +century needlework. + +[Illustration: The Entrance Hall, Hardwick Hall. Period Of Furniture, +Jacobean, XVII. Century.] + +Before concluding the remarks on this period of English woodwork and +furniture, further mention should be made of Penshurst Place, to which +there has been already some reference in the chapter on the period of the +Middle Ages. It was here that Sir Philip Sydney spent much of his time, +and produced his best literary work, during the period of his retirement +when he had lost the favour of Elizabeth, and in the room known as the +"Queen's Room," illustrated on p. 89, some of the furniture is of this +period; the crystal chandeliers are said to have been given by Leicester +to his Royal Mistress, and some of the chairs and tables were sent down by +the Queen, and presented to Sir Henry Sydney (Philip's father) when she +stayed at Penshurst during one of her Royal progresses. The room, with its +vases and bowls of old oriental china and the contemporary portraits on +the walls, gives us a good idea of the very best effect that was +attainable with the material then available. + +Richardson's "Studies" contains, amongst other examples of furniture, and +carved oak decorations of English Renaissance, interiors of Little +Charlton, East Sutton Place, Stockton House, Wilts, Audley End, Essex, and +the Great Hall, Crewe, with its beautiful hall screens and famous carved +"parloir," all notable mansions of the sixteenth century. + +To this period of English furniture belongs the celebrated "Great Bed of +Ware," of which there is an illustration. This was formerly at the +Saracen's Head at Ware, but has been removed to Rye House, about two miles +away. Shakespeare's allusion to it in the "Twelfth Night" has identified +the approximate date and gives the bed a character. The following are the +lines:-- + + "SIR TOBY BELCH.--And as many lies as shall lie in thy sheet of paper, + altho' the sheet were big enough for the Bed of Ware in England, set em + down, go about it." + +Another illustration shows the chair which is said to have belonged to +William Shakespeare; it may or may not be the actual one used by the poet, +but it is most probably a genuine specimen of about his time, though +perhaps not made in England. There is a manuscript on its back which +states that it was known in 1769 as the Shakespeare Chair, when Garrick +borrowed it from its owner, Mr. James Bacon, of Barnet, and since that +time its history is well known. The carved ornament is in low relief, and +represents a rough idea of the dome of S. Marc and the Campanile Tower. + +We have now briefly and roughly traced the advance of what may be termed +the flood-tide of Art from its birthplace in Italy to France, the +Netherlands, Spain, Germany, and England, and by explanation and +description, assisted by illustrations, have endeavoured to shew how the +Gothic of the latter part of the Middle Ages gave way before the revival +of classic forms and arabesque ornament, with the many details and +peculiarities characteristic of each different nationality which had +adopted the general change. During this period the bahut or chest has +become a cabinet with all its varieties; the simple _prie dieu_ chair, as +a devotional piece of furniture, has been elaborated into almost an +oratory, and, as a domestic seat, into a dignified throne; tables have, +towards the end of the period, become more ornate, and made as solid +pieces of furniture, instead of the planks and tressels which we found +when the Renaissance commenced. Chimney pieces, which in the fourteenth +century were merely stone smoke shafts supported by corbels, have been +replaced by handsome carved oak erections, ornamenting the hall or room +from floor to ceiling, and the English livery cupboard, with its foreign +contemporary the buffet, is the forerunner of the sideboard of the future. + +[Illustration: Shakespeare's Chair.] + +[Illustration: The Great Bed of Ware. Formerly at the Saracen's Head, +Ware, but now at Rye House, Broxbourne, Herts. Period: XVI. Century.] + +Carved oak panelling has replaced the old arras and ruder wood lining of +an earlier time, and with the departure of the old feudal customs and the +indulgence in greater luxuries of the more wealthy nobles and merchants in +Italy, Flanders, France, Germany, Spain, and England, we have the +elegancies and grace with which Art, and increased means of gratifying +taste, enabled the sixteenth century virtuoso to adorn his home. + +[Illustration: The "Queen's Room," Penshurst Place. (_Reproduced from +"Historic Houses of the United Kingdom" by permission of Messrs. Cassell & +Co., Limited._)] + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Chimney Piece in Speke Hall, Near Liverpool. +Period: Elizabethan.] + + + + +Chapter IV. + +Jacobean furniture. + + + + English Home Life in the Reign of James I.--Sir Henry Wootton + quoted--Inigo Jones and his work--Ford Castle--Chimney Pieces in South + Kensington Museum--Table in the Carpenters' Hall---Hall of the Barbers' + Company--The Charterhouse--Time of Charles I.--Furniture at + Knole--Eagle House, Wimbledon, Mr. Charles Eastlake--Monuments at + Canterbury and Westminster--Settles, Couches, and Chairs of the Stuart + period--Sir Paul Pindar's House--Cromwellian Furniture--The + Restoration--Indo-Portuguese Furniture--Hampton Court Palace--Evelyn's + description--The Great Fire of London--Hall of the Brewers' + Company--Oak Panelling of the time--Grinling Gibbons and his work--The + Edict of Nantes--Silver Furniture at Knole--William III. and Dutch + influence--Queen Anne--Sideboards, Bureaus, and Grandfather's + Clocks--Furniture at Hampton Court. + + +[Illustration] + +In the chapter on "Renaissance" the great Art revival in England has been +noticed; in the Elizabethan oak work of chimney pieces, panelling, and +furniture, are to be found varying forms of the free classic style which +the Renaissance had brought about. These fluctuating changes in fashion +continued in England from the time of Elizabeth until the middle of the +eighteenth century, when, as will be shewn presently, a distinct +alteration in the design of furniture took place. + +The domestic habits of Englishmen were getting more established. We have +seen how religious persecution during preceding reigns, at the time of the +Reformation, had encouraged private domestic life of families, in the +smaller rooms and apart from the gossiping retainer, who might at any time +bring destruction upon the household by giving information about items of +conversation he had overheard. There is a passage in one of Sir Henry +Wootton's letters, written in 1600, which shews that this home life was +now becoming a settled characteristic of his countrymen. + +"Every man's proper mansion house and home, being the theatre of his +hospitality, the seate of his selfe fruition, the comfortable part of his +own life, the noblest of his son's inheritance, a kind of private +princedom, nay the possession thereof an epitome of the whole world, may +well deserve by these attributes, according to the degree of the master, +to be delightfully adorned." + +[Illustration: Oak Chimney Piece in Sir Walter Raleigh's House, Youghal, +Ireland. Said to be the work of a Flemish Artist who was brought over for +the purpose of executing this and other carved work at Youghal.] + +Sir Henry Wootton was ambassador in Venice in 1604, and is said to have +been the author of the well-known definition of an ambassador's calling, +namely, "an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country's good." This +offended the piety of James I., and caused him for some time to be in +disgrace. He also published some 20 years later "Elements of +Architecture," and being an antiquarian and man of taste, sent home many +specimens of the famous Italian wood carving. + +It was during the reign of James I. and that of his successor that Inigo +Jones, our English Vitruvius, was making his great reputation; he had +returned from Italy full of enthusiasm for the Renaissance of Palladio +and his school, and of knowledge and taste gained by a diligent study of +the ancient classic buildings of Rome; his influence would be speedily +felt in the design of woodwork fittings, for the interiors of his +edifices. There is a note in his own copy of Palladio, which is now in the +library of Worcester College, Oxford, which is worth quoting:-- + + "In the name of God: Amen. The 2 of January, 1614, I being in Rome + compared these desines following, with the Ruines themselves.--INIGO + JONES." + +[Illustration: Chimney Piece in Byfleet House. Early Jacobean.] + +In the following year he returned from Italy on his appointment as King's +surveyor of works, and until his death in 1652 was full of work, though +unfortunately for us, much that he designed was never carried out, and +much that he carried out has been destroyed by fire. The Banqueting Hall +of Whitehall, now Whitehall Chapel; St. Paul's, Covent Garden; the old +water gate originally intended as the entrance to the first Duke of +Buckingham's Palace, close to Charing Cross; Nos. 55 and 56, on the south +side of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn; and one or two monuments and +porches, are amongst the examples that remain to us of this great master's +work; and of interiors, that of Ashburnham House is left to remind us, +with its quiet dignity of style, of this great master. It has been said in +speaking of the staircase, plaster ornament, and woodwork of this +interior, "upon the whole is set the seal of the time of Charles I." As +the work was probably finished during that King's reign, the impression +intended to be conveyed was that after wood carving had rather run riot +towards the end of the sixteenth century, we had now in the interior +designed by Inigo Jones, or influenced by his school, a more quiet and +sober style. + +[Illustration: The King's Chamber, Ford Castle.] + +The above woodcut shews a portion of the King's room in Ford Castle, which +still contains souvenirs of Flodden Field--according to an article in the +_Magazine of Art_. The room is in the northernmost tower, which still +preserves externally the stern, grim character of the border fortress; and +the room looks towards the famous battle-field. The chair shews a date +1638, and there is another of Dutch design of about fifty or sixty years +later; but the carved oak bedstead, with tapestry hangings, and the oak +press, which the writer of the article mentions as forming part of the old +furniture of the room, scarcely appear in the illustration. + +Mr. Hungerford Pollen tells us that the majority of so-called Tudor houses +were actually built during the reign of James I., and this may probably be +accepted as an explanation of the otherwise curious fact of there being +much in the architecture and woodwork of this time which would seem to +have belonged to the earlier period. + +The illustrations of wooden chimney-pieces will show this change. There +are in the South Kensington Museum some three or four chimney-pieces of +stone, having the upper portions of carved oak, the dates of which have +been ascertained to be about 1620; these were removed from an old house in +Lime Street, City, and give us an idea of the interior decoration of a +residence of a London merchant. The one illustrated is somewhat richer +than the others, the columns supporting the cornice of the others being +almost plain pillars with Ionic or Doric capitals, and the carving of the +panels of all of them is in less relief, and simpler in character, than +those which occur in the latter part of Elizabeth's time. + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Centre Table. _In the Hall of the Carpenters' +Company._] + +The earliest dated piece of Jacobean furniture which has come under the +writer's observation is the octagonal table belonging to the Carpenters' +Company. The illustration, taken from Mr. Jupp's book referred to in the +last chapter, hardly does the table justice; it is really a very handsome +piece of furniture, and measures about 3 feet 3 inches in diameter. In the +spandrils of the arches between the legs are the letters R.W., G.I., J.R., +and W.W., being the initials of Richard Wyatt, George Isack, John Reeve, +and William Willson, who were Master and Wardens of the Company in 1606, +which date is carved in two of the spandrils. While the ornamental legs +shew some of the characteristics of Elizabethan work, the treatment is +less bold, the large acorn-shaped member has become more refined and +attenuated, and the ornament is altogether more subdued. This is a +remarkable specimen of early Jacobean furniture, and is the only one of +the shape and kind known to the writer; it is in excellent preservation, +save that the top is split, and it shews signs of having been made with +considerable skill and care. + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Chair. From Abingdon Park. + +Carved Oak Chair. In the Carpenters' Hall + +_From Photos in the S. Kensington Museum Album._ Early XVII. Century. +English.] + +The Science and Art Department keep for reference an album containing +photographs, not only of many of the specimens in the different museums +under its control, but also of some of those which have been lent for a +temporary exhibition. The illustration of the above two chairs is taken +from this source, the album having been placed at the writer's disposal by +the courtesy of Mr. Jones, of the Photograph Department. The left-hand +chair, from Abingdon Park, is said to have belonged to Lady Barnard, +Shakespeare's grand-daughter, and the other may still be seen in the Hall +of the Carpenters' Company. + +[Illustration: Oak Chimney Piece. Removed from an old house in Lime +Street, City. (_South Kensington Museum._) Period: James I.] + +In the Hall of the Barbers' Company in Monkswell Street, the Court room, +which is lighted with an octagonal cupola, was designed by Inigo Jones as +a Theatre of Anatomy, when the Barbers and Surgeons were one +corporation. There are some three or four tallies of this period in the +Hall, having four legs connected by stretchers, quite plain; the moulded +edges of the table tops are also without enrichment. These plain oak +slabs, and also the stretchers, have been renewed, but in exactly the same +style as the original work; the legs, however, are the old ones, and are +simple columns with plain turned capitals and bases. Other tables of this +period are to be found in a few old country mansions; there is one in +Longleat, which, the writer has been told, has a small drawer at the end, +to hold the copper coins with which the retainers of the Marquis of Bath's +ancestors used to play a game of shovel penny. In the Chapter House in +Westminster Abbey, there is also one of these plain substantial James I. +tables, which is singular in being nearly double the width of those which +were made at this time. As the Chapter House was, until comparatively +recent years, used as a room for the storage of records, this table was +probably made, not as a dining table, but for some other purpose requiring +greater width. + +[Illustration: Oak Sideboard in the S. Kensington Museum. Period: William +III.] + +In the chapter on Renaissance there was an allusion to Charterhouse, +which was purchased for its present purpose by Thomas Sutton in 1611, and +in the chapel may be seen to-day the original communion table placed there +by the founder. It is of carved oak, with a row of legs running lengthways +underneath the middle, and four others at the corners; these, while being +cast in the simple lines noticed in the tables in the Barbers' Hall, and +the Chapter House, Westminster Abbey, are enriched by carving from the +base to the third of the height of the leg, and the frieze of the table is +also carved in low relief. The rich carved wood screen which supports the +organ loft is also of Jacobean work. + +There is in the South Kensington Museum a carved oak chest, with a centre +panel representing the Adoration of the Magi, about this date, 1615-20; it +is mounted on a stand which has three feet in front and two behind, much +more primitive and quaint than the ornate supports of Elizabethan carving, +while the only ornament on the drawer fronts which form the frieze of the +stand are moulded panels, in the centre of each of which is a turned knob +by which to open the drawer. This chest and the table which forms its +stand were probably not intended for each other. The illustration on the +previous page shows the stand, which is a good representation of the +carving of this time, i.e., early seventeenth century. The round backed +arm chair which the Museum purchased last year from the Hailstone +collection, though dated 1614, is really more Elizabethan in design. + +There is no greater storehouse for specimens of furniture in use during +the Jacobean period than Knole, that stately mansion of the Sackville +family, then the property of the Earls of Dorset. In the King's Bedroom, +which is said to have been specially prepared and furnished for the visit +of King James I., the public, owing to the courtesy and generous spirit of +the present Lord Sackville, can still see the bed, originally of crimson +silk, but now faded, elaborately embroidered with gold. It is said to have +cost £8,000, and the chairs and seats, which are believed to have formed +part of the original equipment of the room, are in much the same position +as they then occupied. + +In the carved work of this furniture we cannot help thinking the hand of +the Venetian is to be traced, and it is probable they were either imported +or copied from a pattern brought over for the purpose. A suite of +furniture of that time appears to have consisted of six stools and two arm +chairs, almost entirely covered with velvet, having the X form supports, +which, so far as the writer's investigations have gone, appear to have +come from Venice. In the "Leicester" gallery at Knole there is a portrait +of the King;, painted by Mytens, seated on such a chair, and just below +the picture is placed the chair which is said to be identical with the one +portrayed. It is similar to the one reproduced on page 100 from a drawing +of Mr. Charles Eastlake's. + +[Illustration: Seats at Knole. Covered with Crimson Silk Velvet. Period: +James I.] + +In the same gallery also are three sofas or settees upholstered with +crimson velvet, and one of these has an accommodating rack, by which +either end can be lowered at will, to make a more convenient lounge. + +[Illustration: Arm Chair. Covered with Velvet, Ringed with Fringe and +studded with Copper Nails. Early XVII. Century. (_From a Drawing of the +Original at Knole, by Mr. Charles Eastlake._)] + +This excellent example of Jacobean furniture has been described and +sketched by Mr. Charles Eastlake in "Hints on Household Taste." He says: +"The joints are properly 'tenoned' and pinned together in such a manner as +to ensure its constant stability. The back is formed like that of a chair, +with a horizontal rail only at its upper edge, but it receives additional +strength from the second rail, which is introduced at the back of the +seat." In Marcus Stone's well-known picture of "The Stolen Keys," this is +the sofa portrayed. The arm chair illustrated above is part of the same +suite of furniture. The furniture of another room at Knole is said to have +been presented by King James to the first Earl of Middlesex, who had +married into the Dorset family. The author has been furnished with a +photograph of this room; and the illustration prepared from this will give +the reader a better idea than a lengthy description. + +[Illustration: The "Spangle" Bedroom At Knole. The Furniture of this room +was presented by James I. to the Earl of Middlesex. (_Front a Photo by Mr. +Corke, of Sevenoaks._)] + +It seems from the Knole furniture, and a comparison of the designs with +those of some of the tables and other woodwork produced during the same +reign, bearing the impress of the more severe style of Inigo Jones, that +there were then in England two styles of decorative furniture. One of +these, simple and severe, showing a reaction from the grotesque freedom of +Elizabethan carving, and the other, copied from Venetian ornamental +woodwork, with cupids on scrolls forming the supports of stools, having +these ornamental legs connected by stretchers the design of which is, in +the case of those in the King's Bedchamber at Knole, a couple of cupids in +a flying attitude holding up a crown. This kind of furniture was generally +gilt, and under the black paint of those at Knole are still to be seen +traces of the gold. + +Mr. Eastlake visited Knole and made careful examination and sketches of +the Jacobean furniture there, and has well described and illustrated it in +his book just referred to; he mentions that he found a slip of paper +tucked beneath the webbing of a settle there, with an inscription in Old +English characters which fixed the date of some of the furniture at 1620. +In a letter to the writer on this subject, Mr. Lionel Sackville West +confirms this date by referring to the heirloom book, which also bears out +the writer's opinion that some of the more richly-carved furniture of this +time was imported from Italy. + +In the Lady Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral there is a monument of Dean +Boys, who died in 1625. This represents the Dean seated in his library, at +a table with turned legs, over which there is a tapestry cover. Books line +the walls of the section of the room shown in the stone carving; it +differs little from the sanctum of a literary man of the present day. +There are many other monuments which represent furniture of this period, +and amongst the more curious is that of a child of King James I., in +Westminster Abbey, close to the monument of Mary Queen of Scots. The child +is sculptured about life size, in a carved cradle of the time. + +In Holland House, Kensington,[9] which is a good example of a Jacobean +mansion, there is some oak enrichment of the seventeenth century, and also +a garden bench, with its back formed of three shells and the legs shaped +and ornamented with scroll work. Horace Walpole mentions this seat, and +ascribes the design to Francesco Cleyn, who worked for Charles I. and some +of the Court. + +There is another Jacobean house of considerable interest, the property of +Mr. T.G. Jackson, A.R.A. An account of it has been written by him, and was +read to some members of the Surrey Archaeological Society, who visited +Eagle House, Wimbledon, in 1890. It appears to have been the country seat +of a London merchant, who lived early in the seventeenth century. Mr. +Jackson bears witness to the excellence of the workmanship, and expresses +his opinion that the carved and decorated enrichments were executed by +native and not foreign craftsmen. He gives an illustration in his pamphlet +of the sunk "Strap Work," which, though Jacobean in its date, is also +found in the carved ornament of Elizabeth's time. + +Another relic of this time is the panel of carved oak in the lych gate of +St. Giles', Bloomsbury, dated 1638. This is a realistic representation of +"The Resurrection," and when the writer examined it a few weeks ago, it +seemed in danger of perishing for lack of a little care and attention. + +It is very probable that had the reign of Charles I. been less troublous, +this would have been a time of much progress in the domestic arts in +England. The Queen was of the Medici family, Italian literature was in +vogue, and Italian artists therefore would probably have been encouraged +to come over and instruct our workmen. The King himself was an excellent +mechanic, and boasted that he could earn his living at almost any trade +save the making of hangings. His father had established the tapestry works +at Mortlake; he himself had bought the Raffaele Cartoons to encourage the +work--and much was to be hoped from a monarch who had the judgment to +induce a Vandyke to settle in England. The Civil War, whatever it has +achieved for our liberty as subjects, certainly hindered by many years our +progress as an artistic people. + +But to consider some of the furniture of this period in detail. Until the +sixteenth century was well advanced, the word "table" in our language +meant an index, or pocket book (tablets), or a list, not an article of +furniture; it was, as we have noticed in the time of Elizabeth, composed +of boards generally hinged in the middle for convenience of storage, and +supported on trestles which were sometimes ornamented by carved work. The +word trestle, by the way, is derived from the "threstule," i.e., +three-footed supports, and these three-legged stools and benches formed in +those days the seats for everyone except the master of the house. Chairs +were, as we have seen, scarce articles; sometimes there was only one, a +throne-like seat for an honoured guest or for the master or mistress of +the house, and doubtless our present phrase of "taking the chair" is a +survival of the high place a chair then held amongst the household gods of +a gentleman's mansion. Shakespeare possibly had the boards and trestles in +his mind when, about 1596, he wrote in "Romeo and Juliet"-- + + "Come, musicians, play! + A hall! a hall! give room and foot it, girls, + More light, ye knaves, and turn the tables up." + +And as the scene in "King Henry the Fourth" is placed some years earlier +than that of "Romeo and Juliet," it is probable that "table" had then its +earlier meaning, for the Archbishop of York says:-- + + "... The King is weary + Of dainty and such picking grievances; + And, therefore, will he wipe his tables clean + And keep no tell-tale to his memory." + +Mr. Maskell, in his handbook on "Ivories," tells us that the word "table" +was also used in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to denote the +religious carvings and paintings in churches; and he quotes Chaucer to +show that the word was used to describe the game of "draughts." + + "They dancen and they play at chess and tables." + + +Now, however, at the time of which we are writing, chairs were becoming +more plentiful and the table was a definite article of furniture. In +inventories of the time and for some twenty years previous, as has been +already noticed in the preceding chapter, we find mention of "joyned +table," framed table, "standing" and "dormant" table, and the word "board" +had gradually disappeared, although it remains to us as a souvenir of the +past in the name we still give to any body of men meeting for the +transaction of business, or in its more social meaning, expressing +festivity. The width of these earlier tables had been about 30 inches, and +guests sat on one side only, with their backs to the wall, in order, it +may be supposed, to be the more ready to resist any sudden raid, which +might be made on the house, during the relaxation of the supper hour, and +this custom remained long after there was any necessity for its +observance. + +In the time of Charles the First the width was increased, and a +contrivance was introduced for doubling the area of the top when required, +by two flaps which drew out from either end, and, by means of a +wedge-shaped arrangement, the centre or main table top was lowered, and +the whole table, thus increased, became level. Illustrations taken from +Mr. G.T. Robinson's article on furniture in the "Art Journal" of 1881, +represent a "Drawinge table," which was the name by which these "latest +improvements" were known; the black lines were of stained pear tree, let +into the oak, and the acorn shaped member of the leg is an imported Dutch +design, which became very common about this time, and was applied to the +supports of cabinets, sometimes as in the illustration, plainly turned, +but frequently carved. Another table of this period was the "folding +table," which was made with twelve, sixteen, or with twenty legs, as shewn +in the illustration of this example, and which, as its name implies, would +shut up into about one third its extended size. There is one of these +tables in the Stationers' Hall. + +[Illustration: Couch, Arm Chair and Single Chair. Carved and Gilt. +Upholstered in rich Silk Velvet. Part of Suite at Penshurst Place. Also an +Italian Cabinet. Period: Charles II.] + +[Illustration: Folding Table at Penshurst Place. Period: Charles II. to +James II.] + +[Illustration: "Drawing" Table with Black Lines Inlaid. Period: Charles +II.] + +It was probably in the early part of the seventeenth century that the +Couch became known in England. It was not common, nor quite in the form in +which we now recognize that luxurious article of furniture, but was +probably a carved oak settle, with cushions so arranged as to form a +resting lounge by day, Shakespeare speaks of the "branch'd velvet gown" +of Malvolio having come from a "day bed," and there is also an allusion to +one in Richard III.[10] + +In a volume of "Notes and Queries" there is a note which would show that +the lady's wardrobe of this time (1622) was a very primitive article of +furniture. Mention is made there of a list of articles of wearing apparel +belonging to a certain Lady Elizabeth Morgan, sister to Sir Nathaniel +Rich, which, according to the old document there quoted, dated the 13th +day of November, 1622, "are to be found in a great bar'd chest in my +Ladie's Bedchamber." To judge from this list, Lady Morgan was a person of +fashion in those days. We may also take it +for granted that beyond the bedstead, a prie dieu chair, a bench, some +chests, and the indispensable mirror, there was not much else to furnish a +lady's bedroom in the reign of James I. or of his successor. + +[Illustration: Theodore Hook's Chair.] + +[Illustration: Scrowled Chair in Carved Oak.] + +The "long settle" and "scrowled chair" were two other kinds of seats in +use from the time of Charles I. to that of James II. The illustrations are +taken from authenticated specimens in the collection of Mr. Dalton, of +Scarborough. They are most probably of Yorkshire manufacture, about the +middle of the seventeenth century. The ornament in the panel of the back +of the chair is inlaid work box or ash stained to a greenish black to +represent green ebony, with a few small pieces of rich red wood then in +great favour; and, says Mr. G. T. Robinson, to whose article mentioned +above we are indebted for the description, "probably brought by some +buccaneer from the West." Mr. Robinson mentions another chair of the +Stuart period, which formed a table, and subsequently became the property +of Theodore Hook, who carefully preserved its pedigree. It was purchased +by its late owner, Mr. Godwin, editor of "The Builder." A woodcut of this +chair is on p. 106. + +Another chair which played an important part in history is the one in +which Charles I. sat during his trial; this was exhibited in the Stuart +Exhibition in London in 1889. The illustration is taken from a print in +"The Illustrated London News" of the time. + +[Illustration: Chair Used by King Charles I. During His Trial.] + +In addition to the chairs of oak, carved, inlaid, and plain, which were in +some cases rendered more comfortable by having cushions tied to the backs +and seats, the upholstered chair, which we have seen had been brought +from Venice in the early part of the reign of James I., now came into +general use. Few appear to have survived, but there are still to be seen +in pictures of the period a chair represented as covered with crimson +velvet, studded with brass nails, the seat trimmed with fringe, similar to +that at Knole, illustrated on p. 100. + +There is in the Historical Portrait Gallery in Bethnal Green Museum, a +painting by an unknown artist, but dated 1642, of Sir William Lenthall, +who was Speaker of the House of Commons, on the memorable occasion when, +on the 4th of January in that year, Charles I. entered the House to demand +the surrender of the five members. The chair on which Sir William is +seated answers this description, and is very similar to the one used by +Charles I. (illustrated on p. 107.) + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Chair. Said to have been used by Cromwell. (_The +original in the possession of T. Knollys Parr, Esq._)] + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Chair, Jacobean Style. (_The original in the +Author's possession._)] + +Inlaid work, which had been crude and rough in the time of Elizabeth, +became more in fashion as means increased of decorating both the furniture +and the woodwork panelling of the rooms of the Stuart period. Mahogany had +been discovered by Raleigh as early as 1595, but did not come into general +use until the middle of the eighteenth century. + +The importation of scarce foreign woods in small quantities gave an +impetus to this description of work, which in the marqueterie of Italy, +France, Holland, Germany, and Spain, had already made great progress. + +[Illustration: Settle of Carved Oak. Probably made in Yorkshire. Period: +Charles II.] + +Within the past year, owing to the extensions of the Great Eastern +Railway premises at Bishopsgate Street, an old house of antiquarian +interest was pulled down, and generously presented by the Company to the +South Kensington Museum. It will shortly be arranged so as to enable the +visitor to see a good example of the exterior as well as some of the +interior woodwork of a quaint house of the middle of the seventeenth +century. This was the residence of Sir Paul Pindar, diplomatist, during +the time of Charles I., and it contained a carved oak chimney-piece, with +some other good ornamental woodwork of this period. The quaint and +richly-carved chimney-piece, which was dated 1600, and other decorative +work, was removed early in the present century, when the possessors of +that time were making "improvements." + +[Illustration: Staircase in General Ireton's House, Dated 1630.] + +[Illustration: Pattern of a Chinese Lac Screen. (_In the South Kensington +Museum._)] + +In the illustration of a child's chair, which is said to have been +actually used by Cromwell, can be seen an example of carved oak of this +time; it was lent to the writer by its present owner, in whose family it +was an heirloom since one of his ancestors married the Protector's +daughter. The ornament has no particular style, and it may be taken for +granted that the period of the Commonwealth was not marked by any progress +in decorative art. The above illustration, however, proves that there were +exceptions to the prevalent Puritan objection to figure ornament. In one +of Mrs. S.C. Hall's papers, "Pilgrimages to English Shrines," contributed +in 1849 to "The Art Journal," she describes the interior of the house +which was built for Bridget, the Protector's daughter, who married General +Ireton. The handsome oak staircase had the newels surmounted by carved +figures, representing different grades of men in the General's army--a +captain, common soldier, piper, drummer, etc, etc., while the spaces +between the balustrades were filled in with devices emblematical of +warfare, the ceiling being decorated in the fashion of the period. At the +time Mrs. Hall wrote, the house bore Cromwell's name and the date 1630. + +We may date from the Commonwealth the more general use of chairs; people +sat as they chose, and no longer regarded the chair as the lord's place. A +style of chair, which we still recognise as Cromwellian, was also largely +imported from Holland about this time--plain square backs and seats +covered with brown leather, studded with brass nails. The legs, which are +now generally turned with a spiral twist, were in Cromwell's time plain +and simple. + +The residence of Charles II. abroad, had accustomed him and his friends to +the much more luxurious furniture of France and Holland. With the +Restoration came a foreign Queen, a foreign Court, French manners, and +French literature. Cabinets, chairs, tables, and couches, were imported +into England from the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Portugal; and our +craftsmen profited by new ideas and new patterns, and what was of equal +consequence, an increased demand for decorative articles of furniture. The +King of Portugal had ceded Bombay, one of the Portuguese Indian stations, +to the new Queen, and there is a chair of this Indo-Portuguese work, +carved in ebony, now in the museum at Oxford, which was given by Charles +II. either to Elias Ashmole or to Evelyn: the illustration on the next +page shews all the details of the carving. Another woodcut, on a smaller +scale, represents a similar chair grouped with a settee of a like design, +together with a small folding chair which Mr. G.T. Robinson, in his +article on "Seats," has described as Italian, but which we take the +liberty of pronouncing Flemish, judging by one now in the South Kensington +Museum. + +In connection with this Indo-Portuguese furniture, it would seem that +spiral turning became known and fashionable in England during the reign of +Charles II., and in some chairs of English make, which have come under the +writer's notice, the legs have been carved to imitate the effect of spiral +turning--an amount of superfluous labour which would scarcely have been +incurred, but for the fact that the country house-carpenter of this time +had an imported model, which he copied, without knowing how to produce by +the lathe the effect which had just come into fashion. There are, too, in +some illustrations in "Shaw's Ancient Furniture," some lamp-holders, in +which this spiral turning is overdone, as is generally the case when any +particular kind of ornament comes into vogue. + +[Illustration: Settee And Chair. In carved ebony, part of Indo-Portuguese +suite at Penshurst Place, with Flemish folding chair. Period: Charles II.] + +[Illustration: Carved Ebony Chair of Indo-portuguese Work, Given by +Charles II. to Elias Ashmole, Esq. (_In the Museum at Oxford_).] + +Probably the illustrated suite of furniture at Penshurst Place, which +comprises thirteen pieces, was imported about this time; two of the +smaller chairs appear to have their original cushions, the others have +been lately re-covered by Lord de l'Isle and Dudley. The spindles of the +backs of two of the chairs are of ivory: the carving, which is in solid +ebony, is much finer on some than on others. + +We gather a good deal of information about the furniture of this period +from the famous diary of Evelyn. He thus describes Hampton Court Palace, +as it appeared to him at the time of its preparation for the reception of +Catherine of Braganza, the bride of Charles II., who spent the royal +honeymoon in this historic building, which had in its time sheltered for +their brief spans of favour the six wives of Henry VIII. and the sickly +boyhood of Edward VI.:-- + +"It is as noble and uniform a pile as Gothic architecture can make it. +There is incomparable furniture in it, especially hangings designed by +Raphael, very rich with gold. Of the tapestries I believe the world can +show nothing nobler of the kind than the stories of Abraham and Tobit.[11] +... The Queen's bed was an embroidery of silver on crimson velvet, and +cost £8,000, being a present made by the States of Holland when his +majesty returned. The great looking-glass and toilet of beaten massive +gold were given by the Queen Mother. The Queen brought over with her from +Portugal such Indian cabinets as had never before been seen here." + +Evelyn wrote of course before Wren made his Renaissance additions to the +Palace. + +After the great fire which occurred in 1666, and destroyed some 13,000 +houses and no less than 80 churches, Sir Christopher Wren was given an +opportunity, unprecedented in history, of displaying his power of design +and reconstruction. Writing of this great architect, Macaulay says, "The +austere beauty of the Athenian portico, the gloomy sublimity of the Gothic +arcade, he was, like most of his contemporaries, incapable of emulating, +and perhaps incapable of appreciating; but no man born on our side of the +Alps has imitated with so much success the magnificence of the palace +churches of Italy. Even the superb Louis XIV. has left to posterity no +work which can bear a comparison with St. Paul's." + +[Illustration: + + Sedes, ecce tibi? quæ tot produxit alumnos + Quot gremio nutrit Granta, quot. Isis habet. + +_From the Original by Sir Peter Lely, presented to Dr. Busby by King +Charles_ "Sedes Busbiana" From a Print in the possession of J. C. THYNNE, +Esq. Period: Charles II.] + +Wren's great masterpiece was commenced in 1675, and completed in 1710, +and its building therefore covers a period of 35 years, carrying us +through the reigns of James II., William III. and Mary, and well on to the +end of Anne's. The admirable work which he did during this time, and which +has effected so much for the adornment of our Metropolis, had a marked +influence on the ornamental woodwork of the second half of the seventeenth +century: in the additions which he made to Hampton Court Palace, in Bow +Church, in the hospitals of Greenwich and of Chelsea, there is a +sumptuousness of ornament in stone and marble, which shew the influence +exercised on his mind by the desire to rival the grandeur of Louis XIV.; +the Fountain Court at Hampton being in direct imitation of the Palace of +Versailles. The carved woodwork of the choir of St. Paul's, with fluted +columns supporting a carved frieze; the richly carved panels, and the +beautiful figure work on both organ lofts, afford evidence that the oak +enrichments followed the marble and stone ornament. The swags of fruit and +flowers, the cherubs' heads with folded wings, and other details in Wren's +work, closely resemble the designs executed by Gibbons, whose carving is +referred to later on. + +It may be mentioned here that amongst the few churches in the city which +escaped the great fire, and contain woodwork of particular note, are St. +Helen's, Bishopgate, and the Charterhouse Chapel, which contain the +original pulpits of about the sixteenth century. + +The famous Dr. Busby, who for 55 years was head master of Westminster +School, was a great favourite of King Charles, and a picture painted by +Sir Peter Lely, is said to have been presented to the Doctor by His +Majesty; it is called "Sedes Busbiana." Prints from this old picture are +scarce, and the writer is indebted to Mr. John C. Thynne for the loan of +his copy, from which the illustration is taken. The portrait in the +centre, of the Pedagogue aspiring to the mitre, is that of Dr. South, who +succeeded Busby, and whose monument in Westminster Abbey is next to his. +The illustration is interesting, as although it may not have been actually +taken from a chair itself, it shews a design in the mind of a contemporary +artist. + +Of the Halls of the City Guilds, there is none more quaint, and in greater +contrast to the bustle of the neighbourhood, than the Hall of the Brewers' +Company, in Addle Street, City. This was partially destroyed, like most of +the older Halls, by the Great Fire, but was one of the first to be +restored and refurnished. In the kitchen are still to be seen the remains +of an old trestle and other relics of an earlier period, but the hall or +dining room, and the Court room, are complete, with very slight additions, +since the date of their interior equipment in 1670 to 1673. The Court room +has a richly carved chimney-piece in oak, nearly black with age, the +design of which is a shield with a winged head, palms, and swags of fruit +and flowers, while on the shield itself is an inscription, stating that +this room was wainscoted by Alderman Knight, master of the Company and +Lord Mayor of the City of London, in the year 1670. The room itself is +exceedingly quaint, with its high wainscoting and windows on the opposite +side to the fireplace, reminding one of the port-holes of a ship's cabin, +while the chief window looks out on to the old-fashioned garden, giving +the beholder altogether a pleasing illusion, carrying him back to the days +of Charles II. + +The chief room or Hall is still more handsomely decorated with carved oak +of this time. The actual date, 1673, is over the doorway on a tablet which +bears the names, in the letters of the period, of the master, "James +Reading, Esq.," and the wardens, "Mr. Robert Lawrence," "Mr. Samuel +Barber," and "Mr. Henry Sell." + +The names of other masters and wardens are also written over the carved +escutcheons of their different arms, and the whole room is one of the best +specimens in existence of the oak carving of this date. At the western end +is the master's chair, of which by the courtesy of Mr. Higgins, clerk to +the Company, we are able to give an illustration on p. 115--the +shield-shaped back, the carved drapery, and the coat-of-arms with the +company's motto, are all characteristic features, as are also the +Corinthian columns and arched pediments, in the oak decoration of the +room. The broken swan-necked pediment, which surmounts the cornice of the +room over the chair, is probably a more recent addition, this ornament +having come in about 30 years later. + +There are also the old dining tables and benches; these are as plain and +simple as possible. In the court room, is a table, which was formerly in +the Company's barge, with some good inlaid work in the arcading which +connects the two end standards, and some old carved lions' feet; the top +and other parts have been renewed. There is also an old oak fire-screen of +about the end of the seventeenth century. + +Another city hall, the interior woodwork of which dates from just after +the Great Fire, is that of the Stationers' Company, in Ave Maria Lane, +close to Ludgate Hill. Mr. Charles Robert Rivington, the present clerk to +the Company, has written a pamphlet, full of very interesting records of +this ancient and worshipful corporation, from which the following +paragraph is a quotation:--"The first meeting of the court after the fire +was held at Cook's Hall, and the subsequent courts, until the hall was +re-built, at the Lame Hospital Hall, i.e., St. Bartholomew's Hospital. +In 1670 a committee was appointed to re-build the hall; and in 1674 the +Court agreed with Stephen Colledge (the famous Protestant joiner, who was +afterwards hanged at Oxford in 1681) to wainscot the hall 'with +well-seasoned and well-matched wainscot, according to a model delivered in +for the sum of £300.' His work is now to be seen in excellent condition." + +[Illustration: The Master's Chair. (_Hall of the Brewers' Company._)] + +Mr. Rivington read his paper to the London and Middlesex Archaeological +Society in 1881; and the writer can with pleasure confirm the statement as +to the condition, in 1892, of this fine specimen of seventeenth century +work. Less ornate and elaborate than the Brewers' Hall, the panels are +only slightly relieved with carved mouldings; but the end of the room, or +main entrance, opposite the place of the old daïs (long since removed), is +somewhat similar to the Brewers', and presents a fine architectural +effect, which will be observed in the illustration on p. 117. + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Livery Cupboard. In the Hall of the +Stationers'Company. Made in 1674, the curved pediment added later, +probably in 1788.] + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Napkin Press Lent to the S. Kensington Museum by +H. Farrer, Esq. Early XVII. Century.] + +There is above, an illustration of one of the two livery cupboards, which +formerly stood on the daïs, and these are good examples of the cupboards +for display of plate of this period. The lower part was formerly the +receptacle of unused viands, distributed to the poor after the feast. In +their original state these livery cupboards finished with a straight +cornice, the broken pediments with the eagle (the Company's crest) having +most probably been added when the hall was, to quote an +inscription on a shield, "repaired and beautified in the mayoralty of the +Right Honourable William Gill, in the year 1788," when Mr. Thomas Hooke +was master, and Mr. Field and Mr. Rivington (the present clerk's +grandfather) wardens. + +[Illustration: Arm Chairs. + +Chair upholstered in Spitalfields silk. Hampton Court Palace. + +Carved and upholstered Chair. Hardwick Hall. + +Chair upholstered in Spitalfields silk. Knole, Sevenoaks. + +Period: William III. To Queen Anne.] + +There is still preserved in a lumber room one of the old benches of +seventeenth century work--now replaced in the hall by modern folding +chairs. This is of oak, with turned skittle-shaped legs slanting outwards, +and connected and strengthened by plain stretchers. The old tables are +still in their places. + +[Illustration: Carved Oak Screen. In the Hall of the Stationers' Company, +erected in 1674: the Royal Coat of Arms has been since added.] + +Another example of seventeenth century oak panelling is the handsome +chapel of the Mercers' Hall--the only city Company possessing their own +chapel--but only the lining of the walls and the reredos are of the +original work, the remainder having been added some ten or twelve years +ago, when some of the original carving was made use of in the new work. +Indeed, in this magnificent hall, about the most spacious of the old City +Corporation Palaces, there is a great deal of new work mixed with old--new +chimney-pieces and old overmantels--some of Grinling Gibbons' carved +enrichments, so painted and varnished as to have lost much of their +character; these have been applied to the oak panels in the large dining +hall. + +The woodwork lining of living rooms had been undergoing changes since the +commencement of the period of which we are now writing. In 1638 a man +named Christopher had taken out a patent for enamelling and gilding +leather, which was used as a wall decoration over the oak panelling. This +decorated leather hitherto had been imported from Holland and Spain; when +this was not used, and tapestry, which was very expensive, was not +obtainable, the plaster was roughly ornamented. Somewhat later than this, +pictures were let into the wainscot to form part of the decoration, for in +1669 Evelyn, when writing of the house of the "Earle of Norwich," in +Epping Forest, says, "A good many pictures put into the wainstcot which +Mr. Baker, his lordship's predecessor, brought from Spaine." Indeed, +subsequently the wainscot became simply the frame for pictures, and we +have the same writer deploring the disuse of timber, and expressing his +opinion that a sumptuary law ought to be passed to restore the "ancient +use of timber." Although no law was enacted on the subject, yet, some +twenty years later, the whirligig of fashion brought about the revival of +the custom of lining rooms with oak panelling. + +It is said that about 1670 Evelyn found Grinling Gibbons in a small +thatched house on the outskirts of Deptford, and introduced him to the +King, who gave him an appointment on the Board of Works, and patronised +him with extensive orders. The character of his carving is well known; +generally using lime-tree as the vehicle of his designs, the life-like +birds and flowers, the groups of fruit, and heads of cherubs, are easily +recognised. One of the rooms in Windsor Castle is decorated with the work +of his chisel, which can also be seen in St. Paul's Cathedral, Hampton +Court Palace, Chatsworth, Burleigh, and perhaps his best, at Petworth +House, in Sussex. He also sculptured in stone. The base of King Charles' +statue at Windsor, the font of St. James', Piccadilly (round the base of +which are figures of Adam and Eve), are his work, as is also the lime-tree +border of festoon work over the communion table. Gibbons was an +Englishman, but appears to have spent his boyhood in Holland, where he was +christened "Grinling." He died in 1721. His pupils were Samuel Watson, a +Derbyshire man, who did much of the carved work at Chatsworth, Drevot of +Brussels, and Lawreans of Mechlin. Gibbons and his pupils founded a school +of carving in England which has been continued by tradition to the present +day. + +[Illustration: Silver Furniture at Knole. (_From a Photo by Mr. Corke, of +Sevenoaks._)] + +A somewhat important immigration of French workmen occurred about this +time owing to the persecutions of Protestants in France, which followed, +the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, by Louis XIV., and these +refugees bringing with them their skill, their patterns and ideas, +influenced the carving of our frames and the designs of some of our +furniture. This influence is to be traced in some of the contents of +Hampton Court Palace, particularly in the carved and gilt centre tables +and the _torchères_ of French design but of English workmanship. It is +said that no less than 50,000 families left France, some thousands of whom +belonged to the industrial classes, and settled in England and Germany, +where their descendants still remain. They introduced the manufacture of +crystal chandeliers, and founded our Spitalfields silk industry and other +trades, till then little practised in England. + +The beautiful silver furniture at Knole belongs to this time, having been +made for one of the Earls of Dorset, in the reign of James II. The +illustration is from a photograph taken by Mr. Corke, of Sevenoaks. +Electrotypes of the originals are in the South Kensington Museum. From two +other suites at Knole, consisting of a looking glass, a table, and a pair +of _torchères_, in the one case of plain walnut wood, and in the other of +ebony with silver mountings, it would appear that a toilet suite of +furniture of the time of James II. generally consisted of articles of a +similar character, more or less costly, according to circumstances. The +silver table bears the English Hall mark of the reign. + +As we approach the end of the seventeenth century and examine specimens of +English furniture about 1680 to 1700, we find a marked Flemish influence. +The Stadtholder, King William III., with his Dutch friends, imported many +of their household goods[12], and our English craftsmen seem to have +copied these very closely. The chairs and settees in the South Kensington +Museum, and at Hampton Court Palace, have the shaped back with a wide +inlaid or carved upright bar, the cabriole leg and the carved shell +ornament on the knee of the leg, and on the top of the back, which are +still to be seen in many of the old Dutch houses. + +There are a few examples of furniture of this date, which it is almost +impossible to distinguish from Flemish, but in some others there is a +characteristic decoration in marqueterie, which may be described as a +seaweed scroll in holly or box wood, inlaid on a pale walnut ground, a +good example of which is to be seen in the upright "grandfather's clock" +in the South Kensington Museum, the effect being a pleasing harmony of +colour. + +In the same collection there is also a walnut wood centre table, dating +from about 1700, which has twisted legs and a stretcher, the top being +inlaid with intersecting circles relieved by the inlay of some stars in +ivory. + +As we have observed with regard to French furniture of this time, mirrors +came more generally into use, and the frames were both carved and inlaid. +There are several of these at Hampton Court Palace, all with bevelled +edged plate glass; some have frames entirely of glass, the short lengths +which make the frame, having in some cases the joints covered by rosettes +of blue glass, and in others a narrow moulding of gilt work on each side +of the frame. In one room (the Queen's Gallery) the frames are painted in +colors and relieved by a little gilding. + +The taste for importing old Dutch furniture, also lacquer cabinets from +Japan, not only gave relief to the appearance of a well furnished +apartment of this time, but also brought new ideas to our designers and +workmen. Our collectors, too, were at this time appreciating the Oriental +china, both blue and white, and colored, which had a good market in +Holland, so that with the excellent silversmith's work then obtainable, it +was possible in the time of William and Mary to arrange a room with more +artistic effect than at an earlier period, when the tapestry and panelling +of the walls, a table, the livery cupboard previously described, and some +three or four chairs, had formed almost the whole furniture of reception +rooms. + +The first mention of corner cupboards appears to have been made in an +advertisement of a Dutch joiner in "The Postman" of March 8th, 1711; these +cupboards, with their carved pediments being part of the modern fittings +of a room in the time of Queen Anne. + +The oak presses common to this and earlier times are formed of an upper +and lower part, the former sometimes being three sides of an octagon with +the top supported by columns, while the lower half is straight, and the +whole is carved with incised ornament. These useful articles of furniture, +in the absence of wardrobes, are described in inventories of the time +(1680-1720) as "press cupboards," "great cupboards," "wainscot," and +"joyned cupboards." + +The first mention of a "Buerow," as our modern word "Bureau" was then +spelt, is said by Dr. Lyon, in his American book, "The Colonial Furniture +of New England," to have occurred in an advertisement in "The Daily Post" +of January 4th, 1727. The same author quotes Bailey's Dictionarium +Britannicum, published in London, 1736, as defining the word "bureau" as +"a cabinet or chest of drawers, or 'scrutoir' for depositing papers or +accounts." + +In the latter half of the eighteenth century those convenient pieces of +furniture came into more general use, and illustrations of them as +designed and made by Chippendale and his contemporaries will be found in +the chapter dealing with that period. + +Dr. Lyon also quotes from an American newspaper, "The Boston News Letter" +of April 16th, 1716, an advertisement which was evidently published when +the tall clocks, which we now call "grandfathers' clocks," were a novelty, +and as such were being introduced to the American public. We have already +referred to one of these which is in the South Kensington Museum, date +1700, and no doubt the manufacture of similar ones became more general +during the first years of the eighteenth century. The advertisement +alluded to runs, "Lately come from London, a parcel of very fine +clocks--they go a week and repeat the hour when pulled" (a string caused +the same action as the pressing of the handle of a repeating watch) "in +Japan cases or wall-nut." + +The style of decoration in furniture and woodwork which we recognise as +"Queen Anne," apart from the marqueterie just described, appears, so far +as the writer's investigations have gone, to be due to the designs of some +eminent architects of the time. Sir James Vanbrugh was building Blenheim +Palace for the Queen's victorious general, and also Castle Howard. +Nicholas Hawksmoor had erected St. George's. Bloomsbury, and James Gibbs, +a Scotch architect and antiquary, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and the +Royal Library at Oxford; a ponderous style characterises the woodwork +interior of these buildings. We give an illustration of three designs for +chimney-pieces and overmantels by James Gibbs, the centre one of which +illustrates the curved or "swan-necked" pediment, which became a favourite +ornament about this time, until supplanted by the heavier triangular +pediment which came in with "the Georges." + +The contents of Hampton Court Palace afford evidence of the transition +which the design of woodwork and furniture has undergone from the time of +William III. until that of George II. There is the Dutch chair with +cabriole leg, the plain walnut card table also of Dutch design, which +probably came over with the Stadtholder; then, there are the heavy +draperies, and chairs almost completely covered by Spitalfields silk +velvet, to be seen in the bedroom furniture of Queen Anne. Later, as the +heavy Georgian style predominated, there is the stiff ungainly gilt +furniture, console tables with legs ornamented with the Greek key pattern +badly applied, and finally, as the French school of design influenced our +carvers, an improvement may be noticed in the tables and _torchéres_, +which but for being a trifle clumsy, might pass for the work of French +craftsmen of the same time. The State chairs, the bedstead, and some +stools, which are said to have belonged to Queen Caroline, are further +examples of the adoption of French fashion. + +[Illustration: Three Chimneypieces. Designed by James Gibes, Architect, in +1739.] + +Nearly all writers on the subject of furniture and woodwork are agreed in +considering that the earlier part of the period discussed in this chapter, +that is, the seventeenth century, is the best in the traditions of +English work. As we have seen in noticing some of the earlier Jacobean +examples already illustrated and described, it was a period marked by +increased refinement of design through the abandonment of the more +grotesque and often coarse work of Elizabethan carving, and by soundness +of construction and thorough workmanship. + +Oak furniture made in England during the seventeenth century, is still a +credit to the painstaking craftsmen of those days, and even upholstered +furniture, like the couches and chairs at Knole, after more than 250 +years' service, are fit for use. + +In the ninth and last chapter, which will deal with furniture of the +present day, the methods of production which are now in practice will be +noticed, and some comparison will be made which must be to the credit of +the Jacobean period. + + * * * * * + +In the foregoing chapters an attempt has been made to preserve, as far as +possible, a certain continuity in the history of the subject matter of +this work from the earliest times until after the Renaissance had been +generally adopted in Europe. In this endeavour a greater amount of +attention has been bestowed upon the furniture of a comparatively short +period of English history than upon that of other countries, but it is +hoped that this fault will be forgiven by English readers. + +It has now become necessary to interrupt this plan, and before returning +to the consideration of European design and work, to devote a short +chapter to those branches of the Industrial Arts connected with furniture +which flourished in China and Japan, in India, Persia, and Arabia, at a +time anterior and subsequent to the Renaissance period in Europe. + + + + +Chapter V. + +The Furniture of Eastern Countries. + + + + CHINESE FURNITURE: Probable source of artistic taste--Sir William + Chambers quoted--Racinet's "Le Costume Historique"--Dutch + influence--The South Kensington and the Duke of Edinburgh + Collections--Processes of making Lacquer--Screens in the Kensington + Museum. JAPANESE FURNITURE: Early History--Sir Rutherford Alcock and + Lord Elgin--The Collection of the Shogun--Famous Collections--Action of + the present Government of Japan--Special characteristics. INDIAN + FURNITURE: Early European influence--Furniture of the Moguls--Racinet's + Work--Bombay Furniture--Ivory Chairs and Table--Specimens in the India + Museum. PERSIAN WOODWORK: Collection of Objets d'Art formed by General + Murdoch Smith, R.E.--Industrial Arts of the Persians--Arab + influence--South Kensington Specimens. SARACENIC WOODWORK: Oriental + customs--Specimens in the South Kensington Museum of Arab Work--M. + d'Aveune's Work. + + +Chinese and Japanese Furniture. + + +[Illustration] + +We have been unable to discover when the Chinese first began to use State +or domestic furniture. Whether, like the ancient Assyrians and Egyptians, +there was an early civilization which included the arts of joining, +carving, and upholstering, we do not know; most probably there was; and +from the plaster casts which one sees in our Indian Museum, of the +ornamental stone gateways of Sanchi Tope, Bhopal in Central India, it +would appear that in the early part of our Christian era, the carvings in +wood of their neighbours and co-religionists, the Hindoos, represented +figures of men and animals in the woodwork of sacred buildings or palaces; +and the marvellous dexterity in manipulating wood, ivory and stone which +we recognize in the Chinese of to-day, is inherited from their ancestors. + +Sir William Chambers travelled in China in the early part of the last +century. It was he who introduced "the Chinese style" into furniture and +decoration, which was adopted by Chippendale and other makers, as will be +noticed in the chapter dealing with that period of English furniture. He +gives us the following description of the furniture he found in "The +Flowery Land." + +"The moveables of the saloon consist of chairs, stools, and tables; made +sometimes of rosewood, ebony, or lacquered work, and sometimes of bamboo +only, which is cheap, and, nevertheless, very neat. When the moveables are +of wood, the seats of the stools are often of marble or porcelain, which, +though hard to sit on, are far from unpleasant in a climate where the +summer heats are so excessive. In the corners of the rooms are stands four +or live feet high, on which they set plates of citrons, and other fragrant +fruits, or branches of coral in vases of porcelain, and glass globes +containing goldfish, together with a certain weed somewhat resembling +fennel; on such tables as are intended for ornament only they also place +little landscapes, composed of rocks, shrubs, and a kind of lily that +grows among pebbles covered with water. Sometimes also, they have +artificial landscapes made of ivory, crystal, amber, pearls, and various +stones. I have seen some of these that cost over 300 guineas, but they are +at best mere baubles, and miserable imitations of nature. Besides these +landscapes they adorn their tables with several vases of porcelain, and +little vases of copper, which are held in great esteem. These are +generally of simple and pleasing forms. The Chinese say they were made two +thousand years ago, by some of their celebrated artists, and such as are +real antiques (for there are many counterfeits) they buy at an extravagant +price, giving sometimes no less than £300 sterling for one of them. + +"The bedroom is divided from the saloon by a partition of folding doors, +which, when the weather is hot, are in the night thrown open to admit the +air. It is very small, and contains no other furniture than the bed, and +some varnished chests in which they keep their apparel. The beds are very +magnificent; the bedsteads are made much like ours in Europe--of rosewood, +carved, or lacquered work: the curtains are of taffeta or gauze, sometimes +flowered with gold, and commonly either blue or purple. About the top a +slip of white satin, a foot in breadth, runs all round, on which are +painted, in panels, different figures--flower pieces, landscapes, and +conversation pieces, interspersed with moral sentences and fables written +in Indian ink and vermilion." + +From old paintings and engravings which date from about the fourteenth or +fifteenth century one gathers an idea of such furniture as existed in +China and Japan in earlier times. In one of these, which is reproduced in +Racinet's "Le Costume Historique," there is a Chinese princess reclining +on a sofa which has a frame of black wood visible, and slightly +ornamented; it is upholstered with rich embroidery, for which these +artistic people seem to have been famous from a very early period. A +servant stands by her side to hand her the pipe of opium with which the +monotony of the day was varied--one arm rests on a small wooden table or +stand which is placed on the sofa, and which holds a flower vase and a +pipe stand. + +On another old painting two figures are seated on mats playing a game +which resembles draughts, the pieces being moved about on a little table +with black and white squares like a modern chessboard, with shaped feet to +raise it a convenient height for the players: on the floor stand cups of +tea ready to hand. Such pictures are generally ascribed to the fifteenth +century, the period of the great Ming dynasty, which appears to have been +the time of an improved culture and taste in China. + +From this time and a century later (the sixteenth) also date those +beautiful cabinets of lacquered wood enriched with ivory, mother of pearl, +with silver and even with gold, which have been brought to England +occasionally; but genuine specimens of this, and of the seventeenth +century, are very scarce and extremely valuable. + +The older Chinese furniture which one sees generally in Europe dates from +the eighteenth century, and was made to order and imported by the Dutch; +this explains the curious combination to be found of Oriental and European +designs; thus, there are screens with views of Amsterdam and other cities +copied from paintings sent out for the purpose, while the frames of the +panels are of carved rosewood of the fretted bamboo pattern characteristic +of the Chinese. Elaborate bedsteads, tables and cabinets were also made, +with panels of ash stained a dark color and ornamented with hunting +scenes, in which the men and horses are of ivory, or sometimes with ivory +faces and limbs, the clothes being chiefly in a brown colored wood. + +In a beautiful table in the South Kensington Museum, which is said to have +been made in Cochin-China, mother of pearl is largely used and produces a +rich effect. + +The furniture brought back by the Duke of Edinburgh from China and Japan +is of the usual character imported, and the remarks hereafter made on +Indian or Bombay furniture apply equally to this adaptation of Chinese +detail to European designs. + +The most highly prized work of China and Japan in the way of decorative +furniture is the beautiful lacquer work, and in the notice on French +furniture of the eighteenth century, in a subsequent chapter, we shall see +that the process was adopted in Holland, France and England with more or +less success. + +It is worth while, however, to allude to it here a little more fully. + +The process as practised in China is thus described by M. Jacquemart:-- + +"The wood when smoothly planed is covered with a sheet of thin paper or +silk gauze, over which is spread a thick coating made of powdered red +sandstone and buffalo's gall. This is allowed to dry, after which it is +polished and rubbed with wax, or else receives a wash of gum water, +holding chalk in solution. The varnish is laid on with a flat brush, and +the article is placed in a damp drying room, whence it passes into the +hands of a workman, who moistens and again polishes it with a piece of +very fine grained soft clay slate, or with the stalks of the horse-tail or +shave grass. It then receives a second coating of lacquer, and when dry is +once more polished. These operations are repeated until the surface +becomes perfectly smooth and lustrous. There are never applied less than +three coatings and seldom more than eighteen, though some old Chinese and +some Japan ware are said to have received upwards of twenty. As regards +China, this seems quite exceptional, for there is in the Louvre a piece +with the legend 'lou-tinsg,' i.e. six coatings, implying that even so +many are unusual enough to be worthy of special mention." + +There is as much difference between different kinds and qualities of lac +as between different classes of marquctcrie. + +The most highly prized is the LACQUER ON GOLD GROUND, and the specimens of +this which first reached Europe during the time of Louis XV., were +presentation pieces from the Japanese Princes to some of the Dutch +officials. + +Gold ground lacquer is rarely found in furniture, and only as a rule in +some of those charming little boxes, in which the luminous effect of the +lac is heightened by the introduction of silver foliage on a minute scale, +or of tiny landscape work and figures charmingly treated, partly with dull +gold and partly highly burnished. Small placques of this beautiful ware +were used for some of the choicest pieces of Gouthière's elegant furniture +made for Marie Antoinette. + +Aventurine lacquer closely imitates in color the sparkling mineral from +which it takes its name, and a less highly finished preparation is used as +a lining for the small drawers of cabinets. Another lacquer has a black +ground, on which landscapes delicately traced in gold stand out in +charming relief. Such pieces were used by Riesener and mounted by +Gouthière in some of the most costly furniture made for Marie Antoinette; +some specimens are in the Louvre. It is this kind of lacquer, in varying +qualities, that is usually found in cabinets, folding screens, coffers, +tables, etagéres, and other ornamental articles of furniture. Enriched +with inlay of mother of pearl, the effect of which is in some cases +heightened and rendered more effective by some transparent coloring on its +reverse side, as in the case of a bird's plumage or of those beautiful +blossoms which both Chinese and Japanese artists can represent so +faithfully. + +A very remarkable screen in Chinese lacquer of later date is in the South +Kensington Museum; it is composed of twelve folds each ten feet high, and +measuring when fully extended twenty-one feet. This screen is very +beautifully decorated on both sides with incised and raised ornaments +painted and gilt on black ground, with a rich border ornamented with +representations of sacred symbols and various other objects. The price +paid for it was £1,000. There are also in the Museum some very rich chairs +of modern Chinese work, in brown wood, probably teak, very elaborately +inlaid with mother-of-pearl; they were exhibited in Paris in 1867. + +Of the very early history of Japanese industrial arts we know but little. +We have no record of the kind of furniture which Marco Polo found when he +travelled in Japan in the thirteenth century, and until the Jesuit +missionaries obtained a footing in the sixteenth century and sent home +specimens of native work, there was probably very little of Japanese +manufacture which found its way to Europe. The beautiful lacquer work of +Japan, which dates from the end of the sixteenth and the following +century, leads us to suppose that a long period of probation must have +occurred before the Arts, which were probably learned from the Chinese, +could have been so thoroughly mastered. + +Of furniture, with the exception of the cabinets, chests, and boxes, large +and small, of this famous lac, there appears to have been little. Until +the Japanese developed a taste for copying European customs and manners, +the habit seems to have been to sit on mats and to use small tables raised +a few inches from the ground. Even the bedrooms contained no bedsteads, +but a light mattress served for bed and bedstead. + +The process of lacquering has already been described, and in the chapter +on French furniture of the eighteenth century it will be seen how +specimens of this decorative material reached France by way of Holland, +and were mounted into the "_meubles de luxe_" of that time. With this +exception, and that of the famous collection of porcelain in the Japan +Palace at Dresden, probably but little of the art products of this +artistic people had been exported until the country was opened up by the +expedition of Lord Elgin and Commodore Perry, in 1858-9, and subsequently +by the antiquarian knowledge and research of Sir Rutherford Alcock, who +has contributed so much to our knowledge of Japanese industrial art; +indeed it is scarcely too much to say, that so far as England is +concerned, he was the first to introduce the products of the Empire of +Japan. + +[Illustration: Japanese Cabinet of Red Chased Lacquer Work. XVII to XVIII +Century.] + +The Revolution, and the break up of the feudal system which had existed in +that country for some eight hundred years, ended by placing the Mikado on +the throne. There was a sale in Paris, in 1867, of the famous collection +of the Shôgun, who had sent his treasures there to raise funds for the +civil war in which he was then engaged with the Daimio. This was followed +by the exportation of other fine native productions to Paris and London; +but the supply of old and really fine specimens has, since about 1874, +almost ceased, and, in default, the European markets have become flooded +with articles of cheap and inferior workmanship, exported to meet the +modern demand. The present Government of Japan, anxious to recover many of +the masterpieces which were produced in the best time, under the +patronage of the native princes of the old _régime_, have established a +museum at Tokio, where many examples of fine lacquer work, which had been +sent to Europe for sale, have been placed after repurchase, to serve as +examples for native artists to copy, and to assist in the restoration of +the ancient reputation of Japan. + +There is in the South Kensington Museum a very beautiful Japanese chest of +lacquer work made about the beginning of the seventeenth century, the best +time for Japanese art; it formerly belonged to Napoleon I. and was +purchased at the Hamilton Palace Sale for £722: it is some 3 ft. 3 in. +long and 2 ft. 1 in. high, and was intended originally as a receptacle for +sacred Buddhist books. There are, most delicately worked on to its +surface, views of the interior of one of the Imperial Palaces of Japan, +and a hunting scene. Mother-of-pearl, gold, silver, and aventurine, are +all used in the enrichment of this beautiful specimen of inlaid work, and +the lock plate is a representative example of the best kind of metal work +as applied to this purpose. + +H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh has several fine specimens of Chinese and +Japanese lacquer work in his collection, about the arrangement of which +the writer had the honour of advising his Royal Highness, when it arrived +some years ago at Clarence House. The earliest specimen is a reading desk, +presented by the Mikado, with a slope for a book much resembling an +ordinary bookrest, but charmingly decorated with lacquer in landscape +subjects on the flat surfaces, while the smaller parts are diapered with +flowers and quatrefoils in relief of lac and gold. This is of the +sixteenth century. The collections of the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, +Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B., Mr. Salting, Viscount Gough, and other +well-known amateurs, contain some excellent examples of the best periods +of Japanese Art work of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. + +The grotesque carving of the wonderful dragons and marvellous monsters +introduced into furniture made by the Chinese and Japanese, and especially +in the ornamental woodwork of the Old Temples, is thoroughly peculiar to +these masters of elaborate design and skilful manipulation: and the low +rate of remuneration, compared with our European notions of wages, enables +work to be produced that would be impracticable under any other +conditions. In comparing the decorative work on Chinese and Japanese +furniture, it may be said that more eccentricity is effected by the latter +than by the former in their designs and general decorative work. The +Japanese joiner is unsurpassed, and much of the lattice work, admirable in +design and workmanship, is so quaint and intricate that only by close +examination can it be distinguished from finely cut fret work. + + + +Indian Furniture. + + +European influence upon Indian art and manufactures has been of long +duration; it was first exercised by the Portuguese and Dutch in the early +days of the United East India Company, afterwards by the French, who +established a trading company there in 1664, and since then by the +English, the first charter of the old East India Company dating as far +back as 1600. Thus European taste dominated almost everything of an +ornamental character until it became difficult to find a decorative +article the design of which did not in some way or other shew the +predominance of European influence over native conception. Therefore it +becomes important to ascertain what kind of furniture, limited as it was, +existed in India during the period of the Mogul Empire, which lasted from +1505 to 1739, when the invasion of the Persians under Kouli Khan destroyed +the power of the Moguls; the country formerly subject to them was then +divided amongst sundry petty princes. + +The thrones and State chairs used by the Moguls were rich with elaborate +gilding; the legs or supports were sometimes of turned wood, with some of +the members carved; the chair was formed like an hour glass, or rather +like two bowls reversed, with the upper part extended to form a higher +back to the seat. In M. Racinet's sumptuous work, "Le Costume Historique," +published in Paris in 20 volumes (1876), there are reproduced some old +miniatures from the collection of M. Ambroise Didot. These represent--with +all the advantages of the most highly finished printing in gold, silver, +and colours--portraits of these native sovereigns seated on their State +chairs, with the umbrella, as a sign of royalty. The panels and ornaments +of the thrones are picked out with patterns of flowers, sometimes detached +blossoms, sometimes the whole plant; the colors are generally bright red +and green, while the ground of a panel or the back of a chair is in +silver, with arabesque tracery, the rest of the chair being entirely gilt. +The couches are rectangular, with four turned and carved supports, some +eight or ten inches high, and also gilt. With the exception of small +tables, which could be carried into the room by slaves, and used for the +light refreshments customary to the country, there was no other furniture. +The ladies of the harem are represented as being seated on sumptuous +carpets, and the walls are highly decorated with gold and silver and +color, which seems very well suited to the arched openings, carved and +gilt doors, and brilliant costumes of the occupants of these Indian +palaces. + +After the break up of the Mogul power, the influence of Holland, France, +and England brought about a mixture of taste and design which, with the +concurrent alterations in manners and customs, gradually led to the +production of what is now known as the "Bombay furniture." The patient, +minute carving of Indian design applied to utterly uncongenial Portuguese +or French shapes of chairs and sofas, or to the familiar round or oval +table, carved almost beyond recognition, are instances of this style. One +sees these occasionally in the house of an Anglo-Indian, who has employed +native workmen to make some of this furniture for him, the European chairs +and tables being given as models, while the details of the ornament have +been left to native taste. + +It is scarcely part of our subject to allude to the same kind of influence +which has spoiled the quaint bizarre effect of native design and +workmanship in silver, in jewellery, in carpets, embroideries, and in +pottery, which was so manifest in the contributions sent to South +Kensington at the Colonial Exhibition, 1886. There are in the Indian +Museum at South Kensington several examples of this Bombay furniture, and +also some of Cingalese manufacture. + +In the Jones Collection at South Kensington Museum, there are two carved +ivory chairs and a table, the latter gilded, the former partly gilded, +which are a portion of a set taken from Tippo Sahib at the storming of +Seringapatam. Warren Hastings brought them to England, and they were given +to Queen Charlotte. After her death the set was divided; Lord +Londesborough purchased part of it, and this portion is now on loan at the +Bethnal Green Museum. + +The Queen has also amongst her numerous Jubilee presents some very +handsome ivory furniture of Indian workmanship, which may be seen at +Windsor Castle. These, however, as well as the Jones Collection examples, +though thoroughly Indian in character as regards the treatment of scrolls, +flowers, and foliage, shew unmistakcably the influence of French taste in +their general form and contour. Articles, such as boxes, stands for gongs, +etc., are to be found carved in sandal wood, and in _dalburgia,_ or black +wood, with rosewood mouldings; and a peculiar characteristic of this +Indian decoration, sometimes applied to such small articles of furniture, +is the coating of the surface of the wood with red lacquer, the plain +parts taking a high polish while the carved enrichment remains dull. The +effect of this is precisely that of the article being made of red sealing +wax, and frequently the minute pattern of the carved ornament and its +general treatment tend to give an idea of an impression made in the wax by +an elaborately cut die. The casket illustrated on p. 134 is an example of +this treatment. It was exhibited in 1851. + +The larger examples of Indian carved woodwork are of teak; the finest and +most characteristic specimens within the writer's knowledge are the two +folding doors which were sent as a present to the Indian Government, and +are in the Indian Museum. They are of seventeenth century work, and are +said to have enclosed a library at Kerowlee. While the door frames are of +teak, with the outer frames carved with bands of foliage in high relief, +the doors themselves are divided into panels of fantastic shapes, and yet +so arranged that there is just sufficient regularity to please the eye. +Some of these panels are carved and enriched with ivory flowers, others +have a rosette of carved ivory in the centre, and pieces of talc with +green and red colour underneath, a decoration also found in some Arabian +work. It is almost impossible to convey by words an adequate description +of these doors; they should be carefully examined as examples of genuine +native design and workmanship. Mr. Pollen has concluded a somewhat +detailed account of them by saying:--"For elegance of shape and +proportion, and the propriety of the composition of the frame and +sub-divisions of these doors, their mouldings and their panel carvings and +ornaments, we can for the present name no other example so instructive. +We are much reminded by this decoration of the pierced lattices at the +S. Marco in Venice." + +[Illustration: Casket of Indian Lacquer Work.] + +There is in the Indian Museum another remarkable specimen of native +furniture--namely, a chair of the purest beaten gold of octagonal shape, +and formed of two bowls reversed, decorated with acanthus and lotus in +repousée ornament. This is of eighteenth century workmanship, and was +formerly the property of Runjeet Sing. The precious metal is thinly laid +on, according to the Eastern method, the wood underneath the gold taking +all the weight. + +There is also a collection of plaster casts of portions of temples and +palaces from a very early period until the present time, several having +been sent over as a loan to the Indian and Colonial Exhibition of 1886, +and afterwards presented by the Commissioners to the Museum. + +A careful observation of the ornamental details of these casts leads us to +the conclusion that the Byzantine style which was dominant throughout the +more civilized portion of Asia during the power of the Romans, had +survived the great changes of the Middle Ages. As native work became +subject more or less to the influence of the Indo-Chinese carvers of +deities on the one side, and of the European notions of the Portuguese +pioneers of discovery on the other, a fashion of decorative woodwork was +arrived at which can scarcely be dignified by the name of a style, and +which it is difficult to describe. Dr. Birdwood, in his work on Indian +Art, points out that, about a hundred years ago, Indian designs were +affected by the immigration of Persian designers and workmen. The result +of this influence is to be seen in the examples in the Museum, a short +notice of which will conclude these remarks on Indian work. + +The copy in shishem wood of a carved window at Amritzar, in the Punjaub, +with its overhanging cornice, ornamental arches, supported by pillars, and +the whole surface covered with small details of ornament, is a good +example of the sixteenth and seventeenth century work. The various façades +of dwelling-houses in teak wood, carved, and still bearing the remains of +paint with which part of the carving was picked out, represent the work of +the contemporary carvers of Ahmedabad, famous for its woodwork. + +Portions of a lacquer work screen, similar in appearance to embossed gilt +leather, with the pattern in gold, on a ground of black or red, and the +singular Cashmere work, called "mirror mosaic," give us a good idea of the +Indian decoration of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This +effective decoration is produced by little pieces of looking-glass being +introduced into the small geometrical patterns of the panels; these, when +joined together, form a very rich ceiling. + +The bedstead of King Theebaw, brought from Mandalay, is an example of this +mixture of glass and wood, which can be made extremely effective. The +wood is carved and gilt to represent the gold setting of numerous precious +stones, which are counterfeited by small pieces of looking-glass and +variously-coloured pieces of transparent glass. + +Some of the Prince of Wales' presents, namely, chairs, with carved lions +forming arms; tables of shishem wood, inlaid with ebony and ivory, shew +the European influence we have alluded to. + +Amongst the modern ornamental articles in the Museum are many boxes, pen +trays, writing cases, and even photograph albums of wood and ivory mosaic +work, the inlaid patterns being produced by placing together strips of tin +wire, sandal wood, ebony, and of ivory, white, or stained green: these +bound into a rod, either triangular or hexagonal, are cut into small +sections, and then inlaid into the surface of the article to be decorated. + +Papier maché and lacquer work are also frequently found in small articles +of furniture; and the collection of drawings by native artists attests the +high skill in design and execution attained by Indian craftsmen. + + + +Persia. + + +The Persians have from time immemorial been an artistic people, and their +style of Art throughout successive conquests and generations has varied +but little. + +Major-General Murdoch Smith, R.E., the present Director of the branch of +the South Kensington Museum in Edinburgh, who resided for some years in +Persia, and had the assistance when there of M. Richard (a well-known +French antiquarian), made a collection of _objets d'art_ some years ago +for the Science and Art Department, which is now in the Kensington Museum, +but it contains comparatively little that can be actually termed +furniture; and it is extremely difficult to meet with important specimens +of ornamental wordwork of native workmanship. Those in the Museum, and in +other collections, are generally small ornamental articles. The chief +reason of this is, doubtless, that little timber is to be found in Persia, +except in the Caspian provinces, where, as Mr. Benjamin has told us in +"Persia and the Persians," wood is abundant; and the Persian architect, +taking advantage of his opportunity, has designed his houses with wooden +piazzas--not found elsewhere--and with "beams, lintels, and eaves +quaintly, sometimes elegantly, carved, and tinted with brilliant hues." +Another feature of the decorative woodwork in this part of Persia is that +produced by the large latticed windows, which are well adapted to the +climate. + +[Illustration: Door of Carved Sandal Wood, from Travancore. India Museum, +South Kensington. Period: Probably Late XVIII. Century.] + +In the manufacture of textile fabrics--notably, their famous carpets of +Yezd and Ispahan, and their embroidered cloths in hammered and engraved +metal work, and formerly in beautiful pottery and porcelain--they have +excelled: and examples will be found in the South Kensington Museum. It is +difficult to find a representative specimen of Persian furniture except a +box or a stool; and the illustration of a brass incense burner is, +therefore, given to mark the method of design, which was adopted in a +modified form by the Persians from their Arab conquerors. + +[Illustration: Incense Burner of Engraved Brass. (_In the South Kensington +Museum_).] + +This method of design has one or two special characteristics which are +worth noticing. One of these was the teaching of Mahomet forbidding animal +representation in design--a rule which in later work has been relaxed; +another was the introduction of mathematics into Persia by the Saracens, +which led to the adoption of geometrical patterns in design; and a third, +the development of "Caligraphy" into a fine art, which has resulted in the +introduction of a text, or motto, into so many of the Persian designs of +decorative work. The combination of these three characteristics have given +us the "Arabesque" form of ornament, which, in artistic nomenclature, +occurs so frequently. + +The general method of decorating woodwork is similar to that of India, and +consists in either inlaying brown wood (generally teak) with ivory or +pearl in geometrical patterns, or in covering the wooden box, or +manuscript case, with a coating of lacquer, somewhat similar to the +Chinese or Japanese preparations. On this groundwork some good miniature +painting was executed, the colours being, as a rule, red, green, and gold, +with black lines to give force to the design. + +The author of "Persia and the Persians," already quoted, had, during his +residence in the country, as American Minister, great opportunities of +observation, and in his chapter entitled "A Glance at the Arts of Persia," +has said a good deal of this mosaic work. Referring to the scarcity of +wood in Persia, he says: "For the above reason one is astonished at the +marvellous ingenuity, skill, and taste developed by the art of inlaid +work, or Mosaic in wood. It would be impossible to exceed the results +achieved by the Persian artizans, especially those of Shiraz, in this +wonderful and difficult art.... Chairs, tables, sofas, boxes, violins, +guitars, canes, picture frames, almost every conceivable object, in fact, +which is made of wood, may be found overlaid with an exquisite casing of +inlaid work, so minute sometimes that thirty-live or forty pieces may be +counted in the space of a square eighth of an inch. I have counted four +hundred and twenty-eight distinct pieces on a square inch of a violin, +which is completely covered by this exquisite detail of geometric +designs, in Mosaic." + +Mr. Benjamin--who, it will be noticed, is somewhat too enthusiastic over +this kind of mechanical decoration--also observes that, while the details +will stand the test of a magnifying glass, there is a general breadth in +the design which renders it harmonious and pleasing if looked at from a +distance. + +In the South Kensington Museum there are several specimens of Persian +lacquer work, which have very much the appearance of papier maché articles +that used to be so common in England some forty years ago, save that the +decoration is, of course, of Eastern character. + +Of seventeenth century work, there is also a fine coffer, richly inlaid +with ivory, of the best description of Persian design and workmanship of +this period, which was about the zenith of Persian Art during the reign of +Shah Abbas. The numerous small articles of what is termed Persian +marqueterie, are inlaid with tin wire and stained ivory, on a ground of +cedar wood, very similar to the same kind of ornamental work already +described in the Indian section of this chapter. These were purchased at +the Paris Exhibition in 1867. + +Persian Art of the present day may be said to be in a state of transition, +owing to the introduction and assimilation of European ideas. + + + +Saracenic Woodwork From Cairo and Damascus. + + +While the changes of fashion in Western, as contrasted with Eastern +countries, are comparatively rapid, the record of two or three centuries +presenting a history of great and well-defined alterations in manners, +customs, and therefore, of furniture, the more conservative Oriental has +been content to reproduce, from generation to generation, the traditions +of his forefathers; and we find that, from the time of the Moorish +conquest and spread of Arabesque design, no radical change in Saracenic +Art occurred until French and English energy and enterprise forced +European fashions into Egypt: as a consequence, the original quaintness +and Orientalism natural to the country, are being gradually replaced by +buildings, decoration, and furniture of European fashion. + +The carved pulpit, from a mosque in Cairo, which is in the South +Kensington Museum, was made for Sultan Kaitbeg, 1468-96. The side panels, +of geometrical pattern, though much injured by time and wear, shew signs +of ebony inlaid with ivory, and of painting and gilding; they are good +specimens of the kind of work. The two doors, also from Cairo, the oldest +parts of which are just two hundred years earlier than the pulpit, are +exactly of the same style, and, so far as appearances go, might be just as +well taken for two hundred years later, so conservative was the Saracenic +treatment of decorative woodwork for some four or five centuries. +Pentagonal and hexagonal mosaics of ivory, with little mouldings of ebony +dividing the different panels, the centres of eccentric shapes of ivory or +rosewood carved with minute scrolls, combine to give these elaborate doors +a very rich effect, and remind one of the work still to be seen at the +Alhambra. + +The Science and Art Department has been fortunate in securing from the St. +Maurice and Dr. Meymar collections a great many specimens which are well +worth examination. The most remarkable is a complete room brought from a +house in Damascus, which is fitted up in the Oriental style, and gives one +a good idea of an Eastern interior. The walls are painted in colour and +gold; the spaces divided by flat pilasters, and there are recesses, or +cupboards, for the reception of pottery, quaintly formed vessels, and pots +of brass. Oriental carpets, octagonal tables, such as the one which +ornaments the initial letter of this chapter, hookas, incense burners, and +cushions furnish the apartment; while the lattice window is an excellent +representation of the "Mesherabijeh," or lattice work, with which we are +familiar, since so much has been imported by Egyptian travellers. In the +upper panels of the lattice there are inserted pieces of coloured glass, +and, looking outwards towards the light, the effect is very pretty. The +date of this room is 1756, which appears at the foot of an Arabic +inscription, of which a translation is appended to the exhibit. It +commences--"In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate," and +concludes; "Pray, therefore, to Him morning and evening." + +[Illustration: Governor's Palace, Manfalut. Shewing a Window of Arab +Lattice Work, similar to that of the Damascus Room in the South Kensington +Museum.] + +A number of bosses and panels, detached from their original framework, are +also to be seen, and are good specimens of Saracenic design. A bedstead, +with inlay of ivory and numerous small squares of glass, under which are +paper flowers, is also a good example of native work. + +[Illustration: Specimen of Saracenic Panelling of Cedar, Ebony, and Ivory. +(_In the South Kensington Museum._)] + +The illustration on p. 142 is of a carved wood door from Cairo, considered +by the South Kensington authorities to be of Syrian work. It shews the +turned spindles, which the Arabs generally introduce into their ornamental +woodwork: and the carving of the vase of flowers is a good specimen of the +kind. The date is about the seventeenth century. + +For those who would gain an extended knowledge of Saracenic or Arabian Art +industry, "_L'Art Arabe,"_ by M. Prisse d'Aveunes, should be consulted. +There will be found in this work many carefully-prepared illustrations of +the cushioned seats, the projecting balconies of the lattice work already +alluded to, of octagonal inlaid tables, and such other articles of +furniture as were used by the Arabs. The South Kensington Handbook, +"Persian Art," by Major-General Murdoch Smith, R.E., is also a very handy +and useful work in a small compass. + +While discussing Saracenic or Arab furniture, it is worth noticing that +our word "sofa" is of Arab derivation, the word "suffah" meaning "a couch +or place for reclining before the door of Eastern houses." In Skeat's +Dictionary the word is said to have first occurred in the "Guardian," in +the year 1713, and the phrase is quoted from No. 167 of that old +periodical of the day--"He leapt off from the sofa on which he sat." + +[Illustration: A Carved Door of Syrian Work. (_South Kensington Museum._)] + +From the same source the word "ottoman," which Webster defines as "a +stuffed seat without a back, first used in Turkey," is obviously obtained, +and the modern low-seated upholsterer's chair of to-day is doubtless the +development of a French adaptation of the Eastern cushion or "divan," this +latter word having become applied to the seats which furnished the hall or +council chamber in an Eastern palace, although its original meaning was +probably the council or "court" itself, or the hall in which such was +held. + +Thus do the habits and tastes of different nations act and re-act upon +each other. Western peoples have carried eastward their civilisation and +their fashions, influencing Arts and industries, with their restless +energy, and breaking up the crust of Oriental apathy and indolence; and +have brought back in return the ideas gained from an observation of the +associations and accessories of Eastern life, to adapt them to the +requirements and refinements of European luxury. + +[Illustration: Shaped Panel of Saracenic Work in Carved Bone or Ivory.] + +[Illustration: Boule Armoire. Designed by Le Brun, formerly in the +"Hamilton Palace" Collection and purchased (Wertheimer) for £12,075 the +pair. Period: Louis XIV.] + + + + +Chapter VI. + +French Furniture. + + + + PALACE OF VERSAILLES: "Grand" and "Petit Trianon"--the three Styles of + Louis XIV., XV. and XVI.--Colbert and Lebrun--André Charles Boule and + his Work--Carved and Gilt Furniture--The Regency and its + Influence--Alteration in Condition of French Society--Watteau, Lancret, + and Boucher. Louis XV. FURNITURE: Famous Ebenistes--Vernis Martin + Furniture--Caffieri and Gouthière Mountings--Sêvres Porcelain + introduced into Cabinets--Gobelins Tapestry--The "Bureau du Roi." Louis + XVI. AND MARIE ANTOINETTE: The Queen's Influence--The Painters Chardin + and Greuze--More simple Designs--Characteristic Ornaments of Louis XVI. + Furniture--Riesener's Work--Gouthière's Mountings--Specimens in the + Louvre--The Hamilton Palace Sale--French influence upon the design of + Furniture in other countries--The Jones Collection--Extract from the + "Times." + + +[Illustration] + +There is something so distinct in the development of taste in furniture, +marked out by the three styles to which the three monarchs have given the +names of "Louis Quatorze," "Louis Quinze," and "Louis Seize," that it +affords a fitting point for a new departure. + +This will be evident to anyone who will visit, first the Palace of +Versailles,[13] then the Grand Trianon, and afterwards the Petit Trianon. +By the help of a few illustrations, such a visit in the order given would +greatly interest anyone having a smattering of knowledge of the +characteristic ornaments of these different periods. A careful examination +would demonstrate how the one style gradually merged into that of its +successor. Thus the massiveness and grandeur of the best Louis Quatorze +_meubles de luxe_, became, in its later development, too ornate and +effeminate, with an elaboration of enrichment, culminating in the rococo +style of Louis Quinze. + +Then we find, in the "Petit Trianon," and also in the Chateau of +Fontainebleau, the purer taste of Marie Antoinette dominating the Art +productions of her time, which reached their zenith, with regard to +furniture, in the production of such elegant and costly examples as have +been preserved to us in the beautiful work-table and secretaire--sold some +years since at the dispersion of the Hamilton Palace collection--and in +some other specimens, which may be seen in the Musée du Louvre, in the +Jones Collection in the South Kensington Museum, and in other public and +private collections: of these several illustrations are given. + +We have to recollect that the reign of Louis XIV. was the time of the +artists Berain, Lebrun, and, later in the reign, of Watteau, also of André +Charles Boule, _ciseleur et doreur du roi_, and of Colbert, that admirable +Minister of Finance, who knew so well how to second his royal master's +taste for grandeur and magnificence. The Palace of Versailles bears +throughout the stamp and impress of the majesty of _le Grande Monarque;_ +and the rich architectural ornament of the interior, with moulded, gilded, +and painted ceilings, required the furnishing to be carried to an extent +which had never been attempted previously. + +Louis XIV. had judgment in his taste, and he knew that, to carry out his +ideas of a royal palace, he must not only select suitable artists capable +of control, but he must centralize their efforts. In 1664 Colbert founded +the Royal Academy of Painting, Architecture, and Sculpture, to which +designs of furniture were admitted. The celebrated Gobelins tapestry +factory was also established; and it was here the King collected together +and suitably housed the different skilled producers of his furniture, +placing them all under the control of his favourite artist, Lebrun, who +was appointed director in 1667. + +The most remarkable furniture artist of this time, for surely he merits +such title, was André Charles Boule, of whom but little is known. He was +born in 1642, and, therefore, was 25 years of age when Lebrun was +appointed Art-director. He appears to have originated the method of +ornamenting furniture which has since been associated with his name. This +was to veneer his cabinets, pedestals, armoires, encoignures, clocks, and +brackets with tortoiseshell, into which a cutting of brass was laid, the +latter being cut out from a design, in which were harmoniously arranged +scrolls, vases of flowers, satyrs, animals, cupids, swags of fruit and +draperies; fantastic compositions of a free Renaissance character +constituted the panels; to which bold scrolls in ormolu formed fitting +frames; while handsome mouldings of the same material gave a finish to the +extremities. These ormolu mountings were gilt by an old-fashioned +process,[14] which left upon the metal a thick deposit of gold, and were +cunningly chiselled by the skilful hands of Caffieri or his +contemporaries. + +[Illustration: Boule Armoire, In the "Jones" Collection, S. Kensington +Museum. Louis XIV. Period.] + +Boule subsequently learned to economise labour by adopting a similar +process to that used by the marqueterie cutter; and by glueing together +two sheets of brass, or white metal, and two of shell, and placing over +them his design, he was then able to pierce the four layers by one cut of +the handsaw; this gave four exact copies of the design. The same process +would be repeated for the reverse side, if, as with an armoire or a large +cabinet, two panels, one for each door, right and left, were required; and +then, when the brass, or white metal cutting was fitted into the shell so +that the joins were imperceptible, he would have two right and two left +panels. These would be positive and negative: in the former pair the metal +would represent the figured design with the shell as groundwork, and the +latter would have the shell as a design, with a ground of metal. The terms +positive and negative are the writer's to explain the difference, but the +technical terms are "first part" and "second part," or "Boule" and +"counter." The former would be selected for the best part of the cabinet, +for instance, the panels of the front doors, while the latter would be +used for the ends or sides. An illustration of this plan of using all four +cuttings of one design occurs in the armoire No. 1026 in the Jones +Collection, and in a great many other excellent specimens. The brass, or +the white metal in the design, was then carefully and most artistically +engraved; and the beauty of the engraving of Boule's finest productions is +a great point of excellence, giving, as it does, a character to the +design, and emphasizing its details. The mounting of the furniture in +ormolu of a rich and highly-finished character, completed the design. The +_Museé du Louvre_ is rich in examples of Boule's work; and there are some +very good pieces in the Jones Collection, at Hertford House, and at +Windsor Castle. + +The illustration on p. 144 is the representation of an armoire, which was, +undoubtedly, executed by Boule from a design by Lebrun: it is one of a +pair which was sold in 1882, at the Hamilton Palace sale, by Messrs. +Christie, for £12,075. Another small cabinet, in the same collection, +realised £2,310. The pedestal cabinet illustrated on p. 148, from the +Jones Collection, is very similar to the latter, and cost Mr. Jones +£3,000. When specimens, of the genuineness of which there is no doubt, are +offered for sale, they are sure to realize very high prices. The armoire +in the Jones Collection, already alluded to (No. 1026), of which there is +an illustration, cost between £4,000 and £5,000. + +In some of the best of Boule's cabinets, as, for instance, in the +Hamilton Palace armoire (illustrated), the bronze gilt ornaments stand out +in bold relief from the surface. In the Louvre there is one which has a +figure of _Le Grand Monarque_, clad in armour, with a Roman toga, and +wearing the full bottomed wig of the time, which scarcely accords with the +costume of a Roman general. The absurd combination which characterises +this affectation of the classic costume is also found in portraits of our +George II. + +[Illustration: Pedestal Cabinet, By Boule, formerly in Mr. Baring's +Collection. Purchased by Mr. Jones for £3,000. (_South Kensington +Museum_)] + +The masks, satyrs, and ram's heads, the scrolls and the foliage, are also +very bold in specimens of this class of Boule's work; and the "sun" (that +is, a mask surrounded with rays of light) is a very favourite ornament of +this period. + +Boule had four sons and several pupils; and he may be said to have founded +a school of decorative furniture, which has its votaries and imitators +now, as it had in his own time. The word one frequently finds misspelt +"Buhl," and this has come to represent any similar mode of decorations on +furniture, no matter how meretricious or common it may be. + +[Illustration: A Concert during the Reign of Louis XIV. (_From a +Miniature, dated 1696._)] + +Later in the reign, as other influences were brought to bear upon the +taste and fashion of the day, this style of furniture became more ornate +and showy. Instead of the natural colour of the shell, either vermilion or +gold leaf was placed underneath the transparent shell; the gilt mounts +became less severe, and abounded with the curled endive ornament, which +afterwards became thoroughly characteristic of the fashion of the +succeeding reign; and the forms of the furniture itself conformed to a +taste for a more free and flowing treatment; and it should be mentioned, +in justice to Lebrun, that from the time of his death and the appointment +of his successor, Mignard, a distinct decline in merit can be traced. + +Contemporary with Boule's work, were the richly-mounted tables, having +slabs of Egyptian porphyry, or Florentine marble mosaic; and marqueterie +cabinets, with beautiful mountings of ormolu, or gilt bronze. Commodes and +screens were ornamented with Chinese lacquer, which had been imported by +the Dutch and taken to Paris, after the French invasion of the +Netherlands. + +[Illustration: Panel for a Screen. Painted by Watteau. Louis XIV. Period.] + +About this time--that is, towards the end of the seventeenth century--the +resources of designers and makers of decorative furniture were reinforced +by the introduction of glass in larger plates than had been possible +previously. Mirrors of considerable size were first made in Venice; these +were engraved with figures and scrolls, and mounted in richly carved and +gilt wood frames; and soon afterwards manufactories of mirrors, and of +glass, in larger plates than before, were set up in England, near +Battersea, and in France at Tour la Ville, near Paris. This novelty not +only gave a new departure to the design of suitable frames in carved wood +(generally gilt), but also to that of Boule work and marqueterie. It also +led to a greater variety of the design for cabinets; and from this time we +may date the first appearance of the "Vitrine," or cabinet with glass +panels in the doors and sides, for the display of smaller _objets d'art._ + +[Illustration: Decoration of a Salon in Louis XIV. Style.] + +The chairs and sofas of the latter half of the reign of Louis Quatorze are +exceedingly grand and rich. The suite of furniture for the state apartment +of a prince or wealthy nobleman comprised a _canapé_, or sofa, and six +_fauteils_, or arm chairs, the frames carved with much spirit, or with +"feeling," as it is technically termed, and richly gilt. The backs and +seats were upholstered and covered with the already famous tapestry of +Gobelins or Beauvais.[15] + +Such a suite of furniture, in bad condition and requiring careful and very +expensive restoration, was sold at Christie's some time ago for about +£1,400, and it is no exaggeration to say that a really perfect suite, with +carving and gilding of the best, and the tapestry not too much worn, if +offered for public competition, would probably realise between £3,000 and +£4,000. + +In the appendix will be found the names of many artists in furniture of +this time, and in the Jones Collection we have several very excellent +specimens which can easily be referred to, and compared with others of the +two succeeding reigns, whose furniture we are now going to consider. + +As an example of the difference in both outline and detail which took +place in design, let the reader notice the form of the Louis Quatorze +commode vignetted for the initial letter of this chapter, and then turn to +the lighter and more fanciful cabinets of somewhat similar shape which +will be found illustrated in the "Louis Quinze" section which follows +this. In the Louis Quatorze cabinets the decorative effect, so far as the +woodwork was concerned, was obtained first by the careful choice of +suitable veneers, and then, by joining four pieces in a panel, so that the +natural figure of the wood runs from the centre, and then a banding of a +darker wood forms a frame. An instance of this will also be found in the +above-mentioned illustration. + + + +Louis XV. + + +When the old King died, at the ripe age of 77, the crown devolved on his +great-grandson, then a child five years old, and therefore a Regency +became necessary; and this period of some eight years, until the death of +Philip, Duke of Orleans, in 1723, when the King was declared to have +attained his majority at the age of 13, is known as _L'Epoch de la +Regence_, and is a landmark in the history of furniture. + +[Illustration: Boule Commode, Probably made during the period of the +Regency (_Museé du Louvre._)] + +There was a great change about this period of French history in the social +condition of the upper classes in France. The pomp and extravagance of the +late monarch had emptied the coffers of the noblesse, and in order to +recruit their finances, marriages became common which a decade or two +before that time would hardly have been thought possible. Nobles of +ancient lineage married the daughters of bankers and speculators, in order +to supply themselves with the means of following the extravagant fashions +of the day, and we find the wives of ministers of departments of State +using their influence and power for the purpose of making money by +gambling in stocks, and accepting bribes for concessions and contracts. + +[Illustration: French Sedan Chair. (_From an Engraving in the South +Kensington Art Library._) Period: Louis XV.] + +It was a time of corruption, extravagance, licentiousness, and intrigue, +and although one might ask what bearing this has upon the history of +furniture, a little reflection shows that the abandonment of the great +State receptions of the late King, and the pompous and gorgeous +entertainments of his time, gave way to a state of society in which the +boudoir became of far more importance than the salon, in the artistic +furnishing of a fashionable house. Instead of the majestic grandeur of +immense reception rooms and stately galleries, we have the elegance and +prettiness of the boudoir; and as the reign of the young King advances, we +find the structural enrichment of rooms more free, and busy with redundant +ornament; the curved endive decoration, so common in carved woodwork and +in composition of this period, is seen everywhere; in the architraves, in +the panel mouldings, in the frame of an overdoor, in the design of a +mirror frame; doves, wreaths, Arcadian fountains, flowing scrolls, Cupids, +and heads and busts of women terminating in foliage, are carved or moulded +in relief, on the walls, the doors, and the alcoved recesses of the +reception rooms, either gilded or painted white; and pictures by Watteau, +Lancret, or Boucher, and their schools, are appropriate +accompaniments.[16] + +[Illustration: Part of a Salon, Decorated in the Louis Quinze style, +showing the carved and gilt Console Table and Mirror, with other +enrichments, _en suite_.] + +The furniture was made to agree with this decorative treatment: couches +and easy chairs were designed in more sweeping curves and on a smaller +scale, the woodwork wholly or partially gilt and upholstered, not only +with the tapestry of Gobelins or Beauvais, but with soft colored silk +brocades and brocatelles; light occasional chairs were enriched with +mother-of-pearl or marqueterie; screens were painted with love scenes and +representations of ladies and gentlemen who look as if they passed their +entire existence in the elaboration of their toilettes or the exchange of +compliments; the stately cabinet is modified into the _bombé_ fronted +commode, the ends of which curve outwards with a graceful sweep; and the +bureau is made in a much smaller size, more highly decorated with +marqueterie, and more fancifully mounted to suit the smaller and more +effeminate apartment. The smaller and more elegant cabinets, called +_Bonheur du jour_ (a little cabinet mounted on a table); the small round +occasional table, called a _gueridon_; the _encoignure_, or corner +cabinet; the _étagère_, or ornamental hanging cabinet, with shelves; the +three-fold screen, with each leaf a different height, and with shaped top, +all date from this time. The _chaise à porteur_, or Sedan chair, on which +so much work and taste were expended, became more ornate, so as to fall in +with the prevailing fashion. Marqueterie became more fanciful. + +[Illustration: Console Table, Carved and Gilt. (_Collection of M. Double, +Paris._)] + +The Louis Quinze cabinets were inlaid, not only with natural woods, but +with veneers stained in different tints; and landscapes, interiors, +baskets of flowers, birds, trophies, emblems of all kinds, and quaint +fanciful conceits are pressed into the service of marqueterie decoration. +The most famous artists in this decorative woodwork were Riesener, David +Roentgen (generally spoken of as David), Pasquier. Carlin, Leleu, and +others, whose names will be found in a list in the appendix. + +[Illustration: Louis XV. Carved And Gilt "Fauteui." Upholstered with +Beauvais tapestry. Subject from La Fontaine's Fables.] + +During the preceding reign the Chinese lacquer ware then in use was +imported from the East, the fashion for collecting which had grown ever +since the Dutch had established a trade with China: and subsequently as +the demand arose for smaller pieces of _meubles de luxe,_ collectors had +these articles taken to pieces, and the slabs of lacquer mounted in +panels to decorate the table, or cabinet, and to display the lacquer. +_Ébenistés_, too, prepared such parts of woodwork as were desired to be +ornamented in this manner, and sent them to China to be coated with +lacquer, a process which was then only known to the Chinese; but this +delay and expense quickened the inventive genius of the European, and it +was found that a preparation of gum and other ingredients applied again +and again, and each time carefully rubbed down, produced a surface which +was almost as lustrous and suitable for decoration as the original +article. A Dutchman named Huygens was the first successful inventor of +this preparation; and, owing to the adroitness of his work, and of those +who followed him and improved his process, one can only detect European +lacquer from Chinese by trifling details in the costumes and foliage of +decoration, not strictly Oriental in character. + +[Illustration: Commode. With Panels of fine old Laquer and Mountings by +Caffieri. _Jones Collection, S. Kensington Museum._ Period of Louis XV.] + +About 1740-4 the Martin family had three manufactories of this peculiar +and fashionable ware, which became known as Vernis-Martin, or Martins' +Varnish; and it is singular that one of these was in the district of Paris +then and now known as Faubourg Saint Martin. By a special decree a +monopoly was granted in 1744 to Sieur Simon Etienne Martin the younger, +"To manufacture all sorts of work in relief and in the style of Japan and +China." This was to last for twenty years; and we shall see that in the +latter part of the reign of Louis XV., and in that of his successor, the +decoration was not confined to the imitation of Chinese and Japanese +subjects, but the surface was painted in the style of the decorative +artist of the day, both in monochrome and in natural colours; such +subjects as "Cupid Awakening Venus," "The Triumph of Galatea," "Nymphs and +Goddesses," "Garden Scenes," and "Fêtes Champêtres," being represented in +accordance with the taste of the period. It may be remarked in passing, +that lacquer work was also made previous to this time in England. Several +cabinets of "Old" English lac are included in the Strawberry Hill sale +catalogue; and they were richly mounted with ormolu, in the French style; +this sale took place in 1842. George Robins, so well known for his flowery +descriptions, was the auctioneer; the introduction to the catalogue was +written by Harrison Ainsworth. + +[Illustration: In Parqueterie with massive Mountings of Gilt Bronze, +probably by Caffieri, (_Formerly in the Hamilton Palace Collection. +Purchased_ (_Westheims_), £6,247 ICS.) Louis XV. Period.] + +The gilt bronze mountings of the furniture became less massive and much +more elaborate: the curled endive ornament was very much in vogue; the +acanthus foliage followed the curves of the commode; busts and heads of +women, cupids, satyrs terminating in foliage, suited the design and +decoration of the more fanciful shapes; and Caffieri, who is the great +master of this beautiful and highly ornate enrichment, introduced Chinese +figures and dragons into his designs. The amount of spirit imparted into +the chasing of this ormolu is simply marvellous--it has never been +equalled and could not be excelled. Time has now mellowed the colour of +the woodwork it adorns; and the tint of the gold with which it is +overlaid, improved by the lights and shadows caused by the high relief of +the work and the consequent darkening of the parts more depressed while +the more prominent ornaments have been rubbed bright from time to time, +produces an effect which is exceedingly elegant and rich. One cannot +wonder that connoisseurs are prepared to pay such large sums for genuine +specimens, or that clever imitations are exceedingly costly to produce. + +Illustrations are given from some of the more notable examples of +decorative furniture of this period, which were sold in 1882 at the +celebrated Hamilton Palace sale, together with the sums they realised: +also of specimens in the South Kensington Museum in the Jones Collection. + +We must also remember, in considering the _meubles de luxe_ of this time, +that in 1753 Louis XV. had made the Sêvres Porcelain Manufactory a State +enterprise; and later, as that celebrated undertaking progressed, tables +and cabinets were ornamented with plaques of the beautiful and choice +_pâte tendre_, the delicacy of which was admirably adapted to enrich the +light and frivolous furnishing of the dainty boudoir of a Madame du Barri +or a Madame Pompadour. + +Another famous artist in the delicate bronze mountings of the day was +Pierre Gouthière. He commenced work some years later than Caffieri, being +born in 1740; and, like his senior fellow craftsman, did not confine his +attention to furniture, but exercised his fertility of design, and his +passion for detail, in mounting bowls and vases of jasper, of Sêvres and +of Oriental porcelain. The character of his work is less forcible than +that of Caffieri, and comes nearer to what we shall presently recognise as +the Louis Seize, or Marie Antoinette style, to which period his work more +properly belongs: in careful finish of minute details, it more resembles +the fine goldsmith's work of the Renaissance. + +[Illustration: Bureau Du Roi. Made for Louis XV. by Riesener. (Collection +of "Mobilier National.") (_From a pen and ink drawing by H. Evans._) +Period: Louis XV.] + +Gouthière was employed extensively by Madame du Barri; and at her +execution, in 1793, he lost the enormous balance of 756,000 francs which +was due to him, but which debt the State repudiated, and the unfortunate +man died in extreme poverty, the inmate of an almshouse. + +The designs of the celebrated tapestry of Gobelins and of Beauvais, used +for the covering of the finest furniture of this time, also underwent a +change; and, instead of the representation of the chase, with a bold and +vigorous rendering, we find shepherds and shepherdesses, nymphs and +satyrs, the illustrations of La Fontaine's fables, or renderings of +Boucher's pictures. + +Without doubt, the most important example of _meubles de luxe_ of this +reign is the famous "Bureau du Roi," made for Louis XV. in 1769, and which +appears fully described in the inventory of the "Garde Meuble" in the year +1775, under No. 2541. This description is very minute, and is fully quoted +by M. Williamson in his valuable work, "Les Meubles d'Art du Mobilier +National," and occupies no less than thirty-seven lines of printed matter. +Its size is five-and-a-half feet long and three feet deep; the lines are +the perfection of grace and symmetry; the marqueterie is in Riesner's best +manner; the mountings are magnificent--reclining figures, foliage, laurel +wreaths, and swags, chased with rare skill; the back of this famous bureau +is as fully decorated as the front: it is signed "Riesener, f.e., 1769, à +l'arsenal de Paris." Riesener is said to have received the order for this +bureau from the King in 1767, upon the occasion of the marriage of this +favourite Court _ébeniste_ with the widow of his former master Oeben. Its +production therefore would seem to have taken about two years. + +This celebrated chef d'oeuvre was in the Tuileries in 1807, and was +included in the inventory found in the cabinet of Napoleon I. It was moved +by Napoleon III. to the Palace of St. Cloud, and only saved from capture +by the Germans by its removal to its present home in the Louvre, in +August, 1870. It is said that it would probably realise, if offered for +sale, between fifteen and twenty thousand pounds. A full-page illustration +of this famous piece of furniture is given. + +A similar bureau is in the Hertford (Wallace) collection, which was made +to the order of Stanilaus, King of Poland; a copy executed by Zwiener, a +very clever _ébeniste_ of the present day in Paris, at a cost of some +three thousand pounds, is in the same collection. + + + +Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette. + + +[Illustration: Boudoir Furnished in the Taste of the Louis XVI. Period.] + +It is probable that for some little time previous to the death of Louis +XV., the influence of the beautiful daughter of Maria Theresa on the +fashions of the day was manifested in furniture and its accessories. We +know that Marie Antoinette disliked the pomp and ceremony of Court +functions, and preferred a simpler way of living at the favourite farm +house which was given to her husband as a residence on his marriage, four +years before his accession to the throne; and here she delighted to mix +with the bourgeoise on the terrace at Versailles, or, donning a simple +dress of white muslin, would busy herself in the garden or dairy. There +was, doubtless, something of the affectation of a woman spoiled by +admiration, in thus playing the rustic; still, one can understand that the +best French society, weary of the domination of the late King's +mistresses, with their intrigues, their extravagances, and their +creatures, looked forward, at the death of Louis, with hope and +anticipation to the accession of his grandson and the beautiful young +queen. + +[Illustration: Part of a Salon. Decorated and furnished in the Louis XVI. +Style.] + +Gradually, under the new regime, architecture became more simple; broken +scrolls are replaced by straight lines, curves and arches only occur when +justifiable, and columns and pilasters reappear in the ornamental façades +of public buildings. Interior decoration necessarily followed suit; +instead of the curled endive scrolls enclosing the irregular panel, and +the superabundant foliage in ornament, we have rectangular panels formed +by simpler mouldings, with broken corners, having a patera or rosette in +each, and between the upright panels there is a pilaster of refined +Renaissance design. In the oval medallions supported by cupids, is found a +domestic scene by a Fragonard or a Chardin; and the portraits of innocent +children by Greuze replace the courting shepherds and mythological +goddesses of Boucher and Lancret. Sculpture, too, becomes more refined and +decorous in its representations. + +As with architecture, decoration, painting, and sculpture, so also with +furniture. The designs became more simple, but were relieved from severity +by the amount of ornament, which, except in some cases where it is +over-elaborate, was properly subordinate to the design and did not control +it. + +Mr. Hungerford Pollen attributes this revival of classic taste to the +discoveries of ancient treasures in Herculaneum and Pompeii, but as these +occurred in the former city so long before the time we are discussing as +the year 1711, and in the latter in 1750, these can scarcely be the +immediate cause; the reason most probably is that a reversion to simpler +and purer lines came as a relief and reaction from the over-ornamentation +of the previous period. There are not wanting, however, in some of the +decorated ornaments of the time, distinct signs of the influence of these +discoveries. Drawings and reproductions from frescoes, found in these old +Italian cities, were in the possession of the draughtsmen and designers of +the time; and an instance in point of their adaptation is to be seen in +the small boudoir of the Marquise de Serilly, one of the maids of honour +to Marie Antoinette. The decorative woodwork of this boudoir is fitted up +in the Kensington Museum. + +A notable feature in the ornament of woodwork and in metal mountings of +this time, is a fluted pilaster with quills or husks filling the flutings +some distance from the base, or starting from both base and top and +leaving an interval of the hollow fluting plain and free. An example of +this will be seen in the next woodcut of a cabinet in the Jones +collection, which has also the familiar "Louis Seize" riband surmounting +the two oval Sêvres china plaques. When the flutings are in oak, in rich +mahogany, or painted white, these husks are gilt, and the effect is chaste +and pleasing. Variation was introduced into the gilding of frames by +mixing silver with some portion of the gold so as to produce two tints, +red gold and green gold; the latter would be used for wreaths and +accessories, while the former, or ordinary gilding, was applied to the +general surface. The legs of tables are generally fluted, as noticed +above, tapering towards the feet, and are relieved from a stilted +appearance by being connected by a stretcher. + +[Illustration: Marqueterie Cabinet. With Plaques of Sêvres China (_In the +Jones Collection, South Kensington Museum._)] + +[Illustration: Writing Table. Made by Riesener for Marie Antoinette. +Collection "Mobilier National." (_From a-pen and ink drawing by H. +Evans._) Period: Late Louis XV.] + +There occurs in M. Williamson's valuable contribution to the literature +of our subject ("_Les Meubles d'Art du Mobilier National_,") an +interesting illustration of the gradual alterations which we are noticing +as having taken place in the design of furniture. This is a small writing +table, some 3 ft. 6 in. long, made during the reign of Louis XV., but +quite in the Marie Antoinette style, the legs tapering and fluted, the +frieze having in the centre a plaque of _bronze doré_, the subject being a +group of cupids, representing the triumph of Poetry, and on each side a +scroll with a head and foliage (the only ornament characteristic of Louis +Quinze style) connecting leg and frieze. M. Williamson quotes verbatim the +memorandum of which this was the subject. It was made for the Trianon and +the date is just one year after Marie Antoinette's marriage:--"Memoire des +ouvrages faits et livrés, par les ordres de Monsieur le Chevalier de +Fontanieu, pour le garde meuble du Roy par Riesener, ébeniste a l'arsenal +Paris," savoir Sept. 21, 1771; and then follows a fully detailed +description of the table, with its price, which was 6,000 francs, or £240. +There is a full page illustration of this table. + +The maker of this piece of furniture was the same Riesener whose +masterpiece is the magnificent _Bureau du Roi_ which we have already +alluded to in the Louvre. This celebrated _ébeniste_ continued to work for +Marie Antoinette for about twenty years, until she quitted Versailles, and +he probably lived quite to the end of the century, for during the +Revolution we find that he served on the Special Commission appointed by +the National Convention to decide which works of Art should be retained +and which should be sold, out of the mass of treasure confiscated after +the deposition and execution of the King. + +Riesener's designs do not show much fertility, but his work is highly +finished and elaborate. His method was generally to make the centre panel +of a commode front, or the frieze of a table, a _tour de force_, the +marqueterie picture being wonderfully delicate. The subject was generally +a vase with fruits and flowers; the surface of the side panels inlaid with +diamond-shaped lozenges, or a small diaper pattern in marqueterie; and +then a framework of rich ormolu would separate the panels. The centre +panel had sometimes a richer frame. His famous commode, made for the +Château of Fontainebleau, which cost a million francs (£4,000)--an +enormous sum in those days--is one of his _chefs d'oeuvre_, and this is an +excellent example of his style. A similar commode was sold in the Hamilton +Palace sale for £4,305. An upright secretaire, _en suite_ with the +commode, was also sold at the same time for £4,620, and the writing table +for £6,000. An illustration of the latter is on the following page, but +the details of this elaborate gem of cabinet maker's work, and of +Gouthière's skill in mounting, are impossible to reproduce in a woodcut. +It is described as follows in Christie's catalogue:-- + +"Lot 303. An oblong writing table, _en suite_, with drawer fitted with +inkstand, writing slide and shelf beneath; an oval medallion of a trophy +and flowers on the top, and trophies with four medallions round the sides: +stamped T. Riesener and branded underneath with cypher of Marie +Antoinette, and _Garde Meuble de la Reine_." There is no date on the +table, but the secretaire is stamped 1790, and the commode 1791. If we +assume that the table was produced in 1792, these three specimens, which +have always been regarded as amongst the most beautiful work of the reign, +were almost the last which the unfortunate Queen lived to see completed. + +[Illustration: The "Marie Antoinette" Writing Table. (_Formerly in the +Hamilton Palace Collection._)] + +[Illustration: Bedstead of Marie Antoinette, From Fontainebleau. +Collection "Mobilier National." (_From a pen and ink drawing by H. +Evans._) Period: Louis XVI.] + +The fine work of Riesener required the mounting of an artist of quite +equal merit, and in Gouthière he was most fortunate. There is a famous +clock case in the Hertford collection, fully signed "Gouthière, ciseleur +et doreur du roi à Paris Quai Pelletier, à la Boucle d'or, 1771." He +worked, however, chiefly in conjunction with Riesener and David Roentgen +for the decoration of their marqueterie. + +In the Louvre are some beautiful examples of this co-operative work; and +also of cabinets in which plaques of very fine black and gold lacquer take +the place of marqueterie; the centre panel being a finely chased oval +medallion of Gouthière's gilt bronze, with caryatides figures of the same +material at the ends supporting the cornice. + +[Illustration: Cylinder Secretaire, In Marqueterie, with Bronze Gilt +Mountings, by Gouthière. (_Mr. Alfred de Rothschild's Collection._) +Period: Louis XVI.] + +A specimen of this kind of work (an upright secretaire, of which we have +not been able to obtain a satisfactory representation) formed part of the +Hamilton Palace collection, and realised £9,450, the highest price which +the writer has ever seen a single piece of furniture bring by auction; it +must be regarded as the _chef d'oeuvre_ of Gouthière. + +In the Jones Collection, at South Kensington, there are also several +charming examples of Louis Seize _meubles de luxe_. Some of these are +enriched with plaques of Sêvres porcelain, which treatment is better +adapted to the more jewel-like mounting of this time than to the rococo +style in vogue during the preceding reign. + +[Illustration: Arm Chair In Louis XVI. Style.] + +The upholstered furniture became simpler in design; the sofas and chairs +have generally, but not invariably, straight fluted tapering legs, but +these sometimes have the flutings spiral instead of perpendicular, and the +backs are either oval or rectangular, and ornamented with a carved riband +which is represented as tied at the top in a lover's knot. Gobelins, +Beauvais, and Aubusson tapestry are used for covering, the subjects being +in harmony with the taste of the time. A sofa in this style, with settees +at the ends, the frame elaborately carved with trophies of arrows and +flowers in high relief, and covered with fine old Gobelins tapestry, was +sold at the Hamilton Palace sale for £1,176. This was formerly at +Versailles. Beautiful silks and brocades were also extensively used both +for chairs and for the screens, which at this period were varied in design +and extremely pretty. Small two-tier tables of tulip wood with delicate +mountings were quite the rage, and small occasional pieces, the legs of +which, like those of the chairs, are occasionally curved. An excellent +example of a piece with cabriole legs is the charming little Marie +Antoinette cylinder-fronted marqueterie escritoire in the Jones Collection +(illustrated below). The marqueterie is attributed to Riesener, but, from +its treatment being so different from that which he adopted as an almost +invariable rule, it is more probably the work of David. + +[Illustration: Carved and Gilt Causeuse or Settee, and Fauteuil or Arm +Chair, Covered with Beauvais tapestry. (Collection "Mobilier National.") +(_From a pen and ink drawing by H. Evans._) Period: End of Louis XVI.] + +[Illustration: Carved and Gilt Canapé or Sofa. Covered with Beauvais +tapestry. (Colection "Mobilier Natioanal.") Period: End of Louis XVI.] + +Another fine specimen illustrated on page 170 is the small cabinet made +of kingwood, with fine ormolu mounts, and some beautiful Sêvres plaques. + +[Illustration: Marqueterie Escritoire. By Davis, said to have belonged to +Marie Antoinette. (_Jones Collection, South Kensington Museum._)] + +The influence exercised by the splendour of the Court of Louis Quatorze, +and by the bringing together of artists and skilled handicraftsmen for the +adornment of the palaces of France, which we have seen took place during +the latter half of the seventeenth century, was not without its effect +upon the Industrial Arts of other countries. Macaulay mentions the "bales +of tapestry" and other accessories which were sent to Holland to fit up +the camp quarters of Louis le Grand when he went there to take the +command of his army against William III., and he also tells us of the +sumptuous furnishing of the apartments at St. Germains when James II., +during his exile, was the guest of Louis. The grandeur of the French King +impressed itself upon his contemporaries, and war with Germany, as well as +with Holland and England, helped to spread this influence. We have noticed +how Wren designed the additions to Hampton Court Palace in imitation of +Versailles; and in the chapter which follows this, it will be seen that +the designs of Chippendale were really reproductions of French furniture +of the time of Louis Quinze. The King of Sweden, Charles XII., "the Madman +of the North," as he was called, imitated his great French contemporary, +and in the Palace at Stockholm there are still to be seen traces of the +Louis Quatorze style in decoration and in furniture; such adornments are +out of keeping with the simplicity of the habits of the present Royal +family of Sweden. + +A Bourbon Prince, too, succeeded to the throne of Spain in 1700, and there +are still in the palaces and picture galleries of Madrid some fine +specimens of French furniture of the three reigns which have just been +discussed. It may be taken, therefore, that from the latter part of the +seventeenth century the dominant influence upon the design of decorative +furniture was of French origin. + +There is evidence of this in a great many examples of the work of Flemish, +German, English, and Spanish cabinet makers, and there are one or two +which may be easily referred to which it is worth while to mention. + +One of these is a corner cupboard of rosewood, inlaid with engraved +silver, part of the design being a shield with the arms of an Elector of +Cologne; there is also a pair of somewhat similar cabinets from the +Bishop's Palace at Salzburg. These are of German work, early eighteenth +century, and have evidently been designed after Boule's productions. The +shape and the gilt mounts of a secretaire of walnutwood with inlay of +ebony and ivory, and some other furniture which, with the other specimens +just described, may be seen in the Bethnal Green Museum, all manifest the +influence of the French school, when the bombe-fronted commodes and curved +lines of chair and table came into fashion. + +Having described somewhat in detail the styles which prevailed and some of +the changes which occurred in France, from the time of Louis XIV. until +the Revolution, it is unnecessary for the purposes of this sketch, to do +more than briefly refer to the work of those countries which may be said +to have adopted, to a greater or less extent, French designs. For reasons +already stated, an exception is made in the case of our own country; and +the following chapter will be devoted to the furniture of some of the +English designers and makers of the latter half of the eighteenth century. +Of Italy it may be observed generally that the Renaissance of Raffaele, +Leonardo da Vinci, and Michael Angelo, which we have seen became +degenerate towards the end of the sixteenth century, relapsed still +further during the period which we have been discussing, and although the +freedom and grace of the Italian carving, and the elaboration of inlaid +arabesques, must always have some merit of their own, the work of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Italy will compare very +unfavourably with that of the earlier period of the Renaissance. + +[Illustration: A Norse Interior, Shewing Chairs of Dutch Design. Period: +Late XVII. or Early XVIII. Century.] + +There are many other museum specimens which might be referred to to prove +the influence of French design of the seventeenth and subsequent centuries +on that of other countries. The above illustration of a Norse interior +shews that this influence penetrated as far as Scandinavia; for while the +old-fashioned box-like bedsteads which the Norwegians had retained from +early times, and which in a ruder form are still to be found in the +cottages of many Scottish counties, especially of those where the +Scandinavian connection existed, is a characteristic mark of the country, +the design of the two chairs is an evidence of the innovations which had +been made upon native fashions. These chairs are in style thoroughly +Dutch, of about the end of the seventeenth or early in the eighteenth +century; the cabriole legs and shell ornaments were probably the direct +result of the influence of the French on the Dutch. The woodcut is from a +drawing of an old house in Norwav. + +[Illustration: Secretaire, In King and Tulip Wood, with Sêvres Plaques and +Ormolu Mountings. Period: Early Louis XVI.] + +It would be unfitting to close this chapter on French furniture without +paying a tribute to the munificence and public spirit of Mr. John Jones, +whose bequest to the South Kensington Museum constitutes in itself a +representative Museum of this class of decorative furniture. Several of +the illustrations in this chapter have been taken from this collection. + +In money value alone, the collection of furniture, porcelain, bronzes, +and _articles de vertú,_ mostly of the period embraced within the limits +of this chapter, amounts to about £400,000, and exceeds the value of any +bequest the nation has ever had. Perhaps the references contained in these +few pages to the French furniture of this time may stimulate the interest +of the public in, and its appreciation of, this valuable national +property. + +[Illustration: Clock, By Robin, in Marqueterie Case, with Mountings of +Gilt Bronze, (_Jones Collection. South Kensington Museum._) Louis XVI. +Period.] + +Soon after this generous bequest was placed in the South Kensington +Museum, for the benefit of the public, a leading article appeared in the +_Times_, from which the following extract will very appropriately conclude +this chapter:--"As the visitor passes by the cases where these curious +objects are displayed, he asks himself what is to be said on behalf of the +art of which they are such notable examples." Tables, chairs, commodes, +secretaires, wardrobes, porcelain vases, marble statuettes, they represent +in a singularly complete way the mind and the work of the _ancien régime_. +Like Eisen's vignettes, or the _contes_ of innumerable story-tellers, they +bring back to us the grace, the luxury, the prettiness, the frivolity of +that Court which believed itself, till the rude awakening came, to contain +all that was precious in the life of France. A piece of furniture like the +little Sêvres-inlaid writing table of Marie Antoinette is, to employ a +figure of Balzac's, a document which reveals as much to the social +historian as the skeleton of an ichthyosaurus reveals to the +palæontologist. It sums up an epoch. A whole world can be inferred from +it. Pretty, elegant, irrational, and entirely useless, this exquisite and +costly toy might stand as a symbol for the life which the Revolution swept +away. + +[Illustration: Harpsichord, from the Permanent Collection belonging to +South Kensington Museum. Date: About 1750.] + +[Illustration: Italian Sedan Chair. Used at the Baptism of the Grand +Ducal Family of Tuscany, now in the South Kensington Museum. Period: +Latter Half of XVIII. Century.] + + + + +Chapter VII. + +Chippendale and his Contemporaries. + + + + Chinese style--Sir William Chambers--The Brothers Adams' + work--Pergelesi, Cipriani, and Angelica Kauffmann--Architects of the + time--Wedgwood and Flaxman--Chippendale's Work and his + Contemporaries--Chair in the Barbers' Hall--Lock, Shearer, Hepplewhite, + Ince, Mayhew, Sheraton--Introduction of Satinwood and Mahogany--Gillows + of Lancaster and London--History of the Sideboard--The Dining + Room--Furniture of the time. + + +Soon after the second half of the eighteenth century had set in, during +the latter days of the second George, and the early part of his +successor's long reign, there is a distinct change in the design of +English decorative furniture. + +Sir William Chambers, R.A., an architect, who has left us Somerset House +as a lasting monument of his talent, appears to have been the first to +impart to the interior decoration, of houses what was termed "the Chinese +style," after his visit to China, of which a notice was made in the +chapter on Eastern furniture: and as he was considered an "oracle of +taste" about this time, his influence was very powerful. Chair backs +consequently have the peculiar irregular lattice work which is seen in the +fretwork of Chinese and Japanese ornaments, and Pagodas, Chinamen and +monsters occur in his designs for cabinets. The overmantel which had +hitherto been designed with some architectural pretension, now gave way to +the larger mirrors which were introduced by the improved manufacture of +plate glass: and the chimney piece became lower. During his travels in +Italy, Chambers had found some Italian sculptors, and had brought them to +England, to carve in marble his designs; they were generally of a free +Italian character, with scrolls of foliage and figure ornaments: but being +of stone instead of woodwork, would scarcely belong to our subject, save +to indicate the change in fashion of the chimney piece, the vicissitudes +of which we have already noticed. Chimney pieces were now no longer +specially designed by architects, as part of the interior fittings, but +were made and sold with the grates, to suit the taste of the purchaser, +often quite irrespective of the rooms for which they were intended. It may +be said that Dignity gave way to Elegance. + +Robert Adam, having returned from his travels in France and Italy, had +designed and built, in conjunction with his brother James, Adelphi Terrace +about 1769, and subsequently Portland Place, and other streets and houses +of a like character; the furniture being made, under the direction of +Robert, to suit the interiors. There is much interest attaching to No. 25, +Portland Place, because this was the house built, decorated and furnished +by Robert Adam for his own residence, and, fortunately, the chief +reception rooms remain to shew the style then in vogue. The brothers Adam +introduced into England the application of composition ornaments to +woodwork. Festoons of drapery, wreaths of flowers caught up with rams' +heads, or of husks tied with a knot of riband, and oval pateroe to mark +divisions in a frieze, or to emphasize a break in the design, are +ornaments characteristic of what was termed the Adams style. + +Robert Adam published between 1778 and 1822 three magnificent volumes, +"Works on Architecture." One of these was dedicated to King George III., +to whom he was appointed architect. Many of his designs for furniture were +carried out by Gillows; there is a good collection of his original +drawings in the Soane Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields. + +The decoration was generally in low relief, with fluted pilasters, and +sometimes a rather stiff Renaissance ornament decorating the panel; the +effect was neat and chaste, and a distinct change from the rococo style +which had preceded it. + +The design of furniture was modified to harmonize with such decoration. +The sideboard had a straight and not infrequently a serpentine-shaped +front, with square tapering legs, and was surmounted by a pair of +urn-shaped knife cases, the wood used being almost invariably mahogany, +with the inlay generally of plain flutings relieved by fans or oval +pateroe in satin wood. + +Pergolesi, Cipriani and Angelica Kaufmann had been attracted to England by +the promise of lucrative employment, and not only decorated the panels of +ceilings and walls which were enriched by Adams' "_compo_'" (in reality a +revival of the old Italian gesso work), but also painted the ornamental +cabinets, occasional tables, and chairs of the time. + +[Illustration: Fac-simile of Original Drawings by Robert Adam (Reduced).] + +Towards the end of the century, satin wood was introduced into England +from the East Indies; it became very fashionable, and was a favourite +ground-work for decoration, the medallions of figure subjects, generally +of cupids, wood-nymphs, or illustrations of mythological fables on darker +coloured wood, formed an effective relief to the yellow satin wood. +Sometimes the cabinet, writing table, or spindle-legged occasional piece, +was made entirely of this wood, having no other decoration beyond the +beautiful marking of carefully chosen veneers; sometimes it was banded +with tulipwood or harewood (a name given to sycamore artificially +stained), and at other times painted as just described. A very beautiful +example of this last named treatment is the dressing table in the South +Kensington Museum, which we give as an illustration, and which the +authorities should not, in the writer's opinion, have labelled +"Chippendale." + +Besides Chambers, there were several other architects who designed +furniture about this time who have been almost forgotten. Abraham Swan, +some of whose designs for wooden chimney pieces in the quasi-classic style +are given, flourished about 1758. John Carter, who published "Specimens of +Ancient Sculpture and Painting"; Nicholas Revitt and James Stewart, who +jointly published "Antiquities of Athens" in 1762; J.C. Kraft, who +designed in the Adams' style; W. Thomas, M.S.A., and others, have left us +many drawings of interior decorations, chiefly chimney pieces and the +ornamental architraves of doors, all of them in low relief and of a +classical character, as was the fashion towards the end of the eighteenth +century. + +Josiah Wedgwood, too, turned his attention to the production of plaques in +relief, for adaptation to chimney pieces of this character. In a letter +written from London to Mr. Bentley, his partner, at the works, he deplores +the lack of encouragement in this direction which he received from the +architects of his day; he, however, persevered, and by the aid of +Flaxman's inimitable artistic skill as a modeller, made several plaques of +his beautiful Jasper ware, which were let in to the friezes of chimney +pieces, and also into other wood-work. There can be seen in the South +Kensington Museum a pair of pedestals of this period (1770-1790) so +ornamented. + +It is now necessary to consider the work of a group of English cabinet +makers, who not only produced a great deal of excellent furniture, but who +also published a large number of designs drawn with extreme care and a +considerable degree of artistic skill. + +The first of these and the best known was Thomas Chippendale, who appears +to have succeeded his father, a chair maker, and to have carried on a +large and successful business in St. Martin's Lane, which was at this time +an important Art centre, and close to the newly-founded Royal Academy. + +[Illustration: English Satinwood Dressing Table. With Painted Decoration. +End of XVIII. Century.] + +[Illustration: Chimneypiece and Overmantel. Designed by W. Thomas, +Architect. 1783. Very similar to Robert Adam's work.] + +Chippendale published "The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director," not, +as stated in the introduction to the catalogue to the South Kensington +Museum, in 1769, but some years previously, as is testified by a copy of +the "third edition" of the work which is in the writer's possession and +bears date 1762, the first edition having appeared in 1754. The title page +of this edition is reproduced in _fac simile_ on page 178. + +[Illustration: Chairs, With ornament in the Chinese style, by Thomas +Chippendale.] + +This valuable work of reference contains over two hundred copperplate +engravings of chairs, sofas, bedsteads, mirror frames, girandoles, +torchéres or lamp stands, dressing tables, cabinets, chimney pieces, +organs, jardiniéres, console tables, brackets, and other useful and +decorative articles, of which some examples are given. It will be observed +from these, that the designs of Chippendale are very different from those +popularly ascribed to him. Indeed, it would appear that this maker has +become better known than any other, from the fact of the designs in his +book being recently republished in various forms; his popularity has thus +been revived, while the names of his contemporaries are forgotten. For the +last fifteen or twenty years, therefore, during which time the fashion has +obtained of collecting the furniture of a bygone century, almost every +cabinet, table, or mirror-frame, presumably of English manufacture, which +is slightly removed from the ordinary type of domestic furniture, has +been, for want of a better title, called "Chippendale." As a matter of +fact, he appears to have adopted from Chambers the fanciful Chinese +ornament, and the rococo style of that time, which was superseded some +five-and-twenty years later by the quieter and more classic designs of +Adam and his contemporaries. + +[Illustration: _Fac-Simile of the Title Page of Chippendale's "Director." +(Reduced by Photography.) The Original is in Folio Size_. + + THE + GENTLEMAN and CABINET-MAKER'S + DIRECTOR: + Being a large COLLECTION of the + Most ELEGANT and USEFUL DESIGNS + OF + HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE, + In the Most FASHIONABLE TASTE. + + Including a great VARIETY of + + CHAIRS, SOFAS, BEDS, and COUCHES; CHINA-TABLES, + DRESSING-TABLES, SHAVING-TABLES, + BASON-STANDS, and TEAKETTLE-STANDS; + FRAMES for MARBLE-SLABS, BUREAU-DRESSING-TABLES, + and COMMODES; + WRITING-TABLES, and LIBRARY-TABLES; + LIBRARY-BOOK-CASES, ORGAN-CASES for + private Rooms, or Churches, DESKS, and + BOOK-CASES; DRESSING and WRITING-TABLES + with BOOK-CASES, TOILETS, CABINETS, + and CLOATHS-PRESSES; CHINA-CASES, + CHINA-SHELVES, and BOOK-SHELVES; + CANDLE-STANDS, TERMS for BUSTS, STANDS + for CHINA JARS, and PEDESTALS; CISTERNS + for WATER, LANTHORNS, and CHANDELIERS; + FIRE-SCREENS, BRACKETS, and CLOCK-CASES; + PIER-GLASSES, and TABLE-FRAMES; GIRANDOLES, + CHIMNEY-PIECES, and PICTURE-FRAMES; + STOVE-GRATES, BOARDERS, FRETS, + CHINESE-RAILING, and BRASS-WORK, for + Furniture, + + AND OTHER + ORNAMENTS, + TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, + A Short EXPLANATION of the Five ORDERS of ARCHITECTURE; + WITH + + Proper DIRECTIONS for executing the most difficult Pieces, the + Mouldings being exhibited at large, and the Dimensions of each DESIGN + specified. + + The Whole comprehended in Two HUNDRED COPPER-PLATES, neatly engraved. + + Calculated to improve and refine the present TASTE, and suited to the + Fancy and Circumstances of Persons in all Degrees of Life. + + By THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, + CABINET-MAKER and UPHOLSTERER, in St. Martin's Lane, London. + + THE THIRD EDITION. + + LONDON: + + Printed for the AUTHOR, and sold at his House, in St. Martin's Lane; + Also by T. BECKET and P.A. DeHONDT, in the Strand. + + MDCCLXII. +] + +[Illustration: Fac-simile of a Page in Chippendale's "Director." (The +original is folio size.)] + +[Illustration: Tea Caddy, Carved in the French style. (From Chippendale's +"Director.")] + +In the chapter on Louis XV. and Louis XVI. furniture, it has been shewn +how France went through a similar change about this same period. In +Chippendale's chairs and console tables, in his state bedsteads and his +lamp-stands, one can recognise the broken scrolls and curved lines, so +familiar in the bronze mountings of Caffieri. The influence of the change +which had occurred in France during the Louis Seize period is equally +evident in the Adams' treatment. It was helped forward by the migration +into this country of skilled workmen from France, during the troubles of +the revolution at the end of the century. Some of Chippendale's designs +bear such titles as "French chairs" or a "Bombé-fronted Commode." These +might have appeared as illustrations in a contemporary book on French +furniture, so identical are they in every detail with the carved woodwork +of Picau, of Cauner, or of Nilson, who designed the flamboyant frames of +the time of Louis XV. Others have more individuality. In his mirror frames +he introduced a peculiar bird with a long snipe-like beak, and rather +impossible wings, an imitation of rockwork and dripping water, Chinese +figures with pagodas and umbrellas; and sometimes the illustration of +Aesop's fables interspersed with scrolls and flowers. By dividing the +glass unequally, by the introduction into his design of bevelled pillars +with carved capitals and bases, he produced a quaint and pleasing effect, +very suitable to the rather effeminate fashion of his time, and in harmony +with three-cornered hats, wigs and patches, embroidered waistcoats, knee +breeches, silk stockings, and enamelled snuff-boxes. In some of the +designs there is a fanciful Gothic, to which he makes special allusion in +his preface, as likely to be considered by his critics as impracticable, +but which he undertakes to produce, if desired-- + + "Though some of the profession have been diligent enough to represent + them (espescially those after the Gothick and Chinese manner) as so + many specious drawings impossible to be worked off by any mechanick + whatsoever. I will not scruple to attribute this to Malice, Ignorance, + and Inability; and I am confident I can convince all Noblemen, + Gentlemen, or others who will honour me with their Commands, that every + design in the book can be improved, both as to Beauty and Enrichment, + in the execution of it, by + + "Their most obedient servant, + + "THOMAS CHIPPENDALE." + +[Illustration: A Bureau, From Chippendale's "Director."] + +The reader will notice that in the examples selected from Chippendale's +book there are none of those fretwork tables and cabinets which are +generally termed "Chippendale." We know, however, that besides the designs +which have just been described, and which were intended for gilding, he +also made mahogany furniture, and in the "Director" there are drawings of +chairs, washstands, writing-tables and cabinets of this description. +Fretwork is very rarely seen, but the carved ornament is generally a +foliated or curled endive scroll; sometimes the top of a cabinet is +finished in the form of a Chinese pagoda. Upon examining a piece of +furniture that may reasonably be ascribed to him, it will be found of +excellent workmanship, and the wood, always mahogany without any inlay, is +richly marked, shewing a careful selection of material. + +[Illustration: Fac-simile of a Page In Chippendale's "Director." (The +original is folio size.)] + +[Illustration: "French" Commode and Lamp Stands. Designed by T. +Chippendale, and Published in His "Director."] + +[Illustration: Fac-simile of a Page in Chippendale's "Director." (The +original is folio size.)] + +[Illustration: Chimneypiece and Mirror. Designed By T. Chippendale, and +Published in His "Director."] + +[Illustration: PARLOUR CHAIRS BY CHIPPENDALE.] + +The chairs of Chippendale and his school are very characteristic. If the +outline of the back of some of them be compared with the stuffed back of +the chair from Hardwick Hall (illustrated in Chap. IV.) it will be seen +that the same lines occur, but instead of the frame of the back being +covered with silk, tapestry, or other material--as in William III.'s +time--Chippendale's are cut open into fanciful patterns; and in his more +highly ornate work, the twisted ribands of his design are scarcely to be +reconciled with the use for which a dining room chair is intended. The +well-moulded sweep of his lines, however, counterbalances this defect to +some extent, and a good Chippendale mahogany chair will ever be an elegant +and graceful article of furniture. + +One of the most graceful chairs of about the middle of the century, in the +style of Chippendale's best productions, is the Master's Chair in the Hall +of the Barbers' Company. Carved in rich Spanish mahogany, and upholstered +in morocco leather, the ornament consists of scrolls and cornucopiæ, with +flowers charmingly disposed, the arms and motto of the Company being +introduced. Unfortunately, there is no certain record as to the designer +and maker of this beautiful chair, and it is to be regretted that the date +(1865), the year when the Hall was redecorated, should have been placed in +prominent gold letters on this interesting relic of a past century. + +[Illustration: Clock Case, by Chippendale.] + +Apart from the several books of design noticed in this chapter, there were +published two editions of a work, undated, containing many of the drawings +found in Chippendale's book. This book was entitled, "Upwards of One +Hundred New and Genteel Designs, being all the most approved patterns of +household furniture in the French taste. By a Society of Upholders and +Cabinet makers." It is probable that Chippendale was a member of this +Society, and that some of the designs were his, but that he severed +himself from it and published his own book, preferring to advance his +individual reputation. The "sideboard" which one so generally hears called +"Chippendale" scarcely existed in his time. If it did, it must have been +quite at the end of his career. There were side tables, sometimes called +"Side-Boards," but they contained neither cellaret nor cupboard: only a +drawer for table linen. + +The names of two designers and makers of mahogany ornamental furniture, +which deserve to be remembered equally with Chippendale, are those of W. +Ince and J. Mayhew, who were partners in business in Broad Street, Golden +Square, and contemporary with him. They also published a book of designs +which is alluded to by Thomas Sheraton in the preface to his "Cabinet +Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book," published in 1793. A few examples +from Ince and Mayhew's "Cabinet Maker's Real Friend and Companion" are +given, from which it is evident that, without any distinguishing brand, or +without the identification of the furniture with the designs, it is +difficult to distinguish between the work of these contemporary makers. + +It is, however, noticeable after careful comparison of the work of +Chippendale with that of Ince and Mayhew, that the furniture designed and +made by the latter has many more of the characteristic details and +ornaments which are generally looked upon as denoting the work of +Chippendale; for instance, the fretwork ornaments finished by the carver, +and then applied to the plain mahogany, the open-work scroll-shaped backs +to encoignures or china shelves, and the carved Chinaman with the pagoda. +Some of the frames of chimney glasses and pictures made by Ince and Mayhew +are almost identical with those of Chippendale. + +Other well known designers and manufacturers of this time were +Hepplewhite, who published a book of designs very similar to those of his +contemporaries, and Matthias Lock, some of whose original drawings were on +view in the Exhibition of 1862, and had interesting memoranda attached, +giving the names of his workmen and the wages paid: from these it appears +that five shillings a day was at that time sufficient remuneration for a +skilful wood carver. + +Another good designer and maker of much excellent furniture of this time +was "Shearer," who has been unnoticed by nearly all writers on the +subject. In an old book of designs in the author's possession, "Shearer +delin" and "published according to Act of Parliament, 1788," appears +underneath the representations of sideboards, tables, bookcases, dressing +tables, which are very similar in every way to those of Sheraton, his +contemporary. + +A copy of Hepplewhite's book, in the author's possession (published in +1789), contains 300 designs "of every article of household furniture in +the newest and most approved taste," and it is worth while to quote from +his preface to illustrate the high esteem in which English cabinet work +was held at this time. + +[Illustration: China Shelves, Designed by W. Ince. (Reproduced by +Photography from an old Print in the Author's Possession.)] + +[Illustration: Girandoles and Pier Table, Designed by W. Thomas, +Architect, 1783. (Reproduced by Photography from an old Print in the +Author's possession.)] + +"English taste and workmanship have of late years been much sought for by +surrounding nations; and the mutability of all things, but more especially +of fashions, has rendered the labours of our predecessors in this line of +little use; nay, in this day can only tend to mislead those foreigners who +seek a knowledge of English taste in the various articles of household +furniture." + +It is amusing to think how soon the "mutabilities of fashion" did for a +time supersede many of his designs. + +A selection of designs from his book is given, and it will be useful to +compare them with those of other contemporary makers. From such a +comparison it will be seen that in the progress from the rococo of +Chippendale to the more severe lines of Sheraton, Hepplewhite forms a +connecting link between the two. + +[Illustration: Toilet Glass. + +Urn Stand. + +(_From "Hepplewhite's Guide"._)] + +The names given to some of these designs appear curious; for instance: + +"Rudd's table or reflecting dressing table," so called from the first one +having been invented for a popular character of that time. + +"Knife cases," for the reception of the knives which were kept in them, +and used to "garnish" the sideboards. + +"Cabriole chair," implying a stuffed back, and not having reference, as it +does now, to the curved form of the leg. + +"Bar backed sofa," being what we should now term a three or four chair +settee, i.e., like so many chairs joined and having an arm at either +end. + +"Library case" instead of Bookcase. + +"Confidante" and "Duchesse," which were sofas of the time. + +"Gouty stool," a stool having an adjustable top. + +"Tea chest," "Urn stand," and other names which have now disappeared from +ordinary use in describing similar articles. + +[Illustration: Ladies' Secretaires, Designed by W. Ince. (Reproduced by +Photography from an old Print in the Author's possession.)] + +[Illustration: Parlour Chairs, Designed by W. Ince.] + +[Illustration: Desk and Bookcase, Designed by W. Ince. (Reproduced by +Photography from an old Print in the Author's possession.)] + +[Illustration: China Cabinet, Designed by J. Mayhew. (Reproduced from an +old Print in the Author's possession).] + +[Illustration: "Dressing Chairs," Designed by J. Mayhew. These shew the +influence of Sir W. Chamber's Chinese style.] + +Hepplewhite had a _specialité_, to which he alludes in his book, and of +which he gives several designs. This was his japanned or painted +furniture: the wood was coated with a preparation after the manner of +Chinese or Japanese lacquer, and then decorated, generally with gold on a +black ground, the designs being in fruits and flowers: and also medallions +painted in the style of Cipriani and Angelica Kauffmann. Subsequently, +furniture of this character, instead of being japanned, was only painted +white. It is probable that many of the chairs of this time which one sees, +of wood of inferior quality, and with scarcely any ornament, were +originally decorated in the manner just described, and therefore the +"carving" of details would have been superfluous. Injury to the enamelling +by wear and tear was most likely the cause of their being stripped of +their rubbed and partly obliterated decorations, and they were then +stained and polished, presenting an appearance which is scarcely just to +the designer and manufacturer. + +In some of Hepplewhite's chairs, too, as in those of Sheraton, one may +fancy one sees evidence of the squabbles of two fashionable factions of +this time, "the Court party" and the "Prince's party," the latter having +the well known Prince of Wales' plumes very prominent, and forming the +ornamental support of the back of the chair. Another noticeable enrichment +is the carving of wheat ears on the shield shape backs of the chairs. + +"The plan of a room shewing the proper distribution of the furniture," +appears on p. 193 to give an idea of the fashion of the day; it is evident +from the large looking glass which overhangs the sideboard that the +fashion had now set in to use these mirrors. Some thirty or forty year +later this mirror became part of the sideboard, and in some large and +pretentious designs which we have seen, the sideboard itself was little +better than a support for a huge glass in a heavily carved frame. + +The dining tables of this period deserve a passing notice as a step in the +development of that important member of our "Lares and Penates." What was +and is still called the "pillar and claw" table, came into fashion towards +the end of last century. It consisted of a round or square top supported +by an upright cylinder, which rested on a plinth having three, or +sometimes four, feet carved as claws. In order to extend these tables for +a larger number of guests, an arrangement was made for placing several +together. When apart, they served as pier or side tables, and some of +these--the two end ones, being semi-circular--may still be found in some +of our old inns.[17] + +[Illustration: Tea Tray.] + +[Illustration: Girandole.] + +[Illustration: Tea Tray.] + +[Illustration: Parlour Chair, with Prince Of Wales' Plumes.] + +[Illustration: Pier Table.] + +[Illustration: Parlour Chair.] + +[Illustration: Designs of Furniture. From Hepplewhite's "Guide," Published +1787.] + +[Illustration: Fac-simile of a Page in Hepplewhite's "Cabinet Maker's +Guide." Published In 1787.] + +It was not until 1800 that Richard Gillow, of the well-known firm in +Oxford Street, invented and patented the convenient telescopic contrivance +which, with slight improvements, has given us the table of the present +day. The term still used by auctioneers in describing a modern extending +table as "a set of dining tables," is, probably, a survival of the older +method of providing for a dinner party. Gillow's patent is described as +"an improvement in the method of constructing dining and other tables +calculated to reduce the number of legs, pillars and claws, and to +facilitate and render easy, their enlargement and reduction." + +[Illustration: Inlaid Tea Caddy and Top of Pier Tables. (_From +"Hepplewhite's Guide"_)] + +As an interesting link between the present and the past it may be useful +here to introduce a slight notice of this well-known firm of furniture +manufacturers, for which the writer is indebted to Mr. Clarke, one of the +present partners of Gillows. "We have an unbroken record of books dating +from 1724, but we existed long anterior to this: all records were +destroyed during the Scottish Rebellion in 1745." The house originated in +Lancaster, which was then the chief port in the north, Liverpool not being +in existence at the time, and Gillows exported furniture largely to the +West Indies, importing rum as payment, for which privilege they held a +special charter. The house opened in London in 1765, and for some time the +Lancaster books bore the heading and inscription, "Adventure to London." +On the architect's plans for the premises now so well-known in Oxford +Street, occur these words, "This is the way to Uxbridge." Mr. Clarke's +information may be supplemented by adding that from Dr. Gillow, whom the +writer had the pleasure of meeting some years ago, and was the thirteenth +child of the Richard Gillow before mentioned; he learnt that this same +Richard Gillow retired in 1830, and died as late as 1866 at the age of 90. +Dowbiggin, founder of the firm of Holland and Sons, was an apprentice to +Richard Gillow. + +Mahogany may be said to have come into general use subsequent to 1720, +and its introduction is asserted to have been due to the tenacity of +purpose of a Dr. Gibbon, whose wife wanted a candle box, an article of +common domestic use of the time. The Doctor, who had laid by in the garden +of his house in King Street, Covent Garden, some planks sent to him by his +brother, a West Indian captain, asked the joiner to use a part of the wood +for this purpose; it was found too tough and hard for the tools of the +period, but the Doctor was not to be thwarted, and insisted on +harder-tempered tools being found, and the task completed; the result was +the production of a candle box which was admired by every one. He then +ordered a bureau of the same material, and when it was finished invited +his friends to see the new work; amongst others, the Duchess of Buckingham +begged a small piece of the precious wood, and it soon became the fashion. +On account of its toughness, and peculiarity of grain, it was capable of +treatment impossible with oak, and the high polish it took by oil and +rubbing (not French polish, a later invention), caused it to come into +great request. The term "putting one's knees under a friend's mahogany," +probably dates from about this time. + +[Illustration: Kneehole Table, by Sheraton.] + +Thomas Sheraton, who commenced work some 20 years later than Chippendale, +and continued it until the early part of the nineteenth century, +accomplished much excellent work in English furniture. + +The fashion had now changed; instead of the rococo or rock work (literally +rock-scroll) and shell (_rocquaille et cocquaille_) ornament, which had +gone out, a simpler and more severe taste had come in. In Sheraton's +cabinets, chairs, writing tables, and occasional pieces we have therefore +no longer the cabriole leg or the carved ornament; but, as in the case of +the brothers Adam, and the furniture designed by them for such houses as +those in Portland Place, we have now square tapering legs, severe lines, +and quiet ornament. Sheraton trusted almost entirely for decoration to his +marqueterie. Some of this is very delicate and of excellent workmanship. +He introduced occasionally animals with foliated extremities into his +scrolls, and he also inlaid marqueterie trophies of musical instruments; +but as a rule the decoration was in wreaths of flowers, husks, or drapery, +in strict adherence to the fashion of the decorations to which allusion +has been made. A characteristic feature of his cabinets was the +swan-necked pediment surmounting the cornice, being a revival of an +ornament fashionable during Queen Anne's reign. It was then chiefly found +in stone, marble, or cut brickwork, but subsequently became prevalent in +inlaid woodwork. + +[Illustration: Chairs, by Sheraton.] + +Sheraton was apparently a man very well educated for his time, whether +self taught or not one cannot say; but that he was an excellent +draughtsman, and had a complete knowledge of geometry, is evident from the +wonderful drawings in his book, and the careful though rather verbose +directions he gives for perspective drawing. Many of his numerous designs +for furniture and ornamental items, are drawn to a scale with the +geometrical nicety of an engineer's or architect's plan: he has drawn in +elevation, plan, and minute detail, each of the five architectural orders. + +[Illustration: Chair Backs, from Sheraton's "Cabinet Maker."] + +The selection made here from his designs for the purposes of illustration, +is not taken from his later work, which properly belongs to a future +chapter, when we come to consider the influence of the French Revolution, +and the translation of the "Empire" style to England. Sheraton published +"The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book" in 1793, and the list +of subscribers whose names and addresses are given, throws much light on +the subject of the furniture of his time.[18] Amongst these are many of +his aristocratic patrons and no less than 450 names and addresses of +cabinet makers, chair makers and carvers, exclusive of harpsichord +manufacturers, musical instrument makers, upholsterers, and other kindred +trades. Included with these we find the names of firms who, from the +appointments they held, it may be inferred, had a high reputation for good +work and a leading position in the trade, but who, perhaps from the +absence of a taste for "getting into print" and from the lack of any brand +or mark by which their work can be identified, have passed into oblivion +while their contemporaries are still famous. The following names taken +from this list are probably those of men who had for many years conducted +well known and old established businesses, but would now be but poor ones +to "conjure" with, while those of Chippendale, Sheraton, or Hepplewhite, +are a ready passport for a doubtful specimen. For instance:--France, +Cabinet Maker to His Majesty, St. Martin's Lane; Charles Elliott, Upholder +to His Majesty and Cabinet Maker to the Duke of York, Bond Street; +Campbell and Sons, Cabinet Makers to the Prince of Wales, Mary-le-bone +Street, London. Besides those who held Royal appointments, there were +other manufacturers of decorative furniture--Thomas Johnson, Copeland, +Robert Davy, a French carver named Nicholas Collet, who settled in +England, and many others. + +In Mr. J.H. Pollen's larger work on furniture and woodwork, which includes +a catalogue of the different examples in the South Kensington Museum, +there is a list of the various artists and craftsmen who have been +identified with the production of artistic furniture either as designers +or manufacturers, and the writer has found this of considerable service. +In the Appendix to this work, this list has been reproduced, with the +addition of several names (particularly those of the French school) +omitted by Mr. Pollen, and it will, it is hoped, prove a useful reference +to the reader. + + * * * * * + +Although this chapter is somewhat long, on account of the endeavour to +give more detailed information about English furniture of the latter half +of last century, than of some other periods, in consequence of the +prevailing taste for our National manufacture of this time, still, in +concluding it, a few remarks about the "Sideboard" may be allowed. + +The changes in form and fashion of this important article of domestic +furniture are interesting, and to explain them a slight retrospect is +necessary. The word "Buffet," sometimes translated "Sideboard," which was +used to describe continental pieces of furniture of the 15th and 16th +centuries, does not designate our Sideboard, which may be said to have +been introduced by William III.; and of which kind there is a fair +specimen in the South Kensington Museum; an illustration of it has been +given in the chapter dealing with that period. + +The term "stately sideboard" occurs in Milton's "Paradise Regained," which +was published in 1671, and Dryden, in his translation of Juvenal, +published in 1693, when contrasting the furniture of the classical period +of which he was writing with that of his own time, uses the following +line:-- + + "No sideboards then with gilded plate were dressed." + +The fashion in those days of having symmetrical doors in a room, that is, +false doors to correspond with the door used for exit, which one still +finds in many old houses in the neighbourhood of Portland Place, and +particularly in the palaces of St. James' and of Kensington, enabled our +ancestors to have good cupboards for the storage of glass, crockery, and +reserve wine. After the middle of the eighteenth century, however, these +extra doors and the enclosed cupboard gradually disappeared, and soon +after the mahogany side table came into fashion it became the custom to +supplement this article of furniture by a pedestal cupboard on either side +(instead of the cupboards alluded to), one for hot plates and the other +for wine. Then, as the thin legs gave the table rather a lanky appearance, +the _garde de vin_, or cellaret, was added in the form of an oval tub of +mahogany with bands of brass, sometimes raised on low feet with castors +for convenience, which was used as a wine cooler. A pair of urn-shaped +mahogany vases stood on the pedestals, and these contained--the one hot +water for the servants' use in washing the knives, forks and spoons, which +being then much more valuable were limited in quantity, and the other held +iced water for the guests' use. + +A brass rail at the back of the side table with ornamental pillars and +branches for candles was used, partly to enrich the furniture, and partly +to form a support to the handsome pair of knife and spoon cases, which +completed the garniture of a gentleman's sideboard of this period. + +The full page illustrations will give the reader a good idea of this +arrangement, and it would seem that the modern sideboard is the +combination of these separate articles into one piece of furniture--at +different times and in different fashions--first the pedestals joined to +the table produced our "pedestal sideboard," then the mirror was joined to +the back, the cellarette made part of the interior fittings, and the +banishment of knife cases and urns to the realms of the curiosity hunter, +or for conversion into spirit cases and stationery holders. The +sarcophagus, often richly carved, of course succeeded the simpler cellaret +of Sheraton's period. + +Before we dismiss the furniture of the "dining room" of this period, it +may interest some of our readers to know that until the first edition of +"Johnson's Dictionary" was published in 1755, the term was not to be found +in the vocabularies of our language designating its present use. In +Barrat's "Alvearic," published in 1580, "parloir," or "parler," was +described as "a place to sup in." Later, "Minsheu's Guide unto Tongues," +in 1617, gave it as "an inner room to dine or to suppe in," but Johnson's +definition is "a room in houses on the first floor, elegantly furnished +for reception or entertainment." + +[Illustration: Urn Stand.] + +To the latter part of the eighteenth century--the English furniture of +which time has been discussed in this Chapter--belong the quaint little +"urn stands" which were made to hold the urn with boiling water, while the +tea pot was placed on the little slide which is drawn out from underneath +the table top. In those days tea was an expensive luxury, and the urn +stand, of which there is an illustration, inlaid in the fashion of the +time, is a dainty relic of the past, together with the old mahogany or +marqueterie tea caddy, which was sometimes the object of considerable +skill and care. One of these designed by Chippendale is illustrated on p. +179, and another by Hepplewhite will be found on p. 194. They were fitted +with two and sometimes three bottles or tea-pays of silver or Battersea +enamel, to hold the black and green teas, and when really good examples of +these daintily-fitted tea caddies are offered for sale, they bring large +sums. + +[Illustration: A Sideboard in Mahogany with Inlay of Satinwood. In the +Style of Robert Adam.] + +The "wine table" of this time deserves a word. These are now somewhat +rare, and are only to be found in a few old houses, and in some of the +Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge. These were found with revolving tops, +which had circles turned out to a slight depth for each glass to stand in, +and they were sometimes shaped like the half of a flat ring. These latter +were for placing in front of the fire, when the outer side of the table +formed a convivial circle, round which the sitters gathered after they had +left the dinner table. + +One of these old tables is still to be seen in the Hall of Gray's Inn, and +the writer was told that its fellow was broken and had been "sent away." +They are nearly always of good rich mahogany, and have legs more or less +ornamental according to circumstances. + +A distinguishing feature of English furniture of the last century was the +partiality for secret drawers and contrivances for hiding away papers or +valued articles; and in old secretaires and writing tables we find a great +many ingenious designs which remind us of the days when there were but few +banks, and people kept money and deeds in their own custody. + +[Illustration: Carved Jardiniere, by Chippendale.] + +[Illustration: A China Cabinet, and a Bookcase With Secretaire. Designed +by T. Sheraton, and published in his "Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's +Drawing Book," 1793.] + + + + +Chapter VIII. + +First Half of the Nineteenth Century + + + + The French Revolution and First Empire--Influence on design of + Napoleon's Campaigns--The Cabinet presented to Marie Louise--Dutch + Furniture of the time--English Furniture--Sheraton's later work--Thomas + Hope, architect--George Smith's designs--Fashion during the + Regency--Gothic revival--Seddon's Furniture--Other Makers--Influence on + design of the Restoration in France--Furniture of William IV. and early + part of Queen Victoria's reign--Baroque and Rococo styles--The + panelling of rooms, dado, and skirting--The Art Union,--The Society of + Arts--Sir Charles Barry and the new Palace of Westminster--Pugin's + designs--Auction Prices of Furniture--Christie's--The London Club + Houses--Steam--Different Trade Customs--Exhibitions in France and + England--Harry Rogers' work--The Queen's cradle--State of Art in + England during first part of present reign--Continental + designs--Italian carving--Cabinet work--General remarks. + + +Empire Furniture. + + +[Illustration] + +There are great crises in the history of a nation which stand out in +prominent relief. One of these is the French Revolution, which commenced +in 1792, and wrought such dire havoc amongst the aristocracy, with so much +misery and distress throughout the country. It was an event of great +importance, whether we consider the religion, the politics, or the manners +and customs of a people, as affecting the changes in the style of the +decoration of their homes. The horrors of the Revolution are matters of +common knowledge to every schoolboy, and there is no need to dwell either +upon them or their consequences, which are so thoroughly apparent. The +confiscation of the property of those who had fled the country was added +to the general dislocation of everything connected with the work of the +industrial arts. + +Nevertheless it should be borne in mind that amongst the anarchy and +disorder of this terrible time in France, the National Convention had +sufficient foresight to appoint a Commission, composed of competent men in +different branches of Art, to determine what State property in artistic +objects should be sold, and what was of sufficient historical interest to +be retained as a national possession. Riesener, the celebrated _ébeniste_, +whose work we have described in the chapter on Louis Seize furniture, and +David, the famous painter of the time, both served on this Commission, of +which they must have been valuable members. + +There is a passage quoted by Mr. C. Perkins, the American translator of +Dr. Falke's German work "Kunst im Hause," which gives us the keynote to +the great change which took place in the fashion of furniture about the +time of the Revolution. In an article on "Art," says this democratic +French writer, as early as 1790, when the great storm cloud was already +threatening to burst, "We have changed everything; freedom, now +consolidated in France, has restored the pure taste of the antique! +Farewell to your marqueterie and Boule, your ribbons, festoons, and +rosettes of gilded bronze; the hour has come when objects must be made to +harmonize with circumstances." + +Thus it is hardly too much to say that designs were governed by the +politics and philosophy of the day; and one finds in furniture of this +period the reproduction of ancient Greek forms for chairs and couches; +ladies' work tables are fashioned somewhat after the old drawings of +sacrificial altars; and the classical tripod is a favourite support. The +mountings represent antique Roman fasces with an axe in the centre; +trophies of lances, surmounted by a Phrygian cap of liberty; winged +figures, emblematical of freedom; and antique heads of helmeted warriors +arranged like cameo medallions. + +After the execution of Robespierre, and the abolition of the Revolutionary +Tribunal in 1794, came the choice of the Directory: and then, after +Buonaparte's brilliant success in Italy, and the famous expeditions to +Syria and Egypt two years later, came his proclamation as First Consul in +1799, which in 1802 was confirmed as a life appointment. + +We have only to refer to the portrait of the great soldier, represented +with the crown of bay leaves and other attributes of old Roman +imperialism, to see that in his mind was the ambition of reviving much of +the splendour and of the surroundings of the Caesars, whom he took, to +some extent, as his models; and that in founding on the ashes of the +Revolution a new fabric, with new people about him, all influenced by his +energetic personality, he desired to mark his victories by stamping the +new order of things with his powerful and assertive individualism. + +[Illustration: Cabinet in Mahogany with Bronze Gilt Mountings, Presented +by Napoleon I. to Marie Louise on his Marriage with her in 1810 Period: +Napoleon I.] + +The cabinet which was designed and made for Marie Louise, on his marriage +with her in 1810, is an excellent example of the Napoleonic furniture. The +wood used was almost invariably rich mahogany, the colour of which made a +good ground for the bronze gilt mounts which were applied. The full-page +illustration shews these, which are all classical in character; and though +there is no particular grace in the outline or form of the cabinet, +there is a certain dignity and solemnity, relieved from oppressiveness by +the fine chasing and gilding of the metal enrichments, and the excellent +colour and figuring of the rich Spanish mahogany used. + +On secretaires and tables, a common ornament of this description of +furniture, is a column of mahogany, with a capital and base of bronze +(either gilt, part gilt, or green), in the form of the head of a sphinx +with the foot of an animal; console tables are supported by sphinxes and +griffins; and candelabra and wall brackets for candles have winged figures +of females, stiff in modelling and constrained in attitude, but almost +invariably of good material with careful finish. + +[Illustration: Tabouret, or Stool, Carved and Gilt; Arm Chair, In +Mahogany, with Gilt Bronze Mountings. Period of Napoleon I.] + +The bas-reliefs in metal which ornament the panels of the friezes of +cabinets, or the marble bases of clocks, are either reproductions of +mythological subjects from old Italian gems and seals, or represent the +battles of the Emperor, in which Napoleon is portrayed as a Roman general. +There was plenty of room to replace so much that had disappeared during +the Revolution, and a vast quantity of decorative furniture was made +during the few years which elapsed before the disaster of Waterloo caused +the disappearance of a power which had been almost meteoric in its career. + +The best authority on "Empire Furniture" is the book of designs, published +in 1809 by the architects Percier and Fontaine, which is the more valuable +as a work of reference, from the fact that every design represented was +actually carried out, and is not a mere exercise of fancy, as is the case +with many such books. In the preface the authors modestly state that they +are entirely indebted to the antique for the reproduction of the different +ornaments; and the originals, from which some of the designs were taken, +are still preserved in a fragmentary form in the Museum of the Vatican. + +The illustrations on p. 205 of an arm chair and a stool, together with +that of the tripod table which ornaments the initial letter of this +chapter, are favourable examples of the richly-mounted and more decorative +furniture of this style. While they are not free from the stiffness and +constraint which are inseparable from classic designs as applied to +furniture, the rich colour of the mahogany, the high finish and good +gilding of the bronze mounts, and the costly silk with which they are +covered, render them attractive and give them a value of their own. + +The more ordinary furniture, however, of the same style, but without these +decorative accessories, is stiff, ungainly, and uncomfortable, and seems +to remind us of a period in the history of France when political and +social disturbance deprived the artistic and pleasure-loving Frenchman of +his peace of mind, distracting his attention from the careful +consideration of his work. It may be mentioned here that, in order to +supply a demand which has lately arisen, chiefly in New York, but also to +some extent in England, for the best "Empire" furniture, the French +dealers have bought up some of the old undecorated pieces, and by +ornamenting them with gilt bronze mounts, cast from good old patterns, +have sold them as original examples of the _meubles de luxe_ of the +period. + +In Dutch furniture of this time one sees the reproduction of the +Napoleonic fashion--the continuation of the Revolutionists' classicalism. +Many marqueterie secretaires, tables, chairs, and other like articles, are +mounted with the heads and feet of animals, with lions' heads and +sphinxes, designs which could have been derived from no other source; and +the general design of the furniture loses its bombé form, and becomes +rectangular and severe. Whatever difficulty there may be in sometimes +deciding between the designs of the Louis XIV. period, towards its close, +and that of Louis XV., there can be no mistake about _l'epoch de la +Directoire_ and _le style de l'Empire._ These are marked and branded with +the Egyptian expedition, and the Syrian campaign, as legibly as if they +all bore the familiar plain Roman N, surmounted by a laurel wreath, or the +Imperial eagle which had so often led the French legions to victory. + +It is curious to notice how England, though so bitterly opposed to +Napoleon, caught the infection of the dominant features of design which +were prevalent in France about this time. + +[Illustration: Nelson's Chairs. Designs Published by T. Sheraton, October +29th, 1806.] + +Thus, in Sheraton's book on Furniture, to which allusion has been made, +and from which illustrations have been given in the chapter on +"Chippendale and his Contemporaries," there is evidence that, as in France +during the influence of Marie Antoinette, there was a classical revival, +and the lines became straighter and more severe for furniture, so this +alteration was adopted by Sheraton, Shearer, and other English designers +at the end of the century. But if we refer to Sheraton's later drawings, +which are dated about 1804 to 1806, we see the constrained figures and +heads and feet of animals, all brought into the designs as shewn in the +"drawing room" chairs here illustrated. These are unmistakable signs of +the French "Empire" influence, the chief difference between the French and +English work being, that, whereas in French Empire furniture the +excellence of the metal work redeems it from heaviness or ugliness, such +merit was wanting in England, where we have never excelled in bronze work, +the ornament being generally carved in wood, either gilt or coloured +bronze-green. When metal was used it was brass, cast and fairly finished +by the chaser, but much more clumsy than the French work. Therefore, the +English furniture of the first years of the nineteenth century is stiff, +massive, and heavy, equally wanting in gracefulness with its French +contemporary, and not having the compensating attractions of fine +mounting, or the originality and individuality which must always add an +interest to Napoleonic furniture. + +[Illustration: Drawing Room Chair. Design published by T. Sheraton, +April, 1804.] + +[Illustration: Drawing Room Chair. Design published by T. Sheraton, +April 1, 1804.] + +There was, however, made about this time by Gillow, to whose earlier work +reference has been made in the previous chapter, some excellent furniture, +which, while to some extent following the fashion of the day, did so more +reasonably. The rosewood and mahogany tables, chairs, cabinets and +sideboards of his make, inlaid with scrolls and lines of flat brass, and +mounted with handles and feet of brass, generally representing the heads +and claws of lions, do great credit to the English work of this time. The +sofa table and sideboard, illustrated on the previous page, are of this +class, and shew that Sheraton, too, designed furniture of a less +pronounced character, as well as the heavier kind to which reference has +been made. + +[Illustration: "Canopy Bed" Design Published by T. Sheraton, November +9th, 1803.] + +[Illustration: "Sister's Cylinder Bookcase." Designed by T. Sheraton, +1802.] + +[Illustration: Sideboard, In Mahogany, with Brass Rail and Convex Mirror +at back, Design published by T. Sheraton, 1802.] + +[Illustration: Sofa Table, Design published by T. Sheraton, 1804.] + +A very favourable example of the craze in England for classic design in +furniture and decoration, is shown in the reproduction of a drawing by +Thomas Hope, in 1807, a well-known architect of the time, in which it will +be observed that the forms and fashions of some of the chairs and tables, +described and illustrated in the chapter on "Ancient Furniture," have been +taken as models. + +There were several makers of first-class furniture, of whom the names of +some still survive in the "style and title" of firms of the present day, +who are their successors, while those of others have been forgotten, save +by some of our older manufacturers and auctioneers, who, when requested by +the writer, have been good enough to look up old records and revive the +memories of fifty years ago. Of these the best known was Thomas Seddon, +who came from Manchester and settled in Aldersgate Street. His two sons +succeeded to the business, became cabinet makers to George IV., and +furnished and decorated Windsor Castle. At the King's death their account +was disputed, and £30,000 was struck off, a loss which necessitated an +arrangement with their creditors. Shortly after this, however, they took +the barracks of the London Light Horse Volunteers in the Gray's Inn Road +(now the Hospital), and carried on there for a time a very extensive +business. Seddon's work ranked with Gillow's, and they shared with that +house the best orders for furniture. + +Thomas Seddon, painter of Oriental subjects, who died in 1856, and P. +Seddon, a well-known architect, were grandsons of the original founder of +the firm. On the death of the elder brother, Thomas, the younger one then +transferred his connection to the firm of Johnstone and Jeanes, in Bond +Street, another old house which still carries on business as "Johnstone +and Norman," and who some few years ago executed a very extravagant order +for an American millionaire. This was a reproduction of Byzantine designs +in furniture of cedar, ebony, ivory, and pearl, made from drawings by Mr. +Alma Tadema, R.A. + +[Illustration: Design of a Room, in the Classic Style, by Thomas Hope, +Architect, In 1807.] + +Snell, of Albemarle Street, had been established early in the century, and +obtained an excellent reputation; his specialité was well-made birch +bedroom suites, but he also made furniture of a general description. The +predecessor of the present firm of Howard and Son, who commenced +business in Whitechapel as early as 1800, and the first Morant, may all be +mentioned as manufacturers of the first quarter of the century. + +Somewhat later, Trollopes, of Parliament Street; Holland, who had +succeeded Dowbiggin (Gillow's apprentice), first in Great Pulteney Street, +and subsequently at the firm's present address; Wilkinson, of Ludgate +Hill, founder of the present firm of upholsterers in Bond Street; +Aspinwall, of Grosvenor Street; the second Morant, of whom the great Duke +of Wellington made a personal friend; and Grace, a prominent decorator of +great taste, who carried out many of Pugin's Gothic designs, were all men +of good reputation. Miles and Edwards, of Oxford Street, whom Hindleys +succeeded, were also well known for good middle-class furniture. These are +some of the best known manufacturers of the first half of the present +century, and though until after the great Exhibition there was, as a rule, +little in the designs to render their productions remarkable, the work of +those named will be found sound in construction, and free from the faults +which accompany the cheap and showy reproductions of more pretentious +styles which mark so much of the furniture of the present day. With regard +to this, more will be said in the next chapter. + +There was then a very limited market for any but the most commonplace +furniture. Our wealthy people bought the productions of French cabinet +makers, either made in Paris or by Frenchmen who came over to England, and +the middle classes were content with the most ordinary and useful +articles. If they had possessed the means they certainly had neither the +taste nor the education to furnish more ambitiously. The great extent of +suburbs which now surround the Metropolis, and which include such numbers +of expensive and extravagantly-fitted residences of merchants and +tradesmen, did not then exist. The latter lived over their shops or +warehouses, and the former only aspired to a dull house in Bloomsbury, or, +like David Copperfield's father-in-law, Mr. Spenlow, a villa at Norwood, +or perhaps a country residence at Hampstead or Highgate. + +In 1808 a designer and maker of furniture, George Smith by name, who held +the appointment of "Upholder extraordinary to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales," +and carried on business at "Princess" Street, Cavendish Square, produced a +book of designs, 158 in number, published by "Wm. Taylor," of Holborn. +These include cornices, window drapery, bedsteads, tables, chairs, +bookcases, commodes, and other furniture, the titles of some of which +occur for about the first time in our vocabularies, having been adapted +from the French. "Escritore, jardiniere, dejuné tables, chiffoniers" (the +spelling copied from Smith's book), all bear the impress of the +pseudo-classic taste; and his designs, some of which are reproduced, shew +the fashion of our so-called artistic furniture in England at the time of +the Regency. Mr. Smith, in the "Preliminary Remarks" prefacing the +illustrations, gives us an idea of the prevailing taste, which it is +instructive to peruse, looking back now some three-quarters of a +century:-- + +[Illustration: "Library Fauteuil." Reproduced from Smith's Book of +Designs, published in 1804] + +"The following practical observations on the various woods employed in +cabinet work may be useful. Mahogany, when used in houses of consequence, +should be confined to the parlour and the bedchamber floors. In furniture +for these apartments the less inlay of other woods, the more chaste will +be the style of work. If the wood be of a fine, compact, and bright +quality, the ornaments may be carved clean in the mahogany. Where it may +be requisite to make out panelling by an inlay of lines, let those lines +be of brass or ebony. In drawing-rooms, boudoirs, ante-rooms, East and +West India satin woods, rosewood, tulip wood, and the other varieties of +woods brought from the East, may be used; with satin and light coloured +woods the decorations may be of ebony or rosewood; with rosewood let the +decorations be _ormolu_, and the inlay of brass. Bronze metal, though +sometimes used with satin wood, has a cold and poor effect: it suits +better on gilt work, and will answer well enough on mahogany." + +[Illustration: "Parlor Chairs," Shewing the Inlay of Brass referred to. +From Smith's Book of Designs, published 1808.] + +Amongst the designs published by him are some few of a subdued Gothic +character; these are generally carved in light oak, or painted light stone +colour, and have, in some cases, heraldic shields, with crests and coats +of arms picked out in colour. There are window seats painted to imitate +marble, with the Roman or Greco-Roman ornaments painted green to represent +bronze. The most unobjectionable are mahogany with bronze green ornaments. + +Of the furniture of this period there are several pieces in the Mansion +House, in the City of London, which apparently was partly refurnished +about the commencement of the century. + +[Illustration: Bookcase. Design Published by T. Sheraton, June 12th, +1806. _Note_.--Very similar bookcases are in the London Mansion House.] + +In the Court Room of the Skinners' Company there are tables which are now +used' with extensions, so as to form a horseshoe table for committee +meetings. They are good examples of the heavy and solid carving in +mahogany, early in the century before the fashion had gone out of +representing the heads and feet of animals in the designs of furniture. +These tables have massive legs, with lion's heads and claws, carved with +great skill and shewing much spirit, the wood being of the best quality +and rich in color. + +[Illustration: "Drawing Room Chairs in Profile." From G. Smith's Book, +published 1808.] + + + +Early Victorian. + + +In the work of the manufacturers just enumerated, may be traced the +influence of the "Empire" style. With the restoration, however, of the +Monarchy in France came the inevitable change in fashions, and "_Le style +de l'Empire_" was condemned. In its place came a revival of the Louis +Quinze scrolls and curves, but with less character and restraint, until +the style we know as "baroque," [19] or debased "rococo," came in. Ornament +of a florid and incongruous character was lavished on decorative +furniture, indicative of a taste for display rather than for appropriate +enrichment. + +It had been our English custom for some long period to take our fashions +from France, and, therefore, about the time of William IV. and during the +early part of the present Queen's reign, the furniture for our best houses +was designed and made in the French style. In the "Music" Room at +Chatsworth are some chairs and footstools used at the time of the +Coronation of William IV. and Queen Adelaide, which have quite the +appearance of French furniture. + +The old fashion of lining rooms with oak panelling, which has been noticed +in an earlier chapter, had undergone a change which is worth recording. If +the illustration of the Elizabethan oak panelling, as given in the English +section of Chapter III., be referred to, it will be seen that the oak +lining reaches from the floor to within about two or three feet of the +cornice. Subsequently this panelling was divided into an upper and a lower +part, the former commencing about the height of the back of an ordinary +chair, a moulding or chair-rail forming a capping to the lower part. Then +pictures came to be let into the panelling; and presently the upper part +was discarded and the lower wainscoting remained, properly termed the +Dado,[20] which we have seen revived both in wood and in various +decorative materials of the present day. During the period we are now +discussing, this arrangement lost favour in the eyes of our grandfathers, +and the lowest member only was retained, which is now termed the "skirting +board." + +As we approach a period that our older contemporaries can remember, it is +very interesting to turn over the leaves of the back numbers of such +magazines and newspapers as treated of the Industrial Arts. The _Art +Union_, which changed its title to the _Art Journal_ in 1849, had then +been in existence for about ten years, and had done good work in promoting +the encouragement of Art and manufactures. The "Society of Arts" had been +formed in London as long ago as 1756, and had given prizes for designs and +methods of improving different processes of manufacture. Exhibitions of +the specimens sent in for competition for the awards were, and are still, +held at their house in Adelphi Buildings. Old volumes of "Transactions of +the Society" are quaint works of reference with regard to these +exhibitions. + +About 1840, Mr., afterwards Sir, Charles Barry, R.A., had designed and +commenced the present, or, as it was then called, the New Palace of +Westminster, and, following the Gothic character of the building, the +furniture and fittings were naturally of a design to harmonize with what +was then quite a departure from the heavy architectural taste of the day. +Mr. Barry was the first in this present century to leave the beaten track, +although the Reform and Travellers' Clubs had already been designed by him +on more classic lines. The Speaker's chair in the House of Commons is +evidently designed after one of the fifteenth century "canopied seats," +which have been noticed and illustrated in the second chapter; and the +"linen scroll pattern" panels can be counted by the thousand in the Houses +of Parliament and the different official residences which form part of the +Palace. The character of the work is subdued and not flamboyant, is +excellent in design and workmanship, and is highly creditable, when we +take into consideration the very low state of Art in England fifty years +ago. + +This want of taste was very much discussed in the periodicals of the day, +and, yielding to expressed public opinion, Government had in 1840-1 +appointed a Select Committee to take into consideration the promotion of +the fine Arts in the country, Mr. Charles Barry, Mr. Eastlake, and Sir +Martin Shee, R.A., being amongst the witnesses examined. The report of +this Committee, in 1841, contained the opinion "That such an important and +National work as the erection of the two Houses of Parliament affords an +opportunity which ought not to be neglected of encouraging, not only the +higher, but every subordinate branch of fine Art in this country." + +Mr. Augustus Welby Pugin was a well-known designer of the Gothic style of +furniture of this time. Born in 1811, he had published in 1835 his +"Designs for Gothic Furniture," and later his "Glossary of Ecclesiastical +Ornament and Costume"; and by skilful application of his knowledge to the +decorations of the different ecclesiastical buildings he designed, his +reputation became established. One of his designs is here reproduced. +Pugin's work and reputation have survived, notwithstanding the furious +opposition he met with at the time. In a review of one of his books, in +the _Art Union_ of 1839, the following sentence completes the +criticism:--"As it is a common occurrence in life to find genius mistaken +for madness, so does it sometimes happen that a madman is mistaken for a +genius. Mr. Welby Pugin has oftentimes appeared to us to be a case in +point." + +[Illustration: Prie-dieu, In Carved Oak, enriched with Painting and +Gilding. Designed by Mr. Pugin, and manufactured by Mr. Crace, London.] + +At this time furniture design and manufacture, as an Industrial Art in +England, seems to have attracted no attention whatever. There are but few +allusions to the design of decorative woodwork in the periodicals of the +day; and the auctioneers' advertisements--with a few notable exceptions, +like that of the Strawberry Hill Collection of Horace Walpole, gave no +descriptions; no particular interest in the subject appears to have been +manifested, save by a very limited number of the dilettanti, who, like +Walpole, collected the curios and cabinets of two or three hundred years +ago. + +[Illustration: Secretaire And Bookcase, In Carved Oak, in the style of +German Gothic. (_From Drawing by Professor Heideloff, Published in the +"Art Union," 1816._)] + +York House was redecorated and furnished about this time, and as it is +described as "Excelling any other dwelling of its own class in regal +magnificence and vieing with the Royal Palaces of Europe," we may take +note of an account of its re-equipment, written in 1841 for the _Art +Journal_. This notice speaks little for the taste of the period, and less +for the knowledge and grasp of the subject by the writer of an Art +critique of the day:--"The furniture generally is of no particular style, +but, on the whole, there is to be found a mingling of everything, in the +best manner of the best epochs of taste." Writing further on of the +ottoman couches, "causeuses," etc., the critic goes on to tell of an +alteration in fashion which had evidently just taken place:--"Some of +them, in place of plain or carved rosewood or mahogany, are ornamented in +white enamel, with classic subjects in bas-relief of perfect execution." + +Towards the close of the period embraced by the limits of this chapter, +the eminent firm of Jackson and Graham were making headway, a French +designer named Prignot being of considerable assistance in establishing +their reputation for taste; and in the Exhibition which was soon to take +place, this firm took a very prominent position. Collinson and Lock, who +have recently acquired this firm's premises and business, were both +brought up in the house as young men, and left some thirty odd years ago +for Herrings, of Fleet Street, whom they succeeded about 1870. + +Another well-known decorator who designed and manufactured furniture of +good quality was Leonard William Collmann, first of Bouverie Street and +later of George Street, Portman Square. He was a pupil of Sydney Smirke, +R.A. (who designed and built the Carlton and the Conservative Clubs), and +was himself an excellent draughtsman, and carried out the decoration and +furnishing of many public buildings, London clubs, and mansions of the +nobility and gentry. His son is at present Director of Decorations to Her +Majesty at Windsor Castle. Collmann's designs were occasionally Gothic, +but generally classic. + +There is evidence of the want of interest in the subject of furniture in +the auctioneers' catalogues of the day. By the courtesy of Messrs. +Christie and Manson, the writer has had access to the records of this old +firm, and two or three instances of sales of furniture may be given. While +the catalogues of the Picture sales of 1830-40 were printed on paper of +quarto size, and the subjects described at length, those of "Furniture" +are of the old-fashioned small octavo size, resembling the catalogue of a +small country auctioneer of the present day, and the printed descriptions +rarely exceed a single line. The prices very rarely amount to more than +£10; the whole proceeds of a day's sale were often less than £100, and +sometimes did not reach £50. At the sale of "Rosslyn House," Hampstead, in +1830, a mansion of considerable importance, the highest-priced article was +"A capital maghogany pedestal sideboard, with hot closet, cellaret, 2 +plate drawers, and fluted legs," which brought £32. At the sale of the +property of "A man of Fashion," "a marqueterie cabinet, inlaid with +trophies, the panels of Sêvres china, mounted in ormolu," sold for +twenty-five guineas; and a "Reisener (_sic_) table, beautifully inlaid +with flowers, and drawers," which appears to have been reserved at nine +guineas, was bought in at eight-and-a-half guineas. Frequenters of +Christie's of the present day who have seen such furniture realize as many +pounds as the shillings included in such sums, will appreciate the +enormously increased value of really good old French furniture. + +Perhaps the most noticeable comparison between the present day and that of +half-a-century ago may be made in reading through the prices of the great +sale at Stowe House, in 1848, when the financial difficulties of the Duke +of Buckingham caused the sale by auction which lasted thirty-seven days, +and realised upwards of £71,000, the proceeds of the furniture amounting +to £27,152. We have seen in the notice of French furniture that armoires +by Boule have, during the past few years, brought from £4,000 to £6,000 +each under the hammer, and the want of appreciation of this work, probably +the most artistic ever produced by designer and craftsman, is sufficiently +exemplified by the statement that at the Stowe sale two of Boule's famous +armoires, of similar proportions to those in the Hamilton Palace and Jones +Collections, were sold for £21 and £19 8s. 6d. respectively. + +We are accustomed now to see the bids at Christie's advance by guineas, by +fives and by tens; and it is amusing to read in these old catalogues of +marqueterie tables, satin wood cabinets, rosewood pier tables, and other +articles of "ornamental furniture," as it was termed, being knocked down +to Town and Emanuel, Webb, Morant, Hitchcock, Raldock, Forrest, Redfearn, +Litchfield (the writer's father), and others who were the buyers and +regular attendants at "Christie's" (afterwards Christie and Manson) of +1830 to 1845, for such sums as 6s., 15s., and occasionally £10 or £15. + +A single quotation is given, but many such are to be found:--Sale on +February 25th and 26th, 1841. Lot 31. "A small oval table, with a piece of +Sêvres porcelain painted with flowers. 6s." + +It is pleasant to remember, as some exception to this general want of +interest in the subject, that in 1843 there was held at Gore House, +Kensington, then the fashionable residence of Lady Blessington, an +exhibition of old furniture; and a series of lectures, illustrated by the +contributions, was given by Mr., now Sir, J.C. Robinson. The Venetian +State chair, illustrated on p. 57, was amongst the examples lent by the +Queen on that occasion. Specimens of Boule's work and some good pieces of +Italian Renaissance were also exhibited. + +A great many of the older Club houses of London were built and furnished +between 1813 and 1851, the Guards' being of the earlier date, and the Army +and Navy of the latter; and during the intervening thirty odd years the +United Service, Travellers', Union, United University, Athenaeum, +Oriental, Wyndham, Oxford and Cambridge, Reform, Carlton, Garrick, +Conservative, and some others were erected and fitted up. Many of these +still retain much of the furniture of Gillows, Seddons, and some of the +other manufacturers of the time whose work has been alluded to, and these +are favourable examples of the best kind of cabinet work done in England +during the reign of George IV., William IV., and that of the early part of +Queen Victoria. It is worth recording, too, that during this period, steam +power, which had been first applied to machinery about 1815, came into +more general use in the manufacture of furniture, and with its adoption +there seems to have been a gradual abandonment of the apprenticeship +system in the factories and workshops of our country; and the present +"piece work" arrangement, which had obtained more or less since the +English cabinet makers had brought out their "Book of Prices" some years +previously, became generally the custom of the trade, in place of the +older "day work" of a former generation. + +[Illustration: Cradle, In Boxwood, for H.M. the Queen. Designed and Carved +by H. Rogers, London.] + +In France the success of national exhibitions had become assured, the +exhibitors having increased from only 110 when the first experiment was +tried in 1798, by leaps and bounds, until at the eleventh exhibition, in +1849, there were 4,494 entries. The _Art Journal_ of that year gives us a +good illustrated notice of some of the exhibits, and devotes an article to +pointing out the advantages to be gained by something of the kind taking +place in England. + +From 1827 onwards we had established local exhibitions in Dublin, Leeds, +and Manchester. The first time a special building was devoted to +exhibition of manufactures was at Birmingham in 1849; and from the +illustrated review of this in the _Art Journal_ one can see there was a +desire on the part of our designers and manufacturers to strike out in new +directions and make progress. + +We are able to reproduce some of the designs of furniture of this period; +and in the cradle, designed and carved in Turkey-boxwood, for the Queen, +by Mr. Harry Rogers, we have a fine piece of work, which would not have +disgraced the latter period of the Renaissance. Indeed, Mr. Rogers was a +very notable designer and carver of this time; he had introduced his +famous boxwood carvings about seven years previously. + +[Illustration: Design for a Tea Caddy, By J. Strudwick, for Inlaying and +Ivory. Published as one of the "Original Designs for Manufacturers" in +_Art Journal_, 1829.] + +The cradle was also, by the Queen's command, sent to the Exhibition, and +it may be worth while quoting the artist's description of the +carving:--"In making the design for the cradle it was my intention that +the entire object should symbolize the union of the Royal Houses of +England with that of Saxe-Coburg and Gothe, and, with this view, I +arranged that one end should exhibit the Arms and national motto of +England, and the other those of H.R.H. Prince Albert. The inscription, +'Anno, 1850,' was placed between the dolphins by Her Majesty's special +command." + +[Illustration: Design for One of the Wings of a Sideboard, By W. Holmes. +Exhibited at the "Society of Art" in 1818, and published by the _Art +Journal_ in 1829.] + +In a criticism of this excellent specimen of work, the _Art Journal_ of +the time said:--"We believe the cradle to be one of the most important +examples of the art of wood carving ever executed in this country." + +Rogers was also a writer of considerable ability on the styles of +ornament; and there are several contributions from his pen to the +periodicals of the day, besides designs which were published in the _Art +Journal_ under the heading of "Original Designs for Manufacturers." These +articles appeared occasionally, and contained many excellent suggestions +for manufacturers and carvers, amongst others, the drawings of H. +Fitzcook, one of whose designs for a work table we are able to reproduce. +Other more or less constant contributors of original designs for furniture +were J. Strudwick and W. Holmes, a design from the pencil of each of whom +is given. + +[Illustration: Design for a Work Table, By H. Fitzcook. Published as one +of the "Original Designs for Manufacturers" in the _Art Journal_, 1850.] + +But though here and there in England good designers came to the front, as +a general rule the art of design in furniture and decorative woodwork was +at a very low ebb about this time. + +In furniture, straight lines and simple curves may be plain and +uninteresting, but they are by no means so objectionable as the over +ornamentation of the debased rococo style, which obtained in this country +about forty years ago; and if the scrolls and flowers, the shells and +rockwork, which ornamented mirror frames, sideboard backs, sofas, and +chairs, were debased in style, even when carefully carved in wood, the +effect was infinitely worse when, for the sake of economy, as was the case +with the houses of the middle classes, this elaborate and laboured +enrichment was executed in the fashionable stucco of the day. + +Large mirrors, with gilt frames of this material, held the places of +honour on the marble chimney piece, and on the console, or pier table, +which was also of gilt stucco, with a marble slab. The cheffonier, with +its shelves having scroll supports like an elaborate S, and a mirror at +the back, with a scrolled frame, was a favourite article of furniture. + +Carpets were badly designed, and loud and vulgar in colouring; chairs, on +account of the shape and ornament in vogue, were unfitted for their +purpose, on account of the wood being cut across the grain; the +fire-screen, in a carved rosewood frame, contained the caricature, in +needlework, of a spaniel, or a family group of the time, ugly enough to be +in keeping with its surroundings. + +The dining room was sombre and heavy. The pedestal sideboard, with a large +mirror in a scrolled frame at the back, had come in; the chairs were +massive and ugly survivals of the earlier reproductions of the Greek +patterns, and, though solid and substantial, the effect was neither +cheering nor refining. + +In the bedrooms were winged wardrobes and chests of drawers; dressing +tables and washstands, with scrolled legs, nearly always in mahogany; the +old four-poster had given way to the Arabian or French bedstead, and this +was being gradually replaced by the iron or brass bedsteads, which came in +after the Exhibition had shewn people the advantages of the lightness and +cleanliness of these materials. + +In a word, from the early part of the present century, until the impetus +given to Art by the great Exhibition had had time to take effect, the +general taste in furnishing houses of all but a very few persons, was at +about its worst. + +In other countries the rococo taste had also taken hold. France sustained +a higher standard than England, and such figure work as was introduced +into furniture was better executed, though her joinery was inferior. In +Italy old models of the Renaissance still served as examples for +reproduction, but the ornament became more carelessly carved and the +decoration less considered. Ivory inlaying was largely executed in Milan +and Venice; mosaics of marble were specialites of Rome and of Florence, +and were much applied to the decoration of cabinets; Venice was busy +manufacturing carved walnutwood furniture in buffets, cabinets, Negro page +boys, elaborately painted and gilt, and carved mirror frames, the chief +ornaments of which were cupids and foliage. + +Italian carving has always been free and spirited, the figures have never +been wanting in grace, and, though by comparison with the time of the +Renaissance there is a great falling off, still, the work executed in +Italy during the present century has been of considerable merit as regards +ornament, though this has been overdone. In construction and joinery, +however, the Italian work has been very inferior. Cabinets of great +pretension and elaborate ornament, inlaid perhaps with ivory, lapislazuli, +or marbles, are so imperfectly made that one would think ornament, and +certainly not durability, had been the object of the producer. + +In Antwerp, Brussels, Liege, and other Flemish Art centres, the School of +Wood Carving, which came in with the Renaissance, appears to have been +maintained with more or less excellence. With the increased quality of the +carved woodwork manufactured, there was a proportion of ill-finished and +over-ornamented work produced; and although, as has been before observed, +the manufacture of cheap marqueterie in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities +was bringing the name of Dutch furniture into ill-repute--still, so far as +the writer's observations have gone, the Flemish wood-carver appears to +have been, at the time now under consideration, ahead of his fellow +craftsmen in Europe; and when in the ensuing chapter we come to notice +some of the representative exhibits in the great International Competition +of 1851, it will be seen that the Antwerp designer and carver was +certainly in the foremost rank. + +In Austria, too, some good cabinet work was being carried out, M. +Leistler, of Vienna, having at the time a high reputation. + +In Paris the house of Fourdinois was making a name which, in subsequent +exhibitions, we shall see took a leading place amongst the designers and +manufacturers of decorative furniture. + +England, it has been observed, was suffering from languor in Art industry. +The excellent designs of the Adams and their school, which obtained early +in the century, had been supplanted, and a meaningless rococo style +succeeded the heavy imitations of French pseudo-classic furniture. Instead +of, as in the earlier and more tasteful periods, when architects had +designed woodwork and furniture to accord with the style of their +buildings, they appear to have then, as a general rule, abandoned the +control of the decoration of interiors, and the result was one which--when +we examine our National furniture of half a century ago--has not left us +much to be proud of, as an artistic and industrious people. + +Some notice has been taken of the appreciation of this unsatisfactory +state of things by the Government of the time, and by the Press; and, as +with a knowledge of our deficiency, came the desire and the energy to +bring about its remedy, we shall see that, with the Exhibition of 1851, +and the intercourse and the desire to improve, which naturally followed +that great and successful effort, our designers and craftsmen profited by +the great stimulus which Art and Industry then received. + +[Illustration: Venetian Stool of Carved Walnut Wood.] + +[Illustration: Sideboard in Carved Oak, with Cellaret. Designed and +Manufactured by Mr. Gillow, London. 1851 Exhibition.] + +[Illustration: Chimneypiece and Bookcase. In carved walnut wood with +colored marbles inlaid and doors of perforated brass. Designed By Mr. T. +R. Macquoid, Architect, and Manufactured by Messrs. Holland & Sons. +London, 1851 Exhibition.] + +[Illustration: Cabinet in the Mediaeval Style. Designed and Manufactured +by Mr. Grace, London. 1851 Exhibition.] + +[Illustration: Bookcase in Carved Wood. Designed and Manufactured by +Messrs. Jackson & Graham, London, 1851 Exhibition.] + +[Illustration: Grand Pianoforte. In Ebony inlaid, and enriched with Gold +in relief. Designed and Manufactured by Messrs. Broadwood, London. 1851 +Exhibition] + + + + +Chapter IX. + +From 1851 to the Present Time. + + + + THE GREAT EXHIBITION: Exhibitors and contemporary Cabinet + Makers--Exhibition of 1862, London; 1867, Paris; and + subsequently--Description of Illustrations--Fourdinois, Wright, and + Mansfield--The South Kensington Museum--Revival of + Marquetry--Comparison of Present Day with that of a Hundred Years + ago--Æstheticism--Traditions--Trades-Unionism--The Arts and Crafts + Exhibition Society--Independence of Furniture--Present + Fashions--Writers on Design--Modern Furniture in other + Countries--Concluding Remarks. + + +[Illustration] + +In the previous chapter attention has been called to the success of the +National Exhibition in Paris of 1849; in the same year the competition of +our manufacturers at Birmingham gave an impetus to Industrial Art in +England, and there was about this time a general forward movement, with a +desire for an International Exhibition on a grand scale. Articles +advocating such a step appeared in newspapers and periodicals of the time, +and, after much difficulty, and many delays, a committee for the promotion +of this object was formed. This resulted in the appointment of a Royal +Commission, and the Prince Consort, as President of this Commission, took +the greatest personal interest in every arrangement for this great +enterprise. Indeed, there can be no doubt, that the success which crowned +the work was, in a great measure, due to his taste, patience, and +excellent business capacity. It is no part of our task to record all the +details of an undertaking which, at the time, was a burning question of +the day, but as we cannot but look upon this Exhibition of 1851 as one of +the landmarks in the history of furniture, it is worth while to recall +some particulars of its genesis and accomplishment. + +The idea of the Exhibition of 1851 is said to have been originally due to +Mr. F. Whishaw, Secretary of the Society of Arts, as early as 1844, but no +active steps were taken until 1849, when the Prince Consort, who was +President of the Society, took the matter up very warmly. His speech at +one of the meetings contained the following sentence:-- + +"Now is the time to prepare for a great Exhibition--an Exhibition worthy +of the greatness of this country, not merely national in its scope and +benefits, but comprehensive of the whole world; and I offer myself to the +public as their leader, if they are willing to assist in the undertaking." + +[Illustration: Lady's Escritoire, In White Wood, Carved with Rustic +Figures. Designed and Manufactured by M. Wettli, Berne, Switzerland. 1851 +Exhibition, London.] + +To Mr. (afterwards Sir) Joseph Paxton, then head gardener to the Duke of +Devonshire, the general idea of the famous glass and iron building is due. +An enterprising firm of contractors. Messrs. Fox and Henderson, were +entrusted with the work; a guarantee fund of some £230,000 was raised by +public subscriptions; and the great Exhibition was opened by Her Majesty +on the 1st of May, 1851. At a civic banquet in honour of the event, the +Prince Consort very aptly described the object of the great +experiment:--"The Exhibition of 1851 would afford a true test of the point +of development at which the whole of mankind had arrived in this great +task, and a new starting point from which all nations would be able to +direct their further exertions." + +The number of exhibitors was some 17,000, of whom over 3,000 received +prize and council medals; and the official catalogue, compiled by Mr. +Scott Russell, the secretary, contains a great many particulars which are +instructive reading, when we compare the work of many of the firms of +manufacturers, whose exhibits are therein described, with their work of +the present day. + +The _Art Journal_ published a special volume, entitled "The Art Journal +Illustrated Catalogue," with woodcuts of the more important exhibits, and, +by the courtesy of the proprietors, a small selection is reproduced, which +will give the reader an idea of the design of furniture, both in England +and the chief Continental industrial centres at that time. + +With regard to the exhibits of English firms, of which these illustrations +include examples, little requires to be said, in addition to the remarks +already made in the preceding chapter, of their work previous to the +Exhibition. One of the illustrations, however, may be further alluded to, +since the changes in form and character of the Pianoforte is of some +importance in the consideration of the design of furniture. Messrs. +Broadwood's Grand Pianoforte (illustrated) was a rich example of +decorative woodwork in ebony and gold, and may be compared with the +illustration on p. 172 of a harpsichord, which the Piano had replaced +about 1767, and which at and since the time of the 1851 Exhibition +supplies evidence of the increased attention devoted to decorative +furniture. In the Appendix will be found a short notice of the different +phases through which the ever-present piano has passed, from the virginal, +or spinette--of which an illustration will be found in "A Sixteenth +Century Room," in Chapter III.--down to the latest development of the +decoration of the case of the instrument by leading artists of the present +day. Mr. Rose, of Messrs. Broadwood, whose firm was established at this +present address in 1732, has been good enough to supply the author with +the particulars for this notice. + +Other illustrations, taken from the exhibits of foreign cabinet makers, as +well as those of our English manufacturers, have been selected, being +fairly representative of the work of the time, rather than on account of +their own intrinsic excellence. + +It will be seen from these illustrations that, so far as figure carving +and composition are concerned, our foreign rivals, the Italians, Belgians, +Austrians, and French, were far ahead of us. In mere construction and +excellence of work we have ever been able to hold our own, and, so long as +our designers have kept to beaten tracks, the effect is satisfactory. It +is only when an attempt has been made to soar above the conventional, that +the effort is not so successful. + +[Illustration: Lady's Work Table and Screen. In Papier-maché. 1851 +Exhibition, London.] + +In looking over the list of exhibits, one finds evidence of the fickleness +of fashion. The manufacture of decorative articles of furniture of +_papier-maché_ was then very extensive, and there are several specimens of +this class of work, both by French and English firms. The drawing-room of +1850 to 1860 was apparently incomplete without occasional chairs, a screen +with painted panel, a work table, or some small cabinet or casket of this +decorative but somewhat flimsy material. + +[Illustration: Sideboard. In Carved Oak, with subjects taken from Sir +Walter Scott's "Kenilworth." Designed And Manufactured by Messrs. Cookes, +Warwick 1851 Exhibition, London.] + +[Illustration: A State Chair. Carved and Gilt Frame, upholstered in Ruby +Silk, Embroidered with the Royal Coat of Arms and the Prince of Wales' +Plumes. Designed and Manufactured by M. Jancowski, York. 1851 Exhibition, +London.] + +[Illustration: Sideboard in Carved Oak. Designed And Manufactured by M. +Durand, Paris. 1851 Exhibition, London.] + +[Illustration: Bedstead in Carved Ebony. Renaissance Style. Designed and +Manufactured by M. Roulé, Antwerp. 1851 Exhibition, London.] + +[Illustration: Pianoforte. In Rosewood, inlaid with Boulework, in Gold, +Silver, and Copper. Designed and Manufactured by M. Leistler, Vienna. 1851 +Exhibition, London.] + +[Illustration: Bookcase, In Carved Lime Tree, with Panels of Satinwood. +Designed and Manufactured by M. Leistler, Vienna. 1851 Exhibition, +London.] + +[Illustration: Cabinet. In Tulipwood, ornamented with bronze, and inlaid +with Porcelain. Manufactured by M. Games, St. Petersburg, 1851 +Exhibition.] + +The design and execution of mountings of cabinets in metal work, +particularly of the highly-chased and gilt bronzes for the enrichment of +_meubles de luxe_, was then, as it still to a great extent remains, the +specialite of the Parisian craftsman, and almost the only English exhibits +of such work were those of foreigners who had settled amongst us. + +[Illustration: Casket of Ivory, With Ormolu Mountings. Designed and +Manufactured by M. Matifat, Paris. 1851 Exhibition, London.] + +[Illustration: Table, In the Classic Style, inlaid with Ivory, +Manufactured for the King of Sardinia by M. G. Capello, Turin. 1851 +Exhibition, London.] + +[Illustration: Chair, In the Classic Style, inlaid with Ivory. +Manufactured for the King of Sardinia by M. G. Capello, Turin. 1851 +Exhibition, London.] + +Amongst the latter was Monbro, a Frenchman, who established himself in +Berners Street, London, and made furniture of an ornamental character in +the style of his countrymen, reproducing the older designs of "Boule" and +Marqueterie furniture. The present house of Mellier and Cie. are his +successors, Mellier having been in his employ. The late Samson Wertheimer, +then in Greek Street, Soho, was steadily making a reputation by the +excellence of the metal mountings of his own design and workmanship, which +he applied to caskets of French style. Furniture of a decorative character +and of excellent quality was also made some forty years ago by Town and +Emanuel, of Bond Street, and many of this firm's "Old French" tables +and cabinets were so carefully finished with regard to style and detail, +that, with the "tone" acquired by time since their production, it is not +always easy to distinguish them from the models from which they were +taken. Toms was assistant to Town and Emanuel, and afterwards purchased +and carried on the business of "Toms and Luscombe," a firm well-known as +manufacturers of excellent and expensive "French" furniture, until their +retirement from business some ten years ago. + +[Illustration: Cabinet of Ebony, in the Renaissance Style. With Carnelions +inserted. Litchfield and Radclyffe. 1862 Exhibition.] + +Webb, of Old Bond Street, succeeded by Annoot, and subsequently by Radley, +was a manufacturer of this class of furniture; he employed a considerable +number of workmen, and carried on a very successful business. + +The name of "Blake," too, is one that will be remembered by some of our +older readers who were interested in marqueterie furniture of forty years +ago. He made an inlaid centre table for the late Duke of Northumberland, +from a design by Mr. C. P. Slocornbe, of South Kensington Museum; he also +made excellent copies of Louis XIV. furniture. + +The next International Exhibition held in London was in the year 1862, +and, though its success was somewhat impaired by the great calamity this +country sustained in the death of the Prince Consort on 14th December, +1861, and also by the breaking out of the Civil War in the United States +of America, the exhibitors had increased from 17,000 in '51 to some 29,000 +in '62, the foreign entries being 16,456, as against 6,566. + +Exhibitions of a National and International character had also been held +in many of the Continental capitals. There was in 1855 a successful one in +Paris, which was followed by one still greater in 1867, and, as every one +knows, they have been lately of almost annual occurrence in various +countries, affording the enterprising manufacturer better and more +frequent opportunities of placing his productions before the public, and +of teaching both producer and consumer to appreciate and profit by every +improvement in taste, and by the greater demand for artistic objects. + +The few illustrations from these more recent Exhibitions of 1862 and 1867 +deserve a passing notice. The cabinet of carved ebony with enrichments of +carnelian and other richly-colored minerals (illustrated on previous +page), received a good deal of notice, and was purchased by William, third +Earl of Craven, a well-known virtuoso of thirty years ago. + +The work of Fourdinois, of Paris, has already been alluded to, and in the +1867 Exhibition his furniture acquired a still higher reputation for good +taste and attention to detail. The full page illustration of a cabinet of +ebony, with carvings of boxwood, is a remarkably rich piece of work of its +kind; the effect is produced by carving the box-wood figures and +ornamental scroll work in separate pieces, and then inserting these bodily +into the ebony. By this means the more intricate work is able to be more +carefully executed, and the close grain and rich tint of Turkey boxwood +(perhaps next to ivory the best medium for rendering fine carving) tells +out in relief against the ebony of which the body of the cabinet is +constructed. This excellent example of modern cabinet work by Fourdinois, +was purchased for the South Kensington Museum for £1,200, and no one who +has a knowledge of the cost of executing minute carved work in boxwood and +ebony will consider the price a very high one. + +The house of Fourdinois no longer exists; the names of the foremost makers +of French _meubles de luxe_, in Paris, are Buerdeley, Dasson, Roux, +Sormani, Durand, and Zwiener. Some mention has already been made of +Zwiener, as the maker of a famous bureau in the Hertford collection, and a +sideboard exhibited by Durand in the '51 Exhibition is amongst the +illustrations selected as representative of cabinet work at that time. + +[Illustration: Cabinet of Ebony with Carvings of Boxwood. Designed and +Manufactured by M. Fourdenois, Paris. 1867 Exhibition, Paris. (Purchased +by S. Kensington Museum for £1,200.)] + +[Illustration: Cabinet in Satinwood, With Wedgwood plaques and inlay of +various woods in the Adams' style. Designed and Manufactured by Messrs. +Wright & Mansfield, London. 1867 Exhibition, Paris. Purchased by the S. +Kensington Museum.] + +[Illustration: Ebony And Ivory Cabinet. In The Style of Italian +Renaissance by Andrea Picchi, Florence, Exhibited Paris, 1867. + +NOTE.--A marked similarity in this design to that of a 17th Century +cabinet, illustrated in the Italian section of Chapter iii., will be +observed.] + +The illustration of Wright and Mansfield's satin-wood cabinet, with +Wedgewood plaques inserted, and with wreaths and swags of marqueteric +inlaid, is in the Adams' style, a class of design of which this firm made +a specialité. Both Wright and Mansfield had been assistants at Jackson and +Graham's, and after a short term in Great Portland Street, they removed to +Bond Street, and carried on a successful business of a high class and +somewhat exclusive character, until their retirement from business a few +years since. This cabinet was exhibited in Paris in 1867, and was +purchased by our South Kensington authorities. Perhaps it is not generally +known that a grant is made to the Department for the purchase of suitable +specimens of furniture and woodwork for the Museum. This expenditure is +made with great care and discrimination. It may be observed here that the +South Kensington Museum, which was founded in 1851, was at this time +playing an important part in the Art education of the country. The +literature of the day also contributed many useful works of instruction +and reference for the designer of furniture and woodwork.[21] + +One noticeable feature of modern design in furniture is the revival of +marquetry. Like all mosaic work, to which branch of Industrial Art it +properly belongs, this kind of decoration should be quite subordinate to +the general design; but with the rage for novelty which seized public +attention some forty years ago, it developed into the production of all +kinds of fantastic patterns in different veneers. A kind of minute mosaic +work in wood, which was called "Tunbridge Wells work," became fashionable +for small articles. Within the last ten or fifteen years the reproductions +of what is termed "Chippendale," and also Adam and Sheraton designs in +marqueterie furniture, have been manufactured to an enormous extent. +Partly on account of the difficulty in obtaining the richly-marked and +figured old mahogany and satin-wood of a hundred years ago, which needed +little or no inlay as ornament, and partly to meet the public fancy by +covering up bad construction with veneers of marquetry decoration, a great +deal more inlay has been given to these reproductions than ever appeared +in the original work of the eighteenth century cabinet makers. Simplicity +was sacrificed, and veneers, thus used and abused, came to be a term of +contempt, implying sham or superficial ornament. Dickens, in one of his +novels, has introduced the "Veneer" family, thus stamping the term more +strongly on the popular imagination. + +The method now practised in using marquetry to decorate furniture is very +similar to the one explained in the description of "Boule" furniture given +in Chapter VI., except that, instead of shell, the marquetry cutter uses +the veneer, which he intends to be the groundwork of his design, and as +in some cases these veneers are cut to the thickness of 1/16 of an inch, +several layers can be sawn through at once. Sometimes, instead of using so +many different kinds of wood, when a very polychromatic effect is +required, holly wood and sycamore are stained different colours, and the +marquetry thus prepared, is glued on to the body of the furniture, and +subsequently prepared, engraved, and polished. + +This kind of work is done to a great extent in England, but still more +extensively and elaborately in France and Italy, where ivory and brass, +marble, and other materials are also used to enrich the effect. This +effect is either satisfactory or the reverse according as the work is well +or ill-considered and executed. + +It must be obvious, too, that in the production of marquetry the processes +are attainable by machinery, which saves labour and cheapens productions +of the commoner kinds; this tends to produce a decorative effect which is +often inappropriate and superabundant. + +Perhaps it is allowable to add here that marquetry, or _marqueterie_, its +French equivalent, is the more modern survival of "Tarsia" work to which +allusion has been made in previous chapters. Webster defines the word as +"Work inlaid with pieces of wood, shells, ivory, and the like," derived +from the French word _marqueter_ to checker and _marque_ (a sign), of +German origin. It is distinguished from parquetry (which is derived from +"_pare_," an enclosure, of which it is a diminutive), and signifies a kind +of joinery in geometrical patterns, generally used for flooring. When, +however, the marquetry assumes geometrical patterns (frequently a number +of cubes shaded in perspective) the design is often termed in Art +catalogues a "parquetry" design. + +In considering the design and manufacture of furniture of the present day, +as compared with that of, say, a hundred years ago, there are two or three +main factors to be taken into account. Of these the most important is the +enormously increased demand, by the multiplication of purchasers, for some +classes of furniture, which formerly had but a limited sale. This enables +machinery to be used to advantage in economising labour, and therefore one +finds in the so-called "Queen Anne" and "Jacobean" cabinet work of the +well furnished house of the present time, rather too prominent evidence of +the lathe and the steam plane. Mouldings are machined by the length, then +cut into cornices, mitred round panels, or affixed to the edge of a plain +slab of wood, giving it the effect of carving. The everlasting spindle, +turned rapidly by the lathe, is introduced with wearisome redundance, to +ornament the stretcher and the edge of a shelf; the busy fret or band-saw +produces fanciful patterns which form a cheap enrichment when applied to a +drawer-front, a panel, or a frieze, and carving machines can copy any +design which a century ago were the careful and painstaking result of a +practised craftsman's skill. + +Again, as the manufacture of furniture is now chiefly carried on in large +factories, both in England and on the Continent, the sub-division of +labour causes the article to pass through different hands in successive +stages, and the wholesale manufacture of furniture by steam has taken the +place of the personal supervision by the master's eye of the task of a few +men who were in the old days the occupants of his workshop. As a writer on +the subject has well said, "the chisel and the knife are no longer in such +cases controlled by the sensitive touch of the human hand." In connection +with this we are reminded of Ruskin's precept that "the first condition of +a work of Art is that it should be conceived and carried out by one +person." + +Instead of the carved ornament being the outcome of the artist's educated +taste, which places on the article a stamp of individuality--instead of +the furniture being, as it was in the seventeenth century in England, and +some hundred years earlier in Italy and in France, the craftsman's +pride--it is now the result of the rapid multiplication of some pattern +which has caught the popular fancy, generally a design in which there is a +good deal of decorative effect for a comparatively small price. + +The difficulty of altering this unsatisfactory state of things is evident. +On the one side, the manufacturers or the large furnishing firms have a +strong case in their contention that the public will go to the market it +considers the best: and when decoration is pitted against simplicity, +though the construction which accompanies the former be ever so faulty, +the more pretentious article will be selected. When a successful pattern +has been produced, and arrangements and sub-contracts have been made for +its repetition in large quantities, any considerable variation made in the +details (even if it be the suppression of ornament) will cause an addition +to the cost which those only who understand something of a manufacturer's +business can appreciate. + +During the present generation an Art movement has sprung up called +Æstheticism, which has been defined as the "Science of the Beautiful and +the Philosophy of the Fine Arts," and aims at carrying a love of the +beautiful into all the relations of life. The fantastical developments +which accompanied the movement brought its devotees into much ridicule +about ten years ago, and the pages of _Punch_ of that time will be found +to happily travesty its more amusing and extravagant aspects. The great +success of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, "Patience," produced in 1881, +was also to some extent due to the humorous allusions to the +extravagances of the "Aesthetetes." In support of what may be termed a +higher Æstheticism, Mr. Ruskin has written much to give expression to his +ideas and principles for rendering our surroundings more beautiful. Sir +Frederic Leighton and Mr. Alma Tadema are conspicuous amongst those who +have in their houses carried such principles into effect, and amongst +other artists who have been and are, more or less, associated with this +movement, may be named Rossetti, Burne Jones, and Holman Hunt. As a writer +on Æstheticism has observed:--"When the extravagances attending the +movement have been purged away, there may be still left an educating +influence, which will impress the lofty and undying principles of Art upon +the minds of the people." + +For a time, in-spite of ridicule, this so-called Æstheticism was the +vogue, and considerably affected the design and decoration of furniture of +the time. Woodwork was painted olive green; the panels of cabinets, +painted in sombre colors, had pictures of sad-looking maidens, and there +was an attempt at a "dim religious" effect in our rooms quite +inappropriate to such a climate as that of England. The reaction, however, +from the garish and ill-considered colourings of a previous decade or two +has left behind it much good, and with the catholicity of taste which +marks the furnishing of the present day, people see some merit in every +style, and are endeavouring to select that which is desirable without +running to the extreme of eccentricity. + +Perhaps the advantage thus gained is counterbalanced by the loss of our +old "traditions," for amongst the wilderness of reproductions of French +furniture, more or less frivolous--of Chippendale, as that master is +generally understood--of what is termed "Jacobean" and "Queen Anne"--to +say nothing of a quantity of so-called "antique furniture," we are +bewildered in attempting to identify this latter end of the nineteenth +century with any particular style of furniture. By "tradition" it is +intended to allude to the old-fashioned manner of handing down from father +to son, or master to apprentice, for successive generations, the skill to +produce any particular class of object of Art or manufacture. Surely +Ruskin had something of this in his mind when he said, "Now, when the +powers of fancy, stimulated by this triumphant precision of manual +dexterity, descend from generation to generation, you have at last what is +not so much a trained artist, as a new species of animal, with whose +instinctive gifts you have no chance of contending." + +Tradition may be said to still survive in the country cartwright, who +produces the farmer's wagon in accordance with custom and tradition, +modifying the method of construction somewhat perhaps to meet altered +conditions of circumstances, and then ornamenting his work by no +particular set design or rule, but partly from inherited aptitude and +partly from playfulness or fancy. In the house-carpenter attached to some +of our old English family estates, there will also be found, here and +there, surviving representatives of the traditional "joyner" of the +seventeenth century, and in Eastern countries, particularly in Japan, we +find the dexterous joiner or carver of to-day is the descendant of a long +line of more or less excellent mechanics. + +It must be obvious, too, that "Trades Unionism" of the present day cannot +but be, in many of its effects, prejudicial to the Industrial Arts. A +movement which aims at reducing men of different intelligence and ability, +to a common standard, and which controls the amount of work done, and the +price paid for it, whatever are its social or economical advantages, must +have a deleterious influence upon the Art products of our time. + +Writers on Art and manufactures, of varying eminence and opinion, are +unanimous in pointing out the serious drawbacks to progress which will +exist, so long as there is a demand for cheap and meretricious imitations +of old furniture, as opposed to more simply made articles, designed in +accordance with the purposes for which they are intended. Within the past +few years a great many well directed endeavours have been made in England +to improve design in furniture, and to revive something of the feeling of +pride and ambition in his craft, which, in the old days of the Trade +Guilds, animated our Jacobean joiner. One of the best directed of these +enterprises is that of the "Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society," of which +Mr. Walter Crane, A.R.W.S., is president, and which numbers, amongst its +committee and supporters, a great many influential names. As suggested in +the design of the cover of their Exhibition Catalogue, drawn by the +President, one chief aim of the society is to link arm in arm "Design and +Handicraft," by exhibiting only such articles as bear the names of +individuals who (1) drew the design and (2) carried it out: each craftsman +thus has the credit and responsibility of his own part of the work, +instead of the whole appearing as the production of Messrs. A.B. or C.D., +who may have known nothing personally of the matter, beyond generally +directing the affairs of a large manufacturing or furnishing business. + +In the catalogue published by this Society there are several short and +useful essays in which furniture is treated, generally and specifically, +by capable writers, amongst whom are Mr. Walter Crane, Mr. Edward Prior, +Mr. Halsey Ricardo, Mr. Reginald T. Blomfield, Mr. W.R. Letharby, Mr. J.H. +Pollen, Mr. Stephen Webb, and Mr. T.G. Jackson, A.R.A., the order of names +being that in which the several essays are arranged. This small but +valuable contribution to the subject of design and manufacture of +furniture is full of interest, and points out the defects of our present +system. Amongst other regrets, one of the writers (Mr. Halsey Ricardo) +complains, that the "transient tenure that most of us have in our +dwellings, and the absorbing nature of the struggle that most of us have +to make to win the necessary provisions of life, prevent our encouraging +the manufacture of well wrought furniture. We mean to outgrow our +houses--our lease expires after so many years, and then we shall want an +entirely different class of furniture--consequently we purchase articles +that have only sufficient life in them to last the brief period of our +occupation, and are content to abide by the want of appropriateness or +beauty, in the clear intention of some day surrounding ourselves with +objects that shall be joys to us for the remainder of our life." + +Many other societies, guilds, and art schools have been established with +more or less success, with the view of improving the design and +manufacture of furniture, and providing suitable models for our young wood +carvers to copy. The Ellesmere Cabinet (illustrated) was one of the +productions of the "Home Arts and Industries Association," founded by the +late Lady Marian Alford in 1883, a well known connoisseur and Art patron. +It will be seen that this is virtually a Jacobean design. + +In the earlier chapters of this book, it has been observed that as +Architecture became a settled Art or Science, it was accompanied by a +corresponding development in the design of the room and its furniture, +under, as it were, one impulse of design, and this appropriate concord may +be said to have obtained in England until nearly the middle of the present +century, when, after the artificial Greek style in furniture and woodwork +which had been attempted by Wilkins, Soane, and other contemporary +architects, had fallen into disfavour, there was first a reaction, and +then an interregnum, as has been noticed in the previous chapter. The +Great Exhibition marked a fresh departure, and quickened, as we have seen, +industrial enterprise in this country; and though, upon the whole, good +results have been produced by the impetus given by these international +competitions, they have not been exempt from unfavorable accompaniments. +One of these was the eager desire for novelty, without the necessary +judgment to discriminate between good and bad. For a time, nothing +satisfied the purchaser of so-called "artistic" products, whether of +decorative furniture, carpets, curtains or merely ornamental articles, +unless the design was "new." The natural result was the production either +of heavy and ugly, or flimsy and inappropriate furniture, which has been +condemned by every writer on the subject. In some of the designs selected +from the exhibits of '51 this desire to leave the beaten track of +conventionality will be evident: and for a considerable time after the +exhibition there is to be seen in our designs, the result of too many +opportunities for imitation, acting upon minds insufficiently trained to +exercise careful judgment and selection. + +[Illustration: The Ellesmere Cabinet, In the Collection of the late Lady +Marian Alford.] + +The custom of appropriate and harmonious treatment of interior decorations +and suitable furniture, seems to have been in a great measure abandoned +during the present century, owing perhaps to the indifference of +architects of the time to this subsidiary but necessary portion of their +work, or perhaps to a desire for economy, which preferred the cheapness of +painted and artificially grained pine-wood, with decorative effects +produced by wall papers, to the more solid but expensive though less +showy wood-panelling, architectural mouldings, well-made panelled doors +and chimney pieces, which one finds, down to quite the end of the last +century, even in houses of moderate rentals. Furniture therefore became +independent and "beginning to account herself an Art, transgressed her +limits" ... and "grew to the conceit that it could stand by itself, and, +as well as its betters, went a way of its own." [22] The interiors, handed +over from the builder, as it were, in blank, are filled up from the +upholsterer's store, the curiosity shop, and the auction room, while a +large contribution from the conservatory or the nearest florist gives the +finishing touch to a mixture, which characterizes the present taste for +furnishing a boudoir or a drawing room. + +There is, of course, in very many cases an individuality gained by the +"omnium gatherum" of such a mode of furnishing. The cabinet which reminds +its owner of a tour in Italy, the quaint stool from Tangier, and the +embroidered piano cover from Spain, are to those who travel, pleasant +souvenirs; as are also the presents from friends (when they have taste and +judgment), the screens and flower-stands, and the photographs, which are +reminiscences of the forms and faces separated from us by distance or +death. The test of the whole question of such an arrangement of furniture +in our living rooms, is the amount of judgment and discretion displayed. +Two favorable examples of the present fashion, representing the interior +of the Saloon and Drawing Room at Sandringham House, are here reproduced. + +[Illustration: The Saloon at Sandringham House. (_From a Photo by Bedford +Lemère & Co., by permission of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales_).] + +[Illustration: The Drawing Room at Sandringham House. (_From a Photo by +Bedford Lemère & Co., by permission of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales_).] + +There is at the present time an ambition on the part of many well-to-do +persons to imitate the effect produced in houses of old families where, +for generations, valuable and memorable articles of decorative furniture +have been accumulated, just as pictures, plate and china have been +preserved; and failing the inheritance of such household gods, it is the +practice to acquire, or as the modern term goes, "to collect," old +furniture of different styles and periods, until the room becomes +incongruous and overcrowded, an evidence of the wealth, rather than of the +taste, of the owner. As it frequently happens that such collections are +made very hastily, and in the brief intervals of a busy commercial or +political life, the selections are not the best or most suitable; and +where so much is required in a short space of time, it becomes impossible +to devote a sufficient sum of money to procure a really valuable specimen +of the kind desired; in its place an effective and low priced reproduction +of an old pattern (with all the faults inseparable from such conditions) +is added to the conglomeration of articles requiring attention, and +taking up space. The limited accommodation of houses built on ground which +is too valuable to allow spacious halls and large apartments, makes this +want of discretion and judgment the more objectionable. There can be no +doubt that want of care and restraint in the selection of furniture, by +the purchasing public, affects its character, both as to design and +workmanship. + +These are some of the faults in the modern style of furnishing, which have +been pointed out by recent writers and lecturers on the subject. In "Hints +on Household Taste," [23] Mr. Eastlake has scolded us severely for running +after novelties and fashions, instead of cultivating suitability and +simplicity, in the selection and ordering of our furniture; and he has +contrasted descriptions and drawings of well designed and constructed +pieces of furniture of the Jacobean period with those of this century's +productions. Col. Robert Edis, in "Decoration and Furniture of Town +Houses," has published designs which are both simple and economical, with +regard to space and money, while suitable to the specified purpose of the +furniture or "fitment." + +This revival in taste, which has been not inappropriately termed "The New +Renaissance," has produced many excellent results, and several well-known +architects and designers in the foremost rank of art, amongst whom the +late Mr. Street, R.A.; Messrs. Norman Shaw, R.A.; Waterhouse, R.A.; Alma +Tadema, R.A.; T. G. Jackson, A.R.A.; W. Burgess, Thomas Cutler, E. W. +Godwin, S. Webb, and many others, have devoted a considerable amount of +attention to the design of furniture. + +The ruling principle in the majority of these designs has been to avoid +over ornamentation, and pretension to display, and to produce good solid +work, in hard, durable, and (on account of the increased labour) expensive +woods, or, when economy is required, in light soft woods, painted or +enamelled. Some manufacturing firms, whom it would be invidious to name, +and whose high reputation renders them independent of any recommendation, +have adopted this principle, and, as a result, there is now no difficulty +in obtaining well designed and soundly constructed furniture, which is +simple, unpretentious, and worth the price charged for it. Unfortunately +for the complete success of the new teaching, useful and appropriate +furniture meets with a fierce competition from more showy and ornate +productions, made to sell rather than to last: furniture which seems to +have upon it the stamp of our "three years' agreement," or "seven years' +lease." Of this it may be said, speaking not only from an artistic, but +from a moral and humane standpoint, it is made so cheaply, that it seems a +pity it is made at all. + +The disadvantages, inseparable from our present state of society, which we +have noticed as prejudicial to English design and workmanship, and which +check the production of really satisfactory furniture, are also to be +observed in other countries; and as the English, and English-speaking +people, are probably the largest purchasers of foreign manufacturers, +these disadvantages act and re-act on the furniture of different nations. + +In France, the cabinet maker has ever excelled in the production of +ornamental furniture; and by constant reference to older specimens in the +Museums and Palaces of his country, he is far better acquainted with what +may be called the traditions of his craft than his English brother. With +him the styles of Francois Premier, of Henri Deux, and the "three Louis" +are classic, and in the beautiful chasing and finishing of the mounts +which ornament the best _meubles de luxe_, it is almost impossible to +surpass his best efforts, provided the requisite price be paid; but this +amounts in many cases to such considerable sums of money as would seem +incredible to those who have but little knowledge of the subject. As a +simple instance, the "copy" of the "Bureau du Louvre" (described in +Chapter vi.) in the Hertford House collection, cost the late Sir Richard +Wallace a sum of £4,000. + +As, however, in France, and in countries which import French furniture, +there are many who desire to have the effect of this beautiful but +expensive furniture, but cannot afford to spend several thousand pounds in +the decoration of a single room, the industrious and ingenious Frenchman +manufactures, to meet this demand, vast quantities of furniture which +affects, without attaining, the merits of the better made and more highly +finished articles. + +In Holland, Belgium, and in Germany, as has already been pointed out, the +manufacture of ornamental oak furniture, on the lines of the Renaissance +models, still prevails, and such furniture is largely imported into this +country. + +Italian carved furniture of modern times has been already noticed; and in +the selections made from the 1851 Exhibition, some productions of +different countries have been illustrated, which tend to shew that, +speaking generally, the furniture most suitable for display is produced +abroad, while none can excel English cabinet makers in the production of +useful furniture and woodwork, when it is the result of design and +handicraft, unfettered by the detrimental, but too popular, condition that +the article when finished shall appear to be more costly really than it +is. + +[Illustration: Carved Frame, by Radspieler, Munich.] + +The illustration of a carved frame in the rococo style of Chippendale, +with a Chinaman in a canopy, represents an important school of wood +carving which has been developed in Munich; and in the "Künst +Gewerberein," or "Workman's Exhibition," in that city, the Bavarians have +a very similar arrangement to that of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition +Society of this country, of which mention has already been made. Each +article is labelled with the name of the designer and maker. + +In conclusion, it seems evident that, with all the faults and shortcomings +of this latter part of the nineteenth century--and no doubt they are many, +both of commission and omission--still, speaking generally, there is no +lack of men with ability to design, and no want of well trained patient +craftsmen to produce, furniture which shall equal the finest examples of +the Renaissance and Jacobean periods. With the improved means of +inter-communication between England and her Colonies, and with the chief +industrial centres of Europe united for the purposes of commerce, the +whole civilized world is, as it were, one kingdom: merchants and +manufacturers can select the best and most suitable materials, can obtain +photographs or drawings of the most distant examples, or copies of the +most expensive designs, while the public Art Libraries of London, and +Paris, contain valuable works of reference, which are easily accessible to +the student or to the workman. It is very pleasant to bear testimony to +the courtesy and assistance which the student or workman invariably +receives from those who are in charge of our public reference libraries. + +There needs, however, an important condition to be taken into account. +Good work, requiring educated thought to design, and skilled labour to +produce, must be paid for at a very different rate to the furniture of +machined mouldings, stamped ornament, and other numerous and inexpensive +substitutes for handwork, which our present civilization has enabled our +manufacturers to produce, and which, for the present, seems to find favour +with the multitude. It has been well said that, "Decorated or sumptuous +furniture is not merely furniture that is expensive to buy, but that which +has been elaborated with much thought, knowledge, and skill. Such +furniture cannot be cheap certainly, but _the real cost is sometimes borne +by the artist who produces, rather than by the man who may happen to buy +it_." [24] It is often forgotten that the price paid is that of the lives +and sustenance of the workers and their families. + + + + +Conclusion. + + + +A point has now been reached at which our task must be brought to its +natural conclusion; for although many collectors, and others interested in +the subject, have invited the writer's attention to numerous descriptions +and examples, from an examination of which much information could, without +doubt, be obtained, still, the exigencies of a busy life, and the limits +of a single volume of moderate dimensions, forbid the attempt to add to a +story which, it is feared, may perhaps have already overtaxed the reader's +patience. + +As has already been stated in the preface, this book is not intended to be +a guide to "_collecting,"_ or "_furnishing";_ nevertheless, it is possible +that, in the course of recording some of the changes which have taken +place in designs and fashions, and of bringing into notice, here and +there, the opinions of those who have thought and written upon the +subject, some indirect assistance may have been given in both these +directions. If this should be the case, and if an increased interest has +been thereby excited in the surroundings of the Home, or in some of those +Art collections--the work of bye-gone years--which form part of our +National property, the writer's aim and object will have been attained, +and his humble efforts amply rewarded. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: A Sixteenth Century Workshop.] + + + + +Index. + + + +NOTE.--The Names of several Designers and Makers, omitted from the +Index, will be found in the List in the Appendix, with references. + +Academy (French) of the Arts founded +Adam, Robert and James +Æstheticism +Ahashuerus, Palace of +Alcock, Sir Rutherford, collection of +Angelo, Michael +Anglo-Saxon Furniture +Arabesque Ornament, origin of +Arabian Woodwork +Ark, reference to the +Armoires, mention of +Art Journal, The +Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society +Aspinwall, of Grosvenor Street +Assyrian Furniture +Aubusson Tapestry +Audley End +Austrian Work + +Barbers' Company, Hall of the +Baroque, The style +Barry, Sir Charles, R.A. +Beauvais Tapestry +Bedroom Furniture +Bedstead of Jeanne d'Albret +Bedstead in the Cluny Museum +Bellows, Italian +Benjamin, Mr., referred to +Berain, Charles, French artist +Bethnal Green Museum +Biblical references +Birch, Dr., reference to +Birdwood, Sir George, referred to +Black, Mr. Adam, reference to +Blomfield, Mr. Reginald T. +Boards and Trestles +Boleyn, Anna, chair of +Bombay Furniture +Bonnaffé, referred to +Boucher, artist +Boudoir +Boule, André Charles +Brackets, Wall +British Museum, references to specimens in the +Brittany Furniture +Broadwood, Messrs +Bronze Mountings +Bruges, Chimney-piece at +Bryan, Michael, referred to +Buffet, The +Bureau du Roi +Burgess, Mr. W +Burleigh +Byzantine-Gothic, discarded +Byzantine style + +Caffieri, work of +Cairo Woodwork +Canopied Seats +Canterbury Cathedral +Carpenters' Company +Cashmere Work +Cauner, French carver +Cellaret, The +Cellini, B. +Chambers, Sir William, R.A. +Chair of Dagobert +Chairs of St. Peter +Chardin, reference to +Charlemagne, reference to +Charles I. + reference to +Charles II. + reference to +Charlton, Little +Charterhouse, The +Chaucer quoted +Chippendale's Work +Chippendale's "Gentleman and Cabinetmakers' Director" +Christianity + influence of +Christie, Manson, & Wood, Messrs + reference to old catalogues of +Cicero's Tables +Cipriani +Clapton, Dr. Edward, reference to +Club Houses of London +Cluny Museum, reference to +Colbert, Finance Minister +Coliards' predecessors +Collinson & Lock +Collman, L.W., work of +Constantinople, capture of +Coronation Chair, The +Correggio +Grace, work of +Crane, Mr. Walter +Cromwell referred to +Crusades, influence of the +Cutler, Mr. T +Cypselus of Corinth, Chest of + +Dado, the, described +Dagobert Chair +Dalburgia or Blackwood +Damascus, Room from a house in +Davillier, Baron +"Dining Room," the, various definitions +Divan, derivation of +Dowbiggin (Gillow's apprentice) +Dryden quoted +Dürer, A., referred to +D'Urbino Bramante +Du Sommerard referred to +Dutch Furniture + +Eastlake, Mr. C., reference to +Edinburgh, H.R.H. the Duke of, Art Collection +Edis, Col. Robert, referred to, +Elgin and Kincardine, Earl of, Collection of +Elizabethan Work +Empire Furniture +English Work +Evelyn's Diary +Exhibiton, The Colonial + The Great (1851) + Inventions +Exhibitions, Local + +Falké, Dr., reference to +Faydherbe, Lucas +Fitzcook, H., designer +Flaxman's Work +Flemish Renaissance +Flemish Work +Florentine Mosaic Work +Folding Stool +Fontainebleau, Chateau of +Fourdinois, Work of +Fragonard, French artist, reference to +Frames for pictures and mirrors +Franks, Mr. A.W. +Fretwork Ornament + +Gavard's, C., Work on Versailles +German Work +Gesso Work +Ghiberti, L +Gibbon, Dr., story of +Gilding, methods of +Gillow, Richard, + extending table patented + work of +Gillow's Records +Gillow's Work +Glastonbury Chair +Gobelins Tapestry +Godwin, Mr. G., referred to +Godwin, Mr. E.W. +Goodrich Court +Gore House, Exhibition at +Gothic Architecture +Gothic Work + French + German + Chippendale's +Gough, Viscount, collection of +Gouthière, Pierre +Gray's Inn Hall +Greek Furniture +Greuze, reference to + +Hamilton Palace Collection +Hampton Court Palace +Hardwick Hall +Harpsichord, the +Harrison quoted +Hatfield House +Hebrew Furniture +Henri II. + time of +Henri IV. + style of Art in France +Henry VIII +Hepplewhite, work of +Herculaneum and Pompeii + discovery of +Herbert's "Antiquities" +Hertford House Collection +Holbein +Holland House +Holland & Sons +Holmes, W., designer +Home Arts and Industries Association +Hope, Thomas, design by +Hopkinson's Pianos +Hotel de Bohême +Howard & Sons, firm of, founded + +Ince W., contemporary of Chippendale +Indian Furniture +Indian Museum, The +Indo-Portuguese Furniture +Intarsia Work, or Tarsia +Inventories, old +Italian Carved Furniture +Italian Renaissance + +Jackson, Mr. T.G., A.R.A., referred to +Jackson & Graham +Jacobean Furniture +Jacquemart, M., reference to +Japan, the Revolution in +Japanese Joiner, the +Japanned Furniture +Jeanne d'Albret, Bedstead of +Jones, Inigo +Jones Collection, The + +Kauffmann, Angelica +Kensington, South, Museum, foundation of +Kensington, South, Museum, reference to specimens in the +Khorsabad, reference to +Kirkman's exhibit +Knife cases +Knole + +Lacquer Work, Chinese and Japanese + Indian + Persian +Lacroix, Paul, reference to +Lancret, artist +Layard, Sir Austen, reference to +Lebrun, artist +Leighton, Sir F., referred to +Leo X., Pope +Letharby, Mr. W.R. +Litchfield & Radclyffe +Livery cupboards +Longford Castle Collection +Longman & Broderip +Longleat +Louis XIII. Furniture +Louis XIV + death of +Louis XV + death of +Louis XVI +Louvre, The + +Macaulay, Lord, quoted +Machine-made Furniture +Madrid, French Furniture in +Mahogany, introduction of +Mansion House, Furniture of the +Marie Antionette +Marie Louise, Cabinet designed for +Marqueterie +Maskell, Mr., reference to +Mayhew, J., contemporary of Chippendale +Medicis Family, influence of the +Meyrick, S. +Middle Temple Hall +Miles and Edwards +Milton quoted +Mirror, Mosaic +Mirrors, introduction of +"Mobilier National," the collection of +Modern fashion of Furnishing +Mogul Empire, The +Monbro +Morant's Furniture +Mounting of Furniture +Munich, Work and Exhibition of + +Napoleon alluded to +Nilson, French carver +Norman civilization, influence of +North Holland, Furniture of +Notes and Queries +Nineveh, Discoveries in + +Oak Panelling +Oriental Conservatism +Ottoman, derivation of + +Panelling (oak) +Papier-maché Work +Passe, C. de +Paxton, Sir Joseph +Penshurst Place +Pergolesi +Perkins, Mr. C. translator of "Kunst im Hause" +Persian Designs +Pianoforte, the +Picau, French carver +Pietra-dura introduced +Pinder, Sir Paul, house of +Pollen, Mr. J. Hungerford, references to +Portuguese Work +Prie Dieu Chair, the +Prignot, Designs of +Prior, Mr. Edward, essay on Furniture +Pugin, Mr. A.W., work of + +Queen Anne Furniture +Queen's Collection, The + +Racinet's Work, "Le Costume Historique" +Radspieler of Munich (manufacturer) +Raffaele, referred to +Raleigh, Sir W. +Regency, Period of the, in France +Renaissance +Renaissance in England + France + Germany + Italy + The Netherlands + Spain +Revolution, The French +Revival of Art in France +Ricardo, Mr. Halsey +Richardson's "Studies" +Riesener, Court Ebeniste +Robinson, Mr. G.T., quoted +Rococo Style, the +Rogers, Harry, work of +Roman Furniture +Ruskin, Mr., quoted +Russian Woodwork + +St. Augustine's Chair +St. Giles', Bloomsbury +St. Peter's Chairs +St. Peter's Church +St. Saviour's Chapel +Sallust, House of +Salting, Mr., collection of +Salzburg, Bishop's Palace at +Sandringham House, referred to +Saracenic Art +Sarto, Andrea del +Satinwood, introduction of +Scandinavian Woodwork +Science and Art Department, The +Scott, Sir Walter, reference to +Screens, Louis XV. period +Secret Drawers, etc., in Furniture +Sedan Chair, the +Seddon, Thomas, and his Sons, Work of +Serilly. Marquise de, Boudoir of +Sêvres Porcelain, introduction of +Shakespeare's Chair +Shakespeare, quoted +Shaw, Mr. Norman, R.A. +Shaw's "Ancient Furniture" +Sheraton, Thomas, Work of +Shisham Wood +Sideboard, reference to the +Skinners' Company, The +Smith, Major General Murdoch, reference to +Smith, Mr. George, explorer, reference to +Smith, George, manufacturer +Snell, Work of +Soane Museum, The +Society of Arts, The +Society of Upholsterers and Cabinet Makers +Sofa, derivation of +South Kensington. See Kensington +Spanish Furniture +Speke Hall, Liverpool +Spoon Cases +Stationers' Hall +Steam power applied to manufactures +Stephens, Mr., referred to +Stockton House +Stone, Mr. Marcus +Strawberry Hill Sale +Street, Mr., R.A. +Strudwick, J., designer +Sydney, Sir Philip + +Tabernacle, The +Table, "Dormant" + "Drawings" + Extending + Folding + Framed + Kneehole + Pier + Side + Joined + Standing + Wine +Tables and Trestles +Tadema, Mr. Alma, R.A., design by +Tarsia Work, or Intarsia +Tea Caddies +Thackeray, quoted +Theebaw, King, Bedstead of +Thyine Wood +"Times" Newspaper, The, quoted +Titian +Toms & Luscombe +Town & Emanuel +Trades Unionism +Traditions, loss of old +Transition period +Trianon, The +Trollopes founded + +Ulm, Cathedral of +Urn Stands, the + +Veeners +Venice, importance of +Venice, referred to +Verbruggens, the +Vernis Martin +Versailles, Palace of +Victorian (early) Furniture +Vinci, L. da +Viollet-le-Duc +Vriesse, V. de + +Wales, H.R.H. Prince of, Art Collection of +Wallace, Sir Richard, Collection of +Walpole, Horace +Ware, Great Bed of +Waterhouse, Mr., R.A. +Watteau +Webb, Mr. Stephen +Wedgwood, Josiah +Wertheimer, S. +Westminster Abbey +Wilkinson, of Ludgate Hill +Williamson (Mobilier National) +Wine Tables +Woods used for Furniture +Wootton, Sir Henry, quoted +Wren, Sir Christopher, referred to +Wright, Mr., F.S.A, referred to +Wyatt, Sir Digby, paper read by + +York House, described in the "Art Journal" +York Minster, Chair in + + + + +List of Subscribers. + + + +HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (For the Royal Library). +H.I.M. THE EMPRESS FREDERICK OF GERMANY. +H.R.H. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH. +H.R.H. THE PRINCESS LOUISE (Marchioness of Lorne). +H.R.H. THE DUCHESS OF TECK. + +ABERCROMBY, RT. HON. LORD. +ABERDEEN PUBLIC LIBRARY. +AGNEW, SIR ANDREW NOEL, BART. +AFFLECK, LADY. +ALLEN, E.G., 28, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London. +AMHERST, W. AMHURST TYSSEN, M.P., Didlington Hall, Norfolk. +ANDERSON, W. & SONS, Newcastle. +ANDREWS & Co., Durham. +ANGST, H., H.B.M. Consul, Zurich. +ASHBURNHAM, RT. HON. EARL OF. +ASHWORTH, A., Manchester. + + +BAGOTT, HENRY PEARMAN, Dudley, Worcester. +BAILEY, THOMAS J., A.R.I.B.A., School Board of London, Victoria Embankment, + Westminster. +BALFOUR, CHARLES B., J.P., Balgonie, Fife. +BALFOUR, GEORGE W., M.D., LL.D., 17, Walker Street, Edinburgh. +BALFOUR, CAPTAIN J. E. H., 3, Berkeley Square, London. +BAHR, WILLIAM, 119, Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, London. +BALL, NORRIS & HADLEY, 5, Argyll Place, London. +BARBER, W., Swinden, Halifax. +BARNES, J.W., F.S.A., Durham. +BARRATT, THOMAS. +BARTLETT, GEORGE A., 1, Wolverton Gardens, London. +BATTERSEA PUBLIC LIBRARY. +BATTISCOMBE & HARRIS, 49 and 50, Great Marylebone Street, London. +BAXTER & Co., Colegate Street, Norwich. +BAZLEY, SIR THOMAS S., BART. +BELOE, EDWARD MILLIGEN, F.S.A., Paradise, King's Lynn. +BENNETT-POE, J.T., Ashley Place, S.W. +BERESFORD-PEIRSE, SIR HENRY, BART. +BEVAN, REV. PHILIP CHARLES, March Baldon Rectory, Near Oxford. +BIBBY, JAMES J. +BIRCH, CHARLES E., 19, Bloomsbury Street, London. +BIRDWOOD, SIR GEORGE, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., M.D. +BLACKBURNE & JOHNSTON, Wells Street, Oxford Street, London. +BLOMFIELD, SIR ARTHUR W., M.A., A.R.A. +BONHAM, F.J., 65, Oxford Street, London. +BOOLS, W.E., 7, Cornhill, London. +BORRADAILE, CHARLES, Brighton. +BOUCNEAU, A. J. H., 349, Euston Rd., London. +BOYS & SPURGE, 79, Great Eastern Street, London. +BRADSHAW, CHRISTOPHER, Manchester. +BRADY & SON, 74, High Street, Perth. +BRERETON, PROFESSOR W.W., Galway. +BRETT, DR., 63, Shepherd's Bush Road, London. +BRIGGS, R.A., F.R.I.B.A., 2, Devonshire Square, London. +BROOKE, HENRY, 20, Holland Park Villas, London. +BROWN BROTHERS, 114a, George Street, Edinburgh. +BRUCE, ISAAC, 4, Maitland Street, Edinburgh. +BULKELEY-OWEN, Rev. T.M., Tedsmore Hall, Oswystry. +BURD, J.S., Compton Gifford, Plymouth. +BURNARD, ROBERT, 3. Hillsborough, Plymouth. +BUTTS, CAPTAIN, The Salterns, Parkstone, Dorset. + + +CAINE, H.J., Deanwood, Newbury. +CAMPBELL, SIR ARCHIBALD, S. J. (of Succoth), Bart. +CAMPBELL, SIR GUY. +CARLIUAN & BEAUMETZ, Rue Beaurepaire, Paris. +CARMICHAEL, SIR T.D., Gibson, Bart. +CARRINGTON, HOWARD, 39, High Street, Stockport. +CASTLE, REUBEN, F.R.I.B.A., Westgate, Cleckheaton. +CHAMBERLAIN, RT. HON. JOSEPH, M.P. +CHAMBERLAIN, KING & JONES, 27, Union Street, Birmingham. +CHAPMAN, H., Windsor Hall, Windsor Street, Brighton. +CHRISTIE, MANSON & WOODS, King Street, St. James' Square, London. +CIVIL SERVICE SUPPLY ASSOCIATION, Bedford Street, Strand, London. +CLAPPERTON, W.R. & Co., 59, Princes Street, Edinburgh. +CLAPTON, EDWARD, Esq., M.D., F.L.S., 22, St. Thomas Street, London. +CLARK, WILLIAM, Oxford Street, London. +CLIFFORD, SAMUEL, 14, Goldsmith Street, Nottingham. +CLOWES, J.E., Quay, Great Yarmouth. +COATES, MAJOR EDWARD F., Tayles Hill, Ewell, Surrey. +COCHRAN, ALEX, 22, Blythewood Square, Glasgow. +COHEN & SONS, B., 1, Curtain Road, London. +COLT, E.W., M.A., Hagley Hall, Rugeley. +CONRATH & SONS, South Audley Street, London. +COOK, J., & SON, 80, Market Street, Edinburgh. +COMBE, R.H., D.L., J.P., Surrey. +COOPER, REV. CANON W.H., F.R.G.S., 19, Delahay Street, Westminster. +COOPER, JOSEPH, Granville Terrace, Lytham. +CORNFORD, L. COPE, A.R.I.B.A., Norfolk Road, Brighton. +COUNT, F.W., Market Place, East Dereham. +CORNISH BROS., 37, New Street, Birmingham. +CORNISH & SON, J., Liverpool. +CORNISH, J.E., 16, St. Ann's Square, Manchester. +COUNT, F.W., Market Place, East Dereham. +COWIE, ROBERT, 39b, Queensferry Street, Edinburgh. +CRAIGIE, E.W., 8, Fopstone Road, London. +CRANBROOK, RT. HON. VISCOUNT, G.C.S.I. +CRANFORD, R., Dartmouth. +CRANSTON & ELLIOT, 47, North Bridge, Edinburgh. +CREIGHTON, DAVID H., Museum R.S.A.I, Kilkenny, Ireland. +CRISP, H.B., Saxmundham. +CROFT, ARTHUR, South Park, Wadhurst, Surrey. +CROSS, F. RICHARDSON, M.B., F.R.C.S. +CROWLEY, REGINALD A., A.R.I.B.A., 96, George Street, Croydon. +CUNNINGHAM, GENERAL SIR A. +CUTLER, THOMAS, F.R.I.B.A, 5, Queen's Square, London. + + +DALRYMPLE, Hon. H.E.W., Bargany, Girvan, Ayrshire. +DARMSTAEDTER, DR., Berlin. +DAVENPORT, HENRY, C.C., Woodcroft, Leek. +DAVIES, REV. GERALD S., Charterhouse, Godalming. +DAVIS, COLONEL JOHN, Sifrons, Farnboro', Hants. +DAVIS, JAMES W., F.S.A., Chevinedge, Halifax. +DE BATHE, GENERAL SIR HENRY, BART. +DE L'ISLE & DUDLEY, RT. HON. LORD, Penshurst Place, Tonbridge. +DE TRAFFORD, HUMPHREY F., 36, Charles Street, Berkeley Square, London. +DE SAUMAREZ, RT. HON. LORD. +DEBENHAM & FREEBODY, Wigmore Street, London. +DERBY, RT, HON. EARL OF., K.G. +DORMER, ROLAND, Ministry of Finance, Cairo. +DOUGLAS, GRENVILLE. +DOWNING, WILLIAM, Afonwan, Acock's Green, Birmingham. +DOVESTON'S, Manchester. +DREY, A.S., Munich. +DRUCE & Co., Baker Street, London. +DRURY-LAVIN, MRS. +DULAU & Co., 37, Soho Square, London. +DUNDEE FREE LIBRARY. +DURHAM, RT. HON. EARL OF. +DUVEEN, J.J., Oxford Street, London. + +EASTER, GEORGE, Free Library, Norwich, +EDIS, COLONEL, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., 14, Fitzroy Square, London. +EDWARDS & ROBERTS, Wardour Street, London. +EGGINTON, JOHN, Milverton Erleigh, Reading. +ELLIOT, ANDREW, 17, Princes Street, Edinburgh. +ELLIOTT, HORACE, 18, Queen's Road, Bayswater, London. +ELWES, H. T., Fir Bank, East Grimstead. +EMPSON, C. W., Palace Court, Bayswater, London. +EVANS, COLONEL JOHN, Horsham. + + +FANE, W. D., Melbourne Hall, Derby. +FENWICK, J. G., Moorlands, Newcastle-on-Tyne. +FERRIER, GEORGE STRATON, R.S.W., 41, Heriot Row, Edinburgh. +FFOOLKES, His HONOUR JUDGE WYNNE, Old Northgate House, Chester. +FIRBANK, J. T., D.L., J.P., Coopers, Chislehurst. +FISHER, EDWARD, F.S.A. Scot., Abbotsbury, Newton-Abbot. +FISHER, SAMUEL T., The Grove, Streatham. +FLEMING, MRS. ROBERT, Walden, Chislehurst. +FLETCHER, W., Tottenham Court Road, London. +FORD, ONSLOW, A.R.A., 62, Acacia Road, Regent's Park, N.W. +FORRESTER, ROBERT, Glasgow. +FOSTER, CAPTAIN, J.P., D.L., Apley Park, Bridgnorth. +FOSTER, J. COLLIE, 44a, Gutter Lane, London. +FOX & JACOBS, 69, Wigmore Street, London. +FRAEUR, FREDERICK, Greek Street, Soho, London. +FRAIN, WILLIAM, Dundee. +FRANCIS, JOHN H., 17, Regent Place, Birmingham. +FRANKAU, Mrs., Weymouth Street, Portland Place, London. +FRASER & Co., A., 7, Union Street, Inverness. +FRITH, MISS LOUISE, 18, Fulham Road, London. +FULLER, B. FRANKLIN, 16, Great Eastern Street, London. +FUZZEY, J. & A. J., Penzance. + + +GRAINER, J. W., M.B. Edin., Belmont House, Thrapstone, Northampton. +GALLOWAY, JOHN, Aberdeen. +GARDNER, GEORGE, 209, Brompton Road, London. +GARNETT, ROBERT, J. P., Warrington. +GARROD, TURNER & SON, Ipswich. +GIBBONS, DR., 29, Cadogan Place, London. +GIBSON, ROBERT, Pitt Street, Portobello. +GILBERT, GEORGE RALPH, Dunolly, Torquay. +GILLILAN, WM., 6, Palace Gate, Bayswater, London. +GILLOW & Co., Lancaster. +GILLOWS, Messrs., 406, Oxford Street, London. +GODFREE, A. H., 18, Holland Villas Road, Bayswater, London. +GOOCH, SIR ALFRED SHERLOCK. +GOODALL, E. & Co., Limited, Manchester. +GOLDSMID, SIR JULIAN, BART., M.P. +GOSFORD, RIGHT HON. EARL OF, K.P., +GOW, JAMES M., 66, George Street, Edinburgh. +GRAND HOTEL, Northumberland Avenue, London. +GREEN, J. L., 64, King's Road, Camden Road, London. +GREENALL, LADY, Walton Hall, Warrington. +GREENWOOD & SONS, Stonegate, York. +GREGORY & Co., Regent Street, London. +GUILD, The Decorative Arts, Limd., 2, Hanover-Square, London. +GURNEY, RICHARD, Northrepps Hall, Norwich. +GUTHRIE, D. C. + + +HALL, MRS. DICKINSON, Whatton Manor, Nottingham. +HAMBURGER BROS., Utrecht. +HAMER, WILLIAM, Mayfield, Knutsford. +HAMILTON, THOMAS, Manchester. +HAMPTON & SONS, Pall Mall East, London. +HANNAY, A. A., 80, Coleman Street, London. +HANSELL, P. E., Wroxharn House, Norwich. +HARDING, GEORGE, Charing Cross Road, London. +HARDY, E. MEREDITH, 9, Sinclair Gardens, Kensington. +HARRISON, H.E.B., Devonshire Road, Liverpool. +HARVEY, REV. CANON, Vicar's Court, Lincoln. +HAWES, G. E., Duke's Palace Joinery Works, Norwich. +HAWKINS, A. P., New York. +HAWKINS, THOMAS, Bridge House, Newbury. +HAWSELL, P. E., Wroxham, Norfolk. +HAYNE, CHARLES SEALE, M.P., 6, Upper Belgrave Street, London +HAYWARD, MRS., Mossley Hill, Liverpool. +HEADFORT, THE MOST NOBLE MARCHIONESS OF. +HEMS, HARRY, Exeter. +HERRING, DR. HERBERT T., 50, Harley Street, London. +HESSE, Miss, The Lodge, Haslemere, Surrey. +HEWITSON, MILNER & THEXTON, Tottenham Court Road, London. +HILLHOUSE, JAMES, 50, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. +HIND, JOHN, Manchester. +HOBSON, RICHARD, J. P., D.L, etc., The Marfords, Bromborough, Cheshire. +HOCKLIFFE, T. H., High Street, Bedford. +HODGES, W.D., 249, Brompton Road, London. +HODGES, Figgis & Co. 104, Grafton Street, Dublin. +HODGKINS, E. M., King Street, St. James's Square, London. +HOGG & COUTTS, 61, North Frederick Street, Edinburgh +HOLMES, W. & R., Dunlop Street, Glasgow. +HOPWOOD, W., Scarborough. +HORLOCK, REV. GEORGE, St. Olave's Vicarage, Hanbury Street, London. +HORNBY, ADMIRAL SIR G. PHIPPS. +HOTEL METROPOLIS, London. +HOUGHTON, CEDRIC, 17, Ribblesdale Place, Preston. +HOZIER, SIR WILLIAM W., Bart. +HUMBERT, SON & FLINT, Watford and Lincoln's Inn. +HUNT, WILLIAM, 5, York Buildings, Adelphi. +HUNTER, REV. CHARLES, Helperby, Yorks. +HUNTER, FREDERICK, 75, Portland Place, London. +HUNTER, R. W., 19, George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh + + +IVEAGIE, Rt. Hon. Lord. + + +JACKSON, W. L., M.P., Chief Secretary for Ireland. +JACOB, W. HEATON, 29, Sinclair Gardens, London. +JARROLD & SONS, Norwich. +JENKINS, JOHN J., The Grange, Swansea. +JEROME, JEROME K., Alpha Place, St. John's Wood. +JOICEY, MRS. E., Haltwhistle. +JOHNSTON, WILLIAM, 43, Cambridge Road, Hove. +JONES, YARRELL & CO., 8, Bury Street, Jermyn Street, London. +JOSEPH, EDWARD, 25, Dover Street, Piccadilly, London. +JOSEPH, FELIX, Eastbourne. +Jowers, Alfred, A.R.I.B.A., 7, Gray's Inn Square, London. + + +KEATES, DR. W. COOPER, 2, Tredegar Villas, East Dulwich Road, London. +KELVIN, RT. HON. LORD. +KEMP-WELCH, CHARLES DURANT, Brooklands, Ascot. +KENDAL, MILNE & CO., Manchester. +KENNETT, W. B., 89, High Street, Sandgate. +KENT, A. T. +KENYON, GEORGE, 35, New Bond Street, London. +KING, ALFRED, Kensington Court Mansions, London. +Knight, J. W., 33, Hyde Park Square, London, +KNOX, JAMES, 31, Upper Kensington Lane, London. + + +LAINSON, TH., & Son, 170, North Street, Brighton. +LANGFORD, RT. HON. LORD. +LANDSBERG, H. & SON, 1, Gordon Place, London. +LARKINS-WALKER, LT. COLONEL, 201, Cromwell Road, London. +LAURIE, THOMAS & SON, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow. +LAW, CHARLES A., 53, Highgate Hill, London. +LEE, A. G., Alexander House, Solent Road, W. Hampstead. +LEIGH, MRS., Tabley House, Knutsford. +LEIGHTON, Sir Frederic P.R.A. +LEIGHTON, Captain F., Parsons Green, Fulham, London. +LENNOX, D., M. D., 144, Nethergate, Dundee. +LETHBRIDGE, CAPTAIN E., 20, St. Peter Street, Winchester. +LEWIS, MISS WYNDHAM, 33, Hans Place, London. +LITCHFIELD, SAMUEL, The Lordship, Cheshunt. +LITCHFIELD, T. G., Bruton Street, London. +LINDSAY-CARNEGIE, J. P., D.L., Co. Forfar. +LODER, R. B., 47, Grosvenor Square, London. +LONG, NATHANIEL, Tuckey Street, Cork. +LORD & CO., W. TURNER, 120, Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, London. +LONGDEN, H., London and Sheffield. +LOWE, J. W., Ridge Hall, Chapel-En-Le-Frith. +LUCAS, SEYMOUR, A.R.A., Woodchurch Road, West Hampstead. +LYNAM, C., F.R.I.B.A., Stoke-On-Trent. + + +MCANDREW, JOHN. +MACDONALD, A. R., 10, Chester Street, S.W. +MACDONALD, DUDLEY WARD, 15, Earls' Terrace, Kensington, W. +MACK, THOMAS, Manchester. +MCKIE, MISS, Dumfries, N.B +MACKINTOSH, J. R., St. Giles Street, Edinburgh. +MANCHESTER FREE LIBRARY. +MANN, J. P., Adamson Road, N.W. +MANNERING, E. H., Hillside, Arkwright Road, Hampstead. +MANT, Rev. Newton, The Vicarage, Hendon, N.W. +MAPLE, J. Blundell, M.P. +MARKS, H. Stacy, R.A. + +MARSHALL, ARTHUR, A.R.I.B.A., Cauldon Place, Long Row, Nottingham. +MARSHAM, MAJOR G. A., J.P., Thetford. +MART, ALFRED, 22, Carleton Road, Tufnell Park, London. +MARTIN, SIR THEODORE, K.C.B. +MELVILLE, RT. HON. VISCOUNT. +MENZIES, JOHN & Co., 12, Hanover Street, Edinburgh. +MIALL, G. C., Bouverie Street, London. +MILFORD, THE LADY. +MILLER, ALFRED, Queen's Road, Weybridge. +MILLAR, DAVID, 8, Fitzroy Street, London. +MILLS, R. MASON, Bourne, Lincolnshire. +MILNE, ROBERT O., Oakfield, Leamington. +MILNER, JOHN, 180, Great Portland Street, London. +MITCHELL LIBRARY, Miller Street, Glasgow. +MITCHELL, SYDNEY & WILSON, 13, Young Street, Edinburgh. +MORGAN & SONS, Hanway Street, W. +MORRISON, H., Public Library, Edinburgh. +MORTON, THOMAS H., M.D., C.M., Don House, Brightside, Sheffield. +MOUNTSTEPHEN, THE LADY. +MURRAY, WILLIAM, F.S.I., 81, Wood Green Shepherds Bush, London. +MURPHY, JOHN, 215, Brompton Road, London. + + +NELSON, RT. HON. EARL. +NETTLEFOLD, HUGH, Hallfield, Edgbaston, Birmingham. +NEVILL, CHARLES H., Bramall Hall, Cheshire. +NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE PUBLIC LIBRARIES. +NICOL, ROBERT E., 94, Morningside Road, Edinburgh. +NIND, P. H., Lashlake House, Thame, Oxon. +NORMAN, JAMES T., 57, Great Eastern Street, London. +NOTTINGHAM MECHANICS' INSTITUTION. +NUTTALL, JOHN R., Market Place, Lancaster. +NYBURG & Co., 17, Hanway Street, W. + + +OAKELEY, REV. W. BAGNALL, Newland, Coleford, Gloucester. +OAKLEY, FRANK P., Hanging Bridge Chambers, Cathedral Yard, Manchester. +OLIVER & LEESON, Bank Chambers, Mosley Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne. +OSBORNE, WILLIAM, 30, Reform Street, Beith, N.B. +OVEY, RICHARD, J.P., Badgemore, Henley-on-Thames. + + +PALMER, THE REV. FRANCIS, 17, New-Cavendish-Street, W. +PARLANE, JAMES, Rusholme, Manchester. +PARR, T. KNOWLES, Isthmian Club, S.W. +PATERSON, SMITH & INNES, 77, South Bridge, Edinburgh. +PATTERSON, W. G., 54, George Street, Edinburgh. +PATTISON, ROBERT P., Seacliffe, Trinity. +PAUL, ALFRED S. H., Tetbury. +PEARCE, S. S., 4, Victoria Parade, Ramsgate. +PEARSE, H., Rochdale. +PEARSON, JOHN L., R.A., 13, Mansfield Street, London. +PECKITT, LIEUT.-COLONEL R. WM., Thornton-le-Moor, Northallerton. +PENNEY, J. CAMPBELL, 15, Gloucester Place, Edinburgh. +PENTY, WALTER, G., F.R.I.B.A., Clifford Chambers, York. +PHILIP, G. STANLEY, 32, Fleet Street, London. +PHILLIPS, F. W., The Manor House, Hitchin. +PHILLIPS, MORO, West Street House, Chichester. +PIGGOT, REVD. ALEXANDER, Leven, Fife. +PITT-RIVERS, GENERAL, F.S.A., 4, Grosvenor Gardens, S.W. +POLLARD, JOSEPH, Nicholas Street, Truro. +POLLEN, J. HUNGERFORD, South Kensington Museum. +PONSONBY, HON. GERALD, 57, Green Street, London. +PORTAL, MELVILLE, J.P., Micheldever, Hants. +POTT, HARRY KERBY, The Cedars, Sunninghill, Ascot. +POWEL, H. PENRY, Castle Madoc, Brecknock. +POWELL & POWELL, 18, Old Bond Street, Bath. +POWELL & SONS, JAMES, 31, Osborn Street, Hull. +POWIS, RIGHT HON. EARL OF. +PROPERT, J. LUMSDEN, 112, Gloucester Terrace, London. +PRUYN, MRS. JOHN V.L., Albany, New York. + + +QUANTRELL, A. & S.S., 203, Wardour Street, London. + + +RABBITS, W. T., 6, Cadogan Gardens, S.W. +RADCLIFFE, H. MILES, Summerlands, Kendal. +RADCLIFFE, R. D., M.A., F.S.A., Darley, Old Swan, Liverpool. +RADNOR, THE RT. HON. THE COUNTESS OF +RAMSAY, ROBERT, 33/437--Greendyke Street, Glasgow. +RAMSEY, THE HON. MRS. CHARLES, 48, Grosvenor Street, W. +RICHARDS, S., Hounds Gate, Nottingham. +RIGDEN, JOHN, J. P., Surrey House, Brixton Hill, S.W. +RILEY, ATHELSTAN, L.C.C., 2, Kensington Court. +RILEY, JOHN, 20, Harrington Gardens, S.W. +RIVINGTON, CHARLES ROBERT, F.S.A., Stationers' Hall, London. +ROBERTS, D. LLOYD, M.D., F.R.C.P., Broughton Park, Manchester. +ROBSON, EDWARD R., F.S.A., 9, Bridge Street, Westminster. +ROBSON, R., 16, Old Bond Street, W. +ROBSON.& SONS, 42, Northumberland Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne. +ROGERSON, ARTHUR, Fleurville, Cheltenham. +ROMAINE-WALKER, W. H., A.R.I.B.A., Buckingham Street, Strand, London. +ROSE, ALGERNON, F.R.G.S., Great Pulteney Street, London. +ROTHSCHILD, THE LADY. +ROTHSCHILD, LEOPOLD DE, 5, Hamilton Place, W. +RUSSELL, JOHN, M. B., 142, Waterloo Road, Burslem. + + +SACKVILLE, RT. HON. LORD, Knole Park, Sevenoaks. +SALMON, W. FORREST, F.R.I.B.A., 197, St. Vincent, Street, Glasgow. +SAITER, S. JAMES A., F.R.S., Basingfield, near Basingstoke. +SANDERS, T. R. H., Old Fore Street, Sidmouth. +SANDERSON, JOHN, 52, Berners Street, London. +SAVORY, HORACE R., 11, Cornhill, London. +SAWERS, JOHN, Gothenburg, Sweden. +SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT of South Kensington. +SCOTT, A. & J., Glasgow. +SCOTT, J. & T., 10, George Street, Edinburgh. +SCULLY, W. C., 32, Earl's Court Square, London. +SHARP, J., Fernwood Road, Newcastle-on-Tyne. +SHERBORNE, RT. HON. LORD. +SHIELL, JOHN, 5, Bank Street, Dundee. +SIMKIV, W. R., North Hill, Colchester. +SIMPSON, THOMAS & SONS, Silver Street, Halifax. +SIMS, F. MANLEY, F.R.C.S., 12, Hertford Street, London. +SION COLLEGE LIBRARY, Thames Embankment, London. +SLESSOR, REV. J. H., The Rectory, Headbourne, Worthy, Winchester. +SMILEY, HUGH H., Gallowhill, Paisley. +SMITH, CHARLES, 12, Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park, London. +SMITH, EDWARD ORFORD, Council House, Birmingham. +SMITH, F. BENNETT, 17, Brazenose Street, Manchester. +SMITH, W. J., 41 & 43, North Street, Brighton. +SOPWITH, H. T., Newcastle-on-Tyne. +SPENCE, C. J., South Preston Lodge, North Shields. +STENHOUSE & SON, 4, Alexandra Gardens, Folkestone. +STEPHENS, E. GEORGE, 5, Portman Street, Whalley Range, Manchester. +STEPHENS, J. WALLACE, Belph, Whitmell, Nr. Chesterfield. +STONE, J. H., J.P., Handsworth. +STORR, J. S., 26, King Street, Covent Garden. + + +TALBOT, LIEUT. COLONEL GERALD. +TALBOT, Miss, 3, Cavendish Square, London. +TANNER, ROBERT R.S., 9, Montagu Street, Portman Square, London. +TANNER, SLINGSBY, 1046, Mount Street, Berkeley Square, London. +TAPLIN, JOHN, 8, Blomfield Road, Maida Vale, London. +TASKER, G. S., Glen-Ashton, Wimbourne, Dorset. +TATE, JOHN, Oaklands, Alnwick. +TAYLOR, JOHN & SONS, 109, Princes Street, Edinburgh. +TEMPEST, SIR ROBERT T., BART. +TEMPEST, MAJOR A.C., Coleby Hall, near Lincoln. +THOMASON, YEOVILLE, F.R.I.B.A., 9, Observatory Gardens, Kensington, London. +THOMPSON, THE LADY MEYSEY. +THOMPSON, J. C. +THOMPSON, RICHARD, Dringcote, The Mount, York. +THONET BROS., 68, Oxford Street, London. +THYNNE, J. C., Cloisters, Westminster, London. +TRAILL, JAMES CHRISTIE, J.P, D.L., Rattan, Caithness; and Hobbister, Orkney. +TAPNALL, C., 60, St. John's Road, Clifton. +TUNISSEN, G., 64, Noordeinde, The Hague. +TURNER, R. D., Roughway, Tonbridge. +TURNER, WILLIAM, Manchester. + + +VANDERBYL, MRS. PHILIP, Porchester Terrace, London. +VAUGHAN & Co., 18, Gt. Eastern Street, London. +VINCE, A. S., 14, Gt. Pulteney Street, London. +VINEY, JOHN P., 26, Charlotte Street, Portland Place, London. +VOST & FISHER, Halifax. + + +WADE, MISS, Royal School of Art Needlework, South Kensington. +WALLACE, MRS., French Hall, Gateshead. +WALLIS & Co., Limited, Holborn Circus, London. +WALTERS, FREDERICK A., A.R.I.B.A, 4, Great Queen Street, Westminster. +WARBURTON, SAMUEL, 10, Witton Polygon, Cheetham Hill, Manchester. +WARING, S. J. & SONS, Bold Street, Liverpool. +WARNER & SONS, Newgate Street, E.C. +WATKINS, REV. H. G., Lilliput Hill, Parkstone, Dorset. +WATNEY, VERNON J., Berkeley Square, London. +WATTERSON, WILLIAM CRAVEN, Hill Carr, Altrincham. +WATTS, G. F., R.A., Little Holland House, Kensington, London. +WATTS, JAMES, Old Hall, Cheadle, near Manchester. +WEBB, R. BARRETT, Bristol. +WEEKES, J.E., 19, Sinclair Gardens, W. +WELLARD, CHARLES, St. Leonard Street, Bromley-by-Bow. +WERTHEIMER, ASHER, 154, New Bond Street, W. +WERTHEIMER, CHARLES, 21, Norfolk Street, Park Lane, W. +WESTMINSTER, HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF. +WESTON, MRS. E., Ashbank, Penrith. +WHARTON, THE REV. GEORGE, Radley College, Abingdon. +WHARTON, W. H. B., London Road, Manchester. +WHEATLEY, COLONEL. +WHEELER, WILLIAM, George Row, York Road, City Road, London. +WHITAKER, WALTER, Combe Down, Bath. +WHITAKER, W. W., Cornbrook House, Manchester. +WIGAN PUBLIC LIBRARY. +WILKINSON & SON, 8, Old Bond Street, London. +WILLIAMS, MRS., Parcian, Anglesey. +WILLS, GEORGE, Park Street, Bristol. +WILSON, SAMUEL, 7, King Street, St. James's Square. +WOLFSOHN, HELENA, Dresden. +WOOD, ALEXANDER, Saltcoats. +WOOD, HERBERT S., A.R.I.B.A., 16, Basinghall Street, London. +WOOD, T. A., 67, Berners Street, London. +WORCESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY. +WORNUM, R. S., 26, Bedford Square, London. +WORTHINGTON, HENRY H., Sale Old Hall, Manchester. +WRIGHT, A. O., 25, Low Skellgate, Ripon. +WRIGHT, E., 144, Wardour Street, London. +WYLIE, S., Glasgow. +WYLLIK & SONS, D., Aberdeen. + + +YORKE, THE HON. MRS. ELIOT. + + +RECEIVED TOO LATE FOR CLASSIFICATION. + +ANDERSON, MRS. J. H., Palewell, East Sheen, S.W. +BETHELL, WILLIAM, Derwent Bank, Malton. +EDWARDS, THOMAS & SONS, Wolverhampton. +EMSLIE, A., Rothay, Border Crescent, Sydenham. +GOSFORD, THE RT. HONBLE. THE COUNTESS OF. +LARKING, T. J., 28, New Bond Street, W. +MRS. HARRY POLLOCK. +SIDNEY, T. H., Wolverhampton. + +[Illustration] + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] Gopher is supposed to mean cypress wood. See notes on Woods +(Appendix). + +[2] See also Notes on Woods (Appendix). + +[3] Folding stool--Faldistory or Faldstool--a portable seat, similar to a +camp stool, of wood or metal covered with silk or other material. It was +used by a Bishop when officiating in other than his own cathedral church. + +[4] Those who would read a very interesting account of the history of this +stone are referred to the late Dean Stanley's "Historical Memorials of +Westminster Abbey." + +[5] The sous, which was but nominal money, may be reckoned as representing +20 francs, the denier 1 franc, but allowance must be made for the enormous +difference in the value of silver, which would make 20 francs in the +thirteenth century represent upwards of 200 francs in the present century. + +[6] The panels of the high screen or back to the stalls in "La Certosa di +Pavia" (a Carthusian Monastery suppressed by Joseph II.), are famous +examples of early intarsia. In an essay on the subject written by Mr. T.G. +Jackson, A.R.A., they are said to be the work of one Bartolommeo, an +Istrian artist, and to date from 1486. The same writer mentions still more +elaborate examples of pictorial "intarsia" in the choir stalls of Sta. +Maria, Maggiore, in Bergamo. + +[7] Writers of authority on architecture have noticed that the chief +characteristic in style of the French Renaissance, as contrasted with the +Italian, is that in the latter the details and ornament of the new school +were imposed on the old foundations of Gothic character. The Chateau of +Chambord is given as an instance of this combination. + +[8] Dr. Jacob von Falké states that the first mention of glass as an +extraordinary product occurs in a register of 1239. + +[9] "Holland House," by Princess Marie Liechtenstein, gives a full account +of this historic mansion. + +[10] The following passage occurs in one of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays: + + "Is the great couch up, the Duke of Medina sent?" to which the duenna + replies, "'Tis up and ready;" and then Marguerite asks, "And day beds + in all chambers?" receiving in answer, "In all, lady." + +[11] This tapestry is still in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace. + +[12] [PG Note] The original text said "gods". + +[13] The present decorations of the Palace of Versailles were carried out +about 1830, under Louis Phillipe. "Versailles Galeries Historiques," par +C. Gavard, is a work of 13 vols., devoted to the illustration of the +pictures, portraits, statues, busts, and various decorative contents of +the Palace. + +[14] For description of method of gilding the mounts of furniture, see +Appendix. + +[15] For a short account of these Factories, see Appendix. + +[16] Watteau, 1684-1721. Lancrel, _b_. 1690, _d_. 1743. Boucher, _b_. +1703, _d_. 1770. + +[17] The Court room of the Stationers' Hall contains an excellent set of +tables of this kind. + +[18] The late Mr. Adam Black, senior partner in the publishing firm of A. +and C. Black, and Lord Macaulay's colleague in Parliament, when quite a +young man, assisted Sheraton in the production of this book; at that time +the famous designer of furniture was in poor circumstances. + +[19] The word Baroque, which became a generic term, was derived from the +Portugese "barroco," meaning a large irregular-shaped pearl. At first a +jeweller's technical term, it came later, like "rococo," to be used to +describe the kind of ornament which prevailed in design of the nineteenth +century, after the disappearance of the classic. + +[20] Mr. Parker defines Dado as "The solid block, or cube, forming the +body of a pedestal in classical architecture, between the base mouldings +and the cornice: an architectural arrangement of mouldings, etc., round +the lower parts of the wall of a room, resembling a continuous pedestal." + +[21] Owen Jones' "Grammar of Ornament," a work much used by designers, was +published in 1856. + +[22] Essay by Mr. Edward S. Prior, "Of Furniture and the Room." + +[23] Published in 1868, when the craze for novelties was at its height. + +[24] Essay on "Decorated Furniture," by J. H. Pollen. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12254 *** |