[Illustration]
The furniture in this exhibition lent by the Secretary of State
for India, the Worshipful Companies of Carpenters, Stationers and
Clothworkers, and the Master of the Charterhouse, has been chosen as
a fitting accompaniment to the drawings and paintings of Old London.
They form a representative selection of such relics of London’s history
as have survived the vicissitudes of Time. A certain individuality
stamps the furniture. It was made for a definite reason, had a serious
and official purpose to fulfil, and thus differs in some respects
from the contemporary furniture of the home, in the making of which
comfort, luxury, elegance and other domestic requirements had to
be considered. As would be expected, therefore, the furniture from
the India Office, from the City Halls and from the Charterhouse,
is essentially severe in character, “masculine and unaffected,” and
thoroughly sound both in design and workmanship.
The largest and most important collection is that from the Secretary
of State for India. The India Office is fortunate in possessing
a considerable number of fine pieces of English furniture of the
eighteenth century. Most of these were transferred in the nineteenth
century from the “Old India House” in Leadenhall Street at the time
when the India Office absorbed the business of the East India Company.
These historical events are discussed in full detail in “Records of
the Honourable East India Company,” by Sir George Birdwood and William
Foster.
A variety of interesting pieces have been lent by the Worshipful
Companies of Carpenters, Stationers and Clothworkers. In the course
of their history the City Companies have suffered many misfortunes.
Of these the most disastrous was the Great Fire of 1666, which wrought
havoc with their Halls and historic possessions. Most of the Halls were
destroyed or suffered damage. Many were rebuilt under the influence
of Sir Christopher Wren and his successors, but in most cases have
been reconstructed in the nineteenth century. Fortunately, some of the
panelling, carvings and furniture have been preserved and incorporated
in the new buildings. The octagonal table in this exhibition, lent
by the Carpenters’ Company, is one of the few existing pieces earlier
in date than the Great Fire.
From the Charterhouse a few good pieces of English furniture have
been obtained. First a Carthusian monastery, afterwards a nobleman’s
palace, and lastly a Pensioners’ Hospital, the Charterhouse still shows
records of the different phases of its romantic history. The splendid
Elizabethan staircase and some of the panelling belong to the period
when the Duke of Norfolk occupied the building as a residence. Other
furniture and decoration commemorates the foundation of the hospital by
Thomas Sutton, a wealthy trader and philanthropist; worthy of special
mention is the small communion table in the chapel, bearing his arms
and a mutilated date (16—), perhaps the most distinguished piece of
furniture of its period which the country possesses. Unfortunately, it
has not been possible to secure this table for the present exhibition.
Much of the furniture, here exhibited, was lent to the exhibition at
Bethnal Green Museum organized by the Department of Science and Art
in 1896.