FURNITURE.
ANTIQUE: EGYPT, ASSYRIA, GREECE, AND ROME.
The furniture of the antique nations has been noticed in some instances
in the former volume of this work, especially in the cases of Egyptian
and Assyrian examples, where fortunately we can point out the many
representations of it that occur on the bas-reliefs. It is from these
that we chiefly form an opinion as to how the palaces and interiors must
have been furnished, for, owing to the great lapse of time, nearly every
vestige of furniture of these old nations has passed away.
The British Museum and the Louvre contain a few Egyptian chairs or seats
that have been made in ebony and ivory, which owe their preservation to
the lasting nature of the material.
Two Egyptian chairs or thrones are illustrated at Figs. 146 and 147, in
the first part of this work, and a wooden coffer at Fig. 149. At Fig.
148 carpenters are represented as occupied in chair making, the feet and
legs of the chairs being designed from animals’ limbs, and the stools on
which the workmen are sitting are blocks of wood hollowed out at the
top. The Egyptian couch was of a straight-lined design in the body with
a curved head like an ordinary sofa, the legs, feet, and other salient
points being carved with heads, feet, and tails of animals. Some boxes
and coffers with gable tops dovetailed together, small toilet boxes
having carved or painted decoration, and mummy cases of cedar-wood
having elaborate hieroglyphic decorations, may be seen in the British
Museum and in the Louvre. Chariot and horse furniture are well
represented in the reliefs and wall paintings. Egypt was famed for
chariot building, and exported them in trade to the surrounding nations.
We read that King Solomon imported his war-chariots from Egypt.
[Illustration: Fig. 207.—Assyrian Throne.]
[Illustration: Fig. 208.—Assyrian Seat.]
If examples of Egyptian furniture are scarce, the furniture of Assyria
is practically non-existent, as the climate of the latter country was
not so dry or preservative as that of Egypt, so that all examples that
have not been wilfully destroyed have long ago perished. Many ornaments
of bronze and of ivory decorations have been discovered that have been
used as mountings to feet, ends or legs of seats, chairs, or thrones.
The bas-reliefs of the latter enable us to form a fairly accurate
judgment of the nature and style of Assyrian furniture, the decoration
of which was of a heavier and coarser character than that of the more
elegant Egyptian (Figs. 207 and 208). Forms and parts of animals were
used by the Assyrians and nearly all Oriental nations as furniture
decorations. The human figure was used also, but generally in the
representation of slaves or conquered peoples, who were degraded to the
position of bearing the weight of the seat or throne of the monarch (see
Persian throne, Fig. 256, first vol., from Persepolis, which was an
adaptation from an Assyrian throne). The Egyptian chairs had also carved
human figures as captives tied under the seat (Figs. 146, 147, first
vol.).
[Illustration: Fig. 209.—Greek Chair.]
The furniture of the Hebrews was doubtless of the same kind as the
Assyrian. From the description of King Solomon’s throne it was
apparently similar to those of the Assyrian kings. It had lions for the
arm supports, and had six lions in gold and ivory on the six steps on
either side of the throne.
In the manufacture of the furniture of the nations of antiquity the
principal materials were—in woods, ebony, rosewood, walnut, pine, teak,
and, above all, cedar-wood; ivory, gold, silver, bronze, and electrum
were also much used for inlays and for solid mountings.
The furniture and the chariots of the Greeks in their early period were
simply copied from Egyptian and Asiatic sources, with less of the animal
forms and more of plant forms as decorative details (Figs. 209, 210).
Folding stools and chairs were made in wood and in metal, and the backs
of the chairs were upright, or nearly so couches resembling modern
sofas, elaborate footstools, and arm-chairs with sphinxes for the arms
were made by the Greeks (Figs. 210, 212).
[Illustration: Fig. 210.—Greek Folding Stools and Chairs, &c.]
[Illustration: Fig. 211.—Greek Chair.]
In the British Museum are some small models of Greek chairs made in
lead, and wooden boxes showing the dovetail construction.
In the later Greek periods the furniture was inlaid with ivory, ebony,
gold, and silver. Tripods were made of bronze, and had ornamented legs
in the shapes of the limbs of lions, leopards, and sphinxes. The Roman
bronze tripods were very similar to the Grecian ones in design, and were
not only used for sacred purposes in the temples, but also to support
braziers for heating purposes, or for burning perfumes in the houses of
private people (Fig. 213).
[Illustration: Fig. 212.—Greek Couches and Sofa.]
Hand-mirrors and _cistæ_ were made in great quantities in bronze or in
other metal alloys, in silver, and sometimes in gold. The mirrors were
polished on the face, and had often rich designs of figure subjects. The
Greek cistæ were cylindrical metal boxes that rested on feet designed
from those of various animals, having a lid or cover, with a handle or
knot usually of figure design, the whole surface of the body being
covered with engraved figure compositions and ornamental borders. They
were probably used to contain jewellery and trinkets. Some very fine
specimens of these hand-mirrors and cistæ may be seen in the British
Museum.
[Illustration: Fig. 213.—Bronze Tripod, Greco-Roman.]
[Illustration: Fig. 214.—Folding Tripod, Roman.]
The furnishing of the houses of the Romans was very much of the same
character as that of the Greeks and Etruscans, from whom the Romans
inherited all their arts.
[Illustration: Fig. 215.—Roman Bronze Candelabra.]
The interior plan and aspects of the Roman houses were such as those of
Pompeii and Herculaneum, described in the first vol. Tables and tripods
of bronze or braziers were supported on three legs, some of which were
made with hinges for folding purposes (Fig. 214), and others were of
sphinx and animal forms of a rich design (Fig. 213). Lamp-stand designs
were quaint and elegant and were made in bronze (Fig. 215). Candelabra
of architectural design were carved in marble and were from six to ten
feet in height (Fig. 217).
[Illustration: Fig. 216.—Roman Tables.]
[Illustration: Fig. 217.—Marble Candelabrum, Roman.]
The Romans highly prized and paid good sums for tables that were made
from the pollard cross grain of different hard woods in which the knots
and grain showed to advantage, the beauty of the wood being brought out
by hand-polishing and by staining it with various coloured dyes.
Bird’s-eye maple and the wood of the _cedrus atlantica_ were much
prized. The smaller tables, _abaci_, rested usually on one
foot—_monopodium_—and larger tables had three or four legs, which had
ivory claws or heads of animals as carved decoration (Fig. 216).
Boxwood, beech, and palm, inlaid with ivory, ebony, and precious metals,
were used in the materials of chairs and couches. The latter were also
made in bronze (Fig. 218), and chairs of state were carved in marble,
one of this kind being in the Louvre, a cast of which is now in the
Kensington Museum (Fig. 219). The form of the Roman _curule_ chair was
like the letter X, and was so called because it could be folded and
carried easily in the _curules_ or chariots. It was used from the
earliest times of the Romans down to modern days in Italy, and was often
constructed of elephants’ tusks, wood, or metal, with ivory feet. The
curule chairs were carried about for outdoor use and for the theatre.
The _sella_ or _bisellium_, to seat two persons, was often a very ornate
kind of seat with turned legs similar to the couches (Fig. 220).
In the houses of the Romans a separate room or wardrobe was fitted up to
keep the dresses and clothes of the family; this room had cupboards with
doors and shelves, drawers, and lockers.
[Illustration: Fig. 218.—Couch in Bronze, Roman.]
Portable coffers and chests were used, in which they packed their
clothes and valuables when carrying them to and from their town and
country houses. The Roman furniture and wooden construction of their
houses were decorated with paintings and carvings of animals’ heads,
limbs, and feet, and with figures of heroes and masks, as well as with
the usual architectural acanthus foliage. Veneering of woods was an art
in which the Romans were skilled; both small and large designs or
pictures in tarsia work were the chief decorations of the best
furniture.
[Illustration: Fig. 219.—Marble Chair, Roman.]
[Illustration: Fig. 220.—Roman Sella or Bisellium.]
BYZANTINE, ROMANESQUE, SARACENIC, AND THE FURNITURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
The furniture, such as tables, chairs, beds, and the chariots, of the
Byzantine period, was like the architecture in having something of the
classic Roman mixture with some Asiatic Greek forms in its design.
Scarcely any remains of such are now in existence, although we have
evidence of the extreme richness of the sumptuary furniture and vessels
of the great houses and palaces of Constantinople, for owing to the
decadence and destruction of the Roman empire in the provinces, the
capital of the East became enriched by treasures of the old Roman
families, who naturally fled to Constantinople for protection for
themselves and their valuable effects.
The old ivories known as consular diptychs have different varieties of
seats, chairs, and footstools, on which the consuls are seated,
represented in the carving. Many originals of these and casts from
others may be seen in the Kensington Museum.
The chair of St. Maximian, preserved at Ravenna, is covered with ivory
carvings, and is one of the finest examples of Byzantine work. It is
described at page 138 and is figured in Labarte’s “Art of the Middle
Ages.”
Much of the furniture of the early centuries of Christian art is
represented in the Byzantine illuminated manuscripts. Beds and couches
kept the old Roman forms with the turned legs. Chariots must have been
used very much, as the old game of chariot racing was kept up by the
Byzantines. The Iconoclasts of the Eastern Empire under Leo the Isaurian
(A.D. 726)—whose injurious rule lasted about one hundred and twenty
years—were responsible for much destruction of sumptuary furniture, as
well as for other productions of an artistic nature, but at the same
time they were the indirect means of causing a new development in art in
the western parts of Europe, and more particularly in the Rhenish
Provinces, by driving the Byzantine artists and craftsmen to these
places, where they were welcomed by Charlemagne, and by his powerful
nobles and Churchmen. In the course of time they succeeded in founding
the school of art known as Rhenish-Byzantine. The finest illustrations
of this art are seen in the magnificent enamelled reliquaries or
shrines. The gilt-bronze chair of Dagobert is of Romanesque design, and
is one of the earliest pieces of furniture of the Middle Ages (see Fig.
134). Another mediæval chair or throne is high seated, and exceedingly
rich in design (Fig. 221). It is of Scandinavian origin, and is a good
example of the Romanesque style of Northern Europe. Many forms of the
Romanesque are seen in the furniture and carving of the Gothic style
that immediately succeeded the former.
During the Anglo-Saxon period in England the ordinary houses usually
consisted of one room. Sometimes a shed-like structure was erected
against the wall of the room to contain the bed of the mistress of the
house, and as a rule the inmates slept on a large table placed in the
centre of the room, or on benches on which bags of straw were placed.
Seats without backs, or stools, long settles or benches with backs and
carved ends or arms, were the chief articles in furniture.
After the Norman Conquest domestic improvements were multiplied, more
rooms were added to the houses, such as the solar or upper room, and the
parloir or talking-room, and some of the rooms had fireplaces, but not
chimneys. The principal room was the hall or assembly-room, which had a
fireplace in the centre, the smoke escaping through the lantern light in
the roof.
In the Norman times the principal additions to the furniture of English
manor-houses and castles were the cupboard, presses or armoires, and
chests. These pieces of furniture were introduced from France. Sometimes
the portable presses and the chests were painted with tempera
decorations, and were bound with wrought-iron clasps and hinges, which
were just beginning to come into use.
[Illustration: Fig. 221.—Scandinavian Seat or Throne of the Middle
Ages.]
The bed-clothes and personal clothing of the nobles and rich landowners
began to assume a rich character, and were often embroidered.
Tapestry and painted cloth hangings were imported; also pottery of an
ornamental description was not only imported, but made in England at
this time. All this applies to the homes of the rich only, for the
poorer classes remained for a long period in a very primitive condition
as regards their style of houses and their furniture.
[Illustration: Fig. 222.—Flemish; Sixteenth Century. (P.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 223.—German; Fifteenth Century. (P.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 224—English; Fifteenth Century. (P.)]
The construction of furniture and the panelling of chests began to
exhibit some workmanlike appearances of good carpentry. Panels were
placed in framework that was mortised and fastened with wooden pegs,
which became the universal method of panelling throughout the Gothic
period. Room panelling came into use in England in the early part of the
thirteenth century, when pine timber was used at first for this work,
but was displaced later by the more substantial oak. This oak panelling
during the Gothic periods was often carved with elaborate tracery of an
architectural character (Figs. 222, 223), and a common design was a
carved imitation of a carefully folded textile, known as the “linen
panel” (Fig. 224).
[Illustration: Fig. 225.—Dining Room; Fifteenth Century. (P.)]
Chests were used as tables, and the tops had inlaid checkers to be used
as chessboards. They were also used as sideboards on which to place
dishes of food, the dining-table being a board which was placed on
trestles, that could be removed and packed away when not required (Figs.
225, 226). A cross-legged chair and a three-legged stool is shown at
Fig. 228, which were common shapes in the fourteenth century. The
illustration, Fig. 227, is that of a bedroom of the same period, and is
taken from an English manuscript of the date of 1400. For these
illustrations, and many others on the subject of furniture, we are
indebted to the work of Mr. J. H. Pollen on “Furniture and Woodwork.”
The bed in the latter illustration has a flat canopy, or tester, with
embroidered hangings. The walls of the room are panelled, and the floor
is in checkered parquetry. There is a curious seat that is partly an
open press, with pottery, and metal vases placed as decoration on the
top.
[Illustration: Fig. 226.—Dining Table on Trestles; Fourteenth Century.
(P.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 227.—Bedroom Interior; 1400. (P.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 228.—Seats; Fourteenth Century. (P.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 229.—The Coronation Chair, Westminster Abbey. (P.)]
Chests, trunks, or _bahuts_, were at this period, and in the time of the
Normans, the most important articles in furniture: they were often made
with inlaid wood decorations, and had strap-work of iron and ornate
hinges. They were the usual repositories of the household valuables,
money, and other treasures, and were carried on horses or mules when the
family moved about from place to place. By degrees the chest, with the
addition of a back and arms, became the settles or principal seats in
the living-room, and the back developed with an added hood or projecting
covering into the daïs, or throne-like seat, that was placed at the end
of the chief room—the place of honour.
Another and later development of the chest was to raise it on legs, and
to add a back arrangement to it, with shelves for the display of
household plate, to which was given the name of _dressoir_, or dresser,
the latter in time developing into the modern sideboard.
Chests were also important articles of church furniture, in which the
sacred vessels, treasures, books, and priests’ garments could be locked
up, and a particular form of chest kept in church vestries was the cope
chest, which took the semicircular shape of the copes when laid out flat
in these chests. Examples of these chests are still to be seen in some
of the large cathedrals.
[Illustration: Fig. 230.—Travelling Carriage; English; Fourteenth
Century. (P.)]
The coronation chair (Fig. 229) gives a good idea of a state chair of
the early Gothic period in England.
[Illustration: Fig. 231.—Travelling Carriage; English; Fourteenth
Century. (P.)]
Carriages of the fourteenth century were used for the conveyance of
women and children, but were not very common. They were long-shaped
covered vehicles on four wheels, with or without panelled sides, and
were painted and decorated (Figs. 230, 231). Carts for carrying and for
agricultural purposes were used in the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods in
England, and in France at the same dates: these were two-wheeled
vehicles, each wheel being usually of one solid piece of wood.
[Illustration: Fig. 232.—Table (Kursy); Saracenic. (L. P.)]
The Saracens were very ingenious in the using of wood, as in carpentry,
carving, and turning in the lathe. Their ingenuity and skill in
carpentry and turning is seen in the Meshrebīya work and lattice, and in
the carvings of the pulpit and door panels. This work has been noticed
under the heading of Saracenic Architecture and Ornament in the former
volume.
Regarding the furniture of the domestic dwellings of the Saracens,
whether of Egypt, Arabia, or elsewhere, there was very little of a
movable nature except the small tables and reading-desks. The tables of
Saracenic design are usually small and of a greater height than width
(Fig. 232). These tables or _kursys_ are sometimes panelled with turned,
latticed, or carved decoration, having stalactites under the top, as in
the illustration, or in the kursys of a lighter construction are
generally inlaid with ivory, ebony, and mother-of-pearl. Some of the
richest variety are hexagonal in shape, are inlaid with brass and silver
filigree ornamentation, and are of splendid workmanship. The next
important article in movable furniture is the Saracen reading-desk,
which is made in the form of a camp-stool, with cross legs. It is
usually inlaid and decorated like the tables.
The divans are platforms raised slightly from the ground, and covered
with cushions on the seats and backs. The carved cupboards or shelves on
brackets placed behind and above the divans, on which vases and trays
are kept for ornament or when not in use, complete the usual furniture
of the Saracenic living-room. Seats or chairs of lattice-work
(_dikkas_), on which the doorkeeper sits, are usually found in
entrance-halls, and if we add the elaborate metal and coloured-glass
lamps, the vases, the large metal salvers or trays, and the rugs and
carpets, the furniture of a Saracenic house is complete.
ITALIAN AND OTHER FURNITURE OF THE RENAISSANCE.
In the early part of the fifteenth century and during the whole of the
century the furniture of Europe generally was designed more or less on
Gothic lines, but gradually the new forms that were now rapidly
developing in the architecture of the Renaissance, but in a slower
measure, began to assert themselves in furniture designs. Consequently,
we find in many articles, such as armoires or presses, and cabinets, a
mixture of style in the design—as, for instance, the upper panels would
be in the Mediæval, and the lower ones in the Renaissance style, or the
general construction would be Gothic, and the details and decoration
would be Italian.
This was more often the case in the furniture and other art in Germany,
where the Renaissance was tardily welcomed.
Styles of design in furniture overlap each other so much, especially in
the Renaissance period, that it becomes very difficult to assign a
correct date to many pieces of important work. Gothic designs continued
to be used during the sixteenth century, although the Renaissance had
been developing for a hundred years earlier. The most authentic means of
fixing the date is when certain work can be proved to have come from the
hand of a particular artist, or when there is a record of its having
been made for a king or some great person, for the style is not always a
sure proof of the correct date.
In the “Quattrocento” period (1400-1500), or fifteenth century, Italian
furniture made for churches, palaces, or private houses, was usually
decorated with paintings, sometimes on a gilt ground, which was prepared
in a gesso material before the gold was applied, some parts of which had
relief ornamentation.
Reliquaries, altar-fronts, panels of cabinets, chests, and marriage
coffers were decorated in this way.
[Illustration: Fig. 233.—Marriage Coffer of Carved Wood; Italian;
Sixteenth Century. (J.)]
The work known as “tarsia,” or certosina work, was made in great
perfection about this time in Italy. It is inlaid work of a geometric
character in design, or is composed of floral ornament, and sometimes
consists of representations of landscapes and buildings. This kind of
inlay was derived from Persian sources, was developed chiefly by the
Venetians, and was used mostly by them in the decoration of choir
stalls, tables, chairs, cabinets, &c. Ebony, ivory, and metals were also
employed in the Italian inlays of this period.
The Italian _Cassoni_, or marriage-coffers, were the most ornate and
most imposing articles of furniture of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. They were placed in the long halls and corridors of the
palaces and great houses, and were usually given as presents to newly
married couples. They were generally used as the receptacle for the
bride’s trousseau and other treasures. In the latter century they were
carved in walnut with sculptural mythological subjects, and had endings
or corners of half-figures and half-foliage, as caryatids, with feet
designed from the claws of animals to raise them from the ground (Fig.
233). The carving was relieved by gilding in parts, and sometimes the
whole of it was gilt.
Other examples of an earlier date were covered with a finely modelled
decoration of gesso work, and gilded, and in other cases the large
panels in the front were painted with figure subjects in brilliant
colours and heightened with gold.
A less costly kind of marriage coffer was made in cypress-wood, and
fitted up in the inside with drawers, having the decoration on the
surface engraved or etched in brown lines, with the ground slightly
recessed and punched or stamped with a fine ornamentation.
[Illustration: Fig. 234.—Italian Work; Sixteenth Century. (P.)]
In the Kensington Museum there is an extensive collection of Italian
cassoni embracing all the above varieties. Chairs carved and gilt of the
same style and period as the coffers were usually placed between the
rows of the latter in the halls of the Italian palaces (Fig. 235). These
chairs had their backs and legs richly carved, each part being made out
of a single slab of wood.
The pair of bellows (Fig. 234) is a further illustration of the design
and excellence of workmanship as shown in the work of the wood carvers
of Italy in the sixteenth century, or “Cinquecento” period.
Another fine specimen of wood carving is the Italian stool (Fig. 236) of
the same date, which is remarkable for its delicacy of treatment.
Another form of chair of a rectangular character, with or without arms,
having an embossed leather or velvet covering on the back and seat, with
turned and carved legs and rails, was made in Italy about this time
(Fig. 237); it was much used subsequently in Spain, France, and in
England, and has continued to be in favour down to the present day.
Cabinets were made in Italy and in France in which slabs of beautifully
coloured and veined marbles and rare stones were inserted as panels in
various shapes, to which the name of “pietra-dura” work has been given.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries painted plaques of porcelain
took the place of these marbles.
In England, France, Spain, and Germany, the great houses, both private
and religious, and the king’s palaces were elaborately furnished, and
kept in a state of great splendour.
[Illustration: Fig. 235.—Chair; Italian; Sixteenth Century. (P.)]
Churches were also furnished with elaborate stalls, pulpits, and rich
utensils, but in the latter the style of the designs was still Mediæval.
In the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. in England the style
gradually altered to the Italian forms of the Renaissance, and many
Italian architects and carvers found work in this country in making
furniture for the royal palaces, and besides, great quantities of
Italian, Flemish, and French furniture were largely imported. Jean de
Mabuse and Torrigiano were employed as architects and sculptors by Henry
VII., and Holbein and some Italian artists designed furniture and
goldsmith’s work for Henry VIII.
In France, during the reigns of François I., Catherine de’ Medici, and
Henri II., a great activity took place in architecture and in all the
industrial arts, in which that country not only imitated, but sought to
excel, the work of the Italian schools.
[Illustration: Fig. 236.—Stool of Carved Wood; Italian; Sixteenth
Century. (J.)]
As already mentioned, the French kings and Medicean princesses in the
sixteenth century had invited from Italy Cellini, Primaticcio, Il Rosso,
Serlio, and others, who succeeded in founding the style of the
Renaissance in France, and about the same time many French artists
journeyed to Italy to acquire the newer style which had been evolved
from the study of the old classic remains of that country. Among the
names of the principal French artists, sculptors, and carvers of this
period are those of Jean Goujon, Nicholas Bachelier of Toulouse, Jean
Cousin, Germain Pilon, Philibert de l’Orme, Du Cerceau, who published
designs for all kinds of decorations and carvings, and Hugues Sambin of
Dijon. Most of these men were architects and also designers of the heavy
and rich furniture that was characteristic of the French Renaissance.
Some of these artists and their works have been noticed in the chapters
on Renaissance architecture and metal work. The cabinet (Fig. 238) is a
good example of the architectonic style of French furniture of the
sixteenth century. French wood carving is distinguished from the Italian
of this period by the great use of the cartouche and strap-work (Fig.
239), which was so characteristic of the Henri-Deux style.
[Illustration: Fig. 237.—Chair Decorated with Gauffered Leather; Early
Sixteenth Century; Italian Style. (J.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 238.—French Cabinet; Sixteenth-Century Work. (P.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 239.—Carved Wood Panel; French; Sixteenth Century.
(P.)]
When the Renaissance had taken a firm root in Germany, the designers and
carvers of altar-pieces and of furniture generally proved themselves
thorough masters of the style, and were especially skilful in the
carving of wood, both on a gigantic and on a minute scale. Whole fronts
of houses were elaborately carved in designs consisting of figure work,
animals, ornament, and grotesques of a quaint and humorous description,
while exceedingly minute works of figure subjects and animals were
carved in box and other woods with a delicacy and quaintness often
excelling the ivory carvings of the Japanese. Escritoires, buffets,
cabinets, and other furniture, were made and exported from Germany into
Spain and other countries.
Flemish and English furniture and carving were pretty much alike in the
reigns of Elizabeth—the Tudor period of English art—and of James I., the
Stuart or Jacobean. The pieces of carved furniture, both Flemish and
English, were very solid and heavy both in the design and thickness of
the material, which was generally of oak or chestnut. So much Flemish
furniture was imported into England at this time, and the English-made
work, being so close in resemblance to the former, that a great
difficulty is experienced in classifying examples of this period. The
table, Fig. 240, and the so-called “Great Bed of Ware,” are examples of
the furniture of the Elizabethan period (Fig. 241.)
[Illustration: Fig. 240.—Elizabethan Table. (P.)]
In Spain the Italian style in furniture was introduced in the first
instance by the great importations from Italy and Germany, but under
such excellent native carvers and designers as Felipe de Borgoña
(sixteenth century), and Berruguete (1480-1561), the style of the
Renaissance soon spread from Toledo to Seville and Valladolid, where
great quantities of carved and inlaid work and elaborate altar-pieces
were executed during the prosperous Spanish period of the sixteenth
century.
[Illustration: Fig. 241.—The Great Bed of Ware; Elizabethan. (P.)]
During the same century Venice and Florence were famed for their
marquetry—inlaid work of ivory and metal—in cypress, walnut, and other
woods, which art had been imported from Persia and India by the
Venetians, and which spread rapidly through Europe until the furniture
made with marquetry decoration by degrees supplanted the heavier
classical architectural designs.
This was brought about chiefly in the West of Europe by the Dutch and
French marquetry work, developed during the seventeenth century.
Before leaving the Italian sixteenth-century work we must notice the
mirrors, with their elaborately carved frames of Venetian design and
manufacture. In this century Venice was renowned for the making of
glass, for which it is still famous, and certain privileges were granted
by the State exclusively to Venetian manufacturers of looking-glasses.
Two Murano glass makers named Andrea and Dominico, who were the
inventors, were granted in the year 1507 the sole privilege of making
“mirrors of crystal glass” for a term of twenty years. Previous to this
time the mirrors were made of various polished metals. The frames of the
Venetian mirrors were often elaborately carved (Fig. 242), some of them
being made in designs that were strictly architectural in character,
representing a door, or window frame, with pilasters, frieze, and
cornice, and sill or plinth. These carved frames were often partly or
wholly gilt, and were exported in considerable quantities. Pictures were
framed in a similar way to the mirrors, and carved and gilt frames were
soon used all over Europe as picture frames. Later on gilt furniture of
all kinds was made in Venice and was in great favour in the other
countries of the Continent.
[Illustration: Fig. 242.—Venetian Minor Frame; Sixteenth Century. (P.)]
The manufacture of marquetry furniture by the Dutch in the seventeenth
century has been mentioned as having helped in a great measure to change
the style of furniture design from its former architectural character to
a greater simplicity of construction. Large panel surfaces were used for
the purpose of showing to greater advantage the rich and bright colours
of different kinds of hard woods used in the marquetry. Both natural and
stained varieties of various wood were arranged in the designs in
juxtaposition, and a free and picturesque kind of ornamental foliage was
employed mixed with large tulips, roses, and birds in the Dutch
marquetry decoration. Other materials, such as ivory, ebony, and
mother-of-pearl, were also used as inlays. In France a similar kind of
marquetry was developed, but the design consisted more of figure
subjects and imitations of ruins in landscapes. A complete change in the
design of the furniture in the latter country was also effected by the
same desire to get large surfaces on which the inlaid work could be seen
to great advantage, and the spaces were not divided by architectural
mouldings, or pilasters, as they had been in the preceding earlier work.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century, and during the earlier half of
the seventeenth, the sumptuous furniture, the beds, and general
furnishing of the better class of houses and palaces in France and other
European countries, were characterized by the use of costly silk
brocades, tissues, and embroidered coverings and hangings.
By thus seeking to give the furniture an appearance of the richest
possible kind, such articles as chairs, couches, and beds lost in a
corresponding degree their elegance and former constructive beauty.
Under their gorgeous Italian and Oriental velvet coverings, their framed
construction ceased to be visible. The above pieces of furniture still
retained their sumptuous upholstery during the reign of Louis XIV., but
the tables, armoires, cabinets, book-cases, pedestals, clock-stands and
cases, came under the influence of the architecture of the period, when
the king’s chief minister, Colbert, selected the best architects and
cabinet-makers of the day to design the furniture for the palaces of the
Tuileries, the Louvre, and Fontainebleau.
The greatest name connected with the design and manufacture of the
magnificent furniture of the Louis-Quatorze period is that of
André-Charles Boulle, whose work is known under his name as “Boulle.”
This celebrated furniture is an elaborate kind of marquetry of which the
materials are rare woods, ebony, tortoiseshell, brass, mother-of-pearl,
and white metal or tin. The mountings, mouldings, and other salient
points are made in brass beautifully chased and finished, some of the
mountings being in the forms of masks, foliage, cartouches, and animals’
heads and feet as termination.
André-Charles Boulle was born in Paris in the year 1642. His father,
Pierre Boulle, was also a distinguished _ébéniste_, or cabinet-maker,
but his more eminent son possessed the artistic gift in a much higher
degree. In addition to making his special marquetry from his own designs
Boulle also executed a good deal of his best works from the designs of
Jean Berain (1636-1711), his chief collaborateur. Berain’s designs were
more Italian in style, more symmetrical in the composition of the
ornament, and more correct from an architectural point of view, than
those attributed to Boulle himself, whose designs had much of the
looseness and freedom of the prevalent Louis Quatorze.
At the death of Jean Macé, the king’s ébéniste, in 1672, who had
formerly lived in the royal galleries of the Louvre, the _logement_ and
office of ébéniste to the king had become vacant, and Boulle on the
recommendation of Colbert, minister to Louis XIV., was appointed as the
successor of Macé, and was installed in his rooms in the Louvre in the
year 1673. He had previously executed some important work for the king,
and was known as the ablest ébéniste at that time in Paris.
The origin of the Boulle marquetry can be traced to the Indian, Persian,
and Damascus encrusted inlays in ivory, ebony, nacre, and metal, that
found their way to Venice, Portugal, Spain, and France in the Middle
Ages. These works consisted chiefly of caskets, coffers, and small
pieces of furniture. In the inventories of Charles V. of France (1380)
mention is made of lecterns and coffers of inlaid ivory or bone, in
ebony, and similar works are mentioned in the inventories of Charles VI.
(1418), and of Anne of Brittany (1498). These are the earliest notices
of marquetry furniture that was made in France, and was probably an
imitation of Oriental work.
In the Renaissance period François I. bought some magnificent furniture
of Indian workmanship, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, from Portuguese
merchants, and mention is made of chairs, tables, coffers, cabinets, and
mirror-frames that belonged to Queen Marie de’ Médicis (1600), the
Cardinal d’Amboise (1550), and other great persons of the French Court,
all of which works were made in marquetry.
In France before the sixteenth century, tortoiseshell, brass, tin, and
exotic woods were used as inlays, in addition to the ivory, ebony, and
nacre of the East. From this it will be seen that Boulle did not invent
the celebrated marquetry that bears his name. He, however, brought this
sumptuous form of cabinet work to great perfection, and under the
patronage of Louis XIV. he had every opportunity to develop his artistic
abilities to the utmost.
The method of procedure in the making of the Boulle marquetry was,
first, to prepare the veneers of wood, shell, tin, and brass of the same
thickness, each having perfectly plain surfaces; these veneers were then
glued together in pairs of opposite materials, according to the nature
of the effect required in the finished work, and were held together
firmly in a vice. The design was then traced on the surface of the upper
leaf, and the veneers were then cut through the lines of the pattern
with a burin, a sharp strong knife, or a fine saw; thus four pieces of
marquetry were made at one cutting. When the plaque forming the design
was composed of tin or brass, which was afterwards engraved or chased,
it was technically called “boulle”; and when the design was formed by
the shell or ebony it was called “counter”; the two effects are together
known as “boulle and counter,” or _première et contre-partie_.
A later kind of Boulle work, known as the Second Style, has the shell
veneers laid on a clouded vermilion or on a gilt ground.
Boulle was an artist of great excellence as a sculptor and chaser of
metals; his mountings of foliage and masks which decorated his works are
spirited in design and are skilfully chased and finished (Fig. 243). He
executed a great number of costly pieces of his famous marquetry for
Louis XIV. and the Dauphin of France, many of which found their way to
England a century later. Examples of Boulle work fetch great prices
when, as on rare occasions, they make their appearance in a sale. For
instance, two armoires, or large cabinets, were sold at the sale of the
Duke of Hamilton’s Collection in 1882 for the sum of £12,075. The
armoire (Fig. 244) now in the Jones Collection at South Kensington, is
perhaps the finest piece of Boulle furniture in England. It is much
finer and better designed than the Hamilton cabinets, and would
probably, if now sold, fetch the above sum, or more, that was paid for
these cabinets. It appears likely, from the style of the ornament, that
it was designed by Berain.
After the death of Boulle his four sons carried on the making of this
celebrated marquetry, but in a coarser and feebler style of design and
of inferior workmanship. Other ébénistes tried to imitate Boulle work,
but their efforts were not very successful, and were only inferior
imitations.
In Germany in the seventeenth century, the most prominent names as
designers and makers of furniture are Philip Heinhofer, Baumgartner, and
Hans Schwanhard. The former was the maker of the celebrated Pomeranian
Cabinet (1611-1617) which is now in the Royal Museum at Berlin.
[Illustration: Fig. 243.—Boulle Cabinet. (S.K.M.)]
In this century, in Italy, Andrea Brustolone (1670-1732) was noted as a
carver, gilder, and cabinet-maker who worked in the extravagant style of
the Louis Quinze (Louis XV.), and in the first half of the eighteenth
century (1700-77) Pifetti, a Piedmontese cabinet-maker, was honoured by
the Italian Court, for which he executed many works in ivory carving and
marquetry work in the style of Boulle. Many other cabinet-makers and
carvers were employed to make furniture and to decorate the queen’s
palace at Turin, among whom may be mentioned the names of Galleti, the
successor of Pifetti, and Maggiolino of Milan, who chiefly made a kind
of marquetry in light woods. We are indebted to Mr. J. H. Pollen’s
handbook on furniture for some of these names, and a list of many others
will be found at the end of his useful book.
[Illustration: Fig. 244.—Boulle Cabinet or Armoire. (S.K.M.)]
The French architect, Le Pantre (1617-82), designed furniture and
decoration in the heavy classical style of the Roman antique, mixed with
shell-work, grotesques, and little Cupids or “putti,” and also engraved
and published a book of studies of Roman ornament from sketches that his
master, Adam Phillipon, had made in Italy. He worked with Le Brun, the
painter and director of the decoration at Versailles. Le Brun’s own work
was heavy and dull, although he aimed at grandeur and gorgeousness of
effect. He was director of the Gobelins tapestry manufactory, and his
style of work was in harmony with the pompous ideas of Louis the “Grand
Monarch.” Madame de Maintenon says in one of her letters to a friend,
that Louis was so fond of symmetry and stateliness in his architecture,
as in other things, that he would have you “perish in his symmetry,” for
he caused his doors and windows to be constructed in pairs opposite to
one another, which gave to everybody who lived in his palaces their
death of cold by draughts of air.
Much of the more artistic kind of furniture was imported from the
Continent into England during the seventeenth century, and a feature of
this period was the highly decorative silver furniture already noticed
in the chapter on metal work.
[Illustration: Fig. 245.—Carved Bracket; English; Eighteenth Century.
(P.)]
In this century and early in the following one, the art of wood carving
was greatly developed in England, chiefly owing to the genius of
Grinling Gibbons and to the influence of Sir Christopher Wren, the style
developed being a more or less realistic or baroque form of the
Renaissance (Figs. 245, 246). Gibbons carried out some of his carvings
to an astonishing degree of realism: bouquets of flowers, festoons of
fruit and flowers, birds, figures, and drapery were executed by him in
the highest possible relief, which looked detached from the ground, and
yet they usually formed a part of the solid wood with the background.
Ornament was carved with a singular crispness, and apparently without
any hesitation on the part of the carver. Though we may condemn the
florid looseness of the style of Gibbons, we must admire the dexterity
of workmanship and general technical excellence imparted to everything
he touched. Some of his best work may still be seen at Chatsworth,
Petworth House in Sussex, Lyme Hall in Cheshire, St. Paul’s Cathedral,
and Trinity College Chapel at Oxford. Many of the old English halls and
manor houses also contain examples of carving done either by Gibbons or
his pupils and immediate successors, namely, Watson, Drevot, and
Laurens.
[Illustration: Fig. 246.—Mirror Frame; Seventeenth Century. (P.)]
Under the Regency of Philippe d’Orléans in France (1715-1723) decoration
and ornament assumed a light and fanciful character, very naturalistic,
but still having some classic details; of this style Claude Gillot is
the chief exponent. Watteau, his pupil, made a great name as a painter
of pastoral scenes, _fêtes galantes_, and all kinds of light and
daintily-treated subjects of a theatrical and artificial kind of
composition. His colour was silvery and harmonious, and sometimes he
decorated furniture with pastoral scenes.
[Illustration: Fig. 247.—Holy Water Vessel; English; Seventeenth
Century. (P.)]
The Rococo style had begun under the Regency, if not earlier, and such
men as Oppenort, the De Cottes, father and son, François de Cuvilliés,
the Italians Bernini and Borromini, and lastly the great apostle of the
Rococo, Meissonier, were all designers of furniture or architects who
belonged to the period of Louis XV., and who executed works that
reflected the loose and unrestrained character of the times (1723-1774).
Chinese and naturalistic elements were grafted on, or mixed with, the
former Louis Quatorze, with an addition of still life that did duty for
architectural form in objects of pottery and metal work, and a
combination of shell work; all these elements made up the style known
under the different names of _rococo_, _rocaille_, _baroque_, or Louis
Quinze.
Furniture was made with curved and swelling panels to show to more
advantage the marquetry, or paintings on gold grounds: these kinds of
panels and friezes were known as “bombé.”
It is said that the Italian architects, Bernini and Borromini, were the
first to introduce the rococo style into France, but no designer went so
far in the wildness of its vagaries as the French Meissonier. His
ornament furnishes a perfect example of the want of balance and
symmetry. He designed for furniture, woodwork, silver-smithery, and
modelled decoration, all of which work illustrated the broken
shell-shaped panels with frilled and scalloped edgings and curved
mouldings.
Rooms were lined with looking-glasses having these rocaille mouldings,
which were well adapted to show to the best advantage the glitter of the
gold leaf that was used inordinately on the furniture and decoration of
the Louis-Quinze period.
Pierre Germain, Jean Restout, and Jean Pillement are well-known names of
other designers of the rocaille style.
Painted panels of pastoral scenes and flower groups were the usual
colour decorations of ceilings, furniture, carriages, and a host of
minor articles such as fans, étuis, snuff-boxes, &c. The latter smaller
articles, as well as the state carriages, were decorated with paintings
in what was known as the _Vernis-Martin_ style. Martin was a decorator
of carriages and an heraldic painter, who invented the particular hard
varnish or lacquer which bears his name. It was quite likely that this
was as near as possible a successful imitation of the Japanese gold
lacquer that decorated the articles which were at this period imported
from Japan by the Dutch and Portuguese traders into Europe. Carriages,
tables, cabinets, and especially smaller articles like snuff-boxes and
needle-cases, were painted and decorated in “Vernis-Martin.” Some of the
smaller objects were beautifully mounted in chased gold.
[Illustration: Fig. 248.—Commode, with Lac Panels, and Mounts by
Caffieri. Louis-Quinze Style.]
It was quite a common practice to cover or to panel furniture with
plaques of Japanese lacquer, and to mount them in chased metal or
ormoulu decorations. A unique commode is illustrated at Fig. 248, made
from panels of very old Japanese lacquer and highly decorated with
ormoulu mounts by Caffieri, a skilled chaser of the Louis-Quinze period.
In the latter half of the eighteenth century an improvement in the
design of furniture and of ornament generally crept in, owing to the
study of the ornamentation and design of the classic objects that had
been found in the buried cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. These cities
had been discovered in 1713, and about forty or fifty years later books
were published illustrating the buried remains, which helped to change
the public taste, and by degrees a demand arose for designs of a more
severe and classic kind.
The prevailing taste was then apparently gratified by the mixture or
grafting of a certain quantity of classic forms with the former
frivolous style of the Louis Quinze.
The style in furniture and in ornament now developed into what is known
as the “Louis Seize” (Louis XVI.), and consisted in its ornament of a
composition of thin scrolls, garlands, bows and quivers of arrows,
ribbons and knots, medallions with classic cameo-cut subjects. Mouldings
were fine and delicately ornamented, and of straight-lined variety; in
fact, the straight line now reasserted itself in architecture and
furniture design (see Figs. 249, 250), in refreshing and healthy
contrast to the tottering and riotous curves of Louis XV. and the Du
Barry period.
Some of the most beautiful furniture expressive of the utmost elegance
was made by Riesner and David, and was decorated with ormoulu mounts by
Gouthière for the Queen Marie Antoinette. Riesner and Gouthière were the
ablest men of their time, who generally worked together in the making
and decorating of the finest furniture of this period. We are fortunate
in possessing in the Jones Collection at South Kensington some of the
very finest examples of this furniture, much of which was made for Marie
Antoinette (Figs. 251, 252).
[Illustration: Fig. 249.—Louis-Seize Writing Table.]
Riesner usually worked in light and richly-coloured woods, such as
tulip-wood, holly, maple, laburnum, purple-wood, and rosewood, for his
marquetry work, and used oak for the linings and foundations.
[Illustration: Fig. 250.—Mahogany Cabinet with Sèvres Plaques. Louis
Seize.]
The best pieces of David and Riesner were usually mounted in ormoulu or
bronze-gilt metal by Gouthière, who has never been equalled as a founder
and chaser of this class of work. Prieur was also a good chaser of the
Louis Seize period. Delafosse was an architect and designer of furniture
and decoration of the period, whose designs were of a more heavy and
classical kind. Cauvet was a German who worked in Paris, and designed
graceful arabesques and figure work, and who published a book of
designs. Lalonde designed work that might be classed in the same
category as that of Cauvet, and Salembier was a prolific designer of a
light and free kind of arabesque. Many of his designs for silk may be
seen in the fabric at the Silk Museum in the Bourse at Lyons. Le Nôtre
designed for furniture, carving, and was also famed with La Quintinie as
a designer of the state and public gardens.
[Illustration: Fig. 251.—Escritoire of Marie Antoinette. (Jones
Collection.)]
In Italy the prevailing ornament in furniture and decoration was more
classical than in France. Piranesi, Albertolli, Pergolese, and
Bartolozzi are names of the principal designers of this country in the
eighteenth century, most of whom published extensive works on ornament.
The latter two were brought to England by the brothers John and Robert
Adam (1728-1792), who had travelled in Italy, bringing also with them
classical ideas, which they developed in England, and which influenced
to a great extent the style of architecture and furniture design in this
country. The Adelphi building and the houses in Portland Place were
built from designs by the Adams. All kinds of furniture, sedan chairs,
carriages, plate, &c., were made from their designs. Fine mouldings,
medallions, rosettes, light garlands, capitals in classic form, fluted
pilasters and columns, were all designed by them with the utmost
restraint in style—even to coldness.
[Illustration:
Fig. 252.—Table of Marie Antoinette, inlaid with Sèvres Plaques.
(Jones Collection.)
]
Thomas Chippendale was a famous cabinet-maker of the eighteenth century.
His furniture, or even any good imitation of it, fetches a good price at
the present time. He published a book on furniture design and interior
decoration in the year 1764. His sons are supposed to have made nearly
all the best of the mahogany furniture known as “Chippendale.”
[Illustration: Fig. 253.—Parlour Chairs, by Chippendale. (L.)]
The parlour chairs (Fig. 253) are good examples of Chippendale
furniture, and the chairs made in the so-called “Chinese style” (Fig.
254) are attributed to the elder Chippendale.
[Illustration: Fig. 254.—Chair in the Chinese Style, by Thomas
Chippendale. (L.)]
Sherraton and Heppelwhite are names of two other well-known
cabinet-makers, who made excellent mahogany furniture in the last
century, both of whom published works on the subject at the latter end
of the century.
[Illustration: Fig. 255.—Stool and Chair, Carved and Gilt Mountings;
Empire Style. (L.)]
The names of Gillow, Lichfield, Lock, and Copeland are those of eminent
English cabinet-makers and decorators of this period, the two former
firms being still in existence in London.
[Illustration: Fig. 256.—Cabinet of Red Chased Lacquer (Japanese) and
Porcelain Dish. (J.)]
In France, after the Revolution (1792), a more decided phase of the dry
and heavy classicisms was apparent in the furniture design and
decoration of the period (1801). This return to classic heaviness has
been attributed to the influence of the academic painter David, but is
more likely to have been a pandering to the national worship of Napoleon
and the French Empire. It seemed to have been the universal desire to
make everything echo or reflect in some measure the glory of the Emperor
Napoleon I. The meanest thing had some symbol or allusion by the way of
decoration that should remind everybody of the greatness of the new
monarch and of the French Empire, and consequently the heavy and
ponderous style of that period was known as the “Empire Style.” The
furniture of the Empire was usually made in mahogany, decorated with
mountings in brass or bronze, of sphinxes, griffins, Roman emblems, and
antique scrollery (Fig. 255).
[Illustration: Fig. 257—Lacquered Boxes; Sindh. (B.)]
Percier and Fontaine are names of French cabinet-makers and designers
who worked in the Empire style, and who published a book of their
designs.
[Illustration: Fig. 258.—Lacquered Leg of Bedpost; Sindh. (B.)]
In England the style was copied, and we find that endless imitations of
the French fashion in tables, sofas, chairs, cabinets, and clocks were
designed after the same antique ideals.
In this country, during the earlier half of the present century, the
mediæval Gothic style was partly revived in architecture and in
furniture, mainly owing to the efforts of Augustus W. Pugin, the
architect. He designed many pieces of furniture, and published a work
consisting of Gothic designs in the year 1835. Notwithstanding the
efforts of Pugin and some other eminent architects and “purists,” no
particular lasting impression was made in this direction.
If we except a few of the best cabinet-makers’ shops, where in the
present day some furniture of good design is made, the majority of such
work is now made by machinery, or is often too much the work of the
upholsterer, and is consequently less artistic and more mechanical both
in design and construction.
Some of the most beautiful furniture of Japanese and Chinese manufacture
is made in carved wood and lacquered in black or red. Cabinets with
drawers and quaintly contrived cupboards and recesses (Fig. 256) are
made by the Japanese, finished in lacquers, and inlaid with ivory and
mother-of-pearl. The Chinese are especially skilled in carving red
lac-work. Some vases of great dimensions and of exquisite workmanship in
this material may be seen in the Kensington Museum.
Lac-work is also executed with great skilfulness by the natives of
India. Bracelets, armlets, or _golias_, are made of lac in various
colours, the golden decorations of which are made from tinfoil and
varnished with a yellow varnish made of myrrh, copal, and sweet oil
boiled together. Boxes, bed-posts, and other furniture, made in wood or
_papier-mâché_, are lacquered and decorated with flat renderings of
flowers and conventional shapes of animals and birds (Figs. 257, 258).
All kinds of toys, weights and measures, cooking utensils, circular
playing-cards, turnery, &c., are objects in small wares made in the
choicest lac-work of India.