[Illustration: FRONT COVER]
LITTLE BOOKS ABOUT OLD FURNITURE
II. QUEEN ANNE
LITTLE BOOKS ABOUT OLD FURNITURE
Uniformly bound, Crown 8vo
Price 2s 6d net each
I. TUDOR TO STUART
II. QUEEN ANNE
III. CHIPPENDALE AND HIS SCHOOL
IV. THE SHERATON PERIOD
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
21 Bedford Street, W.C.
[Illustration: QUEEN ANNE WALNUT TALLBOY AND STOOL (EARLY EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY.)]
LITTLE BOOKS ABOUT OLD FURNITURE
ENGLISH FURNITURE: BY J. P. BLAKE
& A. E. REVEIRS-HOPKINS. VOLUME II
THE PERIOD OF QUEEN ANNE
[Illustration: WILLIAM HEINEMANN LOGO]
NEW EDITION
ILLUSTRATED
LONDON MCMXIV
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
_First published October 1911_
_New Edition January 1913_
_Second Impression June 1914_
_Copyright London 1911 by William Heinemann_
INTRODUCTION
The sovereigns of England, unlike those of France, have seldom taken to
themselves the task of acting as patrons of the fine arts. Therefore
when we write of the "Queen Anne period" we do not refer to the
influence of the undistinguished lady who for twelve years occupied the
throne of England. The term is merely convenient for the purpose of
classification, embracing, as it does, the period from William and Mary
to George I. during which the furniture had a strong family likeness and
shows a development very much on the same line. The change, at the last
quarter of the seventeenth century, from the Jacobean models to the
Dutch, was probably the most important change that has come over English
furniture. It was a change which strongly influenced Chippendale and his
school, and remains with us to this day.
The period from William and Mary to George I. covered nearly forty
years, during which the fashionable furniture was generally made from
walnut-wood. No doubt walnut was used before the time of William and
Mary, notably in the making of the well-known Stuart chairs with their
caned backs and seats, but it did not come into general use until the
time of William. It continued in fashion until the discovery of its
liability to the attacks of the worm, combined with the advent of
mahogany, removed it from public favour. Walnut nevertheless remains a
beautiful and interesting wood, and in the old examples the colour
effects are probably unsurpassed in English furniture. Its liability to
"worming" is probably exaggerated, and in the event of an attack
generally yields to a treatment with paraffin. Certainly the furniture
of what is termed the "Queen Anne period" is in great request at the
present day, and as the period was so short during which it was made,
the supply is necessarily limited.
We referred in the introduction to the first volume to the fact that the
present series does not in any sense pretend to exhaust what is
practically an inexhaustible subject. The series is merely intended to
act as an introduction to the study of old English furniture, and to
provide handbooks for collectors of moderate means. The many admirable
books which have been already written on this subject seem to appeal
mostly to persons who start collecting with that useful but not
indispensable asset--a large income. In the present volume, although
rare and expensive pieces are shown for historical reasons and to
suggest standards of taste, a large number of interesting examples are
also shown and described which are within the reach of persons of
moderate incomes, and frequently an approximate price at which they
should be acquired is indicated.
In collecting the photographs necessary for this volume we are indebted
to the Director and Secretary of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South
Kensington, London, for placing the various exhibits at our disposal and
particularly for causing a number of new exhibits to be specially
photographed. However good a photograph may be, it can only be a ghost
of the original, which should always, if possible, be examined. We would
therefore strongly recommend readers when possible to examine the museum
objects for themselves. The South Kensington collection, admirable as it
is, is still far from complete, and increased public interest should
contribute to its improvement. For the further loan of photographs we
are also indebted to Mr. F. W. Phillips, of the Manor House, Hitchin,
Herts; to Mr. J. H. Springett, High Street, Rochester, and others to
whom we acknowledge our indebtedness in the text.
J. P. Blake
A. E. Reveirs-Hopkins
21 Bedford Street, W.C.
CHAPTERS
PAGE
I. THE QUEEN ANNE PERIOD 1
II. SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN AND GRINLING
GIBBON 18
III. MIRRORS, STOOLS, AND SOME NOTES
ON A QUEEN ANNE BEDROOM 34
IV. CHAIRS AND TABLES 47
V. CHESTS OF DRAWERS, TALLBOYS,
CABINETS AND CHINA CABINETS 65
VI. SECRETAIRES, BUREAUX, AND
WRITING-TABLES 76
VII. CLOCKS AND CLOCK-CASES 82
VIII. LACQUERED FURNITURE 95
BIBLIOGRAPHY
It is with pleasure we acknowledge our obligations to the following
authorities:
Percy Macquoid: "The Age of Walnut."
(The standard work on the furniture of this period.)
J. H. Pollen: "Ancient and Modern Furniture and Woodwork."
An admirable little handbook and guide to the furniture
and woodwork collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
South Kensington.
F. J. Britten: "Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers."
(Exhaustive in its treatment, and fully illustrated. The
standard book. A new edition has recently been published.)
John Stalker: "Japanning and Varnishing."
(The earliest English book on this subject. Published in
1688 during the craze for japanned furniture.)
Law: "History of Hampton Court," vol. iii.
Ashton: "Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne."
Evelyn: "Diary."
Macaulay: "History of England."
CHAPTER I: THE QUEEN ANNE PERIOD
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1689-1702
ANNE, 1702-1714
GEORGE I., 1714-1727
William the Third was a Dutchman and, although he was for thirteen years
King of England, he remained a Dutchman until his death. His English was
bad, his accent was rough, and his vocabulary limited. He had a Dutch
guard, the friends whom he trusted were Dutch, and they were always
about him, filling many of the offices of the Royal Household. He came
to England as a foreigner and it remained to him a foreign country. His
advent to the throne brought about certain changes in the style of
furniture which are generally described as "the Dutch influence," which,
however, had its origin at least as far back as the reign of Charles II.
Both William and Mary were greatly interested in furnishing and
furniture. They took up their residence at Hampton Court Palace soon
after their coronation, and the place suited William so well and pleased
him so much that it was very difficult to get him away from it. William
was a great soldier and a great statesman, but he was more at his
pleasure in the business of a country house than in the festivities and
scandals of a court life, both of which he perhaps equally disliked. The
Queen also cordially liked country life, and no less cordially disliked
scandal. Mr. Law, in his interesting book on Hampton Court, mentions the
story that Mary would check any person attempting to retail scandal by
asking whether they had read her favourite sermon--Archbishop Tillotson
on Evil Speaking.
With the assistance of Sir Christopher Wren as Architect and Grinling
Gibbon as Master Sculptor, great changes were made in the Palace at
Hampton Court. The fogs and street smells of Whitehall drove William to
the pure air of the country, and there was the additional attraction
that the country around the palace reminded him in its flatness of his
beloved Holland. When one of his Ministers ventured to remonstrate with
him on his prolonged absences from London, he answered: "Do you wish to
see me dead?" William, perhaps naturally, cared nothing for English
tradition: he destroyed the state rooms of Henry VIII. and entrusted to
Wren the task of rebuilding the Palace. The architect appears to have
had a difficult task, as the King constantly altered the plans as they
proceeded, and, it is said, did a good deal towards spoiling the great
architect's scheme. In William's favour it must be admitted that he took
the blame for the deficiencies and gave Wren the credit for the
successes of the building. The result--the attachment of a Renaissance
building to a Tudor palace--is more successful than might have been
expected. The King's relations with Wren seem to have been of a very
friendly sort. Mr. Law mentions the fact that Wren was at this time
Grand Master of Freemasons; that he initiated the King into the
mysteries of the craft; and that William himself reached the chair and
presided over a lodge at Hampton Court Palace whilst it was being
completed, which is, in the circumstances, an interesting example of the
working rather than the speculative masonry.
Mary was herself a model housewife, and filled her Court with wonder
that she should labour so many hours each day at her needlework as if
for her living. She covered the backs of chairs and couches with her
work, which was described as "extremely neat and very well shadowed,"
although all trace of it has long since disappeared. It is appropriate
to observe, as being related to decorative schemes and furnishing, that
the taste for Chinese porcelain, which is so general at this day, was
first introduced into England by Mary. Evelyn mentions in his diary
(June 13, 1693) that he "saw the Queen's rare cabinets and collection of
china which was wonderfully rich and plentiful." Macaulay expresses his
opinion with his usual frankness. He writes: "Mary had acquired at The
Hague a taste for the porcelain of China, and amused herself by forming
at Hampton a vast collection of hideous images, and vases upon which
houses, trees, bridges, and mandarins were depicted in outrageous
defiance of all the laws of perspective. The fashion--a frivolous and
inelegant fashion, it must be owned--which was thus set by the amiable
Queen spread fast and wide. In a few years almost every great house in
the kingdom contained a museum of these grotesque baubles. Even
statesmen and generals were not ashamed to be renowned as judges of
teapots and dragons; and satirists long continued to repeat that a fine
lady valued her mottled green pottery quite as much as she valued her
monkey and much more than she valued her husband." It is strange to
consider in these days how greatly Macaulay, in this opinion, was out of
his reckoning. There is, perhaps, no example of art or handicraft upon
which the opinion of cultured taste in all countries is so unanimous as
in its admiration for good Chinese porcelain, amongst which the Queen's
collection (judging from the pieces still remaining at Hampton) must be
classed. Mary was probably the first English queen to intimately concern
herself with furniture. We have it on the authority of the Duchess of
Marlborough that on the Queen's first visit to the palace she engaged
herself "looking into every closet and conveniency, and turning up the
quilts upon the beds, as people do when they come into an inn, and with
no other concern in her appearance but such as they express."
We find in this period lavishly painted ceilings, woodwork carved by
Grinling Gibbon and his school, fine needlework, upholstered bedsteads,
and marble mantelpieces with diminishing shelves for the display of
Delft and Chinese ware. The standard of domestic convenience, in one
respect, could not, however, have been very high, if one may judge from
the Queen's bathing-closet of this period at Hampton Court Palace. The
bath is of marble and recessed into the wall, but it is more like a
fountain than a bath, and its use in the latter connection must have
been attended by inconveniences which modern women of much humbler
station would decline to face.[1]
[1] The bathroom is, however, not in itself so modern in England
as might be supposed. Wheatley mentions that as early as the
fourteenth century a bathroom was attached to the bedchamber in
the houses of the great nobles, but more often a big tub with a
covering like a tent was used.
Good specimens of the wood-carving of Grinling Gibbon (born 1648, died
1721) are to be seen at Hampton Court, to which Palace William III.
appointed the artist Master Carver. He generally worked in soft woods,
such as lime, pear and pine, but sometimes in oak. His subjects were
very varied--fruit and foliage, wheat-ears and flowers, cupids and dead
game, and even musical instruments--and were fashioned with amazing
skill, resource, and ingenuity. He invented that school of English
carving which is associated with his name. His fancy is lavish and his
finish in this particular work has never been surpassed in this country;
but it is doubtful whether his work is not overdone, and as such may not
appeal to the purer taste. Often his masses of flowers and foliage too
much suggest the unpleasant term which is usually applied to them, viz.
"swags." Frequently nothing is left to the imagination in the boldness
of his realism. Fig. 1 shows a very happy example of his work over a
mantelpiece in one of the smaller rooms in Hampton Court Palace, which
is reproduced by the courtesy of the Lord Chamberlain, the copyright
being the property of H.M. the King. Upon the shelf are pieces of china
belonging to Queen Mary, but the portrait inset is of Queen Caroline,
consort of George IV. In the grate is an antique fire-back, and on
either side of the fire is a chair of the period of William and Mary.
The Court bedsteads (and probably on a smaller scale the bedsteads of
the upper classes generally) continued to be at once elaborate and
unhygienic, and were fitted with canopies and hangings of velvet and
other rich stuffs. King William's bedstead was a great four-poster, hung
with crimson velvet and surmounted at each corner with an enormous
plume, which was much the same fashion of bedstead as at the beginning
of the century. Fig. 2 is an interesting photograph (reproduced by
permission of the Lord Chamberlain) of three Royal bedsteads at Hampton
Court, viz. those of William, Mary, and George II. The chairs and stools
in front are of the period of William and Mary. The table is of later
date. Most of the old furniture at Hampton Court, however, has been
dispersed amongst the other Royal palaces.
An excellent idea of the appearance of a London dwelling-room of this
period is shown in Fig. 3. It was removed from No. 3 Clifford's Inn, and
is now to be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The owner, John
Penhallow, must have been well-to-do, as the fine carving about the
mantelpiece and doors was expensive even in those days. The festoons of
fruit and flowers of the school of Grinling Gibbon around the
mantelpiece, in the centre of which are the arms of the owner, and the
broken pediments over the doors surmounting the cherubs' heads, are
characteristic of the time. The table with the marquetry top and "tied"
stretcher is of the period. The chairs retained for a time that rigid
resistance to the lines of the human form which marks the Stuart chairs;
but very soon adapted themselves in a physiological sense.
What is termed the Queen Anne period of furniture may be said to date
from the reigns of William and Mary (1689-1702), and Queen Anne
(1702-1714), to that of George I. (1714-1727). The Dutch influence of
William and Mary became Anglicised during the reign of Anne and the
first George, and the influence remains to this day. Mahogany was
introduced about 1720, and thenceforward the influence of Chippendale
and his school came into force.
The Queen Anne style has probably been over-praised, a little
misunderstood, and possibly a trifle harshly treated. Mr. Ernest Law,
whose studies of this period we have already mentioned, describes it as
"nothing better than an imitation of the bastard classic of Louis XIV.,
as distinguished from the so-called 'Queen Anne style' which never had
any existence at all except in the brains of modern æsthetes and china
maniacs," and as a case in point refers to Queen Anne's drawing-room at
Hampton Court Palace. This verdict is no doubt a true one as regards the
schemes of interior decoration, with their sprawling deities and the
gaudy and discordant groupings of classical figures of Verrio and his
school, to be seen at Hampton Court and other great houses. Verrio, as
Macaulay wrote, "covered ceilings and staircases with Gorgons and Muses,
Nymphs and Satyrs, Virtues and Vices, Gods quaffing nectar, and
laurelled princes riding in triumph"--a decorative scheme which
certainly does not err on the side of parsimony. The taste of a Court,
however, is by no means a criterion of taste in domestic furniture.
There can be no doubt that to this period we are indebted for the
introduction of various articles of furniture of great utility and
unquestionable taste. The chairs and tables in particular, depending as
they do for charm upon simple lines and the transverse grain of the
wood, for neatness of design and good workmanship are unsurpassed.
Amongst other pieces the bureaux and long-cased clocks made their
appearance; also double chests of drawers or tallboys, mirrors for
toilet-tables and wall decoration; and washstands came into general
use, as well as articles like card-tables, powdering-tables, &c.
The houses of the wealthy were furnished with great magnificence and
luxuriousness in a gaudy and ultra-decorative fashion. Restraint is the
last quality to be found. Judging however from the many simple and
charming specimens of walnut furniture surviving, the standard of
comfort and good taste amongst the middle classes was high. Table glass
was now manufactured in England; carpets were made at Kidderminster;
chairs grew to be comfortably shaped; domestic conveniences in the way
of chests of drawers, writing bureaux, and mirrors were all in general
use in many middle-class houses. Mr. Pollen, whose handbook on the
Victoria and Albert collection is so much appreciated, writes of the
Queen Anne furniture as being of a "genuine English style marked by
great purity and beauty."
Anne, the second daughter of James II., was the last of the Stuarts,
with whom, however, she had little in common, and indeed it is with
something of an effort that we think of her as a Stuart at all.
Personally she had no more influence upon the period which bears her
name than the Goths had upon Gothic architecture. The term "Queen Anne"
has grown to be a conveniently descriptive term for anything quaint and
pretty. We are all familiar with the Queen Anne house of the modern
architect, with its gables and sharply pitched roof. This, however, is
probably suggested by various rambles in picturesque country districts
in England and Holland; but it has nothing in common with the actual
houses of the period under review.
The bulk of the genuine furniture which has come down to us was probably
from the houses of the merchant classes, the period being one of great
commercial activity. The condition of the poor, however, was such that
they could not concern themselves with furniture. Mr. Justin McCarthy,
in his book on these times, estimates that one-fifth of the population
were paupers. A few rude tables and chairs, a chest, truckle-beds, and
possibly a settle, would have made up the possessions of the
working-class house; and it is probable that not until the nineteenth
century was there any material improvement in their household
surroundings.
It was a time in which the coffee-and chocolate-houses flourished; when
Covent Garden and Leicester Square were fashionable neighbourhoods; when
the Sedan chair was the fashionable means of transit; when the police
were old men with rattles who, sheltered in boxes guarded the City; and
when duels were fought, in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The coffee-house was a
lively factor in the life of the times: although wines were also sold,
coffee was the popular drink. The price for a dish of coffee and a seat
by a good fire was commonly one penny, or perhaps three-halfpence,
although to these humble prices there were aristocratic exceptions.
Anderton's Hotel in Fleet Street, "The Bay Tree" in St. Swithin's Lane,
and the now famous "Lloyd's" are interesting developments of the Queen
Anne coffee-houses. Coffee itself was retailed at about seven shillings
per pound. Chocolate-houses were small in number, but included names so
well known at the present time as "White's" and the "Cocoa Tree."
Chocolate was commonly twopence the dish. "Fancy the beaux," Thackeray
writes, "thronging the chocolate-houses, tapping their snuff-boxes as
they issue thence, their periwigs appearing over the red curtains."
Tea-drinking was a social function and mainly a domestic operation, and
to its popularity we owe the number of small light tables of this
period.
Snuff, or the fan supply each pause of chat,
With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.
The price of tea fluctuated very much--some years it was much cheaper
than others, varying from 10s. to 30s. per lb., although it is said
that in the cheaper sorts old infused leaves were dried and mixed with
new ones.
As regards pottery and porcelain, the Chinese was in great request,
following, no doubt, on the fashion set by Queen Mary. The English
factories--Worcester, Derby, Chelsea, Bow, Wedgwood, and Minton--only
started in the last half of the eighteenth century. Mr. Ashton, in his
interesting book on "Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne," quotes the
following advertisement, which points to the continued popularity of
decorative china:
"Whereas the New East India Company did lately sell all their China
Ware, These are to advertise that a very large parcel thereof (as Broken
and Damaged) is now to be sold by wholesale and Retail, extremely cheap
at a Warehouse in Dyer's Yard. Note.--It is very fit to furnish
Escrutores, Cabinets, Corner Cupboards or Spriggs, where it usually
stands for ornament only."
This fashion first brought into use the various forms of cabinets used
for the display of china. The earliest pieces would therefore date from
the end of the seventeenth, or the beginning of the eighteenth century.
In the first volume of this series we referred to a characteristic of
Elizabethan woodwork, viz. inlaying--the laying-in of small pieces of
one or several kinds of wood in places cut out of the surface of another
kind. In the period under review two further practices are deserving of
special notice. The first is veneering, which consists of wholly
covering one sort of wood (frequently a common wood, such as deal or
pine, but also oak) with a thin layer of choice wood--walnut, mahogany,
&c. The object of veneering was not for purposes of deception, as it was
not intended to produce the effect that the whole substance was of the
finer sort of wood; but by means of applying these thin overlays a
greater choice of wood was possible, and a more beautiful effect was
produced by the juxtaposition of the various grains.
Although at the present time the term veneer is frequently used as one
of approbrium, the principle it stands for is a perfectly honest one. It
is very much the same as the application of the thin strips of marble to
the pillars and walls of St. Mark's at Venice, which is called
incrustation, and of which Ruskin writes in the "Stones of Venice." The
basis of St. Mark's is brick, which is covered by an incrustation or
veneer of costly and beautiful marbles, by which rich and varied colour
effects are produced which would have been impossible in solid marble.
The same principle applies to veneers of wood, in which there is
likewise no intention to deceive but rather a desire to make the most of
the materials on hand. It would have been impossible to construct a
great many cabinets of solid walnut-wood, nor would the effect have been
so satisfactory, because, as already pointed out, the fact of veneers
being laid in thin strips immensely increases the choice of woods and
facilitates the composition of pleasing effects. There is, moreover,
often a greater nicety of workmanship in the making of veneered
furniture than in the solid article, and it is indeed often a complaint
that the doing up of old veneered furniture is so expensive and
troublesome. In old days veneers were cut by hand--sometimes one-eighth
of an inch thick--but the modern veneer is, of course, cut by machinery,
and is often a mere shaving.
In the period under discussion walnut-veneering reached great
perfection, beautiful effects being produced by cross-banding various
strips and varying the course of the grains and the shades. Oak was
first used as a base, but later commoner woods such as deal.
It is a mistake to condemn an article because the basis is not of oak.
As a matter of fact, after a time oak went out of use as a basis for the
reason that it was unsatisfactory, the veneer having a tendency to come
away from it. We frequently find the front of a drawer is built of pine,
to take the veneer, whilst the sides and bottom of the drawer are of
oak.
Marquetry, which is also a feature in furniture of this period, is a
combination of inlaying and veneering. A surface is covered with a
veneer and the desired design is cut out and filled in with other wood.
Its later developments are of French origin, and it was first introduced
into England from Holland towards the end of the seventeenth century,
after James II. (who had been a wanderer in Holland) came to the throne.
Most arts date back to ancient times; and the arts of woodcraft are no
exceptions. Inlaying, veneering, and wood-carving reach back to the
temple of Solomon; and the Egyptians also practised them. Ancient inlay,
moreover, was not confined to woods--ivory, pearls, marbles, metals,
precious stones all being requisitioned.
During the reigns of William and Mary, Anne, and George the First,
events of great importance transpired. St. Paul's, that great monument
to Wren and Renaissance architecture, was opened; the Marlborough wars
were fought; the South Sea Bubble was blown and burst; Sir Christopher
Wren and Grinling Gibbon completed their work; Marlborough House and
Blenheim were built; Addison, Pope, and Daniel Defoe were at work;
Gibraltar was taken; England and Scotland were united; the Bank of
England was incorporated; and last, but not least, the National Debt
started.