DESIGN FOR SPURIOUS MARQUETRY WORK 259
"MADE-UP" BUFFET 261
CABINET OF OLD OAK, "made-up" 267
DESIGN FOR SPURIOUS MARQUETRY WORK 273
PIECE OF SPANISH CHESTNUT, showing ravages of worms 274
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GENERAL.
Ancient Furniture, Specimens of. H. Shaw. Quaritch. 1836. L10
10s., now worth L3 3s.
Ancient and Modern Furniture. B. J. Talbert. Batsford. 1876. 32s.
Antique Furniture, Sketches of. W. S. Ogden. Batsford. 1889. 12s.
6d.
Carved Furniture and Woodwork. M. Marshall. W. H. Allen. 1888.
L3.
Carved Oak in Woodwork and Furniture from Ancient Houses. W. B.
Sanders. 1883. 31s. 6d.
Decorative Furniture, English and French, of the Sixteenth,
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. W. H. Hackett. 7s. 6d.
Ecclesiastical Woodwork, Remains of. T. T. Bury. Lockwood. 1847.
21s.
French and English Furniture. E. Singleton. Hodder. 1904.
Furniture, Ancient and Modern. J. W. Small. Batsford. 1883. 21s.
Furniture and Decoration. J. A. Heaton. 1890-92.
Furniture and Woodwork, Ancient and Modern. J. H. Pollen.
Chapman. 1874-5. 21s. and 2s. 6d.
Furniture and Woodwork. J. H. Pollen. Stanford. 1876. 3s. 6d.
Furniture of the Olden Time. F. C. Morse. Macmillan. 12s. 6d.
Gothic Furniture, _Connoisseur_. May, 1903.
History of Furniture Illustrated. F. Litchfield. Truslove. 25s.
Marquetry, Parquetry, Boulle and other Inlay Work. W. Bemrose.
1872 and 1882.
Old Furniture, English and Foreign. A. E. Chancellor. Batsford.
L1 5s.
Old Furniture from Twelfth to Eighteenth Century. Wyman. 1883.
10s. 6d.
Style in Furniture and Woodwork. R. Brook. Privately printed.
1889. 21s.
PARTICULAR.
ENGLISH.--Adam R. & J., The Architecture, Decoration an
Furniture of R. & J. Adam, selected from works published
1778-1822. London. 1880.
Adam, The Brothers. _Connoisseur._ May, June and August, 1904.
Ancient Wood and Iron Work in Cambridge. W. B. Redfern. Spalding.
1887. 31s. 6d.
Chippendale, T. Cabinet Makers' Directory. Published in 1754,
1755 and 1762. (The best edition is the last as it contains 200
plates as against 161 in the earlier editions. Its value is about
L12.)
Chippendale and His Work. _Connoisseur_, January, July, August,
September, October, November, December, 1903, January, 1904.
Chippendale, Sheraton and Heppelwhite, The Designs of. Arranged
by J. M. Bell. 1900. Worth L2 2s.
Chippendale's Contemporaries. _Connoisseur_, March, 1904.
Chippendale and Sheraton. _Connoisseur_, May, 1902.
Coffers and Cupboards, Ancient. Fred Roe. Methuen & Co. 1903. L3
3s.
English Furniture, History of. Percy Macquoid. Published by
Lawrence & Bullen in 7s. 6d. parts, the first of which appeared
in November, 1904.
English Furniture and Woodwork during the Eighteenth Century. T.
A. Strange. 12s. 6d.
Furniture of our Forefathers. E. Singleton. Batsford. L3 15s.
Hatfield House, History of. Q. F. Robinson. 1883.
Hardwicke Hall, History of. Q. F. Robinson. 1835.
Heppelwhite, A., Cabinet Maker. Published 1788, 1789, and 1794,
and contains about 130 plates. Value L8 to L12. Reprint issued in
1897. Worth L2 10s.
Ince and Mayhew. Household Furniture. N.d. (1770). Worth L20.
Jacobean Furniture. _Connoisseur_, September, 1902.
Knole House, Its State Rooms, &c. (Elizabethan and other
Furniture.) S. J. Mackie. 1858.
Manwaring, R., Cabinet and Chairmaker's Real Friend. London.
1765.
Mansions of England in the Olden Time. J. Nash. 1839-49.
Old English Houses and Furniture. M. B. Adam. Batsford. 1889.
25s.
Old English Oak Furniture. J. W. Hurrell. Batsford. L2 2s.
Old English Furniture. Frederick Fenn and B. Wyllie. Newnes. 7s.
6d. net.
Old Oak, The Art of Collecting. _Connoisseur_, September, 1901.
Sheraton, T. Cabinet Maker's Drawing Book. 1791-3 edition
contains 111 plates. Value L13. 1794 edition contains 119 plates.
Value L10.
Sheraton T. Cabinet Directory. 1803.
Staircases and Handrails of the Age of Elizabeth. J. Weale. 1860.
Upholsterer's Repository. Ackermann. N.d. Worth L5.
FRENCH.--_Dictionnaire de l'Ameublement._ H. Havard. Paris. N.d.
Worth L5.
_Dictionnaire Raisonne._ M. Viollet-le-Duc. 1858-75. 6 vols.
Worth L10.
French Furniture. Lady Dilke. Bell. 1901.
French Eighteenth Century Furniture, Handbook to the. Jones
Collection Catalogue. 1881.
French Eighteenth Century Furniture, Handbook to the. Wallace
Collection Catalogue. 1904.
History of Furniture. A. Jacquemart. Chapman. 1878. 31s. 6d.
Issued in Paris in 1876, under the title _Histoire du Mobilier_.
_Le Meuble en France au XVI Siecle._ E. Bonnaffe. Paris. 1887.
Worth 10s.
JAPANESE.--Lacquer Industry of Japan. Report of Her Majesty's
Acting-Consul at Hakodate. J. J. Quin. Parliamentary Paper. 8vo.
London. 1882.
SCOTTISH.--Scottish Woodwork of Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries. J. W. Small. Waterston. 1878. L4 4s.
SPANISH.--Spanish and Portuguese. Catalogue of Special Loan
Exhibition of Spanish and Portuguese Ornamental Art. 1881.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED
_Armoire._--A large cupboard of French design of the dimensions
of the modern wardrobe. In the days of Louis XIV. these pieces
were made in magnificent style. The Jones Collection at the
Victoria and Albert Museum has several fine examples. (See
illustration, p. 165.)
_Baroque._--Used in connection with over ornate and incongruous
decoration as in _rococo_ style.
_Bombe._--A term applied to pieces of furniture which swell out
at the sides.
_Boule._--A special form of marquetry of brass and tortoiseshell
perfected by Andre Charles Boule in the reign of Louis XIV. (See
Chapter VI., where specimens of this kind of work are
illustrated.) The name has been corrupted into a trade term
_Buhl_, to denote this style of marquetry. Boule or _Premiere
partie_ is a metal inlay, usually brass, applied to a
tortoiseshell background. See also _Counter-boule_.
_Bureau._--A cabinet with drawers, and having a drop-down front
for use as a writing-table. Bureaux are of many forms. (See
illustration, p. 231.)
_Cabriole._--Used in connection with the legs of tables and
chairs which are curved in form, having a sudden arch outwards
from the seat. (See illustration, p. 143.)
_Caryatides._--Carved female figures applied to columns in Greek
architecture, as at the Erectheum at Athens. They were employed
by woodcarvers, and largely introduced into Renaissance
furniture of an architectural character. Elizabethan craftsmen
were especially fond of their use as terminals, and in the
florid decoration of elaborate furniture.
_Cassone._--An Italian marriage coffer. In Chapter I. will be
found a full description of these _cassoni_.
_Commode._--A chest of drawers of French style. In the chapters
dealing with the styles of Louis XIV., Louis XV., and Louis
XVI., these are fully described and illustrations are given.
_Counter-Boule._ _Contre partie._--See Chapter VI., where
specimens of this work are illustrated. It consists of a brass
groundwork with tortoiseshell inlay.
_French Polish._--A cheap and nasty method used since 1851 to
varnish poor-looking wood to disguise its inferiority. It is
quicker than the old method of rubbing in oil and turpentine
and beeswax. It is composed of shellac dissolved in methylated
spirits with colouring matter added.
_Gate-leg table._--This term is self-explanatory. The legs of
this class of table open like a gate. They belong to Jacobean
days, and are sometimes spoken of as Cromwellian tables. An
illustration of one appears on the cover.
_Gothic._--This term was originally applied to the mediaeval
styles of architecture. It was used as a term of reproach and
contempt at a time when it was the fashion to write Latin and to
expect it to become the universal language. In woodcarving the
Gothic style followed the architecture. A fine example of the
transition between Gothic and the oncoming Renaissance is given
(p. 44).
_Inlay._--A term used for the practice of decorating surfaces
and panels of furniture with wood of various colours,
mother-of-pearl, or ivory. The inlay is let into the wood of
which the piece inlaid is composed.
_Jacobean._--Strictly speaking, only furniture of the days of
James I. should be termed Jacobean. But by some collectors the
period is held to extend to James II.--that is from 1603 to
1688. Other collectors prefer the term Carolean for a portion of
the above period, which is equally misleading. Jacobean is only
a rough generalisation of seventeenth-century furniture.
_Lacquer._ _Lac._--A transparent varnish used in its perfection
by the Chinese and Japanese. (See "Consular Report on Japanese
Lacquered Work," in Bibliography.) Introduced into Holland and
France, it was imitated with great success. Under Louis XV.
Vernis-Martin became the rage (_q.v._).
_Linen Pattern._--A form of carving panels to represent a folded
napkin. This particular design was largely used in France and
Germany prior to its adoption here. (See illustration, p. 60.)
_Marquetry._--Inlays of coloured woods, arranged with some
design, geometric, floral, or otherwise, are classed under this
style. (See also _Parquetry_.)
_Mortise._--A term in carpentry used to denote the hole made in
a piece of wood to receive the end of another piece to be joined
to it. The portion which fits into the mortise is called the
tenon.
_Oil Polish._--Old furniture, before the introduction of
varnishes and French polish and other inartistic effects, was
polished by rubbing the surface with a stone, if it was a large
area as in the case of a table, and then applying linseed oil
and polishing with beeswax and turpentine. The fine tone after
centuries of this treatment is evident in old pieces which have
a metallic lustre that cannot be imitated.
_Parquetry._--Inlays of woods of the same colour are termed
parquetry work in contradistinction to marquetry, which is in
different colour. Geometric designs are mainly used as in
parquetry floors.
_Reeded._--This term is applied to the style of decoration by
which thin narrow strips of wood are placed side by side on the
surface of furniture.
_Renaissance._--The style which was originated in Italy in the
fifteenth century, supplanting the Mediaeval styles which
embraced Byzantine and Gothic art; the new-birth was in origin a
literary movement, but quickly affected art, and grew with
surprising rapidity, and affected every country in Europe. It is
based on Classic types, and its influence on furniture and
woodwork followed its adoption in architecture.
_Restored._--This word is the fly in the pot of ointment to all
who possess antiquarian tastes. It ought to mean, in furniture,
that only the most necessary repairs have been made in order to
preserve the object. It more often means that a considerable
amount of misapplied ingenuity has gone to the remaking of a
badly-preserved specimen. Restorations are only permissible at
the hands of most conscientious craftsmen.
_Rococo._--A style which was most markedly offensive in the time
of Louis XV. Meaningless elaborations of scroll and shell work,
with rocky backgrounds and incongruous ornamentations, are its
chief features. _Baroque_ is another term applied to this
overloaded style.
_Settee._--An upholstered form of the settle.
_Settle._--A wooden seat with back and arms, capable of seating
three or four persons side by side.
_Splat._--The wooden portion in the back of a chair connecting
the top rail with the seat.
_Strapwork._--This is applied to the form of decoration employed
by the Elizabethan woodcarvers in imitation of Flemish
originals. (See p. 68.)
_Stretcher._--The rail which connects the legs of a chair or a
table with one another. In earlier forms it was used as a
footrest to keep the feet from the damp or draughty rush floor.
_Tenon._--"Mortise and Tenon joint." (See _Mortise_.)
_Turned Work._--The spiral rails and uprights of chairs were
turned with the lathe in Jacobean days. Prior to the
introduction of the lathe all work was carved without the use of
this tool. Pieces of furniture have been found where the maker
has carved the turned work in all its details of form, either
from caprice or from ignorance of the existence of the quicker
method.
_Veneer._--A method of using thin layers of wood and laying them
on a piece of furniture, either as marquetry in different
colours, or in one wood only. It was an invention in order to
employ finer specimens of wood carefully selected in the parts
of a piece of furniture most noticeable. It has been since used
to hide inferior wood.
_Vernis-Martin_ (Martin's Varnish).--The lacquered work of a
French carriage-painter named Martin, who claimed to have
discovered the secret of the Japanese lac, and who, in 1774, was
granted a monopoly for its use. He applied it successfully to
all kinds of furniture, and to fan-guards and sticks. In the
days of Madame du Pompadour Vernis-Martin had a great vogue, and
panels prepared by Martin were elaborately painted upon by
Lancret and Boucher. To this day his varnish retains its lustre
undimmed, and specimens command high prices.
Woods used in Furniture.
_High-class Work._--Brazil wood, Coromandel, Mahogany, Maple,
Oak (various kinds), Olive, Rosewood, Satinwood, Sandalwood,
Sweet Cedar, Sweet Chestnut, Teak, Walnut.
_Commoner Work._--Ash, Beech, Birch, Cedars (various), Deals,
Mahogany (various kinds), Pine, Walnut.
_Marquetry and Veneers._--Selected specimens for fine figuring
are used as veneers, and for marquetry of various colours the
following are used as being more easily stained: Holly,
Horsechestnut, Sycamore, Pear, Plum Tree.
_Woods with Fancy Names._
King Wood, Partridge Wood, Pheasant Wood, Purple Wood,
Snakewood, Tulip Wood.
These are more rare and finely-marked foreign woods used sparingly in
the most expensive furniture. To arrive at the botanical names of these
is not an easy matter. To those interested a list of woods used by
cabinet-makers with their botanical names is given in Mr. J. Hungerford
Pollen's "Introduction to the South Kensington Collection of Furniture."
At the Museum at Kew Gardens and in the Imperial Institute are
collections of rare woods worth examination.
I
THE RENAISSANCE ON THE CONTINENT
[Illustration: Portion of carved cornice of pinewood, from the Palazzo
Bensi Ceccini, Venice.
Italian; middle of sixteenth century.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
CHATS ON OLD FURNITURE
I
THE RENAISSANCE ON THE CONTINENT
ITALY. Flight of Greek scholars to Italy upon capture of
Constantinople by the Turks--1453.
Rediscovery of Greek art.
Florence the centre of the Renaissance.
Leo X., Pope (1475-1521).
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1520). Raphael (1483-1520). Michael
Angelo (1474-1564).
FRANCE. Francis I. (1515-1547).
Henry IV. (1589-1610).
SPAIN. The crown united under Ferdinand and Isabella
(1452-1516).
Granada taken from the Moors--1492.
Charles V. (1519-1555).
Philip II. (1555-1598).
GERMANY. Maximilian I., Emperor of Germany (1459-1519).
Holbein (1498-1543).
In attempting to deal with the subject of old furniture in a manner not
too technical, certain broad divisions have to be made for convenience
in classification. The general reader does not want information
concerning the iron bed of Og, King of Bashan, nor of Cicero's table of
citrus-wood, which cost L9,000; nor are details of the chair of Dagobert
and of the jewel-chest of Richard of Cornwall of much worth to the
modern collector.
It will be found convenient to eliminate much extraneous matter, such as
the early origins of furniture and its development in the Middle Ages,
and to commence in this country with the Tudor period. Broadly speaking,
English furniture falls under three heads--the Oak Period, embracing the
furniture of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; the Walnut
Period, including the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries;
the Mahogany Period, beginning with the reign of George III. It may be
observed that the names of kings and of queens have been applied to
various styles of furniture as belonging to their reign. Early Victorian
is certainly a more expressive term than early nineteenth century.
Cromwellian tables, Queen Anne chairs, or Louis Seize commodes all have
an especial meaning as referring to styles more or less prevalent when
those personages lived. As there is no record of the makers of most of
the old English furniture, and as a piece of furniture cannot be judged
as can a picture, the date of manufacture cannot be precisely laid down,
hence the vagueness of much of the classification of old furniture.
Roughly it may in England be dealt with under the Tudor, the Stuart, and
the Georgian ages. These three divisions do not coincide exactly with
the periods of oak, of walnut, and of mahogany, inasmuch as the oak
furniture extended well into the Stuart days, and walnut was prevalent
in the reigns of George I. and George II. In any case, these broad
divisions are further divided into sub-heads embracing styles which
arose out of the natural development in taste, or which came and went at
the caprice of fashion.
[Illustration: Frame of wood, carved with floral scrollwork, with female
terminal figures.
Italian; late sixteenth century.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
The formation of a definite English character in the furniture of the
three periods must be examined in conjunction with the prevailing styles
in foreign furniture showing what influences were at work. Many
conditions governed the introduction of foreign furniture into England.
Renaissance art made a change in architecture, and a corresponding
change took place in furniture. Ecclesiastical buildings followed the
continental architecture in form and design, and foreign workmen were
employed by the Church and by the nobility in decorating and
embellishing cathedrals and abbeys and feudal castles. The early Tudor
days under Henry VII. saw the dawn of the Renaissance in England. Jean
de Mabuse and Torrigiano were invited over the sea by Henry VII., and
under the sturdy impulse of Henry VIII. classical learning and love of
the fine arts were encouraged. His palaces were furnished with
splendour. He wished to emulate the chateau of Francis at Fontainebleau.
He tried to entice the French king's artists with more tempting terms.
Holbein, the great master of the German school, came to England, and his
influence over Tudor art was very pronounced. The florid manner of the
Renaissance was tempered with the broader treatment of the northern
school. The art, too, of the Flemish woodcarvers found sympathetic
reception in this country, and the harmonious blending of the designs of
the Renaissance craftsmen of the Italian with those of the Flemish
school resulted in the growth in England of the beautiful and
characteristic style known as Tudor.
[Illustration: FRONT OF COFFER. CHESTNUT WOOD. ITALIAN; LATE FIFTEENTH
CENTURY.
With shield of arms supported by two male demi figures terminating in
floral scrollwork.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
The term Renaissance is used in regard to that period in the history of
art which marked the return to the classic forms employed by the Greeks
and Romans. The change from the Gothic or Mediaeval work to the classic
feeling had its origin in Italy, and spread, at first gradually but
later with amazing rapidity and growing strength, into Germany, Spain,
the Netherlands, France, and finally to England.
[Illustration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_
BRIDAL CHEST. GOTHIC DESIGN.
MIDDLE OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Munich National Museum._)]
The Renaissance was in origin a literary movement, and its influence in
art came through literature. The enthusiasm of the new learning acting
on craftsmen already trained to the highest degree of technical skill
produced work of great brilliance.
Never did the fine arts rise to such transcendent heights as in Italy
from the fourteenth to the middle of the seventeenth centuries. The late
John Addington Symonds, in his work on "The Renaissance in Italy," deals
in a comprehensive manner with this memorable period, during which every
city in Italy, great or small, was producing wonderful works of art, in
painting, in sculpture, in goldsmiths' work, in woodcarving, in
furniture, of which now every civilised country struggles to obtain for
its art collections the scattered fragments of these great days. "During
that period of prodigious activity," he says, "the entire nation seemed
to be endowed with an instinct for the beautiful and with the capacity
for producing it in every conceivable form."
In the middle of the fourteenth century the Renaissance style in
woodwork was at first more evident in the churches and in the palaces of
the nobility in the Italian states. Some of the most magnificent
examples of carved woodwork are preserved in the choir-stalls, doorways
and panelling of the churches and cathedrals of Italy. The great artists
of the day gave their talents to the production of woodwork and
furniture in various materials. Wood was chiefly employed in making
furniture, usually oak, cypress, ebony, walnut, or chestnut, which last
wood is very similar in appearance to oak. These were decorated with
gilding and paintings, and were inlaid with other woods, or agate,
lapis-lazuli, and marbles of various tints, with ivory, tortoiseshell,
mother-of-pearl, or with ornaments of hammered silver.
The Victoria and Albert Museum contains some splendid examples of
fourteenth and fifteenth century Italian Renaissance furniture, which
illustrate well the magnificence and virility of the great art movement
which influenced the remainder of Europe. In particular, carved and
gilded frames, and marriage coffers (_cassoni_) given to brides as part
of their dowry to hold the bridal trousseau, are richly and effectively
decorated. The frame of carved wood (illustrated p. 35), with fine
scroll work and female terminal figures, is enriched with painting and
gilding. The frame on the title-page of this volume is of carved wood,
decorated with gold stucco. Both these are sixteenth-century Italian
work. In fact, the study of the various types and the different kinds of
ornamentation given to these _cassoni_ would be an interesting subject
for the student, who would find enough material in the collection at the
Victoria and Albert Museum to enable him to follow the Renaissance
movement from its early days down to the time when crowded design,
over-elaboration, and inharmonious details grew apace like so many weeds
to choke the ideals of the master spirits of the Renaissance.
The front of the late fifteenth-century coffer (illustrated p. 38) is of
chestnut wood, carved with a shield of arms supported by two male
demi-figures, terminating in floral scroll work. There are still traces
of gilding on the wood.
At first the lines followed architecture in character. Cabinets had
pilasters, columns, and arches resembling the old Roman temples. The
illustration of a portion of a cornice of carved pinewood appearing as
the headpiece to this chapter shows this tendency. The marriage coffers
had classic heads upon them, but gradually this chaste style gave place
to rich ornamentation with designs of griffins and grotesque masks. The
chairs, too, were at first very severe in outline, usually with a high
back and fitted with a stretcher between the legs, which was carved, as
was also the back of the chair.
In the middle of the fifteenth century Gothic art had attained its
high-water mark in Germany before the new art from Italy had crossed the
Alps. We reproduce a bridal chest, of the middle of the fifteenth
century, from the collection in the Munich National Museum, which shows
the basis of Gothic art in England prior to the revival and before
further foreign influences were brought to bear on English art (p. 39).
The influence of Italian art upon France soon made itself felt. Italian
architects and craftsmen were invited by Francis I. and by the
Princesses of the House of Medici, of which Pope Leo X. was the
illustrious head, to build palaces and chateaux in the Renaissance
style. The Tuileries, Fontainebleau, and the Louvre were the result of
this importation. Primaticcio and Cellini founded a school of sculptors
and wood-carvers in France, of which Jean Goujon stands pre-eminent. The
furniture began gradually to depart from the old Gothic traditions, as
is shown in the design of the oak chest of the late fifteenth century
preserved in the Dublin Museum, which we illustrate, and commenced to
emulate the gorgeousness of Italy. This is a particularly instructive
example, showing the transition between the Gothic and the Renaissance
styles.
[Illustration: FRONT OF OAK CHEST. FRENCH; FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Dublin Museum._)]
The French Renaissance sideboard in the illustration (p. 45) is a fine
example of the middle of the sixteenth century. It is carved in walnut.
The moulded top is supported in front by an arcading decorated with two
male and two female terminal figures, which are enriched with masks and
floral ornament. Behind the arcading is a table supporting a cupboard
and resting in front on four turned columns; it is fitted with three
drawers, the fronts of which, as well as that of the cupboard, are
decorated with monsters, grotesque masks, and scroll work.
[Illustration: _By permission of T. Foster Shattock, Esq._
WALNUT SIDEBOARD.
FRENCH; MIDDLE OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]
The impulse given by Francis I. was responsible for much decorative work
in the early period of the French Renaissance, and many beautiful
examples exist in the churches and chateaux of France to which his name
has been given. It is noticeable that the chief difference between the
Italian and the French Renaissance lies in the foundation of Gothic
influence underlying the newer Renaissance ornament in French work of
the period. Flamboyant arches and Gothic canopies were frequently
retained and mingled with classic decoration. The French clung to their
older characteristics with more tenacity, inasmuch as the Renaissance
was a sudden importation rather than a natural development of slower
growth.
The French Renaissance cabinet of walnut illustrated (p. 48) is from
Lyons, and is of the later part of the sixteenth century. It is finely
carved with terminal figures, masks, trophies of ornaments, and other
ornament. In comparison with the sixteenth-century ebony cabinet of the
period of Henry IV., finely inlaid with ivory in most refined style, it
is obvious that a great variety of sumptuous furniture was being made by
the production of such diverse types as these, and that the craftsmen
were possessed of a wealth of invention. The range of English
craftsmen's designs during the Renaissance in this country was never so
extensive, as can be seen on a detailed examination of English work.
[Illustration: CABINET OF WALNUT
FRENCH (LYONS); SECOND HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Carved with terminal figures, masks, and trophies of arms.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
In Spain the Italian feeling became acclimatised more readily than in
France. In the sixteenth century the wood carving of Spain is of
exceeding beauty. The decoration of the choir of the cathedral at
Toledo is held to be one of the finest examples of the Spanish
Renaissance. In furniture the cabinets and buffets of the Spanish
craftsmen are of perfect grace and of characteristic design. The older
Spanish cabinets are decorated externally with delicate ironwork and
with columns of ivory or bone painted and richly gilded, exhibiting
Moorish influence in their character. Many of the more magnificent
specimens are richly inlaid with silver, and are the work of the artists
of Seville, of Toledo, or of Valladolid. The first illustration of a
cabinet and stand is a typically Spanish design, and the second
illustration of the carved walnut chest in the National Archaelogical
Museum at Madrid is of the sixteenth century, when the Spanish
wood-carvers had developed the Renaissance spirit and reached a very
high level in their art.
Simultaneously with the Italianising of French art a similar wave of
novelty was spreading over the Netherlands and Germany. The Flemish
Renaissance approaches more nearly to the English in the adaptation of
the Italian style, or it would be more accurate to say that the English
is more closely allied to the art of the Netherlands, as it drew much of
its inspiration from the Flemish wood-carvers. The spiral turned legs
and columns, the strap frets cut out and applied to various parts, the
squares between turnings often left blank to admit of a little ebony
diamond, are all of the same family as the English styles. Ebony inlay
was frequently used, but the Flemish work of this period was nearly all
in oak. Marqueterie of rich design was made, the inlay being of various
coloured woods and shaded. Mother-of-pearl and ivory were also employed
to heighten the effect.
[Illustration: FRENCH CABINET.
Ebony and ivory marquetry work.
MIDDLE OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
(_From the collection of M. Emile Peyre._)]
[Illustration: SPANISH CABINET AND STAND. CARVED CHESTNUT;
FIRST HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Width of cabinet, 3 ft. 2 in.; depth, 1 ft. 4 in.; height, 4 ft. 10 in.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
The Italian Renaissance laid a light hand upon the Flemish artists, who,
while unavoidably coming under its influence, at first copied its
ornateness but subsequently proceeded on their own lines. Much quaint
figure work, in which they greatly excelled, was used by the Flemish
wood-carvers in their joinery. It is grotesque in character, and, like
all their work, boldly executed. The influx of foreign influences upon
the Netherlands was in the main as successfully resisted as is the
encroachment of the sea across their land-locked dykes. The growth of
the Spanish power made Charles V. the most powerful prince in Europe.
Ferdinand of Spain held the whole Spanish peninsula except Portugal,
with Sardinia and the island of Sicily, and he won the kingdom of
Naples. His daughter Joanna married Philip, the son of Maximilian of
Austria, and of Mary the daughter of Charles the Bold. Their son Charles
thus inherited kingdoms and duchies from each of his parents and
grandparents, and besides the dominions of Ferdinand and Isabella, he
held Burgundy and the Netherlands. In 1519 he was chosen Emperor as
Charles V. Flooded with Italian artists and Austrian and Spanish rulers,
it is interesting to note how the national spirit in art was kept alive,
and was of such strong growth that it influenced in marked manner the
English furniture of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century,
as will be shown in a subsequent chapter.
[Illustration: SPANISH CHEST; CARVED WALNUT.
SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
(_In the National Museum, Madrid._)]
RECENT SALE PRICES.[1]
L s. d.
Chest, Gothic, carved with parchemin panels, with a
wrought-iron lock, from Nuremburg Castle, German, about
1500. Christie, January 29, 1904 31 10 0
Cabinet, walnut wood, of architectural design, with folding
doors above and below and small drawers, carved with
arabesque foliage and scrolls in relief, and with
columns at the angles, 69 in. high, 38 in. wide,
French, middle of the sixteenth century. Christie,
April 12, 1904 21 0 0
Coffer, oak, the front divided by six buttresses, the steel
lock pierced with tracery, 65 in. long, 46 in. high,
French, late fifteenth century. Christie, May 6, 1904
126 0 0
Coffer, large walnut wood, the whole of the front and sides
carved in low relief, the lock is rectangular, and
pierced with flamboyant tracery, French (provincial),
early part of the fifteenth century, 84 in. wide, 36 in.
high. Christie, May 6, 1904 50 8 0
Coffer, walnut wood, the front and sides divided into
arch-shaped panels containing Gothic tracery, 86 in.
wide, 32 in. high, French, fifteenth century. Christie,
May 6, 1904 52 10 0
Chair, walnut wood, with semicircular seat, the back
composed of six upright rectangular panels, each
containing various forms of Gothic tracery; below is a
longitudinal panel of tracery, 27 in. wide, 29 in. high,
French or Flemish, fifteenth century. Christie, May 6,
1904 91 7 0
Credence, oak, with folding doors and drawers above and
shelf beneath, the corners are returned, the various
door panels, &c., carved in low relief; at the back
below is linen fold panelling, 54 in. wide, 62 in. high,
probably French, early sixteenth century. Christie, May
6, 1904 336 0 0
Cabinet, walnut-wood, in two parts, of rectangular form,
with folding doors above and below, and two drawers in
the centre, carved with grotesque terminal figure and
gadrooned mouldings, strapwork and duplicated rosettes,
French work, early seventeenth century, 78 in. high, 48
in. wide. Christie, May 6, 1904 110 5 0
Cabinet, walnut-wood, in two parts, of rectangular form,
with folding doors below and door above; at the sides
are terminal male and female figures, the centres of the
doors carved, 92 in. high, 49 in. wide, French work
(Lyons School), second quarter of sixteenth century.
Christie, May 6, 1904 99 15 0
[1] By the kindness of the proprietors of the _Connoisseur_ these items
are given from their useful monthly publication, _Auction Sale Prices_.
II
THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._
CARVED OAK CHEST.
ENGLISH; SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Panels finely carved with Gothic tracery.]
II
THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE
Henry VIII. 1509-1547.
Edward VI. 1547-1553.
Mary 1553-1558.
Elizabeth 1558-1603.
1525. Hampton Court built.
1566. Increased commercial prosperity. Foundation of Royal
Exchange by Sir Thomas Gresham.
1580. Drake comes home from the New World with plunder worth
half a million.
1585. Antwerp captured by the Duke of Parma; flight of merchants
to London. Transfer of commercial supremacy from Antwerp to
London. Beginning of carrying trade, especially with Flanders.
[Illustration: BENCH OF OAK. FRENCH; ABOUT 1500.
With panels of linen ornament. Seat arranged as a coffer.
(Formerly in the collection of M. Emile Peyre.)
(_Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh._)]
The opening years of the sixteenth century saw the beginnings of the
Renaissance movement in England. The oak chest had become a settle with
high back and arms. The fine example of an early sixteenth-century oak
chest illustrated (p. 59) shows how the Gothic style had impressed
itself on articles of domestic furniture. The credence, or tasting
buffet, had developed into the Tudor sideboard, where a cloth was spread
and candles placed. With more peaceful times a growth of domestic
refinement required comfortable and even luxurious surroundings. The
royal palaces at Richmond and Windsor were filled with costly foreign
furniture. The mansions which were taking the place of the old feudal
castles found employment for foreign artists and craftsmen who taught
the English woodcarver. In the early days of Henry VIII. the classical
style supplanted the Gothic, or was in great measure mingled with it.
Many fine structures exist which belong to this transition period,
during which the mixed style was predominant. The woodwork of King's
College Chapel at Cambridge is held to be an especially notable example.
[Illustration: PORTION OF CARVED WALNUT VIRGINAL.
FLEMISH; SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
[Illustration: FRENCH CARVED OAK COFFER.
Showing interlaced ribbon work.
SECOND HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
(Height, 2 ft. 1 in.; width, 3 ft. 1 in.)
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
The Great Hall at Hampton Court dates from 1531, or five years after
Cardinal Wolsey had given up his palace to Henry VIII. Its grand
proportions, its high-pitched roof and pendants, display the art of the
woodcarver in great excellence. This hall, like others of the same
period, had an open hearth in the centre, on which logs of wood were
placed, and the smoke found its way out through a cupola, or louvre, in
the roof.
The roofs of the Early Tudor mansions were magnificent specimens of
woodwork. But the old style of king-post, queen-post, or hammer-beam
roof was prevalent. The panelling, too, of halls and rooms retained the
formal character in its mouldings, and various "linen" patterns were
used, so called from their resemblance to a folded napkin, an
ornamentation largely used towards the end of the Perpendicular style,
which was characteristic of English domestic architecture in the
fifteenth century. To this period belongs the superb woodcarving of the
renowned choir stalls of Henry VII.'s Chapel in Westminster Abbey.
The bench of oak illustrated (p. 60) shows a common form of panel with
linen ornament, and is French, of about the year 1500. The seat, as will
be seen, is arranged as a locked coffer.
[Illustration: FIREPLACE AND OAK PANELLING FROM THE "OLD PALACE" AT
BROMLEY-BY-BOW. BUILT IN 1606.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
The Elizabethan woodcarver revelled in grotesque figure work, in
intricate interlacings of strapwork, borrowed from the Flemish, and
ribbon ornamentation, adapted from the French. He delighted in massive
embellishment of magnificent proportions. Among Tudor woodwork the
carved oak screen of the Middle Temple Hall is a noteworthy example of
the sumptuousness and splendour of interior decoration of the English
Renaissance. These screens supporting the minstrels' gallery in old
halls are usually exceptionally rich in detail. Gray's Inn (dated 1560)
and the Charterhouse (dated 1571) are other examples of the best period
of sixteenth-century woodwork in England.
Christ Church at Oxford, Grimsthorp in Lincolnshire, Kenninghall in
Norfolk, Layer Marney Towers in Essex, and Sutton Place at Guildford,
are all representative structures typical of the halls and manor houses
being built at the time of the English Renaissance.
In the Victoria and Albert Museum has been re-erected a room having the
oak panelling from the "Old Palace" at Bromley-by-Bow, which was built
in 1606. The massive fireplace with the royal coat of arms above, with
the niches in which stand carved figures of two saints, together with
the contemporary iron fire-dogs standing in the hearth, give a picture
of what an old Elizabethan hall was like.
[Illustration: ELIZABETHAN BEDSTEAD. DATED 1593.
Carved oak, ornamented in marquetry.
(Height, 7 ft. 4 in.; length, 7 ft. 11 in.; width, 5 ft. 8 in.)
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
Under Queen Elizabeth new impulses stirred the nation, and a sumptuous
Court set the fashion in greater luxury of living. Gloriana, with her
merchant-princes, her fleet of adventurers on the high seas, and the
pomp and circumstance of her troop of foreign lovers, brought foreign
fashions and foreign art into commoner usage. The growth of luxurious
habits in the people was eyed askance by her statesmen; "England
spendeth more in wines in one year," complained Cecil, "than it did in
ancient times in four years." The chimney-corner took the place of the
open hearth; chimneys were for the first time familiar features in
middle-class houses. The insanitary rush-floor was superseded by wood,
and carpets came into general use. Even pillows, deemed by the hardy
yeomanry as only fit "for women in child-bed," found a place in the
massive and elaborately carved Elizabethan bedstead.
The illustration of the fine Elizabethan bedstead (on p. 66) gives a
very good idea of what the domestic furniture was like in the days
immediately succeeding the Spanish Armada. It is carved in oak; with
columns, tester, and headboard showing the classic influence. It is
ornamented in marquetry, and bears the date 1593.
All over England were springing up town halls and fine houses of the
trading-classes, and manor houses and palaces of the nobility worthy of
the people about to establish a formidable position in European
politics. Hatfield House, Hardwick Hall, Audley End, Burleigh, Knole,
and Longleat, all testify to the Renaissance which swept over England at
this time. Stately terraces with Italian gardens, long galleries hung
with tapestries, and lined with carved oak chairs and elaborate cabinets
were marked features in the days of the new splendour. Men's minds, led
by Raleigh, the Prince of Company Promoters, and fired by Drake's
buccaneering exploits, turned to the New World, hitherto under the heel
of Spain. Dreams of galleons laden with gold and jewels stimulated the
ambition of adventurous gallants, and quickened the nation's pulse. The
love of travel became a portion of the Englishman's heritage. The
Italian spirit had reached England in full force. The poetry and
romances of Italy affected all the Elizabethan men of letters.
Shakespeare, in his "Merchant of Venice" and his other plays, plainly
shows the Italian influence. In costume, in speech, and in furniture, it
became the fashion to follow Italy. To Ascham it seemed like "the
enchantment of Circe brought out of Italy to mar men's manners in
England."
[Illustration: PANEL OF CARVED OAK.
ENGLISH; EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Showing interlaced strapwork.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
The result of this wave of fashion on the domestic furniture of England
was to impart to it the elegance of Italian art combined with a national
sturdiness of character seemingly inseparable from English art at all
periods. As the reign of Queen Elizabeth extended from the year 1558 to
the year 1603, it is usual to speak of architecture and furniture of
the latter half of the sixteenth century as Elizabethan.
A favourite design in Elizabethan woodwork is the interlaced strapwork
(see illustration p. 68), which was derived from similar designs
employed by the contemporary stonecarver, and is found on Flemish
woodwork of the same period. The panel of a sixteenth-century Flemish
virginal, carved in walnut, illustrated, shows this form of decoration.
Grotesque terminal figures, half-human, half-monster, supported the
front of the buffets, or were the supporting terminals of cornices. This
feature is an adaptation from the Caryatides, the supporting figures
used instead of columns in architecture, which in Renaissance days
extended to woodwork. Table-legs and bed-posts swelled into heavy,
acorn-shaped supports of massive dimensions. Cabinets were sometimes
inlaid, as was also the room panelling, but it cannot be said that at
this period the art of marquetry had arrived at a great state of
perfection in this country.
It is noticeable that in the rare pieces that are inlaid in the Late
Tudor and Early Jacobean period the inlay itself is a sixteenth of an
inch thick, whereas in later inlays of more modern days the inlay is
thinner and flimsier. In the Flemish examples ivory was often used, and
holly and sycamore and box seem to have been the favourite woods
selected for inlay.
Take, for example, the mirror with the frame of carved oak, with scroll
outline and narrow bands inlaid with small squares of wood, alternately
light and dark. This inlay is very coarsely done, and unworthy to
compare with Italian marquetry of contemporary date, or of an earlier
period. The uprights and feet of the frame, it will be noticed, are
baluster-shaped. The glass mirror is of nineteenth-century manufacture.
The date carved upon the frame is 1603, the first year of the reign of
James I., and it is stated to have come from Derby Old Hall.
The Court cupboard, also of the same date, begins to show the coming
style of Jacobean ornamentation in the turning in the upright pillars
and supports and the square baluster termination. The massive carving
and elaborate richness of the early Elizabethan period have given place
to a more restrained decoration. Between the drawers is the design of a
tulip in marquetry, and narrow bands of inlay are used to decorate the
piece. In place of the chimerical monsters we have a portrait in wood of
a lady, for which Arabella Stuart might have sat as model. The days were
approaching when furniture was designed for use, and ornament was put
aside if it interfered with the structural utility of the piece. The
wrought-iron handle to the drawer should be noted, and in connection
with the observation brought to bear by the beginner on genuine
specimens in the Victoria and Albert Museum and other collections, it is
well not to let any detail escape minute attention. Hinges and lock
escutcheons and handles to drawers must not be neglected in order to
acquire a sound working knowledge of the peculiarities of the different
periods.
[Illustration: MIRROR.
Glass in oak frame with carved scroll outline and narrow bands inlaid
with small squares of wood. The glass nineteenth century.
ENGLISH. DATED 1603.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
[Illustration: COURT CUPBOARD, CARVED OAK.
ENGLISH. DATED 1603.
Decorated with narrow bands inlaid, and having inlaid tulip between
drawers.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
In contrast with this specimen, the elaborately carved Court cupboard of
a slightly earlier period should be examined. It bears carving on
every available surface. It has been "restored," and restored pieces
have an unpleasant fashion of suggesting that sundry improvements have
been carried out in the process. At any rate, as it stands it is
over-laboured, and entirely lacking in reticence. The elaboration of
enrichment, while executed in a perfectly harmonious manner, should
convey a lesson to the student of furniture. There is an absence of
contrast; had portions of it been left uncarved how much more effective
would have been the result! As it is it stands, wonderful as is the
technique, somewhat of a warning to the designer to cultivate a studied
simplicity rather than to run riot in a profusion of detail.
[Illustration: COURT CUPBOARD, CARVED OAK.
ABOUT 1580. (RESTORED.)
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
Another interesting Court cupboard, of the early seventeenth century,
shows the more restrained style that was rapidly succeeding the earlier
work. This piece is essentially English in spirit, and is untouched save
the legs, which have been restored.
[Illustration: _By kind permission of T. E. Price Stretche, Esq._
COURT CUPBOARD, EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
With secret hiding-place at top.]
The table which is illustrated (p. 78) is a typical example of the table
in ordinary use in Elizabethan days. This table replaced a stone altar
in a church in Shropshire at the time of the Reformation.
It was late in the reign of Queen Elizabeth that upholstered chairs
became more general. Sir John Harrington, writing in 1597, gives
evidence of this in the assertion that "the fashion of cushioned chayrs
is taken up in every merchant's house." Wooden seats had hitherto not
been thought too hard, and chairs imported from Spain had leather seats
and backs of fine tooled work richly gilded and decorated. In the latter
days of Elizabeth loose cushions were used for chairs and for window
seats, and were elaborately wrought in velvet, or were of satin
embroidered in colours, with pearls as ornamentation, and edged with
gold or silver lace.
The upholstered chair belongs more properly to the Jacobean period, and
in the next chapter will be shown several specimens of those used by
James I.
In Elizabethan panelling to rooms, in chimneypieces, doorways, screens
such as those built across the end of a hall and supporting the
minstrels' gallery, the wood used was nearly always English oak, and
most of the thinner parts, such as that designed for panels and smaller
surfaces, was obtained by splitting the timber, thus exhibiting the
beautiful figure of the wood so noticeable in old examples.
RECENT SALE PRICES.[1]
L s. d.
Chest, oak, with inlaid panels under arches, with caryatid
figures carved in box-wood, English, temp. Elizabeth.
Christie, January 29, 1904. 40 9 0
Tudor mantelpiece, with elaborately carved jambs, panels, }
brackets, sides, and cornice, 6 ft. by 7 ft. 3 in. high.}
Herbert Wright, Ipswich, February 19, 1904 }
} 155 0 0
Old oak panelling, in all about 60 ft. run and 6 ft. 6 in. }
high, with 17 carved panels and 3 fluted pilasters }
fitted in same, part being surmounted by a cornice. }
Herbert Wright, Ipswich, February 19, 1904 }
Credence, walnut-wood, with a cupboard and drawer above and
shelf beneath, the corners are returned, the central
panel has carved upon it, in low relief, circular
medallions, pierced steel hinges and lock, 36 in. wide,
50 in. high, early sixteenth century. Christie, May 6,
1904 346 0 0
Bedstead, Elizabethan, with panelled and carved canopy top,
supported by fluted and carved pillars, inlaid and
panelled back, with raised figures and flowers in
relief, also having a carved panelled footboard. C. W.
Provis & Son, Manchester, May 9, 1904 22 10 0
Bedstead, oak Elizabethan, with carved back, dated 1560, and
small cupboard fitted with secret sliding panel, and
further having carved and inlaid panelled top with
inlaid panels, the whole surmounted with heavy cornice.
C. W. Provis & Son, Manchester, May 9, 1904 33 0 0
Sideboard, Elizabethan old oak, 6 ft. 2 in. wide by 7 ft. 6
in. high, with carved canopy top; also fitted with
gallery shelf, supported by lions rampant. C. W. Provis
& Son, Manchester. May 9, 1904 60 0 0
[1] By the kindness of the proprietors of the _Connoisseur_ these items
are given from their useful monthly publication, _Auction Sale Prices_.
[Illustration: _By kindness of T. E. Price Stretche, Esq._
ELIZABETHAN OAK TABLE.]
III
STUART OR JACOBEAN. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Waring._
GATE-LEG TABLE.]
III
STUART OR JACOBEAN. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
James I. 1603-1625.
Charles I. 1625-1649.
The Commonwealth 1649-1660.
1619. Tapestry factory established at Mortlake, under Sir
Francis Crane.
---- Banqueting Hall added to Whitehall by Inigo Jones.
1632. Vandyck settled in London on invitation of Charles I.
1651. Navigation Act passed; aimed blow (1572-1652) at Dutch
carrying trade. All goods to be imported in English ships or in
ships of country producing goods.
With the advent of the House of Stuart the England under James I. saw
new fashions introduced in furniture. It has already been mentioned that
the greater number of old houses which are now termed Tudor or
Elizabethan were erected in the days of James I. At the beginning of a
new monarchy fashion in art rarely changes suddenly, so that the early
pieces of Jacobean furniture differ very little from Elizabethan in
character. Consequently the Court cupboard, dated 1603, and mirror of
the same year (illustrated on p. 70), though bearing the date of the
first year of the reign of James, more properly belong to Tudor days.
In the Bodleian Library at Oxford there is preserved a chair of fine
workmanship and of historic memory. It was made from the oak timbers of
the _Golden Hind_, the ship in which Sir Francis Drake made his
adventurous voyage of discovery round the world. In spite of many secret
enemies "deaming him the master thiefe of the unknowne world," Queen
Elizabeth came to Deptford and came aboard the _Golden Hind_ and "there
she did make Captain Drake knight, in the same ship, for reward of his
services; his armes were given him, a ship on the world, which ship, by
Her Majestie's commandment, is lodged in a dock at Deptford, for a
monument to all posterity."
[Illustration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_
OAK CHAIR MADE FROM THE TIMBER OF THE _GOLDEN HIND_. COMMONLY CALLED
"SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S CHAIR."
(_At the Bodleian Library._)]
It remained for many years at Deptford dockyard, and became the resort
of holiday folk, who made merry in the cabin, which was converted into a
miniature banqueting hall; but when it was too far decayed to be
repaired it was broken up, and a sufficient quantity of sound wood was
selected from it and made into a chair, which was presented to the
University of Oxford. This was in the time of Charles II., and the poet
Cowley has written some lines on it, in which he says that Drake and
his _Golden Hind_ could not have wished a more blessed fate, since to
"this Pythagorean ship"
"... a seat of endless rest is given
To her in Oxford, and to him in heaven--"
which, though quite unintentional on the part of the poet, is curiously
satiric.
[Illustration: _By permission of the Master of the Charterhouse._
OAK TABLE, DATED 1616, BEARING ARMS OF THOMAS SUTTON, FOUNDER OF THE
CHARTERHOUSE HOSPITAL.]
The piece is highly instructive as showing the prevailing design for a
sumptuous chair in the late seventeenth century. The middle arch in the
back of the chair is disfigured by a tablet with an inscription, which
has been placed there.
Of the early days of James I. is a finely carved oak table, dated 1616.
This table is heavily moulded and carved with garlands between cherubs'
heads, and shields bearing the arms of Thomas Sutton, the founder of the
Charterhouse Hospital. The upper part of the table is supported on
thirteen columns, with quasi-Corinthian columns and enriched shafts,
standing on a moulded H-shaped base. It will be seen that the designers
had not yet thrown off the trammels of architecture which dominated much
of the Renaissance woodwork. The garlands are not the garlands of
Grinling Gibbons, and although falling within the Jacobean period, it
lacks the charm which belong to typical Jacobean pieces.
At Knole, in the possession of Lord Sackville, there are some fine
specimens of early Jacobean furniture, illustrations of which are
included in this volume. The chair used by King James I. when sitting to
the painter Mytens is of peculiar interest. The cushion, worn and
threadbare with age, is in all probability the same cushion used by
James. The upper part of the chair is trimmed with a band of gold
thread. The upholstering is red velvet, and the frame, which is of oak,
bears traces of gilding upon it, and is studded with copper nails. The
chair in design, with the half circular supports, follows old Venetian
patterns. The smaller chair is of the same date, and equally interesting
as a fine specimen; the old embroidery, discoloured and worn though it
be, is of striking design and must have been brilliant and distinctive
three hundred years ago. The date of these pieces is about 1620, the
year when the "Pilgrim Fathers" landed in America.
[Illustration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_
CHAIR USED BY JAMES I.
In the possession of Lord Sackville.]
From the wealth of Jacobean furniture at Knole it is difficult to
make a representative selection, but the stool we reproduce (p. 90) is
interesting, inasmuch as it was a piece of furniture in common use. The
chairs evidently were State chairs, but the footstool was used in all
likelihood by those who sat below the salt, and were of less
significance. The stuffed settee which finds a place in the
billiard-room at Knole and the sumptuous sofa in the Long Gallery, with
its mechanical arrangement for altering the angle at the head, are
objects of furniture difficult to equal. The silk and gold thread
coverings are faded, and the knotted fringe and gold braid have
tarnished under the hand of Time, but their structural design is so
effective that the modern craftsman has made luxurious furniture after
these models.
[Illustration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_
JACOBEAN CHAIR AT KNOLE.
In the possession of Lord Sackville.]
[Illustration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_
JACOBEAN STOOL AT KNOLE.
In the possession of Lord Sackville.]
[Illustration: UPPER HALF OF CARVED WALNUT DOOR.
Showing ribbon work.
FRENCH; LATTER PART OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
(Height of door, 4 ft. 7 in.; width, 1 ft. 11 in.)
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
Carved oak chests were not largely made in Jacobean days--not, at any
rate, for the same purpose as they were in Tudor or earlier times. As
church coffers they doubtless continued to be required, but for
articles of domestic furniture other than as linen chests their
multifarious uses had vanished. Early Jacobean coffers clearly show the
departure from Elizabethan models. They become more distinctly English
in feeling, though the interlaced ribbon decoration, so frequently used,
is an adaptation from French work, which pattern was now becoming
acclimatised. The French carved oak coffer of the second half of the
sixteenth century (illustrated p. 61) shows from what source some of the
English designs were derived.
In the portion of the French door which we give as an illustration (on
p. 91), it will be seen with what grace and artistic excellence of
design and with what restraint the French woodcarvers utilised the
running ribbon. The ribbon pattern has been variously used by designers
of furniture; it appears in Chippendale's chair-backs, where it almost
exceeds the limitations of the technique of woodcarving.
Art in the early days of Charles I. was undimmed. The tapestry factory
at Mortlake, established by James I., was further encouraged by the
"White King." He took a great and a personal interest in all matters
relating to art. Under his auspices the cartoons of Raphael were brought
to England to foster the manufacture of tapestry. He gave his patronage
to foreign artists and to foreign craftsmen, and in every way attempted
to bring English art workers into line with their contemporaries on the
Continent. Vandyck came over to become "Principal painter of Their
Majesties at St. James's," keeping open table at Blackfriars and living
in almost regal style. His grace and distinction and the happy
circumstance of his particular style being coincident with the most
picturesque period in English costume, have won him a place among the
world's great painters. Fine portraits, at Windsor and at Madrid, at
Dresden and at the Pitti Palace, at the Louvre and in the Hermitage at
Petersburg, testify to the European fame of the painter's brilliant
gallery representing the finest flower of the English aristocracy,
prelates, statesmen, courtiers and beautiful women that were gathered
together at the Court of Charles I. and his Queen Henrietta Maria.
[Illustration: OAK CHAIR.
CHARLES I. PERIOD.
With arms of Thomas Wentworth, first Earl of Strafford (1593-1641).
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
In Early Stuart days the influence of Inigo Jones, the Surveyor of Works
to Charles I., made itself felt in woodwork and interior decorations. He
was possessed with a great love and reverence for the classicism of
Italy, and introduced into his banqueting hall at Whitehall (now the
United Service Museum), and St. Paul's, Covent Garden, a chaster style,
which was taken up by the designers of furniture, who began to abandon
the misguided use of ornament of later Elizabethan days. In the
Victoria and Albert Museum is an oak chair with the arms of Thomas
Wentworth, first Earl of Strafford, which, in addition to its historic
interest, is a fine example of the chair of the period of Charles I.
(illustrated p. 93).
[Illustration: ITALIAN CHAIR, ABOUT 1620.
Thence introduced into England.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
It is certain that the best specimens of Jacobean furniture of this
period, with their refined lines and well-balanced proportions, are
suggestive of the stately diction of Clarendon or the well-turned lyrics
of Herrick.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Son_
HIGH-BACK OAK CHAIR. EARLY JACOBEAN.
Elaborately carved with shell and scroll foliage.
(Formerly in the Stuart MacDonald family, and originally in the
possession of King Charles I.)]
In the illustration of a sixteenth-century chair in common use in Italy,
it will be seen to what source the Jacobean woodworkers looked for
inspiration. The fine, high-backed oak Stuart chair, elaborately carved
with bold shell and scroll foliage, having carved supports, stuffed
upholstered seats, and loose cushion covered in old Spanish silk damask,
is a highly interesting example. It was long in the possession of the
Stuart MacDonald family, and is believed to have belonged to Charles I.
The gate-leg table, sometimes spoken of as Cromwellian, belongs to this
Middle Jacobean style. It cannot be said with any degree of accuracy
that in the Commonwealth days a special style of furniture was
developed. From all evidence it would seem that the manufacture of
domestic furniture went on in much the same manner under Cromwell as
under Charles. Iconoclasts as were the Puritans, it is doubtful whether
they extended their work of destruction to articles in general use. The
bigot had "no starch in his linen, no gay furniture in his house."
Obviously the Civil War very largely interfered with the encouragement
and growth of the fine arts, but when furniture had to be made there is
no doubt the Roundhead cabinetmaker and the Anabaptist carpenter
produced as good joinery and turning as they did before Charles made his
historic descent upon the House in his attempt to arrest the five
members.
There is a style of chair, probably imported from Holland, with leather
back and leather seat which is termed "Cromwellian," probably on account
of its severe lines, but there is no direct evidence that this style was
peculiarly of Commonwealth usage. The illustration (p. 97) gives the
type of chair, but the covering is modern.
That Cromwell himself had no dislike for the fine arts is proved by his
care of the Raphael cartoons, and we are enabled to reproduce an
illustration of a fine old ebony cabinet with moulded front, fitted with
numerous drawers, which was formerly the property of Oliver Cromwell. It
was at Olivers Stanway, once the residence of the Eldred family. The
stand is carved with shells and scrolls, and the scroll-shaped legs are
enriched with carved female figures, the entire stand being gilded. This
piece is most probably of Italian workmanship, and was of course made
long before the Protector's day, showing marked characteristics of
Renaissance style.
[Illustration: JACOBEAN CHAIR, CANE BACK CROMWELLIAN CHAIR.
ARMCHAIR. DATED 1623. ARMCHAIR. WITH INLAID BACK.
JACOBEAN CHAIRS.
(_By permission of T. E. Price Stretche, Esq._)]
The carved oak cradle (p. 107), with the letters "G. B. M. B." on one
side, and "October, 14 dai," on the other, and bearing the date 1641,
shows the type of piece in common use. It is interesting to the
collector to make a note of the turned knob of wood so often found on
doors and as drawer handles on untouched old specimens of this period,
but very frequently removed by dealers and replaced by metal handles of
varying styles, all of which may be procured by the dozen in Tottenham
Court Road, coarse replicas of old designs. Another point worthy of
attention is the wooden peg in the joinery, securing the tenon into the
mortice, which is visible in old pieces. It will be noticed in several
places in this cradle. In modern imitations, unless very thoughtfully
reproduced, these oaken pegs are not visible.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._
EBONY CABINET.
On stand gilded and richly carved.
FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF OLIVER CROMWELL.
(From Olivers Stanway, at one time the seat of the Eldred family.)]
In the page of Jacobean chairs showing the various styles, the more
severe piece, dated 1623, is Early Jacobean, and the fine unrestored
armchair of slightly later date shows in the stretcher the wear given by
the feet of the sitters. It is an interesting piece; the stiles in the
back are inlaid with pearwood and ebony. The other armchair with its
cane panels in back is of later Stuart days. It shows the transitional
stage between the scrolled-arm type of chair, wholly of wood, and the
more elaborate type (illustrated p. 123) of the James II. period.
[Illustration: JACOBEAN CARVED OAK CHAIRS.
Yorkshire, about 1640.
Derbyshire; early seventeenth century.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
[Illustration: _By permission of the Rt. Hon. Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane,
G.C.B, I.S.O._
JACOBEAN OAK CUPBOARD. ABOUT 1620.]
In addition to the finer pieces of seventeenth-century furniture to be
found in the seats of the nobility, such as at Penshurst, or in the
manor houses and homes of the squires and smaller landowners, there was
much furniture of a particularly good design in use at farmsteads from
one end of the country to the other, in days when a prosperous class of
yeoman followed the tastes of their richer neighbours. This farmhouse
furniture is nowadays much sought after. It was of local manufacture,
and is distinctly English in its character. Oak dressers either plain or
carved, were made not only in Wales--"Welsh Dressers" having become
almost a trade term--but in various parts of England, in Yorkshire,
in Derbyshire, in Sussex, and in Suffolk. They are usually fitted with
two or three open shelves, and sometimes with cupboards on each side.
The better preserved specimens have still their old drop-handles and
hinges of brass. It is not easy to procure fine examples nowadays, as it
became fashionable two or three years ago to collect these, and in
addition to oak dressers from the farmhouses of Normandy, equally old
and quaint, which were imported to supply a popular demand, a great
number of modern imitations were made up from old wood--church pews
largely forming the framework of the dressers, which were not difficult
to imitate successfully.
The particular form of chair known as the "Yorkshire chair" is of the
same period. Certain localities seem to have produced peculiar types of
chairs which local makers made in great numbers. It will be noticed that
even in these conditions, with a continuous manufacture going on, the
patterns were not exact duplicates of each other, as are the
machine-made chairs turned out of a modern factory, where the maker has
no opportunity to introduce any personal touches, but has to obey the
iron law of his machine.
As a passing hint to collectors of old oak furniture, it may be observed
that it very rarely happens that two chairs can be found together of the
same design. There may be a great similarity of ornament and a
particularly striking resemblance, but the chair with its twin companion
beside it suggests that one, if not both, are spurious. The same
peculiarity is exhibited in old brass candlesticks, and especially the
old Dutch brass with circular platform in middle of candlestick. One
may handle fifty without finding two that are turned with precisely the
same form of ornament.
The usual feature of the chair which is termed "Yorkshire" is that it
has an open back in the form of an arcade, or a back formed with two
crescent-shaped cross-rails, the decorations of the back usually bearing
acorn-shaped knobs either at the top of the rail or as pendants. This
type is not confined to Yorkshire, as they have frequently been found in
Derbyshire, in Oxfordshire, and in Worcestershire, and a similar variety
may be found in old farmhouses in East Anglia.
In the illustration of the two oak chairs (p. 105), the one with arms is
of the Charles I. period, the other is later and belongs to the latter
half of the seventeenth century.
The Jacobean oak cupboard (illustrated p. 101) is in date about 1620. At
the side there are perforations to admit air, which shows that it was
used as a butter cupboard. The doors have an incised decoration of
conventional design. The lower part is carved in style unmistakably
Jacobean in nature. The pattern on the two uprights at the top is
repeatedly found in pieces evidently designed locally for use in
farmhouses.
It is not too much to hope that enough has been said concerning Jacobean
furniture of the early and middle seventeenth century to show that it
possesses a peculiar charm and simplicity in the lines of its
construction, which make it a very pleasing study to the earnest
collector who wishes to procure a few genuine specimens of old
furniture, which, while being excellent in artistic feeling, are not
unprocurable by reason of their rarity and excessive cost. It should be
within the power of the careful collector, after following the hints in
this volume, and after examining well-selected examples in such a
collection as that at the Victoria and Albert Museum, to obtain, without
unreasonable expenditure, after patient search, one or two Jacobean
pieces of undoubted authenticity.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Fenton & Sons._
JACOBEAN OAK CHAIRS.
Armchair, time of Charles I.
Yorkshire chair. Late seventeenth century.]
RECENT SALE PRICES.[1]
L s. d.
Cabinet, Jacobean oak, with two drawers, and folding doors
below enclosing drawers, decorated with rectangular
panels in relief, inlaid in ebony and ivory, and with
baluster columns at the side--48 in. high, 46 in. wide.
Christie, November 27, 1903 44 2 0
Cabinet, Jacobean black oak, 5 ft. wide by 6 ft. 2 in. high,
fitted with cupboards above and below, with sunk
panelled folding doors, carved with busts of warriors in
high relief, the pilasters carved with mask heads and
caryatid figures, the whole carved with floral scrolls
and other devices. Capes, Dunn & Pilcher, Manchester,
December 9, 1903 57 0 0
Chairs, set of three Jacobean oak, with canework seats, and
panels in the backs, the borders carved with scrolls,
and on scroll legs with stretchers. Christie, January
29, 1904 52 10 0
Table, Cromwell, oak, on spiral legs. Dowell, Edinburgh,
March 12, 1904 11 0 6
Elbow-chair, oak, Scotch, back having carved wheel, "A. R.,
1663." Dowell, Edinburgh, March 12, 1904 60 18 0
Cabinet, Jacobean oak, with drawer and folding doors below,
with moulded rectangular panels and balusters in relief,
50 in. high, 46 in. wide. Christie, July 1, 1904 35 14 0
[1] By the kindness of the proprietors of the _Connoisseur_ these items
are given from their useful monthly publication, _Auction Sale Prices_.
[Illustration: CRADLE, TIME OF CHARLES I.
CARVED OAK; WITH LETTERS G. B. M. B. DATED 1641.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
IV
STUART OR JACOBEAN.
LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
[Illustration: (_After picture by Caspar Netscher_)
INTERIOR OF DUTCH HOUSE.
LATTER HALF OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.]
IV
STUART OR JACOBEAN. LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Charles II. 1660-1685.
James II. 1685-1688.
William and Mary. 1689-1694.
William 1694-1702.
Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723).
Grinling Gibbons (1648-1726).
1660. Bombay became a British possession. Importation of
Indo-Portuguese furniture.
1666. Great Fire in London. Much valuable furniture destroyed.
1675-1710. St. Paul's Cathedral built under Wren's direction.
1685. Edict of Nantes revoked. Spitalfields' silk industry
founded by French refugees.
[Illustration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_
CABINET OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II.
With exterior finely decorated with needlework.]
After the Civil War, when Charles II. came into his own again, the
furniture of the Restoration period most certainly took its colour from
the gay Court with which the Merry Monarch surrounded himself. The
cabinet which we reproduce has the royal arms embroidered on the cover,
and is a beautiful example of intricate cabinetmaking. The surface of
the piece is entirely covered with needlework. On the front stand a
cavalier and lady, hand-in-hand. On the side panel a cavalier is leading
a lady on horseback. On the back a man drives a laden camel, and on
another panel is shown the traveller being received by an old man in the
grounds of the same castle which appears all through the scenes. This
suggests the love-story of some cavalier and his lady. The casket is
worthy to have held the love-letters of the Chevalier Grammont to La
Belle Hamilton.
[Illustration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_
CABINET OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II.
Showing interior and nest of drawers.]
As is usual in pieces of this nature, the cabinet contains many artfully
devised hiding places. A tiny spring behind the lock reveals one secret
drawer, and another is hidden beneath the inkwell. There are in all five
of such secret compartments--or rather five of them have been at present
discovered--there may be more. The illustration of the cabinet open
shows what a nest of drawers it holds.
In the days of plots, when Titus Oates set half the nation by the ears,
when James solemnly warned the merry Charles of plots against his life,
provoking the cynical retort, "They will never kill me, James, to make
you king," secret drawers were no doubt a necessity to a fashionable
cabinet.
Catherine of Braganza, his queen, brought with her from Portugal many
sumptuous fashions in furniture, notably cabinets and chairs of Spanish
and Portuguese workmanship. The cavaliers scattered by the Civil War
returned, and as in their enforced exile on the Continent they had
cultivated foreign tastes, it was only natural that Dutch, French, and
Italian work found its way to this country and effected the character of
the early furniture of the Charles II. period. From Portugal came the
high-backed chair, having the back and the seat of leather cut with
fine design, and coloured or gilded. This leather work is of exquisite
character, and we reproduce a portion of a Portuguese chair-back of this
period to show the artistic excellence of the design. With Catherine of
Braganza came the marriage dower of Bombay, and from India, where the
settlement of Goa had been Portuguese for centuries, were sent to Europe
the carved chairs in ebony, inlaid in ivory, made by the native workmen
from Portuguese and Italian models, but enriched with pierced carving
and intricate inlay of ivory in a manner which only an Oriental
craftsman can produce. Having become fashionable in Portugal, they made
their appearance in England, and rapidly became popular. At Penshurst
Place there are several fine specimens of this Indo-Portuguese work,
with the spindles of the chair-backs of carved ivory; and in the
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford there is the well-known chair which was
presented by Charles II. to Elias Ashmole.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._
PORTUGUESE HIGH-BACK CHAIR.
Seat and back formed of two panels of old stamped leather, studded with
brass bosses.]
Both in this later Stuart period and in the days of the first Charles
inlay was considerably used to heighten the carved designs on oak
tables, chairs, and cabinets. The growth of commerce was responsible for
the introduction of many varieties of foreign woods, which were used to
produce finer effects in marquetry than the rude inlay of Elizabethan
days.
The Frontispiece to this volume represents a very handsome cabinet of
English workmanship, inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl. It is an
unusually fine example of the middle seventeenth century, and bears the
date 1653, the year when Cromwell forcibly dissolved the Rump Parliament
and was declared "Lord Protector of the Commonwealth."
Up till now oak--the hard, tough, English variety, and not the more
modern Baltic oak or American varieties now used--was the material for
the tool of the carver to work upon. With the introduction of more
flowing lines and curves, a wealth of detail, it is not unnatural to
find that softer woods began to find favour as more suitable to the new
decorations. The age of walnut was approaching when, under William the
Dutchman, and in the days of Queen Anne, a newer style of furniture was
to arise, made by craftsmen trained in the precepts of Grinling Gibbons
and following the conceptions of Sir Christopher Wren. It must be borne
in mind that in Italy the softer woods, such as lime, willow, sycamore,
chestnut, walnut, and cypress, had long been used for the delicate
carving during the height of the Renaissance and succeeding period, and
in France and Spain chestnut and walnut were favourite woods.
In the central panel of the Restoration chair-back, canework began to be
used instead of the Early Jacobean carving. Cane seats were frequent,
and loose cushions, attached by means of strings, covered these cane
panels and seats. The illustration (p. 122) shows a Jacobean chair of
this period.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Waring_
OAK CHEST OF DRAWERS. LATE JACOBEAN.
(Height, 3 ft. 3 in.; width, 3 ft.; depth, 1 ft. 10 in.)]
Belonging to these later Jacobean days are chests of drawers of oak with
finely panelled fronts. We illustrate two specimens, showing the old
brass metal work and the drop-handles. They are usually in two parts,
and are very deep from back to front. These are two typical examples of
this kind of furniture, which was in general use up to the days of Queen
Anne, when pieces are frequently found supported on a stand.
In the picture by Caspar Netscher, showing a Dutch lady at her toilet, a
good idea is conveyed of the kind of chair in use in Holland in the
latter half of the seventeenth century, upholstered in brocade, and the
rich tapestry tablecloth is a noticeable feature.
Before entering upon the last phase of Stuart furniture, and leaving the
days of Jacobean oak with its fine carving and handsome appearance--the
careful result of selecting the timber and splitting it to show the fine
figure of the wood--the attention of the reader should be drawn to the
fact that the appearance of the surface of furniture made subsequent to
this period begins to approach the results of the modern cabinetmaker
with his polishes and spirit varnishes and highly glazed panels and
table tops. The lover of old oak abominates varnish. The Elizabethan and
Jacobean carved oak furniture received only a preliminary coat of dark
varnish in its early days, mixed with oil and not spirit, which sank
into the wood and was not a surface polish, and was probably used to
preserve the wood. These old pieces, which have received centuries of
rubbing with beeswax and oil, have resulted in producing a rich, warm
tone which it is impossible to copy by any of the subtle arts known to
the modern forger. The collector should make himself thoroughly
familiar with the appearance of this old oak by a careful examination of
museum pieces, which, when once seen, cannot easily be forgotten.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Waring._
CHEST OF DRAWERS. PANELLED FRONT; LATE JACOBEAN.
(Height, 3 ft. 4 in.; width, 3 ft. 10 in.; depth, 1 ft. 10 in.)]
The Italian Renaissance furniture probably received an oil varnish, the
composition of which, like the varnish employed for old violins, has
been lost, but after centuries of careful usage and polishing, the
result, as seen in the fine specimens in the Victoria and Albert
Museum, is to give to them the appearance of bronze.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._
CHARLES II. OAK CHAIR.
Open back carved with shell and scrolled foliage. Stuffed seat covered
with old damask.]
There is little doubt that the Great Fire, which did such immense
destruction in London in 1666, in which some eighty-nine churches and
thirteen thousand houses were demolished, gave a considerable impetus to
the manufacture of furniture in the new style. It is not a pleasing
reflection to think how many fine pieces of Elizabethan and early
Jacobean furniture were consumed in the flames, including much of Inigo
Jones's work.
Under the genius of Sir Christopher Wren many of the city churches were
rebuilt, including St. Paul's Cathedral; and Greenwich Hospital and
Hampton Court were enlarged according to Wren's designs, with the
co-operation of the master woodcarver, Grinling Gibbons. In later
Jacobean days a splendour of style and an excellence of workmanship were
the outcome of the fine achievements in interior woodwork by Grinling
Gibbons and the school he founded.
The work of Grinling Gibbons consisted of most natural chains of flowers
and foliage, fruit, or birds or cherubs' heads, all faithfully
reproduced untrammelled by convention. St. Paul's Cathedral, Hampton
Court, Chatsworth, and Petworth House all contain work by him of
singular beauty. He trained many assistants to help him to carry on his
work, and one of them, Selden, lost his life in endeavouring to save the
carved room at Petworth from a destructive fire. The soft wood of the
lime was his favourite for detailed carving; for church panelling or
choir stalls, such as at St. Pauls, he employed oak; in his medallion
portraits or figure work he preferred pear or close-grained boxwood.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._
CHARLES II. OPEN HIGH-BACK OAK CHAIR.
Finely carved legs and stretcher. Stuffed seat covered in old Spanish
silk damask.]
The gradual development of the chair in the later Stuart days in the
direction of upholstered seat will be noticed in the specimens which are
given as illustrations. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by
Louis XIV. drove some thousands of French workmen--weavers,
glass-workers, and cabinetmakers--to this country. The silk-weaving
industry established by them at Spitalfields was one of the results, and
silk stuffs and brocades were used for covering the seats and backs of
furniture. At Hampton Court the crystal glass chandeliers were made by
French workmen, whom Wren was glad to employ to assist him to make that
palace a worthy rival to Versailles.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Harold G. Lancaster & Co._
CHARLES II. CHAIR.
Cane back and seat, finely carved legs and stretcher.]
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Fenton & Sons._
JAMES II. CHAIR.
With cane back and seat, and finely turned legs and stretcher.]
The chair here illustrated shows the commencement of the use of cane
work in place of wood for the panel in back and for the seat. The James
II. chair illustrated shows the later development of the cane-back. The
William and Mary chair (illustrated p. 125) shows how the cane-back was
retained later than the cane-seat, and how rich damask was employed for
the upholstered seat. It is interesting to see how the stretcher, which
in earlier days was of use to keep the feet raised from a wet or
draughty floor, has now become capable of elaborate ornamentation.
Genuine examples of chairs of Elizabethan and Early Stuart days show the
wear of the feet of the sitters. The same wear is observable in the
lower rail of old tables. In later Stuart days the stretcher has left
its place at the bottom, between the two front legs. Since its use as a
foot-rest, owing to carpeted floors, is gone, it is found either joining
the legs diagonally, or higher up as an ornament with carved front. In
the eighteenth century it has almost disappeared altogether.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Harold G. Lancaster & Co._
WILLIAM AND MARY CHAIR.
Cane back. Seat upholstered in damask. Finely carved legs and
stretcher.]
Mirrors began to take a prominent place in interior decoration. The
house of Nell Gwynne in St. James's Square had one room entirely lined
with glass mirrors. Hampton Court is full of mirrors, and they are
arranged with considerable skill. By an artful arrangement the mirror in
the King's Writing Closet is placed at such an angle that the reflection
of the whole suite of rooms may be seen in it. The looking glasses made
in this country in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
were the work of Venetian and French workmen. The plates had a bevel of
an inch in width, and these bevels followed the shape of the frame,
whether square or oval. A factory was established near Battersea which
produced some fine work of this nature. It will be noticed by the
collector who is observant that the bevels differ considerably from
modern bevels. The angle is not such an acute one, and sometimes the
edges are double bevelled. Many of the mirrors of the time of William
and Mary had an ornamented border of blue glass. Sometimes the mirror
was painted with festoons of flowers and with birds in French manner. In
imitation of Italian style the back of the mirror, in examples a little
later, was worked upon in the style of intaglio, or gem cutting, this
presenting a dull silver surface when seen from the front.
In picture frames, in chimneypieces, or in mirror frames the school of
Grinling Gibbons was still pre-eminent in carving. Now and again are
found traces of Italian or Louis XIV. influence, but as a whole the
English carver held his own, and the traditions of Grinling Gibbons were
maintained, and he did not easily allow himself to be carried away by
foreign elaborations.
When William of Orange came over in 1688 he brought with him many of his
own countrymen as military and civil advisers, and in their train came
artists and craftsmen, who introduced Dutch art into England, and
prepared the way for the more homely style of Queen Anne. Walnut
cabinets inlaid with various woods, and with ivory squares representing
miniature Dutch courtyards in the recesses of cabinets, had found their
way into England. With the period of William and Mary the cabriole leg
in chairs and in tables became popular--at first an English adaptation
of Dutch models--but later to develop into the glorious creations of the
age of walnut.
Blue delft jars and bowls, some especially made for William and Mary and
bearing the Royal arms and the cypher "W. M. R." and the Nassau motto,
"_Je main tien-dray_," still to be seen in the Queen's Gallery at
Hampton Court, were introduced, and it became fashionable to collect
china. Consequently the furniture in rooms had to be adapted for the
arrangement of this new class of ornament, and cabinets were largely
made with accommodation to receive vases and beakers and blue bowls on
their shelves. The earlier form have straight sides; but later,
especially in the next reign, they follow French designs, and are
swollen or _bombe_ at the sides.
[Illustration: UPPER PORTION OF CHAIR BACK OF CUT LEATHER.
PORTUGUESE. LATTER PART OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
With William, too, came over the plain walnut card-table. Clock cases of
the style termed "Grandfather" were of Dutch origin. The seats of chairs
were shaped and removable. The Dutch trade with the East Indies had
brought Oriental china and lac cabinets into Holland, and these, with
the coming of William, found their way into this country. Bureaux with a
number of secret recesses were introduced, and another Dutch importation
from the East was the now celebrated chair or table leg with claw and
ball foot. This came directly from China, and as in the case of delft,
which is the earthenware replica by the Dutch potter of fine blue
porcelain vases, from Nankin and Canton, where the Oriental perspective
and design have been slavishly copied, so with the furniture, the old
Chinese symbol of a dragon's foot holding a pearl, was repeated in the
furniture by Dutch cabinetmakers. Dutch marquetry made an early
appearance with simple ornamentation, sometimes enriched by ivory or
mother-of-pearl inlay, but later it developed into flowing floral
designs with figures, vases, fruit, butterflies, and elaborate scrolls
in various coloured woods, of which yellow was the predominant colour.
RECENT SALE PRICES.[1]
L s. d.
Armchair, Charles II., oak, carved with cherubs supporting
crowns, and with turned column supports. Christie,
November 20, 1903 15 4 6
Chairs, pair, Charles II., oak, with cane seats and oval
cane panels in the backs, spirally turned legs,
stretchers and rails at the back. Christie, March 4,
1904 63 0 0
Armchair, Charles II., oak, with high back carved with
arabesque foliage, with lions' masks and claw legs.
Christie, March 29, 1904 63 0 0
Chairs, pair, nearly similar, carved with foliage. Christie,
March 29, 1904 39 18 0
Armchair, Charles II., walnut-wood, of Italian design,
carved with masks, cane seat and panel in back; and
cushion, covered with old Flemish tapestry. Christie,
March 4, 1904 77 14 0
Chairs, three, Charles II., oak, with oval panels of
canework in the backs, the borders carved with foliage,
flowers, and Amorini, and surmounted by busts. Christie,
April 12, 1904 42 0 0
Chairs, set of twelve, Charles II., of chestnut-wood, with
high backs carved with rosette ornaments, scroll
foliage, and formal blossoms, on cabriole legs carved
with flowers and shaped stretchers. Christie, July 1,
1904 462 0 0
Chairs, pair of chestnut-wood, with high backs slightly
curved, pierced and carved at the top, and each inlaid
with two cane panels, on carved cabriole legs and shaped
stretchers, _temp._ James II. Christie, June 2,
1904 36 15 0
Cabinet, English marquetry, with folding doors, enclosing
twelve drawers and small cupboard, and with four drawers
below, the whole elaborately inlaid with vases of
tulips, roses, and other flowers, small figures, birds,
and insects, on a walnut-wood ground, 69 in. high, 47
in. wide, _temp._ William III. Christie, February 12,
1904 105 0 0
Mirror, in case of old English marquetry, inlaid with large
flowers and foliage in coloured woods and ivory on
walnut-wood ground, 32 in. by 28 in., _temp._ William
III. Christie, February 19, 1904 43 3 0
Chairs, set of six, walnut-wood, with high, open backs,
carved with foliage, the centre inlaid in marquetry, on
carved cabriole legs and eagles' claw-and-ball feet,
_temp._ William and Mary. Christie, June 2, 1904 315 0 0
Chairs, set of four, of similar form, open backs, carved
with shell, and gadroon ornament, and on carved cabriole
legs with hoof feet, the stretcher carved with a shell,
_temp._ William and Mary. Christie, June 2, 1904 105 0 0
Cabinet, William and Mary, marquetry, veneered with
walnut-wood, decorated with oval and shaped panels,
inlaid, upon ebony field, 42 in. wide. Christie, March
18, 1904 65 2 0
Cabinet on stand, ebony, Dutch, seventeenth century,
supported by six beaded columns with stage under and
mirror panels at back, the upper part composed of doors
carved in medallions; the centre doors enclose an
architectural hall, inlaid in ivory, &c., with gilt
columns and mirror panels, and fitted with secret
drawers, 5 ft. 3 in. wide, 6 ft. 6 in. high and 22 in.
deep. Jenner & Dell, Brighton, May 3, 1904 100 0 0
Corner cupboard, Dutch marquetry, 8 ft. high, having carved
crown-shaped cornice, with centre vase, four doors, with
bow fronts, inlaid with flowers and carved raised
beadings, the interior fitted. C. W. Provis & Son,
Manchester, May 9, 1904 32 0 0
Table, Dutch marquetry, with shaped front and two drawers
inlaid with sprays of flowers in coloured woods and
ivory, on cabriole legs, 32 in. wide. Christie, March 4,
1904 37 16 0
[1] By the kindness of the proprietors of the _Connoisseur_ these items
are given from their useful monthly publication, _Auction Sale Prices_.
V
QUEEN ANNE STYLE
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons_
QUEEN ANNE OAK SETTLE.
Scrolled arms, panelled back and loose cushioned seat. Width 6 feet.]
V
QUEEN ANNE STYLE
Anne 1702-1714.
1707. Act of Union between England and Scotland. First United
Parliament of Great Britain met.
1713. The National Debt had risen to L38,000,000.
With the age of Queen Anne domestic furniture departed from the ornate
characteristics which had marked previous epochs. The tendency in
English furniture seems to have made towards comfort and homeliness. The
English home may not have contained so many articles of luxury then as
does the modern house with its artistic embellishments, and a popular
taste rapidly ripening into a genuine love of the fine arts. "A modern
shopkeeper's house," says Lord Macaulay, "is as well furnished as the
house of a considerable merchant in Anne's reign." It is very doubtful
whether this statement holds good with regard to the days of Elizabeth
or the days of the early Stuarts, but there certainly seems to have been
in the dawn of the walnut period a curtailment of luxurious effects that
might well tempt a casual observer to generalise in the belief that the
days of Anne spelt dulness in art.
The settle, the illustration of which is given (p. 149), bearing the
date 1705, the year after Blenheim, shows that Jacobean models of early
days were not forgotten. The inlaid borders are very effective, and
there is nothing vulgar or offensive in the carving. It is simple in
style and the joinery is good. A walnut mirror, carved and gilded
(illustrated p. 137), exhibits the same solidity. There is nothing to
show that the glorious age of Louis XIV. had produced the most sumptuous
and richly decorated furniture the modern world had seen. The simplicity
of this carved mirror frame is as though art had begun and ended in
England, and probably it is this insularity of the furniture of this
period, and the almost stubborn neglect of the important movements going
on in France that makes the Queen Anne style of peculiar interest.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Harold G. Lancaster & Co._
QUEEN ANNE MIRROR FRAME.
WALNUT, CARVED AND GILDED.]
The oak desk illustrated (p. 139), dated 1696, is similar to the one at
Abbotsford, in which Sir Walter Scott mislaid his manuscript of
"Waverley," where it lay among his fishing-tackle for eleven years.
Another piece of the same period is the cupboard with carved doors and
drawers beneath (illustrated p. 140).
[Illustration: OAK DESK.
WITH INITIALS "L. G." AND DATED 1696.
(_From the collection of T. E. Price Stretche, Esq._)]
Some pretty effects were now obtained by veneering, which was largely
coming into practice. The pieces with the burr-walnut panels, marked in
a series of knot-like rings, are especially sought after. This pattern
was obtained from the gnarled roots of the walnut-tree, and applied in a
decorative manner with excellent result.
[Illustration: _By permission of T. E. Price Stretche, Esq._
OAK CUPBOARD. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Metal handles of drawers, eighteenth century.
(Height 6 ft. 7 in.; width, 4 ft. 6 in.)]
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Brown & Bool._
Cabinet closed; showing fine mottled figure of burr walnut.
Cabinet open; showing drop-down front and nest of drawers.
QUEEN ANNE WALNUT CABINET.]
[Illustration: DUTCH MARQUETRY CHAIR. QUEEN ANNE CHAIR.
_By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._]
[Illustration: QUEEN ANNE WALNUT ARMCHAIR. BLACK AND GOLD LAC CHAIR.
_By permission of Messrs. Waring._]
In the fine cabinet, the illustration of which is given (p. 141), the
style is typical of this period. The panels of the doors are of
exquisite finish, and show a beautiful walnut grain of peculiarly-pleasing
mottled appearance, and the mellow effect which time has given to this
specimen cannot be imitated with any degree of success in modern
replicas. In the illustration showing this piece when open, the rich
effect of the walnut in the middle panel may be noticed; the
contemporary brass handles to the nest of drawers are typical of this
style.
In chairs and in tables the elegant cabriole and colt's-foot legs were
now commonly adopted, and apparently, simple as is the construction, it
is only when Queen Anne pieces come to be repaired that it is found how
expensive an undertaking it is, owing to their ingenious construction
and the patient labour that was expended upon them, to produce
unpretentious and harmonious effects.
The assertively English spirit which was the dominant note of the
furniture of the early eighteenth century continued up till the early
years of the reign of George II. During this period, which covers half a
century, walnut was the wood mostly used in the manufacture of
furniture, and this walnut period shows a quiet dignity of style and a
simple proportion, reticently elegant and inornate without being severe.
The Queen Anne oak settle, with shaped panelled back and scroll arms,
which appears as the headpiece to this chapter, is especially
representative of the kind of piece in common use at the time; oak was
still employed in furniture of this nature. The legs show the newer
design, which was already departing from the elegant turning of earlier
Jacobean days.
In the Queen Anne chair which is illustrated in the group of chairs of
this period (p. 143), with open back and carved scroll foliage, the
cabriole legs are finely carved with lion masks and acanthus leaf
ornament, on lion's claw-and-ball feet. The seat is removable, and is
stuffed. Queen Anne chairs had high carved or plain splat backs. The
armchair in the same group shows this type of back. The Dutch
shell-pattern often appears either on back or at the juncture of the leg
with the seat. Chairs decorated in marquetry, in Dutch fashion, were in
use at this period. The one illustrated with the two above-mentioned
chairs is inlaid with birds and flowers, and the legs are cabriole. The
seat follows the growing usage of being loose and stuffed.
Dutch marquetry cabinets on stands, with straight uprights, were
imported and became a feature in the early eighteenth century
drawing-room (see illustration, p. 147). The earlier forms had straight
sides, but later, as the fashion grew, bureaux and large cabinets, with
the dimensions of a modern wardrobe, had taken their place, with _bombe_
or swelled sides, and profusely decorated in marquetry, with vases and
tulips and unnamed flowers of the cabinetmaker's invention, birds,
butterflies, and elaborate scrollwork, in which ivory and
mother-of-pearl were often employed as an inlay.
The stands on which the smaller cabinets stood were turned with the
spiral leg of Jacobean days, and later they have the cabriole leg, with
ball-and-claw or club feet. Cabinets and stands are frequently found
together, in which the one is much earlier than the other.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._
DUTCH MARQUETRY CABINET.
Fitted with shelves. Door richly inlaid with flowers and scrolled
foliage. On stand with turned legs and stretcher.]
Rich damask began to be used in the furnishing of hangings, and in some
of the palatial furniture of the period the looms of Spitalfields
produced the coverings. In Queen Anne's bedroom the hangings were of
rich silk velvet.
Clocks of the variety termed "Grandfather," either with fine walnut
cases or inlaid with marquetry, came into more general use in the days
of Queen Anne. An elaboration of carving on grandfather clock cases as
a rule is to be regarded with suspicion. Plain panels are not so
saleable as carved ones; the want is supplied, and many fine old clock
cases are spoiled by having the touch of a modern hand. The clock
illustrated is an untouched specimen. The walnut case is a fine example
of Queen Anne marquetry work. The works are by Sam Barrow, Hermitage
Bridge, London. The steel dial is richly mounted with cupids, masks, and
scrolls in chased brass.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._
QUEEN ANNE CLOCK.
Walnut case with marquetry work.]
Towards the middle of the eighteenth century and later, cabinets of
Dutch importation, and Japanese or Chinese in origin, were extensively
in use. In smaller numbers they had, without doubt, in the days of
William and Mary, been introduced, but it was not until the commerce
with the East had been well established that they became popular. In the
cabinet illustrated (p. 150) the cabinet-work is English, the drawers
are all dovetailed in the English manner, but the lacquered doors come
from the East. It is an especially interesting example, as the
pagoda-like superstructure is not often found complete.
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Waring._
QUEEN ANNE OAK SETTLE. DATED 1705.
With borders in marquetry.
(Width, 5 ft.)]
[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Brown & Bool._
OLD LAC CABINET.
ENGLISH; EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.]
Lacquered boxes had been sent home from the East by English, French,
and Dutch merchants, for many years, and with characteristic ingenuity
the French cabinetmakers had employed these as panels for their
furniture, but the supply not being sufficient they had attempted a
lacquer of their own, which is dealt with in a subsequent chapter on
Louis XIV. furniture. Dutch lacquer-work was a similar attempt on the
part of the craftsman of Holland to equal the Oriental originals.
[Illustration: LAC CABINET. MIDDLE OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
(Height, 2 ft. 5 in.; width, 2 ft. 8-1/2 in.; depth, 1 ft. 6-1/2 in.;
height of stand, 2 ft. 9 in.)
(_From the collection of W. G. Honey, Esq., Cork._)]
[Illustration: _W. G. Honey, Esq., Cork._
FRONT OF LAC CABINET (ILLUSTRATED), WITH DOORS CLOSED.]
In the early eighteenth century the English craftsman tried his skill at
lacquered furniture, it is true not with very successful results, but it
is interesting to see what he has left as attempts. The illustration (p.
143) of a chair in black and gold lac is of English manufacture. The
splat back and the cabriole leg give the date, and the specimen is a
noteworthy example. Another piece of the first half of the eighteenth
century period is the lac cabinet illustrated (p. 151). The metal hinges
and corners of this are of chased brass and of English or Dutch
workmanship. The shape and design of the drawer handles are frequently
found in nests of drawers of this period, and there was a singular
fondness shown at this time for numbers of small drawers and
pigeon-holes in furniture. The now familiar bureau with bookcase above,
and drop-down, sloping front covering drawers and recesses, dates from
this time. The escutcheon of the lac cabinet is illustrated in detail as
a tailpiece to this chapter to show the particular style of work found
on the locks and hinges and drawer-handles of pieces of this nature. As
has been said before, it is especially useful to the collector to make
himself thoroughly familiar with these details of the various periods.
It may be readily imagined that at a time when cards were the passion of
everybody in society, the card-table became a necessary piece of
furniture in eighteenth-century days, just before the dawn of the great
age of mahogany, when Chippendale, and the school that followed him,
eagerly worked in the wood which Raleigh discovered. They produced
countless forms, both original and adapted from the French, which have
enriched the _repertoire_ of the cabinetmaker and which have brought
fame to the man whose designs added lustre to the reputation of English
furniture.
RECENT SALE PRICES.[1]
L s. d.
Chairs, six, mahogany, single, and one armchair to match,
with shaped legs and openwork backs (early eighteenth
century). F. W. Kidd, & Neale & Son, Nottingham,
November 11, 1903 25 4 0
Chairs, eight Queen Anne, walnut-wood, with high backs, on
slightly cabriole legs, with stretchers. Christie,
December 11, 1903 33 12 0
Armchair, Queen Anne, large walnut-wood, carved with
foliage, the arms terminating in masks, on carved
cabriole legs and lion's-claw feet. Christie, March 29,
1904 50 8 0
Cabinet, Queen Anne, the lower part fitted with escritoire,
the upper part with numerous drawers, shaped cornice
above, 3 ft. 6 in. by 7 ft. 6 in. Puttick & Simpson,
April 12, 1904 34 0 0
Chairs, four Queen Anne, walnut-wood, with interlaced backs
carved with rosettes and a shell at the top, on cabriole
legs carved with shells and foliage; and a pair of
chairs made to match. Christie, July 8, 1904 44 2 0
[1] By the kindness of the proprietors of the _Connoisseur_, these items
are given from their useful monthly publication, _Auction Sale Prices_.
[Illustration: _W. G. Honey Esq., Cork._
CHASED BRASS ESCUTCHEON OF LAC CABINET (ILLUSTRATED).
(Width, 10-1/2 in.)]
VI
FRENCH FURNITURE.
THE PERIOD OF
LOUIS XIV
[Illustration: _By kind permission, from the collection of Dr. Sigerson,
Dublin._
CASSETTE. FRENCH; SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Containing many secret drawers.]
VI
FRENCH FURNITURE. THE PERIOD OF LOUIS XIV
LOUIS XIV. (1643-1715), covering English periods of Civil War,
Commonwealth, Charles II., James II., William and Mary, and
Anne.
1619-1683. Colbert, Minister of Finance and patron of the arts.
1661-1687. Versailles built.
1662. Gobelins Tapestry Works started by Colbert; Le Brun first
director (1662-1690).
1664. Royal Academy of Painting, Architecture, and Sculpture
founded by Colbert, to which designs of furniture were admitted.
In order to arrive at a sense of proportion as to the value of English
furniture and its relation to contemporary art in Europe, it is
necessary to pass under hasty examination the movements that were
taking place in France in the creation of a new style in furniture under
the impulses of the epoch of the _Grande Monarque_. To estimate more
correctly the styles of the Early Jacobean and of the later English
furniture extending to the days of Chippendale and Sheraton, it must be
borne in mind that England was not always so insular in art as the days
of Queen Anne would seem to indicate. It is impossible for the
cabinetmakers and the craftsmen to have utterly ignored the splendours
of France. Louis XIV. had a long and eventful reign, which extended from
the days when Charles I. was marshalling his forces to engage in civil
war with the Parliament down to the closing years of Queen Anne. During
his minority it cannot be said that Louis XIV. influenced art in
furniture, but from 1661, contemporary with Charles II., when he assumed
the despotic power that he exercised for half a century, his love of
sumptuousness, and his personal supervision of the etiquette of a formal
Court, in which no detail was omitted to surround royalty with
magnificence, made him the patron of the fine arts, and gave his Court
the most splendid prestige in Europe.
As a headpiece to this chapter we give a very fine example of a
_cassette_, or strong box, of the time of Louis XIV. It is securely
bound with metal bands of exquisite design. The interior is fitted with
a number of secret drawers.
In the illustration (p. 159) it will be seen that the chair of the
period of Louis Treize differed in no great respects from the furniture
under the early Stuarts in this country. This design is by the
celebrated Crispin de Passe, and the date is when Charles I. raised his
standard at Nottingham, a year prior to the birth of Louis XIV.
[Illustration: CHAIR OF PERIOD OF LOUIS XIII.
DESIGNED BY CRISPIN DE PASSE, 1642.]
During the reign of Louis XIV., tables, armoires, and cabinets were
designed on architectural principles. Under the guiding influence of
Colbert, Minister of Finance, architects and cabinetmakers were selected
to design furniture for the Tuileries, the Louvre, and Fontainebleau. In
the early years of the reign furniture was made with severe lines, but
gradually it became the practice to fashion larger pieces. Immense
tables with sumptuous decoration, on gilded claw-feet, and having tops
inlaid with _pietra-dura_ intended to carry bronze groups and porphyry
vases, were made at the Gobelins factory, under the direction of the
celebrated Le Brun. This artist loved grandeur and gorgeousness in
decoration, and in accord with the personal ideas of Louis XIV., who
had an inordinate love for perfect symmetry, huge pieces of furniture
were built in magnificent manner to please the taste of the _Grande
Monarque_. Men of genius were employed in the manufacture of tapestries,
of furniture, and of metal mountings, and the interior decorations of
the palaces were designed in harmony with the furniture intended for use
therein.
The most illustrious among the cabinetmakers was Andre Charles Boule,
who was made, in 1673, by letters patent, _Premier ebeniste de la maison
royale_. The work of this artist in wood has attained a worldwide
celebrity, and his name even has been corrupted into "buhl" to denote a
particular class of work which he perfected. His most notable
productions are the finely chased ormolu, in which he was an
accomplished worker, and the inlay of tortoiseshell and brass, sometimes
varied with ebony or silver, which have remained the wonder of
succeeding generations.
Boule was born in 1642, and lived till 1732. The first Boule, termed
"_Le Pere_," he was succeeded by no less than four sons and nephews of
the same name, in addition to his pupils who carried on his traditions
at the Boule _atelier_, and a crowd of later imitators, even up to the
present day, have followed his style in lavish decoration without being
possessed of his skill.
In Italy and in France marquetry of considerable delicacy and of fine
effect had been produced long before the epoch of Louis XIV., but it was
Boule who introduced a novelty into marquetry by his veneered work,
which rapidly grew into favour till it developed into cruder colouring
in inlays and unbridled licence in ornamentation, to which its
originator would never have given countenance.
The pieces of furniture usually associated with him are massive
structures of ebony with their surfaces covered with tortoiseshell, in
which are inlaid arabesques, scrolls, and foliage in thin brass or other
metal. Upon the surface of this metal inlay further ornamentation was
chased with the burin. This alternation of tortoiseshell and brass forms
a brilliant marquetry. Into the chased designs on the metal a black
enamel was introduced to heighten the effect, which was further
increased by portions of the wood beneath the semi-transparent
tortoiseshell being coloured black or brown or red; sometimes a
bluish-green was used. Later imitators, not content with the beautiful
effect of tortoiseshell, used horn in parts, which is more transparent,
and they did not fear the garish effect of blue or vermilion underneath.
Boule's creations, set in massive mounts and adornments of masks and
bas-reliefs, cast in gilt-bronze and chased, were pieces of furniture of
unsurpassed magnificence, and especially designed for the mirrored
splendours of the _salons_ of Versailles.
In boule-work all parts of the marquetry are held down by glue to the
bed, usually of oak, the metal being occasionally fastened down by small
brass pins, which are hammered flat and chased over so as to be
imperceptible.
In order to economise the material, Boule, when his marquetry became in
demand, employed a process which led to the use of the technical terms,
_boule_ and _counter-boule_. The brass and the tortoiseshell were cut
into thin sheets. A number of sheets of brass were clamped together with
the same number of sheets of tortoiseshell. The design was then cut out,
the result being that each sheet of tortoiseshell had a design cut out
of it, into which the same design from one of the sheets of brass would
exactly fit. Similarly each sheet of brass had a design cut out of it
into which a corresponding piece of tortoiseshell would fit. That in
which the ground is of tortoiseshell and the inlaid portion is brass, is
considered the better, and is called _boule_, or the _premiere partie_.
That in which the groundwork is brass and the design inlaid is of
tortoiseshell, is called _counter-boule_ or _contre-partie_. This latter
is used for side panels.
An examination of the specimens preserved in the Louvre, at the Jones
Bequest at the Victoria and Albert Museum, or in the Wallace Collection
will enable the student to see more readily how this practice works out
in the finished result. In the illustration (p. 163) of the two
pedestals the effect of the employment of _boule_ and _counter-boule_ is
shown.
[Illustration: (_a._) (_b._)
PEDESTALS SHOWING BOULE AND COUNTER-BOULE WORK.
(_Wallace Collection._)
(_a_) Boule or _premiere partie_.
(_b_) Counter-boule or _contre-partie_.]