I will proceed to the second division of furniture, cabinets,
bookcases, and other standing objects, which are more or less
immovable. But shelves and china trays must be placed in secure parts
of the room, if they are not actually fastened to the wall. The former
must be strong to support the great weights laid upon them, and the
supports or framework, which is all that would be seen, may be carved
or decorated with surface or applied metal ornament. On a large scale,
fittings of this kind belong rather to architectural woodwork. China
holders, whether placed on the ground or fixed against a wall, are
properly treated with shelves quaintly shaped on plain and light,
pierced galleries or gilt decorations corresponding with the apparent
lightness of pieces of porcelain. The wood and lac work cabinets of
the Chinese; and the complicated, but not ungraceful, gilt mirror
frames and flourishing acanthus work of the Italians, French, and
Germans, of the last century, seem specially suited for showing off
this gay and fragile material. The collector proper will probably
place his treasures under glass, and with little regard to the
framework of his cases. Here china and china stands are treated only
as decorations.
As to cabinets, they are the most precious, if not the most useful of
all pieces of furniture. They have generally been intended to hold
family treasures, are not required to be moved, and have therefore
been the richest and most decorated objects in the room. Cabinets are
the legitimate descendants of the chests of former days containing
bridal outfits and trinkets, or plate, jewellery, and other valuables.
They were carried from town to country, from grange to castle. About
the beginning of the sixteenth century, the personal habits of great
men became less nomad, and their chests were no longer liable to be
packed and moved away. These receptacles were mounted on stands at
which height the lids could not be lifted, and doors were substituted.
Drawers took the place of shelves or compartments, and every sort of
ingenuity was applied to make these pieces of furniture quaint and
splendid inside and out.
As to shape, it is contrary to their purpose of convenience and
interior capacity, to make cabinets, cupboards, or other receptacles,
with showy and spreading architectural details, such as cornices,
architraves, columns, pediments, and the like. All these parts, which
are laborious and costly in construction, are so many additions to its
size, and make no more room inside to compensate for this expenditure.
Cabinets should, in propriety, be as big and convenient inside as
their size would lead us to expect.
On the other hand, the many fine examples made in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries in this country, Holland, Germany, France or
elsewhere, have been generally intended for rooms larger, higher, and
with fewer pieces of furniture in them than those of our modern
houses, not to speak of the massiveness of fireplaces and fittings
with which they were in character. It is their age, and the
connection, which we cannot help tracing, with old houses and bygone
generations which give architectural cabinets an interest now.
In construction, the skill of the cabinet maker will be shown in the
neat and convenient arrangement of drawers of various depths and
sizes, shelves or repositories, so contrived as to turn the entire
internal space to account. The most curious contrivances are often
found in old German, English, and French cabinets, bureaux,
secrA(C)taires, and other varieties of this kind of furniture. Pediments,
capitals of columns, and other parts of architectural fronts are made
to open, and secret drawers stowed away with an ingenuity almost
humorous. It is upon the fronts and stands that the skill of great
masters of the craft has been bestowed. The large wardrobes, or
"armoires," of Boulle are examples of great inventive and designing
power, as well as the marquetry of Riesener and David, and the
chiselled metal-work of Berain, GouthiA"re, and that of many English
artists.
As in past times, and so in our own, it is on cabinets that the real
triumphs of the cabinet maker's art are displayed.