Jacobean furniture.
English Home Life in the Reign of James I.--Sir Henry Wootton
quoted--Inigo Jones and his work--Ford Castle--Chimney Pieces in South
Kensington Museum--Table in the Carpenters' Hall---Hall of the Barbers'
Company--The Charterhouse--Time of Charles I.--Furniture at
Knole--Eagle House, Wimbledon, Mr. Charles Eastlake--Monuments at
Canterbury and Westminster--Settles, Couches, and Chairs of the Stuart
period--Sir Paul Pindar's House--Cromwellian Furniture--The
Restoration--Indo-Portuguese Furniture--Hampton Court Palace--Evelyn's
description--The Great Fire of London--Hall of the Brewers'
Company--Oak Panelling of the time--Grinling Gibbons and his work--The
Edict of Nantes--Silver Furniture at Knole--William III. and Dutch
influence--Queen Anne--Sideboards, Bureaus, and Grandfather's
Clocks--Furniture at Hampton Court.
[Illustration]
In the chapter on "Renaissance" the great Art revival in England has been
noticed; in the Elizabethan oak work of chimney pieces, panelling, and
furniture, are to be found varying forms of the free classic style which
the Renaissance had brought about. These fluctuating changes in fashion
continued in England from the time of Elizabeth until the middle of the
eighteenth century, when, as will be shewn presently, a distinct
alteration in the design of furniture took place.
The domestic habits of Englishmen were getting more established. We have
seen how religious persecution during preceding reigns, at the time of the
Reformation, had encouraged private domestic life of families, in the
smaller rooms and apart from the gossiping retainer, who might at any time
bring destruction upon the household by giving information about items of
conversation he had overheard. There is a passage in one of Sir Henry
Wootton's letters, written in 1600, which shews that this home life was
now becoming a settled characteristic of his countrymen.
"Every man's proper mansion house and home, being the theatre of his
hospitality, the seate of his selfe fruition, the comfortable part of his
own life, the noblest of his son's inheritance, a kind of private
princedom, nay the possession thereof an epitome of the whole world, may
well deserve by these attributes, according to the degree of the master,
to be delightfully adorned."
[Illustration: Oak Chimney Piece in Sir Walter Raleigh's House, Youghal,
Ireland. Said to be the work of a Flemish Artist who was brought over for
the purpose of executing this and other carved work at Youghal.]
Sir Henry Wootton was ambassador in Venice in 1604, and is said to have
been the author of the well-known definition of an ambassador's calling,
namely, "an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country's good." This
offended the piety of James I., and caused him for some time to be in
disgrace. He also published some 20 years later "Elements of
Architecture," and being an antiquarian and man of taste, sent home many
specimens of the famous Italian wood carving.
It was during the reign of James I. and that of his successor that Inigo
Jones, our English Vitruvius, was making his great reputation; he had
returned from Italy full of enthusiasm for the Renaissance of Palladio
and his school, and of knowledge and taste gained by a diligent study of
the ancient classic buildings of Rome; his influence would be speedily
felt in the design of woodwork fittings, for the interiors of his
edifices. There is a note in his own copy of Palladio, which is now in the
library of Worcester College, Oxford, which is worth quoting:--
"In the name of God: Amen. The 2 of January, 1614, I being in Rome
compared these desines following, with the Ruines themselves.--INIGO
JONES."
[Illustration: Chimney Piece in Byfleet House. Early Jacobean.]
In the following year he returned from Italy on his appointment as King's
surveyor of works, and until his death in 1652 was full of work, though
unfortunately for us, much that he designed was never carried out, and
much that he carried out has been destroyed by fire. The Banqueting Hall
of Whitehall, now Whitehall Chapel; St. Paul's, Covent Garden; the old
water gate originally intended as the entrance to the first Duke of
Buckingham's Palace, close to Charing Cross; Nos. 55 and 56, on the south
side of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn; and one or two monuments and
porches, are amongst the examples that remain to us of this great master's
work; and of interiors, that of Ashburnham House is left to remind us,
with its quiet dignity of style, of this great master. It has been said in
speaking of the staircase, plaster ornament, and woodwork of this
interior, "upon the whole is set the seal of the time of Charles I." As
the work was probably finished during that King's reign, the impression
intended to be conveyed was that after wood carving had rather run riot
towards the end of the sixteenth century, we had now in the interior
designed by Inigo Jones, or influenced by his school, a more quiet and
sober style.
[Illustration: The King's Chamber, Ford Castle.]
The above woodcut shews a portion of the King's room in Ford Castle, which
still contains souvenirs of Flodden Field--according to an article in the
_Magazine of Art_. The room is in the northernmost tower, which still
preserves externally the stern, grim character of the border fortress; and
the room looks towards the famous battle-field. The chair shews a date
1638, and there is another of Dutch design of about fifty or sixty years
later; but the carved oak bedstead, with tapestry hangings, and the oak
press, which the writer of the article mentions as forming part of the old
furniture of the room, scarcely appear in the illustration.
Mr. Hungerford Pollen tells us that the majority of so-called Tudor houses
were actually built during the reign of James I., and this may probably be
accepted as an explanation of the otherwise curious fact of there being
much in the architecture and woodwork of this time which would seem to
have belonged to the earlier period.
The illustrations of wooden chimney-pieces will show this change. There
are in the South Kensington Museum some three or four chimney-pieces of
stone, having the upper portions of carved oak, the dates of which have
been ascertained to be about 1620; these were removed from an old house in
Lime Street, City, and give us an idea of the interior decoration of a
residence of a London merchant. The one illustrated is somewhat richer
than the others, the columns supporting the cornice of the others being
almost plain pillars with Ionic or Doric capitals, and the carving of the
panels of all of them is in less relief, and simpler in character, than
those which occur in the latter part of Elizabeth's time.
[Illustration: Carved Oak Centre Table. _In the Hall of the Carpenters'
Company._]
The earliest dated piece of Jacobean furniture which has come under the
writer's observation is the octagonal table belonging to the Carpenters'
Company. The illustration, taken from Mr. Jupp's book referred to in the
last chapter, hardly does the table justice; it is really a very handsome
piece of furniture, and measures about 3 feet 3 inches in diameter. In the
spandrils of the arches between the legs are the letters R.W., G.I., J.R.,
and W.W., being the initials of Richard Wyatt, George Isack, John Reeve,
and William Willson, who were Master and Wardens of the Company in 1606,
which date is carved in two of the spandrils. While the ornamental legs
shew some of the characteristics of Elizabethan work, the treatment is
less bold, the large acorn-shaped member has become more refined and
attenuated, and the ornament is altogether more subdued. This is a
remarkable specimen of early Jacobean furniture, and is the only one of
the shape and kind known to the writer; it is in excellent preservation,
save that the top is split, and it shews signs of having been made with
considerable skill and care.
[Illustration: Carved Oak Chair. From Abingdon Park.
Carved Oak Chair. In the Carpenters' Hall
_From Photos in the S. Kensington Museum Album._ Early XVII. Century.
English.]
The Science and Art Department keep for reference an album containing
photographs, not only of many of the specimens in the different museums
under its control, but also of some of those which have been lent for a
temporary exhibition. The illustration of the above two chairs is taken
from this source, the album having been placed at the writer's disposal by
the courtesy of Mr. Jones, of the Photograph Department. The left-hand
chair, from Abingdon Park, is said to have belonged to Lady Barnard,
Shakespeare's grand-daughter, and the other may still be seen in the Hall
of the Carpenters' Company.
[Illustration: Oak Chimney Piece. Removed from an old house in Lime
Street, City. (_South Kensington Museum._) Period: James I.]
In the Hall of the Barbers' Company in Monkswell Street, the Court room,
which is lighted with an octagonal cupola, was designed by Inigo Jones as
a Theatre of Anatomy, when the Barbers and Surgeons were one
corporation. There are some three or four tallies of this period in the
Hall, having four legs connected by stretchers, quite plain; the moulded
edges of the table tops are also without enrichment. These plain oak
slabs, and also the stretchers, have been renewed, but in exactly the same
style as the original work; the legs, however, are the old ones, and are
simple columns with plain turned capitals and bases. Other tables of this
period are to be found in a few old country mansions; there is one in
Longleat, which, the writer has been told, has a small drawer at the end,
to hold the copper coins with which the retainers of the Marquis of Bath's
ancestors used to play a game of shovel penny. In the Chapter House in
Westminster Abbey, there is also one of these plain substantial James I.
tables, which is singular in being nearly double the width of those which
were made at this time. As the Chapter House was, until comparatively
recent years, used as a room for the storage of records, this table was
probably made, not as a dining table, but for some other purpose requiring
greater width.
[Illustration: Oak Sideboard in the S. Kensington Museum. Period: William
III.]
In the chapter on Renaissance there was an allusion to Charterhouse,
which was purchased for its present purpose by Thomas Sutton in 1611, and
in the chapel may be seen to-day the original communion table placed there
by the founder. It is of carved oak, with a row of legs running lengthways
underneath the middle, and four others at the corners; these, while being
cast in the simple lines noticed in the tables in the Barbers' Hall, and
the Chapter House, Westminster Abbey, are enriched by carving from the
base to the third of the height of the leg, and the frieze of the table is
also carved in low relief. The rich carved wood screen which supports the
organ loft is also of Jacobean work.
There is in the South Kensington Museum a carved oak chest, with a centre
panel representing the Adoration of the Magi, about this date, 1615-20; it
is mounted on a stand which has three feet in front and two behind, much
more primitive and quaint than the ornate supports of Elizabethan carving,
while the only ornament on the drawer fronts which form the frieze of the
stand are moulded panels, in the centre of each of which is a turned knob
by which to open the drawer. This chest and the table which forms its
stand were probably not intended for each other. The illustration on the
previous page shows the stand, which is a good representation of the
carving of this time, i.e., early seventeenth century. The round backed
arm chair which the Museum purchased last year from the Hailstone
collection, though dated 1614, is really more Elizabethan in design.
There is no greater storehouse for specimens of furniture in use during
the Jacobean period than Knole, that stately mansion of the Sackville
family, then the property of the Earls of Dorset. In the King's Bedroom,
which is said to have been specially prepared and furnished for the visit
of King James I., the public, owing to the courtesy and generous spirit of
the present Lord Sackville, can still see the bed, originally of crimson
silk, but now faded, elaborately embroidered with gold. It is said to have
cost £8,000, and the chairs and seats, which are believed to have formed
part of the original equipment of the room, are in much the same position
as they then occupied.
In the carved work of this furniture we cannot help thinking the hand of
the Venetian is to be traced, and it is probable they were either imported
or copied from a pattern brought over for the purpose. A suite of
furniture of that time appears to have consisted of six stools and two arm
chairs, almost entirely covered with velvet, having the X form supports,
which, so far as the writer's investigations have gone, appear to have
come from Venice. In the "Leicester" gallery at Knole there is a portrait
of the King;, painted by Mytens, seated on such a chair, and just below
the picture is placed the chair which is said to be identical with the one
portrayed. It is similar to the one reproduced on page 100 from a drawing
of Mr. Charles Eastlake's.
[Illustration: Seats at Knole. Covered with Crimson Silk Velvet. Period:
James I.]
In the same gallery also are three sofas or settees upholstered with
crimson velvet, and one of these has an accommodating rack, by which
either end can be lowered at will, to make a more convenient lounge.
[Illustration: Arm Chair. Covered with Velvet, Ringed with Fringe and
studded with Copper Nails. Early XVII. Century. (_From a Drawing of the
Original at Knole, by Mr. Charles Eastlake._)]
This excellent example of Jacobean furniture has been described and
sketched by Mr. Charles Eastlake in "Hints on Household Taste." He says:
"The joints are properly 'tenoned' and pinned together in such a manner as
to ensure its constant stability. The back is formed like that of a chair,
with a horizontal rail only at its upper edge, but it receives additional
strength from the second rail, which is introduced at the back of the
seat." In Marcus Stone's well-known picture of "The Stolen Keys," this is
the sofa portrayed. The arm chair illustrated above is part of the same
suite of furniture. The furniture of another room at Knole is said to have
been presented by King James to the first Earl of Middlesex, who had
married into the Dorset family. The author has been furnished with a
photograph of this room; and the illustration prepared from this will give
the reader a better idea than a lengthy description.
[Illustration: The "Spangle" Bedroom At Knole. The Furniture of this room
was presented by James I. to the Earl of Middlesex. (_Front a Photo by Mr.
Corke, of Sevenoaks._)]
It seems from the Knole furniture, and a comparison of the designs with
those of some of the tables and other woodwork produced during the same
reign, bearing the impress of the more severe style of Inigo Jones, that
there were then in England two styles of decorative furniture. One of
these, simple and severe, showing a reaction from the grotesque freedom of
Elizabethan carving, and the other, copied from Venetian ornamental
woodwork, with cupids on scrolls forming the supports of stools, having
these ornamental legs connected by stretchers the design of which is, in
the case of those in the King's Bedchamber at Knole, a couple of cupids in
a flying attitude holding up a crown. This kind of furniture was generally
gilt, and under the black paint of those at Knole are still to be seen
traces of the gold.
Mr. Eastlake visited Knole and made careful examination and sketches of
the Jacobean furniture there, and has well described and illustrated it in
his book just referred to; he mentions that he found a slip of paper
tucked beneath the webbing of a settle there, with an inscription in Old
English characters which fixed the date of some of the furniture at 1620.
In a letter to the writer on this subject, Mr. Lionel Sackville West
confirms this date by referring to the heirloom book, which also bears out
the writer's opinion that some of the more richly-carved furniture of this
time was imported from Italy.
In the Lady Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral there is a monument of Dean
Boys, who died in 1625. This represents the Dean seated in his library, at
a table with turned legs, over which there is a tapestry cover. Books line
the walls of the section of the room shown in the stone carving; it
differs little from the sanctum of a literary man of the present day.
There are many other monuments which represent furniture of this period,
and amongst the more curious is that of a child of King James I., in
Westminster Abbey, close to the monument of Mary Queen of Scots. The child
is sculptured about life size, in a carved cradle of the time.
In Holland House, Kensington,[9] which is a good example of a Jacobean
mansion, there is some oak enrichment of the seventeenth century, and also
a garden bench, with its back formed of three shells and the legs shaped
and ornamented with scroll work. Horace Walpole mentions this seat, and
ascribes the design to Francesco Cleyn, who worked for Charles I. and some
of the Court.
There is another Jacobean house of considerable interest, the property of
Mr. T.G. Jackson, A.R.A. An account of it has been written by him, and was
read to some members of the Surrey Archaeological Society, who visited
Eagle House, Wimbledon, in 1890. It appears to have been the country seat
of a London merchant, who lived early in the seventeenth century. Mr.
Jackson bears witness to the excellence of the workmanship, and expresses
his opinion that the carved and decorated enrichments were executed by
native and not foreign craftsmen. He gives an illustration in his pamphlet
of the sunk "Strap Work," which, though Jacobean in its date, is also
found in the carved ornament of Elizabeth's time.
Another relic of this time is the panel of carved oak in the lych gate of
St. Giles', Bloomsbury, dated 1638. This is a realistic representation of
"The Resurrection," and when the writer examined it a few weeks ago, it
seemed in danger of perishing for lack of a little care and attention.
It is very probable that had the reign of Charles I. been less troublous,
this would have been a time of much progress in the domestic arts in
England. The Queen was of the Medici family, Italian literature was in
vogue, and Italian artists therefore would probably have been encouraged
to come over and instruct our workmen. The King himself was an excellent
mechanic, and boasted that he could earn his living at almost any trade
save the making of hangings. His father had established the tapestry works
at Mortlake; he himself had bought the Raffaele Cartoons to encourage the
work--and much was to be hoped from a monarch who had the judgment to
induce a Vandyke to settle in England. The Civil War, whatever it has
achieved for our liberty as subjects, certainly hindered by many years our
progress as an artistic people.
But to consider some of the furniture of this period in detail. Until the
sixteenth century was well advanced, the word "table" in our language
meant an index, or pocket book (tablets), or a list, not an article of
furniture; it was, as we have noticed in the time of Elizabeth, composed
of boards generally hinged in the middle for convenience of storage, and
supported on trestles which were sometimes ornamented by carved work. The
word trestle, by the way, is derived from the "threstule," i.e.,
three-footed supports, and these three-legged stools and benches formed in
those days the seats for everyone except the master of the house. Chairs
were, as we have seen, scarce articles; sometimes there was only one, a
throne-like seat for an honoured guest or for the master or mistress of
the house, and doubtless our present phrase of "taking the chair" is a
survival of the high place a chair then held amongst the household gods of
a gentleman's mansion. Shakespeare possibly had the boards and trestles in
his mind when, about 1596, he wrote in "Romeo and Juliet"--
"Come, musicians, play!
A hall! a hall! give room and foot it, girls,
More light, ye knaves, and turn the tables up."
And as the scene in "King Henry the Fourth" is placed some years earlier
than that of "Romeo and Juliet," it is probable that "table" had then its
earlier meaning, for the Archbishop of York says:--
"... The King is weary
Of dainty and such picking grievances;
And, therefore, will he wipe his tables clean
And keep no tell-tale to his memory."
Mr. Maskell, in his handbook on "Ivories," tells us that the word "table"
was also used in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to denote the
religious carvings and paintings in churches; and he quotes Chaucer to
show that the word was used to describe the game of "draughts."
"They dancen and they play at chess and tables."
Now, however, at the time of which we are writing, chairs were becoming
more plentiful and the table was a definite article of furniture. In
inventories of the time and for some twenty years previous, as has been
already noticed in the preceding chapter, we find mention of "joyned
table," framed table, "standing" and "dormant" table, and the word "board"
had gradually disappeared, although it remains to us as a souvenir of the
past in the name we still give to any body of men meeting for the
transaction of business, or in its more social meaning, expressing
festivity. The width of these earlier tables had been about 30 inches, and
guests sat on one side only, with their backs to the wall, in order, it
may be supposed, to be the more ready to resist any sudden raid, which
might be made on the house, during the relaxation of the supper hour, and
this custom remained long after there was any necessity for its
observance.
In the time of Charles the First the width was increased, and a
contrivance was introduced for doubling the area of the top when required,
by two flaps which drew out from either end, and, by means of a
wedge-shaped arrangement, the centre or main table top was lowered, and
the whole table, thus increased, became level. Illustrations taken from
Mr. G.T. Robinson's article on furniture in the "Art Journal" of 1881,
represent a "Drawinge table," which was the name by which these "latest
improvements" were known; the black lines were of stained pear tree, let
into the oak, and the acorn shaped member of the leg is an imported Dutch
design, which became very common about this time, and was applied to the
supports of cabinets, sometimes as in the illustration, plainly turned,
but frequently carved. Another table of this period was the "folding
table," which was made with twelve, sixteen, or with twenty legs, as shewn
in the illustration of this example, and which, as its name implies, would
shut up into about one third its extended size. There is one of these
tables in the Stationers' Hall.
[Illustration: Couch, Arm Chair and Single Chair. Carved and Gilt.
Upholstered in rich Silk Velvet. Part of Suite at Penshurst Place. Also an
Italian Cabinet. Period: Charles II.]
[Illustration: Folding Table at Penshurst Place. Period: Charles II. to
James II.]
[Illustration: "Drawing" Table with Black Lines Inlaid. Period: Charles
II.]
It was probably in the early part of the seventeenth century that the
Couch became known in England. It was not common, nor quite in the form in
which we now recognize that luxurious article of furniture, but was
probably a carved oak settle, with cushions so arranged as to form a
resting lounge by day, Shakespeare speaks of the "branch'd velvet gown"
of Malvolio having come from a "day bed," and there is also an allusion to
one in Richard III.[10]
In a volume of "Notes and Queries" there is a note which would show that
the lady's wardrobe of this time (1622) was a very primitive article of
furniture. Mention is made there of a list of articles of wearing apparel
belonging to a certain Lady Elizabeth Morgan, sister to Sir Nathaniel
Rich, which, according to the old document there quoted, dated the 13th
day of November, 1622, "are to be found in a great bar'd chest in my
Ladie's Bedchamber." To judge from this list, Lady Morgan was a person of
fashion in those days. We may also take it
for granted that beyond the bedstead, a prie dieu chair, a bench, some
chests, and the indispensable mirror, there was not much else to furnish a
lady's bedroom in the reign of James I. or of his successor.
[Illustration: Theodore Hook's Chair.]
[Illustration: Scrowled Chair in Carved Oak.]
The "long settle" and "scrowled chair" were two other kinds of seats in
use from the time of Charles I. to that of James II. The illustrations are
taken from authenticated specimens in the collection of Mr. Dalton, of
Scarborough. They are most probably of Yorkshire manufacture, about the
middle of the seventeenth century. The ornament in the panel of the back
of the chair is inlaid work box or ash stained to a greenish black to
represent green ebony, with a few small pieces of rich red wood then in
great favour; and, says Mr. G. T. Robinson, to whose article mentioned
above we are indebted for the description, "probably brought by some
buccaneer from the West." Mr. Robinson mentions another chair of the
Stuart period, which formed a table, and subsequently became the property
of Theodore Hook, who carefully preserved its pedigree. It was purchased
by its late owner, Mr. Godwin, editor of "The Builder." A woodcut of this
chair is on p. 106.
Another chair which played an important part in history is the one in
which Charles I. sat during his trial; this was exhibited in the Stuart
Exhibition in London in 1889. The illustration is taken from a print in
"The Illustrated London News" of the time.
[Illustration: Chair Used by King Charles I. During His Trial.]
In addition to the chairs of oak, carved, inlaid, and plain, which were in
some cases rendered more comfortable by having cushions tied to the backs
and seats, the upholstered chair, which we have seen had been brought
from Venice in the early part of the reign of James I., now came into
general use. Few appear to have survived, but there are still to be seen
in pictures of the period a chair represented as covered with crimson
velvet, studded with brass nails, the seat trimmed with fringe, similar to
that at Knole, illustrated on p. 100.
There is in the Historical Portrait Gallery in Bethnal Green Museum, a
painting by an unknown artist, but dated 1642, of Sir William Lenthall,
who was Speaker of the House of Commons, on the memorable occasion when,
on the 4th of January in that year, Charles I. entered the House to demand
the surrender of the five members. The chair on which Sir William is
seated answers this description, and is very similar to the one used by
Charles I. (illustrated on p. 107.)
[Illustration: Carved Oak Chair. Said to have been used by Cromwell. (_The
original in the possession of T. Knollys Parr, Esq._)]
[Illustration: Carved Oak Chair, Jacobean Style. (_The original in the
Author's possession._)]
Inlaid work, which had been crude and rough in the time of Elizabeth,
became more in fashion as means increased of decorating both the furniture
and the woodwork panelling of the rooms of the Stuart period. Mahogany had
been discovered by Raleigh as early as 1595, but did not come into general
use until the middle of the eighteenth century.
The importation of scarce foreign woods in small quantities gave an
impetus to this description of work, which in the marqueterie of Italy,
France, Holland, Germany, and Spain, had already made great progress.
[Illustration: Settle of Carved Oak. Probably made in Yorkshire. Period:
Charles II.]
Within the past year, owing to the extensions of the Great Eastern
Railway premises at Bishopsgate Street, an old house of antiquarian
interest was pulled down, and generously presented by the Company to the
South Kensington Museum. It will shortly be arranged so as to enable the
visitor to see a good example of the exterior as well as some of the
interior woodwork of a quaint house of the middle of the seventeenth
century. This was the residence of Sir Paul Pindar, diplomatist, during
the time of Charles I., and it contained a carved oak chimney-piece, with
some other good ornamental woodwork of this period. The quaint and
richly-carved chimney-piece, which was dated 1600, and other decorative
work, was removed early in the present century, when the possessors of
that time were making "improvements."
[Illustration: Staircase in General Ireton's House, Dated 1630.]
[Illustration: Pattern of a Chinese Lac Screen. (_In the South Kensington
Museum._)]
In the illustration of a child's chair, which is said to have been
actually used by Cromwell, can be seen an example of carved oak of this
time; it was lent to the writer by its present owner, in whose family it
was an heirloom since one of his ancestors married the Protector's
daughter. The ornament has no particular style, and it may be taken for
granted that the period of the Commonwealth was not marked by any progress
in decorative art. The above illustration, however, proves that there were
exceptions to the prevalent Puritan objection to figure ornament. In one
of Mrs. S.C. Hall's papers, "Pilgrimages to English Shrines," contributed
in 1849 to "The Art Journal," she describes the interior of the house
which was built for Bridget, the Protector's daughter, who married General
Ireton. The handsome oak staircase had the newels surmounted by carved
figures, representing different grades of men in the General's army--a
captain, common soldier, piper, drummer, etc, etc., while the spaces
between the balustrades were filled in with devices emblematical of
warfare, the ceiling being decorated in the fashion of the period. At the
time Mrs. Hall wrote, the house bore Cromwell's name and the date 1630.
We may date from the Commonwealth the more general use of chairs; people
sat as they chose, and no longer regarded the chair as the lord's place. A
style of chair, which we still recognise as Cromwellian, was also largely
imported from Holland about this time--plain square backs and seats
covered with brown leather, studded with brass nails. The legs, which are
now generally turned with a spiral twist, were in Cromwell's time plain
and simple.
The residence of Charles II. abroad, had accustomed him and his friends to
the much more luxurious furniture of France and Holland. With the
Restoration came a foreign Queen, a foreign Court, French manners, and
French literature. Cabinets, chairs, tables, and couches, were imported
into England from the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Portugal; and our
craftsmen profited by new ideas and new patterns, and what was of equal
consequence, an increased demand for decorative articles of furniture. The
King of Portugal had ceded Bombay, one of the Portuguese Indian stations,
to the new Queen, and there is a chair of this Indo-Portuguese work,
carved in ebony, now in the museum at Oxford, which was given by Charles
II. either to Elias Ashmole or to Evelyn: the illustration on the next
page shews all the details of the carving. Another woodcut, on a smaller
scale, represents a similar chair grouped with a settee of a like design,
together with a small folding chair which Mr. G.T. Robinson, in his
article on "Seats," has described as Italian, but which we take the
liberty of pronouncing Flemish, judging by one now in the South Kensington
Museum.
In connection with this Indo-Portuguese furniture, it would seem that
spiral turning became known and fashionable in England during the reign of
Charles II., and in some chairs of English make, which have come under the
writer's notice, the legs have been carved to imitate the effect of spiral
turning--an amount of superfluous labour which would scarcely have been
incurred, but for the fact that the country house-carpenter of this time
had an imported model, which he copied, without knowing how to produce by
the lathe the effect which had just come into fashion. There are, too, in
some illustrations in "Shaw's Ancient Furniture," some lamp-holders, in
which this spiral turning is overdone, as is generally the case when any
particular kind of ornament comes into vogue.
[Illustration: Settee And Chair. In carved ebony, part of Indo-Portuguese
suite at Penshurst Place, with Flemish folding chair. Period: Charles II.]
[Illustration: Carved Ebony Chair of Indo-portuguese Work, Given by
Charles II. to Elias Ashmole, Esq. (_In the Museum at Oxford_).]
Probably the illustrated suite of furniture at Penshurst Place, which
comprises thirteen pieces, was imported about this time; two of the
smaller chairs appear to have their original cushions, the others have
been lately re-covered by Lord de l'Isle and Dudley. The spindles of the
backs of two of the chairs are of ivory: the carving, which is in solid
ebony, is much finer on some than on others.
We gather a good deal of information about the furniture of this period
from the famous diary of Evelyn. He thus describes Hampton Court Palace,
as it appeared to him at the time of its preparation for the reception of
Catherine of Braganza, the bride of Charles II., who spent the royal
honeymoon in this historic building, which had in its time sheltered for
their brief spans of favour the six wives of Henry VIII. and the sickly
boyhood of Edward VI.:--
"It is as noble and uniform a pile as Gothic architecture can make it.
There is incomparable furniture in it, especially hangings designed by
Raphael, very rich with gold. Of the tapestries I believe the world can
show nothing nobler of the kind than the stories of Abraham and Tobit.[11]
... The Queen's bed was an embroidery of silver on crimson velvet, and
cost £8,000, being a present made by the States of Holland when his
majesty returned. The great looking-glass and toilet of beaten massive
gold were given by the Queen Mother. The Queen brought over with her from
Portugal such Indian cabinets as had never before been seen here."
Evelyn wrote of course before Wren made his Renaissance additions to the
Palace.
After the great fire which occurred in 1666, and destroyed some 13,000
houses and no less than 80 churches, Sir Christopher Wren was given an
opportunity, unprecedented in history, of displaying his power of design
and reconstruction. Writing of this great architect, Macaulay says, "The
austere beauty of the Athenian portico, the gloomy sublimity of the Gothic
arcade, he was, like most of his contemporaries, incapable of emulating,
and perhaps incapable of appreciating; but no man born on our side of the
Alps has imitated with so much success the magnificence of the palace
churches of Italy. Even the superb Louis XIV. has left to posterity no
work which can bear a comparison with St. Paul's."
[Illustration:
Sedes, ecce tibi? quæ tot produxit alumnos
Quot gremio nutrit Granta, quot. Isis habet.
_From the Original by Sir Peter Lely, presented to Dr. Busby by King
Charles_ "Sedes Busbiana" From a Print in the possession of J. C. THYNNE,
Esq. Period: Charles II.]
Wren's great masterpiece was commenced in 1675, and completed in 1710,
and its building therefore covers a period of 35 years, carrying us
through the reigns of James II., William III. and Mary, and well on to the
end of Anne's. The admirable work which he did during this time, and which
has effected so much for the adornment of our Metropolis, had a marked
influence on the ornamental woodwork of the second half of the seventeenth
century: in the additions which he made to Hampton Court Palace, in Bow
Church, in the hospitals of Greenwich and of Chelsea, there is a
sumptuousness of ornament in stone and marble, which shew the influence
exercised on his mind by the desire to rival the grandeur of Louis XIV.;
the Fountain Court at Hampton being in direct imitation of the Palace of
Versailles. The carved woodwork of the choir of St. Paul's, with fluted
columns supporting a carved frieze; the richly carved panels, and the
beautiful figure work on both organ lofts, afford evidence that the oak
enrichments followed the marble and stone ornament. The swags of fruit and
flowers, the cherubs' heads with folded wings, and other details in Wren's
work, closely resemble the designs executed by Gibbons, whose carving is
referred to later on.
It may be mentioned here that amongst the few churches in the city which
escaped the great fire, and contain woodwork of particular note, are St.
Helen's, Bishopgate, and the Charterhouse Chapel, which contain the
original pulpits of about the sixteenth century.
The famous Dr. Busby, who for 55 years was head master of Westminster
School, was a great favourite of King Charles, and a picture painted by
Sir Peter Lely, is said to have been presented to the Doctor by His
Majesty; it is called "Sedes Busbiana." Prints from this old picture are
scarce, and the writer is indebted to Mr. John C. Thynne for the loan of
his copy, from which the illustration is taken. The portrait in the
centre, of the Pedagogue aspiring to the mitre, is that of Dr. South, who
succeeded Busby, and whose monument in Westminster Abbey is next to his.
The illustration is interesting, as although it may not have been actually
taken from a chair itself, it shews a design in the mind of a contemporary
artist.
Of the Halls of the City Guilds, there is none more quaint, and in greater
contrast to the bustle of the neighbourhood, than the Hall of the Brewers'
Company, in Addle Street, City. This was partially destroyed, like most of
the older Halls, by the Great Fire, but was one of the first to be
restored and refurnished. In the kitchen are still to be seen the remains
of an old trestle and other relics of an earlier period, but the hall or
dining room, and the Court room, are complete, with very slight additions,
since the date of their interior equipment in 1670 to 1673. The Court room
has a richly carved chimney-piece in oak, nearly black with age, the
design of which is a shield with a winged head, palms, and swags of fruit
and flowers, while on the shield itself is an inscription, stating that
this room was wainscoted by Alderman Knight, master of the Company and
Lord Mayor of the City of London, in the year 1670. The room itself is
exceedingly quaint, with its high wainscoting and windows on the opposite
side to the fireplace, reminding one of the port-holes of a ship's cabin,
while the chief window looks out on to the old-fashioned garden, giving
the beholder altogether a pleasing illusion, carrying him back to the days
of Charles II.
The chief room or Hall is still more handsomely decorated with carved oak
of this time. The actual date, 1673, is over the doorway on a tablet which
bears the names, in the letters of the period, of the master, "James
Reading, Esq.," and the wardens, "Mr. Robert Lawrence," "Mr. Samuel
Barber," and "Mr. Henry Sell."
The names of other masters and wardens are also written over the carved
escutcheons of their different arms, and the whole room is one of the best
specimens in existence of the oak carving of this date. At the western end
is the master's chair, of which by the courtesy of Mr. Higgins, clerk to
the Company, we are able to give an illustration on p. 115--the
shield-shaped back, the carved drapery, and the coat-of-arms with the
company's motto, are all characteristic features, as are also the
Corinthian columns and arched pediments, in the oak decoration of the
room. The broken swan-necked pediment, which surmounts the cornice of the
room over the chair, is probably a more recent addition, this ornament
having come in about 30 years later.
There are also the old dining tables and benches; these are as plain and
simple as possible. In the court room, is a table, which was formerly in
the Company's barge, with some good inlaid work in the arcading which
connects the two end standards, and some old carved lions' feet; the top
and other parts have been renewed. There is also an old oak fire-screen of
about the end of the seventeenth century.
Another city hall, the interior woodwork of which dates from just after
the Great Fire, is that of the Stationers' Company, in Ave Maria Lane,
close to Ludgate Hill. Mr. Charles Robert Rivington, the present clerk to
the Company, has written a pamphlet, full of very interesting records of
this ancient and worshipful corporation, from which the following
paragraph is a quotation:--"The first meeting of the court after the fire
was held at Cook's Hall, and the subsequent courts, until the hall was
re-built, at the Lame Hospital Hall, i.e., St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
In 1670 a committee was appointed to re-build the hall; and in 1674 the
Court agreed with Stephen Colledge (the famous Protestant joiner, who was
afterwards hanged at Oxford in 1681) to wainscot the hall 'with
well-seasoned and well-matched wainscot, according to a model delivered in
for the sum of £300.' His work is now to be seen in excellent condition."
[Illustration: The Master's Chair. (_Hall of the Brewers' Company._)]
Mr. Rivington read his paper to the London and Middlesex Archaeological
Society in 1881; and the writer can with pleasure confirm the statement as
to the condition, in 1892, of this fine specimen of seventeenth century
work. Less ornate and elaborate than the Brewers' Hall, the panels are
only slightly relieved with carved mouldings; but the end of the room, or
main entrance, opposite the place of the old daïs (long since removed), is
somewhat similar to the Brewers', and presents a fine architectural
effect, which will be observed in the illustration on p. 117.
[Illustration: Carved Oak Livery Cupboard. In the Hall of the
Stationers'Company. Made in 1674, the curved pediment added later,
probably in 1788.]
[Illustration: Carved Oak Napkin Press Lent to the S. Kensington Museum by
H. Farrer, Esq. Early XVII. Century.]
There is above, an illustration of one of the two livery cupboards, which
formerly stood on the daïs, and these are good examples of the cupboards
for display of plate of this period. The lower part was formerly the
receptacle of unused viands, distributed to the poor after the feast. In
their original state these livery cupboards finished with a straight
cornice, the broken pediments with the eagle (the Company's crest) having
most probably been added when the hall was, to quote an
inscription on a shield, "repaired and beautified in the mayoralty of the
Right Honourable William Gill, in the year 1788," when Mr. Thomas Hooke
was master, and Mr. Field and Mr. Rivington (the present clerk's
grandfather) wardens.
[Illustration: Arm Chairs.
Chair upholstered in Spitalfields silk. Hampton Court Palace.
Carved and upholstered Chair. Hardwick Hall.
Chair upholstered in Spitalfields silk. Knole, Sevenoaks.
Period: William III. To Queen Anne.]
There is still preserved in a lumber room one of the old benches of
seventeenth century work--now replaced in the hall by modern folding
chairs. This is of oak, with turned skittle-shaped legs slanting outwards,
and connected and strengthened by plain stretchers. The old tables are
still in their places.
[Illustration: Carved Oak Screen. In the Hall of the Stationers' Company,
erected in 1674: the Royal Coat of Arms has been since added.]
Another example of seventeenth century oak panelling is the handsome
chapel of the Mercers' Hall--the only city Company possessing their own
chapel--but only the lining of the walls and the reredos are of the
original work, the remainder having been added some ten or twelve years
ago, when some of the original carving was made use of in the new work.
Indeed, in this magnificent hall, about the most spacious of the old City
Corporation Palaces, there is a great deal of new work mixed with old--new
chimney-pieces and old overmantels--some of Grinling Gibbons' carved
enrichments, so painted and varnished as to have lost much of their
character; these have been applied to the oak panels in the large dining
hall.
The woodwork lining of living rooms had been undergoing changes since the
commencement of the period of which we are now writing. In 1638 a man
named Christopher had taken out a patent for enamelling and gilding
leather, which was used as a wall decoration over the oak panelling. This
decorated leather hitherto had been imported from Holland and Spain; when
this was not used, and tapestry, which was very expensive, was not
obtainable, the plaster was roughly ornamented. Somewhat later than this,
pictures were let into the wainscot to form part of the decoration, for in
1669 Evelyn, when writing of the house of the "Earle of Norwich," in
Epping Forest, says, "A good many pictures put into the wainstcot which
Mr. Baker, his lordship's predecessor, brought from Spaine." Indeed,
subsequently the wainscot became simply the frame for pictures, and we
have the same writer deploring the disuse of timber, and expressing his
opinion that a sumptuary law ought to be passed to restore the "ancient
use of timber." Although no law was enacted on the subject, yet, some
twenty years later, the whirligig of fashion brought about the revival of
the custom of lining rooms with oak panelling.
It is said that about 1670 Evelyn found Grinling Gibbons in a small
thatched house on the outskirts of Deptford, and introduced him to the
King, who gave him an appointment on the Board of Works, and patronised
him with extensive orders. The character of his carving is well known;
generally using lime-tree as the vehicle of his designs, the life-like
birds and flowers, the groups of fruit, and heads of cherubs, are easily
recognised. One of the rooms in Windsor Castle is decorated with the work
of his chisel, which can also be seen in St. Paul's Cathedral, Hampton
Court Palace, Chatsworth, Burleigh, and perhaps his best, at Petworth
House, in Sussex. He also sculptured in stone. The base of King Charles'
statue at Windsor, the font of St. James', Piccadilly (round the base of
which are figures of Adam and Eve), are his work, as is also the lime-tree
border of festoon work over the communion table. Gibbons was an
Englishman, but appears to have spent his boyhood in Holland, where he was
christened "Grinling." He died in 1721. His pupils were Samuel Watson, a
Derbyshire man, who did much of the carved work at Chatsworth, Drevot of
Brussels, and Lawreans of Mechlin. Gibbons and his pupils founded a school
of carving in England which has been continued by tradition to the present
day.
[Illustration: Silver Furniture at Knole. (_From a Photo by Mr. Corke, of
Sevenoaks._)]
A somewhat important immigration of French workmen occurred about this
time owing to the persecutions of Protestants in France, which followed,
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, by Louis XIV., and these
refugees bringing with them their skill, their patterns and ideas,
influenced the carving of our frames and the designs of some of our
furniture. This influence is to be traced in some of the contents of
Hampton Court Palace, particularly in the carved and gilt centre tables
and the _torchères_ of French design but of English workmanship. It is
said that no less than 50,000 families left France, some thousands of whom
belonged to the industrial classes, and settled in England and Germany,
where their descendants still remain. They introduced the manufacture of
crystal chandeliers, and founded our Spitalfields silk industry and other
trades, till then little practised in England.
The beautiful silver furniture at Knole belongs to this time, having been
made for one of the Earls of Dorset, in the reign of James II. The
illustration is from a photograph taken by Mr. Corke, of Sevenoaks.
Electrotypes of the originals are in the South Kensington Museum. From two
other suites at Knole, consisting of a looking glass, a table, and a pair
of _torchères_, in the one case of plain walnut wood, and in the other of
ebony with silver mountings, it would appear that a toilet suite of
furniture of the time of James II. generally consisted of articles of a
similar character, more or less costly, according to circumstances. The
silver table bears the English Hall mark of the reign.
As we approach the end of the seventeenth century and examine specimens of
English furniture about 1680 to 1700, we find a marked Flemish influence.
The Stadtholder, King William III., with his Dutch friends, imported many
of their household goods[12], and our English craftsmen seem to have
copied these very closely. The chairs and settees in the South Kensington
Museum, and at Hampton Court Palace, have the shaped back with a wide
inlaid or carved upright bar, the cabriole leg and the carved shell
ornament on the knee of the leg, and on the top of the back, which are
still to be seen in many of the old Dutch houses.
There are a few examples of furniture of this date, which it is almost
impossible to distinguish from Flemish, but in some others there is a
characteristic decoration in marqueterie, which may be described as a
seaweed scroll in holly or box wood, inlaid on a pale walnut ground, a
good example of which is to be seen in the upright "grandfather's clock"
in the South Kensington Museum, the effect being a pleasing harmony of
colour.
In the same collection there is also a walnut wood centre table, dating
from about 1700, which has twisted legs and a stretcher, the top being
inlaid with intersecting circles relieved by the inlay of some stars in
ivory.
As we have observed with regard to French furniture of this time, mirrors
came more generally into use, and the frames were both carved and inlaid.
There are several of these at Hampton Court Palace, all with bevelled
edged plate glass; some have frames entirely of glass, the short lengths
which make the frame, having in some cases the joints covered by rosettes
of blue glass, and in others a narrow moulding of gilt work on each side
of the frame. In one room (the Queen's Gallery) the frames are painted in
colors and relieved by a little gilding.
The taste for importing old Dutch furniture, also lacquer cabinets from
Japan, not only gave relief to the appearance of a well furnished
apartment of this time, but also brought new ideas to our designers and
workmen. Our collectors, too, were at this time appreciating the Oriental
china, both blue and white, and colored, which had a good market in
Holland, so that with the excellent silversmith's work then obtainable, it
was possible in the time of William and Mary to arrange a room with more
artistic effect than at an earlier period, when the tapestry and panelling
of the walls, a table, the livery cupboard previously described, and some
three or four chairs, had formed almost the whole furniture of reception
rooms.
The first mention of corner cupboards appears to have been made in an
advertisement of a Dutch joiner in "The Postman" of March 8th, 1711; these
cupboards, with their carved pediments being part of the modern fittings
of a room in the time of Queen Anne.
The oak presses common to this and earlier times are formed of an upper
and lower part, the former sometimes being three sides of an octagon with
the top supported by columns, while the lower half is straight, and the
whole is carved with incised ornament. These useful articles of furniture,
in the absence of wardrobes, are described in inventories of the time
(1680-1720) as "press cupboards," "great cupboards," "wainscot," and
"joyned cupboards."
The first mention of a "Buerow," as our modern word "Bureau" was then
spelt, is said by Dr. Lyon, in his American book, "The Colonial Furniture
of New England," to have occurred in an advertisement in "The Daily Post"
of January 4th, 1727. The same author quotes Bailey's Dictionarium
Britannicum, published in London, 1736, as defining the word "bureau" as
"a cabinet or chest of drawers, or 'scrutoir' for depositing papers or
accounts."
In the latter half of the eighteenth century those convenient pieces of
furniture came into more general use, and illustrations of them as
designed and made by Chippendale and his contemporaries will be found in
the chapter dealing with that period.
Dr. Lyon also quotes from an American newspaper, "The Boston News Letter"
of April 16th, 1716, an advertisement which was evidently published when
the tall clocks, which we now call "grandfathers' clocks," were a novelty,
and as such were being introduced to the American public. We have already
referred to one of these which is in the South Kensington Museum, date
1700, and no doubt the manufacture of similar ones became more general
during the first years of the eighteenth century. The advertisement
alluded to runs, "Lately come from London, a parcel of very fine
clocks--they go a week and repeat the hour when pulled" (a string caused
the same action as the pressing of the handle of a repeating watch) "in
Japan cases or wall-nut."
The style of decoration in furniture and woodwork which we recognise as
"Queen Anne," apart from the marqueterie just described, appears, so far
as the writer's investigations have gone, to be due to the designs of some
eminent architects of the time. Sir James Vanbrugh was building Blenheim
Palace for the Queen's victorious general, and also Castle Howard.
Nicholas Hawksmoor had erected St. George's. Bloomsbury, and James Gibbs,
a Scotch architect and antiquary, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and the
Royal Library at Oxford; a ponderous style characterises the woodwork
interior of these buildings. We give an illustration of three designs for
chimney-pieces and overmantels by James Gibbs, the centre one of which
illustrates the curved or "swan-necked" pediment, which became a favourite
ornament about this time, until supplanted by the heavier triangular
pediment which came in with "the Georges."
The contents of Hampton Court Palace afford evidence of the transition
which the design of woodwork and furniture has undergone from the time of
William III. until that of George II. There is the Dutch chair with
cabriole leg, the plain walnut card table also of Dutch design, which
probably came over with the Stadtholder; then, there are the heavy
draperies, and chairs almost completely covered by Spitalfields silk
velvet, to be seen in the bedroom furniture of Queen Anne. Later, as the
heavy Georgian style predominated, there is the stiff ungainly gilt
furniture, console tables with legs ornamented with the Greek key pattern
badly applied, and finally, as the French school of design influenced our
carvers, an improvement may be noticed in the tables and _torchéres_,
which but for being a trifle clumsy, might pass for the work of French
craftsmen of the same time. The State chairs, the bedstead, and some
stools, which are said to have belonged to Queen Caroline, are further
examples of the adoption of French fashion.
[Illustration: Three Chimneypieces. Designed by James Gibes, Architect, in
1739.]
Nearly all writers on the subject of furniture and woodwork are agreed in
considering that the earlier part of the period discussed in this chapter,
that is, the seventeenth century, is the best in the traditions of
English work. As we have seen in noticing some of the earlier Jacobean
examples already illustrated and described, it was a period marked by
increased refinement of design through the abandonment of the more
grotesque and often coarse work of Elizabethan carving, and by soundness
of construction and thorough workmanship.
Oak furniture made in England during the seventeenth century, is still a
credit to the painstaking craftsmen of those days, and even upholstered
furniture, like the couches and chairs at Knole, after more than 250
years' service, are fit for use.
In the ninth and last chapter, which will deal with furniture of the
present day, the methods of production which are now in practice will be
noticed, and some comparison will be made which must be to the credit of
the Jacobean period.
* * * * *
In the foregoing chapters an attempt has been made to preserve, as far as
possible, a certain continuity in the history of the subject matter of
this work from the earliest times until after the Renaissance had been
generally adopted in Europe. In this endeavour a greater amount of
attention has been bestowed upon the furniture of a comparatively short
period of English history than upon that of other countries, but it is
hoped that this fault will be forgiven by English readers.
It has now become necessary to interrupt this plan, and before returning
to the consideration of European design and work, to devote a short
chapter to those branches of the Industrial Arts connected with furniture
which flourished in China and Japan, in India, Persia, and Arabia, at a
time anterior and subsequent to the Renaissance period in Europe.