JACOBEAN STYLES TO CHARLES II
Brutally natural we may call the earlier characters in English history,
but attached to the Stuart name there is always poetic romance. And
without romance what would our lives be! So when we sit in our loved
library or dining-room at home, embellished by a few bits of furniture
such as the Stuarts lived among, those bits are like consolidated
stories, things to dream about in the hours of ease.
James I and his son Charles cared about things they lived with, and
cared, too, about giving them as much as possible a certain lightness
of effect, in revolt from Tudor bulk. Perhaps the necessity for
surpassing strength was waning. Men no longer wore tons of armour,
furniture in the seventeenth century no longer journeyed from castle
to castle. Inigo Jones was at work also, with his marvellous talent
at classical architecture, setting a standard of cheerful elegance in
design that lightened the Tudor magnificence.
When James I began to rule in 1603, Inigo Jones, a lightsome young man
of thirty, was employed by the King as a composer of masques. After
developing his architect's talent he produced the palace at Whitehall,
Hatfield House and other residences. His also was the invention that
threw over the steps to the Thames the noble water-gate, York Stairs,
that stands there now, a record of the merry days when ladies and
cavaliers, all gay as flowers, crossed the greensward, filed under this
richly carved arch, and were handed into elegantly equipped barges on
the river.
While things of an artistic sort were progressing in England, other
events closely concerning us in America were also active. The entire
century runs two parallel lines of history, one that of the gaiety
of the house in power, the other that of the struggle of the people
divided into religious sects. While "'twas merry in the Hall, when
beards wagged all," persecution was rife among religionists, and the
Puritans were finding it hard to stay in their own loved land.
Thus came the sufferers to America to plant new homes; and thus
coming, brought with them such furniture as was in vogue at the time
of migrating. And so it happens that our earliest bits of furniture,
chairs that supported grim Pilgrim fathers, tables which were set out
by provident Puritan mothers and maids, are Jacobean in mode. The
chair of Elder Brewster which has asylum in Hartford, Conn., is a fine
example of the heavy turned work of the day, and numerous oak chairs
show the strap-work and other low-relief carving so well known in early
Jacobean pieces.
One especial class of chair (Plate 12) when found in England is called
for one of its shires, Yorkshire, but when drawn from New England
hiding places, we name it a wainscote chair. The design of the back
easily gives reason for the name, for it is formed from a bit of
panelling similar to that in vogue for walls. Stolid and strong are
these chairs, square-built and stayed with four strong stretchers,
usually near the floor.
The collector considers the charm irresistibly increased when the front
stretcher is well worn with the friction of many feet, the resting
feet of a long procession that has walked down the centuries. Even
better is the smoothness of the chair-arms which comes by contact with
the human hand, that restless member with a habit of idly rubbing an
inviting surface. Like all makers of chairs, the ancient cabinet-maker
left back-legs in utilitarian simplicity, while he limited variety
to the front-legs. In this type of chair, turning gave the usual
ornamentation. This baluster effect had many varieties, but all united
in finishing with a square block at the bottom and where the seat-frame
met the leg, or where the front stretcher crossed, if it was placed
high.
The ornamentation of the back was done with the light spirit that
distinguished early Jacobean styles from the preceding Italian
models, yet without the elegance that appeared later in the century.
These chairs undoubtedly have charm and interest, but as works of art
they are not comparable to those which preceded, nor to those which
followed. They were, however, distinctly English, and as such, command
interest.
[Illustration: Plate XII--OAK CHAIRS
Called both Wainscote and Yorkshire chairs]
[Illustration: Plate XIII--SPIRAL TURNED CHAIR, CHARACTERISTIC OF
FIRST HALF OF CENTURY]
A close study of the motifs used by the wood-carver shows all the
favourite lines, the guilloche, that ever interesting play upon
circles, the S curve in pairs, the rounded arch, the half-circle, the
rose and the tulip. Cushions were a part of the chair's equipment. The
tired ladies of the seventeenth century were not asked to recuperate
on a thick oak plank unsoftened by padding. Loose cushions of velvet
and of embroidery were usual, for this was an age when handsome fabrics
were made all over Europe, and freely used in flashing blue and ruby
red against the oak.
Nearly allied to the wainscote chair, yet infinitely more refined, is
the chair of spiral parts, with back and seat upholstered. Without arms
it was favoured by ladies of voluminous petticoats who pattered about
the thrones of James I and Charles I. With arms it is sometimes called
Cromwellian, suggesting that the doughty Dictator ruled therefrom. But
the austerity of the wainscote chair seems more fitting to his resolute
manner.
This turned chair with its padded back and seat, so often dignifies
our modern interiors that it is worth our while to know about it. While
the wainscote chair belonged more especially to cottage furniture
which was made all over England according to varying local taste, this
chair was more or less of an aristocrat, and furnished the halls of
wealth. Its origin is Italian. France used it freely, but she too got
her first model from the Italians. In the time these chairs prevailed,
England outside of London was scant of luxury. The homes of all but
the wealthiest were short of the comforts that ameliorate the jolt of
life's car in these our modern days.
But the whole country was sprinkled with inns and taverns wherein were
gathered such luxuries as the times afforded, and thither went the
man of the family, bored by the too rigid manner of the home. Those
who travelled, too, in the saddle or by lumbering coach, fell happily
into the warm embrace of the chairs at the hospitable inn at each stop
on the journey. The post-road made the string, the inns the pearls,
and in this way the surface of England was covered with a net for the
delectation of the restless. But old-time descriptions of the highways,
their ruts and sloughs, their highwaymen even, show how laborious were
the journeyings and how more than glad were travellers to alight.
Ben Jonson declared a tavern chair to be the throne of human felicity.
Thus he spoke praise, not only of the inn but of such furniture as
pleases us in these days. If, therefore, any husband of to-day rebel
against the stiffness of backs, or weakness of legs, of the antique
chairs at home, let him be reminded of Jonson's opinion on these same
chairs.
The chair with spiral legs and other members runs through the larger
half of the century, and has significant variations. One shown on Plate
13 has a female head on the uprights of the arms, which represents
Mary of Modena. The figure is given at full length in a model that our
furniture manufacturers have many times repeated.
While baluster legs for chairs and other furniture were a product
of the reign of the first James, we may set down the more elegant
spiral twist as an evidence of a better developed taste for which a
few leaders were responsible. Such a man as Inigo Jones must have
influenced widely the public taste in all liberal arts. Although
his examples were set in the larger art of architecture, the crowd
swaggering about the Banqueting Hall, which still excites our delight
at Whitehall, must have been inspired to introduce a daintier style at
home.
It was in 1625 that Charles I succeeded his father, and soon after
invited Van Dyck to be of those who surrounded the royal person. It
sometimes seems to the art-seeking tourist, that Charles' patronage of
art had as motive the production of an infinity of portraits of his own
much-frizzed, much-dressed self. But apart from painting portraits
of the King, which the model made a bit pathetic, through the attempt
to associate majesty with preciosity, Van Dyck had a large part in
improving England's taste. Another name is that of Sir Francis Crane,
he who helped his royal master with the noble art of tapestry-making at
the Mortlake Works.
To continue with the use of the spiral leg--as its modern use creates
interest in the subject--it is found as the support on those most
enticing of tables, the gate-leg. Not that all gate-leg tables are
thus made. Alas no, economy travels heavily in all ages, so the less
expensive baluster turning prevailed. But the spiral is the favourite
and gives great value to the old tables. Rarely indeed are they to be
found at bargains since we in America have taken to collecting Jacobean
furnishings.
Gate-leg tables are labelled with the name of Cromwell by those liking
to fix a date by attaching to it a ruler. Without doubt, the great
Commoner leaned his weary elbows on such a table when things went
wrong, or curved a smiling lip above it--if he could smile--when the
table was weighted with savoury Puritan viands. But for many years
before Cromwell, English homes had found the gate-leg table a mobile
and convenient replacer of the massive refectory tables of Tudor or
Roman inspiration.
In large size these tables set a feast for the family, in smaller
drawing they held the evening light; or, smaller yet, they assisted
the house-mother at her sewing. The wonder is not that we of to-day
find them invaluable, but that mankind ever let them go out of fashion.
Collect them if you have the purse, but if you must buy a modern copy,
remember that mahogany was not in use for furniture in England until
the century after, for modern manufacturers flout chronology and
produce gate-leg tables in the wood of which the originals were never
made. They even lacquer them, in defiance of history.
[Illustration: Plate XIV--OAK CABINET, DATED 1653
Decorated with split spindles, and with inlay mother-of-pearl, ivory
and ebony.
The legs show tendencies not developed until the next century under
Queen Anne]
[Illustration: Plate XV--OAK GATE-LEG DINING TABLE
With oval top and rarely proportioned spiral legs. A drawer
distinguishes the piece]
Since the fashion is for old tables in the dining-room, these Jacobean
gate-leg tables are found practical as well as beautiful. The large
size, about four and a half feet wide by six feet long, accommodates
a moderate family and presents none of the inconveniences that make
certain antiques mere objects of art or curios. I must confess to a
thrill of delight when sitting at such an old oak board set out with
old lace and silver, not only for its obvious beauty, but by the
thought of the groups who have gathered there through three hundred
years, groups of varying customs, varying habits of thought, varying
fashions in dress, yet human like ourselves, and prone to make of the
dining-table a circle of joy.
The inlaid cabinet on Plate 11 is an aristocrat. Though it is dated
1653 it exhibits the split spindles of earlier years, and these are
executed with such nice feeling that they accord well with the Italian
look of the piece. In truth, its principal decoration is Italian,
an elaborate use of inlay in mother of pearl, ivory and ebony. Its
feet, too, are entirely un-English, yet it remains a Jacobean piece of
English make. The influences always at work in England left their mark
on the development of English styles. Always and always a monarch was
marrying a foreign wife, or importing a court painter or architect,
and these folk naturally brought with them the fashions of their own
countries. It seemed as though the English knew that native art was not
a flower of the first order of beauty and so were modest about it, and
ever willing to adopt the art of other countries.
It is the custom of the inexact to include in Jacobean furniture all
the styles of the seventeenth century up to the time of William and
Mary, and this gives to such loose classification an extraordinary
variety. Furniture does not die with a monarch, nor do new designs
start up in a night; goods last after the master has gone, and the new
master uses the old style until a later one has been evolved. James
died and Charles I took his place in the year 1625, but the lightening
and elaborating of furniture came not all at once, and depended as much
on mechanical invention and the use of new woods as on the rise and
fall of monarchs.
And yet, as the first man to be pleased was the king, and as the king
in Charles' case had a lighter nature than his forerunners and had
moreover a Continental encouraging of that lightness, we fancy we
see an evidence of gaiety, of jocundity, in the furniture of his day.
He was a king who intended to take all the privileges of his state,
and one of these was to surround himself with beauty of the type that
brought no reminders of hard living nor serious thinking, no hint of
grim Puritan asceticism.
So the oak of England which had supplied austerity was now carved
into shapes hitherto unknown. Typical of the results of elaborate oak
carving are the chairs in Plate 17. The arm-chair is a typical example
of a chair of the middle years of the century, and later. Here the
square construction of the chair is not altered from Tudor days, but
note how every part has been lightened, until an elegance and beauty
have been attained which make it worthy of the finest rooms of any
time. The carver when given free rein has left little of the chair
untouched. Legs, stretchers and uprights, are all made with a well
proportioned spiral, and at each square of joining a rosette is carved.
Here also is seen an innovation in the ornamental stretcher across the
front which, instead of being near the ground, is raised to a height
out of reach of a ruthless boot which might mar its elaboration. This
stretcher shows the use of the long curving palm in place of the
classic acanthus, and also introduces the fat little cherubs which
French designers affected.
Other points to notice are the very open back, composed of spirals and
three rows of carving. It was at this time that pierced carving came
into vogue, so far surpassing in beauty the wainscote backs.
The incising of the seat-frame is another peculiarity of the middle of
the century. Perhaps the most interesting matter of all is the caning.
Wooden seats were the only ones hitherto; although cushions had been
used to soften them, they lacked at best the reciprocal quality that
we call "giving." Springs were far in the future, but a luxury-loving
aristocracy seized at once upon this amelioration.
There is more or less quibbling upon the subject of caning, as to the
date of its introduction. No one can fix it exactly, which robs the
enthusiast of the pleasure of announcing with oracular precision, that
his chair is of certain year because of its caning. The middle of the
century saw it, the first part did not, but it lasted through varying
styles of furniture, and is lasting still.
Its origin is undoubtedly Eastern, for the tenacious splints from which
it is woven are from warmer climes than England's. And that brings us
again to one of those little facts in history of which our household
gods are ever reminding us, the trade that united India with Portugal,
Portugal with Flanders, and the Flemish with England.
The small chair in the Plate is, to the careless eye, a little sister
to the larger, but the wise observer notes at once the substitution of
the S curve heavy in carving for the more elaborate pierced palm.
Also the cane panels in the back, and the very decided change in the
shape of the front legs. The heavy S curves are the same which later on
gain in thickness and evolve into the ogee curve seen later, and which
is often mistakenly ascribed to William and Mary, although originating
earlier and receives the name of James II. Arbitrary names are hard to
make consistently exact; dates are hard to place on every piece, but
is it not enough to know within a very few years the time of making of
one's valuable antiques?
[Illustration: Plate XVI--OAK DAY BEDS
Carved after manner in vogue in second half of XVII Century]
[Illustration: Plate XVII--STUART CHAIRS
Of lightened construction, open carving and incised seat frame]
To finish the scrutiny of the smaller chair, note the curve of the
front legs, the first attempt at deserting the straight perpendicular
line of construction. This is the beginning of an insidious French
influence which prevailed throughout the last third of the century. It
beautified, of course, as the gift of France to the world is the _luxe_
of the eye, but from the time of its introduction dates the end of the
furniture which was of solely English invention.
So comes the end of this early Jacobean mode, in its best time of
flowering when it was drowned in a flood of foreign influence. It
was in the styles prevailing through the reigns of the first two
Stuarts and of Cromwell, that England expressed only herself in her
furniture. It is this which makes the periods rich with originality and
of peculiar interest. When the Jacobean styles began Shakespeare was
living those sad years whose disillusion produced his later plays, and
Jacobean styles were at their height at the Restoration when Charles II
played the part of king for his royal pleasure.