Jacobean Furniture.
English Home Life in the Reign of James I.--Sir Henry Wotton
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
Grandfathers' Clocks--Furniture at Hampton Court.
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 quaint passage in one of Sir
Henry Wotton'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 well
deserve by these attributes, according to the degree of the master, to be
delightfully adorned."
[Illustration: OAK CHIMNEY PLACE 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 Wotton 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 to lie abroad 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, although
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 the 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
belong to the earlier period.
The illustrations of wooden chimney pieces will shew 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. 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 Photographic 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 tables 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 usually 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 already noticed in describing 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, of about this date,
1615-20; it is mounted on a stand which has three feet in front and two
behind, which are much more primitive and quaint than the ornate supports
of Elizabethan carving; while the only ornaments on the drawer fronts
which form the frieze of the stand are moulded panels, in the centre of
each of which there 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 shews 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
in 1891 from the Hailstone Collection, though dated 1614, is really more
Elizabethan in design than one would expect.
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 much 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 that the
hand of the Venetian craftsman is to be traced, and it is probable that
they were either imported or copied from a pattern brought over for that
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 "[Illustration]" 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, trimmed 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.
(_From a Photo by Mr. Corke, of Sevenoaks._)]
It seems from a comparison of the Knole furniture with the designs 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, shewing 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, traces of the gold are still to be seen.
Mr. Eastlake visited Knole, and made a 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 there a slip of paper
tucked beneath the webbing of a settle, with an inscription in Old English
characters which fixed the date of some of the furniture at 1620. Mr.
Lionel Sackville West has confirmed this date in a letter to the author,
by a reference to the heirloom book, which also bears out the author'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 shewn 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.
Holland House, Kensington, is a good example of a Jacobean mansion. The
chief interest, inseparable from this house, is, of course, associated
with the memory of the third Lord Holland, "nephew of Fox and friend of
Grey," who gathered around him within its walls the most brilliant and
distinguished society of the day, presiding over it with that genial
courtesy which was the rich inheritance of his family.
Macaulay, at the conclusion of his essay on Lord Holland, has, with his
unrivalled power of description, told us of the charm and fascination
of "that circle in which every talent and accomplishment, every art and
science, had its place"--enumerating also the names of many of those
who formed it, and expatiating on "the grace and the kindness, far more
admirable than grace, with which the princely hospitality of that ancient
mansion was dispensed." Princess Liechtenstein has also preserved for
us, in "Holland House," a charming record of many of the historical
associations of this famous old place.
There are in the house also many objects of great interest, of various
periods, which, by the courtesy of Lady Ilchester, the writer has been
allowed to examine. Our business, however, is with the 17th century, and
we must now return to a consideration of the furniture and woodwork of
that time.
The Holland House of the time of James I. was commenced in the year
1607, as "Cope Castle," by Sir Walter Cope, who then owned the extensive
"Manor" of Kensington. Cope's daughter married Sir Henry Rich, who became
Earl of Holland in 1624, and was executed by the Parliamentarians in
1649. He it was who added to the house the wings and arcades. Princess
Liechtenstein tells us the story of "the solitary ghost of its first lord,
who, according to tradition, issues forth at midnight from behind a secret
door, and walks slowly through the scenes of his former triumph with his
head in his hand."
There is some good old woodwork of the early part of the seventeenth
century, and the panelling and chimney piece of the famous "white parlour"
are of the times of James I., the work, still in good preservation,
being in the best Jacobean taste. The panels are formed by bold uncarved
mouldings, separated at intervals by flat pilasters with fluted shafts
and carved capitals; the panels in the frieze, between the trusses, which
support a "dentilled" cornice, are enriched with fretwork ornaments in
relief, and the whole has a simple but decorative architectural effect
of the best English rendering of the Renaissance. The "gilt room," where
the ghost is said to commence its nocturnal promenade, was decorated by
Francesco Cleyn, an Italian, who also worked for the King.[9] The room
was prepared for a ball which was purposed to be given in honor of the
marriage of Prince Charles to Henrietta Maria. There are now on the chief
staircase of Holland House, two chairs with their backs carved as shells,
and with legs shaped and ornamented with scrollwork, and masks with swags
of foliage, which are also attributed to Cleyn. Horace Walpole, in a
reference to Holland House, has mentioned these chairs in "Anecdotes
of Painters." "Two chairs, carved and gilt, with large shells for backs
... were undoubtedly from his designs, and are evidences of his taste."
Walpole also mentions a garden seat of similar design by Cleyn. A drawing
of one of these chairs forms the tail piece of this chapter.
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 Archæological 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 by 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.
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 Raffaelle Cartoons to encourage
the work--and much was to be hoped from a monarch who had the taste and
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.
[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.]
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.
The table 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 said to be 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 is made to say:--
"... 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 also 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. It remains to us, however, as a souvenir of
the past, in the name we still give to a body of men meeting for the
transaction of business, and, in connection with social life, in the
phrase "the festive board." 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 in use 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 drawing out two flaps 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:
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, is shewn in the
illustration of this example, and which, as its name implies, would shut
up into about one third of its extended size. There is one of these tables
in the Stationers' Hall.
[Illustration: FOLDING TABLE AT PENSHURST PLACE.
PERIOD: CHARLES II. TO JAMES II.]
[Illustration: "DRAWINGE" 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]
[Illustration: THEODORE HOOK'S CHAIR.]
[Illustration: SCROWLED CHAIR IN CARVED OAK.]
In a volume of "Notes and Queries" there is a note which would shew 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 with which to furnish a lady's bedroom in
the reign of James I. or that of his successor.
[Illustration: CHAIR USED BY KING CHARLES I. DURING HIS TRIAL.]
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 with box or ash, stained to a greenish black
to represent green ebony, and with a few small pieces of rich red wood
then in great favour. Mr. G. T. Robinson, to whose article mentioned above
we are indebted for the description, says that this wood was "probably
brought by some buccaneer from the West." He also 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 page 107.
[Illustration: SETTLE OF CARVED OAK.
Probably made in Yorkshire.
PERIOD: CHARLES II.]
Another chair to which there is an historical interest attached is that in
which Charles I. sat during his trial; this was exhibited in the Stuart
Exhibition in London in 1889. The illustration on page 108 is taken from a
print in "The Illustrated London News" of the time.
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 have survived, but there are still to be seen in pictures of the
period, chairs represented as covered with crimson velvet, studded with
brass nails, the seat being trimmed with fringe, similar to that at Knole,
illustrated on page 100.
[Illustration: CARVED OAK CHAIR.
Said to have been used by some of Cromwell's family.
(_The original in the possession of T. Knowles Parr, Esq._)]
[Illustration: CARVED OAK CHAIR, JACOBEAN STYLE.
(_The original in the Author's possession._)]
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 page 108).
The importation of scarce foreign woods gave an impetus to inlaid work in
England, which had been crude and rough in the time of Elizabeth. In the
marqueterie of Italy, France, Holland, Germany, and Spain, considerable
excellence had already been attained. Mahogany had been discovered by
Raleigh as early as 1595, but did not come into general use until the
middle of the eighteenth century.
During the year 1891, owing to the extension 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. This has been erected 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. It
was the residence of Sir Paul Pindar, during the time of Charles I., and
it contained a carved oak chimneypiece, with some other good ornamental
woodwork of this period.
[Illustration: STAIRCASE IN GENERAL IRETON'S HOUSE, DATED 1630.]
In the illustration of a child's chair, which is said to have been used by
some of Cromwell's family, 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
is an heirloom, one of his ancestors having 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 illustration of a staircase on p. 110
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.
[Illustration: SETTEE AND CHAIR.
In carved ebony, part of the Indo-Portuguese Suite at Penshurst Place,
with Flemish Folding Chair.
PERIOD: CHARLES II.]
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 we still recognise as Cromwellian was 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 of England, 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 chair
is very similar to one at Penshurst; it is grouped with a settee of 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 to be Flemish, judging by a similar 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 effects 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 means of the lathe the effect which had just come into fashion.
There are, too, in certain illustrations in "Shaw's Ancient Furniture,"
some lamp-holders, in which this spiral turning is overdone, a fault which
is frequently to be met with when any particular kind of ornament comes
into vogue.
The suite of furniture at Penshurst Place (illustrated), which comprises
thirteen pieces, was probably imported about this time; two of the smaller
chairs appear to have their original cushions, the others have been
re-covered by the late 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 89 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 reign. 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 will
be noticed later on.
It may be mentioned here that amongst the few churches in the city which
escaped the Great Fire, and contained woodwork of particular note, are
St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, 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, reminding one
of the portholes 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 respective 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 page
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 decorations 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 thirty 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; it has 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. (From a pen and ink sketch by H. Evans.)_]
Mr. Rivington read his paper to the London and Middlesex Archæological
Society in 1881; and the writer can with pleasure confirm his statement as
to the condition, in 1899, 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 that in the Brewers' Hall, and presents a fine
architectural effect, which will be observed in the illustration on page
117.
[Illustration: CARVED OAK LIVERY CUPBOARD.
In the Hall of the Stationers' Company. Made in 1674, the curved pediment
added later, probably in 1788.]
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 for unused viands, which were 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 original 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 had hitherto 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 "Earl of Norwich," in
Epping Forest, says, "A good many pictures put into the wainscot which
Mr. Baker, his lordship's predecessor, brought from Spaine." Indeed,
subsequently the wainscot became simply the frame for pictures, and the
same writer deplores the disuse of timber, and expresses 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, his life-like
birds and flowers, 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, in 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 ornamental 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 more or
less costly, according to circumstances, but of a similar pattern to those
shewn in the illustration. The silver table bears the English Hall mark of
the reign.
Specimens of English furniture, dating from about 1680 to 1700, distinctly
shew the influence of Flemish design. The Stadtholder, King William III.,
with his Dutch friends, imported many of their household gods, 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 this is to be seen in the upright "grandfather's clock" in
the South Kensington Museum, the effect being a pleasing harmony of color.
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 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 of 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 these 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 those which is in the South Kensington Museum (date
1700), and no doubt the manufacture of similar clocks 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 walnut."
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
Place 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 took place in the design of woodwork and furniture 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 on, 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 _torchères_,
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.
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--namely, the seventeenth century, gives us the best examples 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.
[Illustration: THREE CHIMNEYPIECES.
DESIGNED BY JAMES GIBBS, ARCHITECT, IN 1739.]
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. When we come to deal with furniture of
the present day, and the methods of production which are now in practice,
a 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.
[Illustration: SEVENTEENTH CENTURY CHAIR IN HOLLAND HOUSE.
_See pp. 103, 104._]
[Illustration: PATTERN OF A CHINESE LAC SCREEN.
(_In the South Kensington Museum._)]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 9: The present decorations of the room were painted either
actually by Watts or under his directions, when, as favourite artist to
the fourth Lord Holland, he did so much to beautify the house and made so
many additions to its store of portraits. His work is fully described in
"Holland House," by Princess Marie Liechtenstein. London, 1874.]
[Footnote 10: The following passage occurs in one of Beaumont and
Fletcher's plays:--
"Is the great Couch up, the Duke of Medina sent?" to which the
duenna replies, "'Tis up, and ready;" and then Marguerite asks, "And
day beds in all chambers?" receiving in answer, "In all, lady."
]
[Footnote 11: This tapestry is still in the Great Hall at Hampton Court
Palace.]