looking-glass, which he can make for himself by cutting in two a square
mirror of, say, six inches by twelve, he can, out of any pattern in this
book, or from any simple ornament whatever, make (with the least effort
of ingenuity or adaptiveness) a border by repeating it in succession,
or a centre ornament which may be multiplied in whole or in part _ad
infinitum_. That is to say, he can fill any given space, be it a panel,
ceiling, circle, triangle, or hexagon. Or he can fill such spaces by
simply cutting out ornaments from card-board, and placing them together
to form vines or outgrowths from one another.
_Panels._ A panel is defined as a board with a surrounding frame. The
word is derived from the old English _panel_, a piece of cloth, Latin
_pannus_, "a cloth or patch"; from the same word we have _pane_. In
wood-carving we practically apply it to small boards intended to be
set in furniture, or walls, or ceilings, or made into book-covers
or box-lids. The uses of panels are without limit, as they may be
introduced into almost every kind of furniture, such as the backs and
sides of chairs, chests, bedsteads, caskets, window-garden boxes, doors,
or wherever a flat surface can be adorned. When surrounded with a frame
or several strips of moulding, any panel becomes improved when the outer
frame is not overdone. As a rule the border of a panel should be plain,
so as to distinctly define or set forth the pattern. For this reason
many very ordinary and even rude subjects "come out" or look well when
thus "mounted." A series of carved panels makes a beautiful frieze for
any room. A good general size for most work is a panel six inches by
twelve, more or less, and half an inch thick. In _spacing_ a panel for
ornament the pupil may begin by making one circle in the centre and one
in each corner, so that the five may fill up the whole space. Convert
these into a vine and apply ornaments. There are of course endless
variations of this principle. (Consult the "Manual of Design.")
_Chairs._ Take any chair, copy it, and then fill the spaces with
ornaments to be carved. Large, square, high-backed, old-fashioned chairs
admit of the most panelling, and can be made up by any cabinet-maker or
carpenter, _vide_ Fig. 69. It is a very good plan to always have such
objects made up in pieces, carve them separately, and then have them
put together. It may be observed for beginners, and those who are not
much practised in cabinet-making, that there is a very substantial kind
of furniture once made very commonly in Germany, and which has been
much revived of late years. It is made entirely without glue, nails, or
screws, by simply cutting holes into which tenons or _ends_ project,
which ends are fastened on the other side by holes and pins.
[Illustration: Fig. 65.]
On this principle every kind of furniture can be made by any man who is
ingenious enough to simply measure boards, cut square holes, and adapt
pins to them. Such articles as are made by this process are very much
stronger than any others, and they have the great advantage that they
can be easily taken apart, packed, or be stored in very small space
when not in use; and the style is of course more adapted to carving
than ordinary furniture. The writer has in his possession chairs 250
years old made on this principle. The seat is a square nearly two inches
thick, in which four holes are bored, into which the legs are simply
set, as in a milking-stool. Between the hind legs two square holes are
cut, into which similar tenons made in the lower end of the back are
fitted. In these tenons two square holes are cut, just exactly on the
other side of the seat, into which square pins are driven, Fig. 65. With
a very little ingenuity or will, anybody can contrive to make any piece
of furniture on the same principle. The seats of chairs and stools, or
the faces of tables, should never be carved, for very apparent reasons.
There is plenty of space for the carver to work at on the edges and
legs, and this may be made striking enough by means of colouring and
gilding, Figs. 64 and 66.
[Illustration: Fig. 66. CONSOLE OR BRACKET.]
_Boxes._ These have formed in all ages favourite subjects for
decoration. They vary from the smallest casket to the chest. A box
with the lid forms five panels, or, seen from any point, three. In
Italy, of old, they were often carved without and within. Boxes may
be made by simply gluing, nailing, or screwing together, but they
may be so dovetailed by an expert workman that the juncture is quite
imperceptible. _Vide_ "Forty Lessons in Carpentry Practice," by C. F.
Mitchell. Cassell and Co. It is a feat in cabinet-making to do this
_perfectly_, and boxes thus joined are very expensive. The appearance
of boxes is much improved by the addition of moulding-strips, bases,
and projecting ornaments. The student is advised to carve or buy a few
bosses, such as heads of animals or faces, and rosettes, and try the
experiment of fitting them to a box or carving them on one, Fig. 67.
[Illustration: Fig. 67.]
_Caskets for Cigars._ This applies also to receptacles into which
glasses for flowers may be put. Take a cylinder of wood, turned, or made
up like a barrel, and fit a base to it, and a lid. They may be made of
very large joints of bamboo, which may also be beautifully carved, and
partly coloured in the lines, as is common in China. It is best for
turned cylinders and bamboo to have them surrounded with metal rings to
prevent their splitting. They may also be made square, that is, as
boxes.
[Illustration: Fig. 68. TRAY FOR CIGAR ASHES.]
_Trays for Cigar Ashes._ These are best when carved from hard wood,
such as box, though any other may be used. It is much better that
they be made rather larger and deeper than many in use, as ashes are
continually being knocked out of small and shallow ones. They may be
round or square, like a fish or a small book (with a lid), a shell, a
tortoise, or a scooped hand, a face, or a figure of any animal or human
being, Fig. 68.
_Basket-work._ This is very easily imitated in wood, and it forms a
very pretty and fanciful style for many kinds of objects. Take any kind
of basket-work, either that of split osiers, which are half-round, or
Italian rush-work, or American Indian, which is made of flat strips
of ash or pine-bark interwoven, or Indian rattan, and imitate it with
flat gouges or firmers. It is very easy work, and beginners soon become
expert in it. It improves the effect, when the work is finished, if
dark colour be painted into the depressions. Basket-work may be used
for diaper ground. The American Indian basket-work, in flat strips from
one-third of an inch to an inch in breadth, is easiest to imitate, and
may be executed with a single V tool or firmer.
_Casks, Small Barrels, Kegs._ These are useful for waste-paper boxes, or
to contain canes and umbrellas. When carved and coloured they form very
attractive articles of furniture. They may be used for garden seats.
Heads of animals _appliqué_ to these, some for handles to lift them, or
else holes must be cut in them for this purpose, _vide_ Fig. 56.
_Frames for Pictures or Looking-glasses._ These give a wide range to
the wood-carver, for all borders are suitable to frames. Heads may be
_appliqué_ to corners and centres of frames. It is very much to be
desired that designers and carvers would exert their inventiveness and
endeavour to break up the monotony and feebleness which characterize
most frames, _vide_ borders and photograph frames.
[Illustration: MINIATURE FRAME. _P. 128._]
_Horns._ Horns may be carved, as previously described, and imitations of
them in wood are easily made. They are ornamental objects, and useful
when hung up to contain small objects. They can, by steeping in hot
water, be softened and flattened, _vide_ initial to Fifteenth Lesson.
_Tiles._ These are really panels. They are pieces of wood from half an
inch to an inch in thickness, the size of ordinary tiles, carved in bold
relief with free hand, coloured or not, and are very useful for house
decoration, chimney-piece borders, cornices, and corners. The tile when
employed with much repetition becomes the diaper ornament.
_Window Gardens_ to contain flower-pots. These are square chests, as
long as the window is wide, and from a foot to eighteen inches in depth.
They may be made with two or three panels, or one long panel in front,
with one at each end. They form admirable subjects for decoration.
_Albums, Portfolios, Book-covers._ These are panels, and afford an
infinite range of design and effects in wood-carving. They may be very
beautifully and easily ornamented in mere stamping and outlining (_vide_
Lesson II.), or by putting in diaper grounds, or basket-work, or by very
low relief carving, in which case there should be a border in a little
higher relief to protect the pattern from being rubbed, Fig. 70.
_Canoes._ In many countries large or real canoes are made from one piece
of wood and elaborately carved. Very pretty miniature canoes may be made
from one to three feet in length from any kind of wood, and covered with
any kind of ornamentation. It is not necessary to excavate them from a
single block or log, as they may be made from two or more pieces. They
form useful receptacles for many objects.
[Illustration: Fig. 69.]
_Panels of Doors._ These might be generally ornamented. Every kind of
wood-carving is applicable to them, but it should be remembered that
for all such decoration a large, free, and bold style is absolutely
necessary, and that it is unwise to make mural work, which should be
visible at great distances, out of pretty flowers or too delicate work.
A room with good bold door-panels, wainscot, or dado and a frieze,
seems half furnished, while trifling and feeble ornaments detract from
such appearance. The great secret of the attractiveness of mediæval and
savage decoration is its energy. Even eccentricity and grotesqueness
lose all that is repulsive in them when they are simply and vigorously
set forth.
Carved patterns in low relief may be applied to door-panels.
[Illustration: Fig. 70. ALBUM COVER.]
_Foot-stools._ These are really small panelled boxes, unless made with
supports or legs.
_Benches._ Simple benches are seldom decorated, but they are admirably
adapted to it. Never carve the seats, unless they are made to fold up
to protect them from the rain, in which case the under ornaments of
choir-seats or misereres may be appropriately used. When the bench has
a back it becomes a rude sofa or settee or settle (Anglo-Saxon _setl_,
a seat). Properly speaking a settle is a _long_ bench with a high back.
This may be carved in panels. There was an old Saxon and early English
double chair made to seat two, which is like a short settle.
[Illustration: Fig. 71. HANGING BOX.]
_Hanging Boxes._ These are boxes generally made with a back, which is
the longest piece, and which goes above and below the receptacle part.
They are useful for newspapers or letters. Every kind of carving is
applicable to them, Fig. 71.
_Key Boxes._ These are small hanging cabinets. In every family there are
many loose keys of trunks and furniture lying about loose, and hard to
find when wanted. If there were a key box they would always be readily
found. Make a box or frame, let us say eighteen inches in length by
ten inches width, of four strips of deal or any wood. These strips may
be half an inch in thickness by an inch in width. Nail or glue them
together so as to form the four sides of a box. Then take one or two or
three strips of thin planed board, and neatly nail them on to form a
back to the shallow box. Now take a panel, which is to form the lid or
door of the cabinet. It will be better to make a narrow frame of four
strips, and set the panel in this, as a door, with hinges and lock.
This is to be hung up on the wall. It will very much improve the whole
if the interior and outside of the cabinet, or all the deal, be stained
to match the door, which, as it is to be carved, should be of walnut
or oak, or some better class of wood. Then get some small silver or
plated-headed nails and drive them in rows in the cabinet. The keys are
to be hung up on these.
_Cabinets._ These may be in the nature of upright boxes with doors, with
three sides ornamented, the fourth being placed against the wall, or
three-sided for a corner. The forms of cabinets are extremely varied,
and the artist should pass much time in designing them. They are of all
sizes, from great _armoires_ for clothing down to caskets. The word
cabinet is derived from the French _cabane_, a cabin. The earliest
dwellers in Italy made the receptacles for the ashes of the dead exactly
like the cabins in which they dwelt.
_Sabots or Wooden Shoes._ These serve admirably to carve, and are very
pretty when coloured or ivoried, bronzed in antique style, or otherwise
ornamented. Sabots are useful to contain small articles, and may be
turned into cigar-ash holders.
_Umbrella Handles._ These offer an inexhaustible field for the designer
and carver of small objects.
_Tankards._ These and all kinds of cylindrical objects are the same
as regards design as panels, only that the pattern when not in set
divisions must be continuous, or going round without a break. They have
been already described.
_Pen and Pencil Boxes._ A very convenient form is that of a round-turned
wood, plain, upright jar. Small square or round carved boxes for such a
purpose are not hard to make. They may be made like towers or castles,
the trunks of trees, barrels, or almost any hollow objects.
[Illustration: Fig. 72. FLASK.]
_Pilgrim Bottles and Powder Flasks._ Take two pieces of board, each
one inch thick, plane them smooth, and saw both into ovals exactly
matching, of, say, six inches by ten. Cut away the centre from both. Fit
them exactly. Then round each half in such a manner that, when brought
together, they form a round ring, like a French loaf. Then carefully
hollow out the centre of both, including the neck, and glue the halves
together. Carve the outside, Figs. 72 and 73. During the Middle Ages
such bottles were made of many sizes to contain gunpowder. They were
carved from ivory or hard wood, and were covered with a very great
variety of subjects, such as deer, dogs, wild boars, birds, cupids,
scenes from the heathen mythology and the Bible, as well as ordinary
grotesques.
[Illustration: Fig. 73. PILGRIM BOTTLE.]
_Shrines or Reliquaries._ This is the conventional name for boxes or
caskets made exactly in the form of houses, the lid being one side of
the roof. The shape is a convenient one for a box. They were covered
with ornaments of the most varied or grotesque kinds.
_Mummies._ The Egyptian mummy or its outward box or sarcophagus forms
an excellent subject for a useful box. Take two pieces of wood, adapt
them to make a box, like the Egyptian type, that is, the lid being about
one-fourth as thick as the box. _Appliqué_ or glue more wood on to the
lid, in the centre. The whole may be then smoothed into shape, painted
and gilt, or else carved in low relief, or simply stamped. It may also
be all gilt, and the dot work and shadows painted in brown or ivoried.
Take for model a real sarcophagus. The work is not difficult, and the
result will be a very handsome object.
_Roman Sarcophagus._ This is simply a square box carved in very high
relief, after the pattern of a Roman tomb. The ornaments may be
_appliqué_. These sarcophagi are very beautiful when ivoried.
_Books._ A very pretty pattern for a box is an old book of the twelfth
or thirteenth century, with its clasps and other ornaments in high
relief. One of the covers is set on hinges, and forms the lid. Care
should be taken to polish and ornament the whole so as to look like
an original. It was very common to make the sides of old books of
wooden panels, which were carved in high relief. Silver and brass or
iron clasps and studs taken from such old books may be bought in many
bric-à-brac shops.
_Staves or Alpenstocks._ A staff four or five feet in length is more
useful for a pedestrian going a great distance than a cane, and it
is remarkable that it should have fallen into such disuse. In old
times in northern countries they were often made square, the corners
being slightly rounded, and were then covered with Runic inscriptions
and ornaments. These were very often almanacks, so that a man wishing
to know what was the day of the week or month had only to consult
his staff, or to "up stick." These were called clogs. They might be
acceptable and useful to many tourists. They were commonly carved by the
peasants, and a few may possibly still be found in Suffolk.
_Spoons._ Wooden spoons are easily carved and ornamented. It is very
curious, that quite apart from any modern slang attached to the words
"spooney" or "to spoon," two spoons, from their fitting together
exactly, are considered in many countries as a type of matrimony and
perfect agreement. In Wales, as in Sweden and Algeria, it is usual to
present a newly married couple with a piece of wood carved into the
form of two spoons, and I myself possess specimens of such. If anyone
wishes to establish the custom in England he would probably find that
the present would be generally welcome. Two spoons in one cup are, it
is well known, the sign of a happy marriage. I have seen large wooden
spoons carved and painted and varnished, or gilt; two of these tied
together with a ribbon were hung up as an amulet to secure peace.
_Bellows._ These are carved in low relief, and may be ornamented by
simple indentation or outlining and stamping. It is the easiest course
to get the wood and saw it out, half or one-third inch walnut or oak,
and then carve it, and have the bellows made up, Figs. 74 and 75.
_Platters._ Take a piece of panel, one-third to half of an inch in
thickness, and saw it out into any shape, such as that of a fish, a wild
boar, a pig, a cat, a rabbit, tortoise, hare, etc., care being taken
that the shape always approach that of a circle, an oval, or at least
a diamond. Most animals can be drawn fitting into a circular border,
as you can ascertain for yourself by putting a cat or a hare, etc.,
into a hoop. Indent with stamped work or carve in ribbon-work, low
relief, finish and polish with care, dye black, and then oil or varnish.
These are useful for interposing between cups, vases, etc., and the
table-cloth. Very pretty effects may be produced by inlaying small discs
of pearl or ivory to form the eyes, etc.
[Illustration: Fig. 74. THE WIND-FLOWER, OR ANEMONE.]
[Illustration: Fig. 75. A SALAMANDER.]
_Lunettes and Spaces._ It will often happen that there is over a
chimney-piece or door, or under or over a window, a space like a
semi-circle, or half an ellipse or oval, or square or rectangle of any
kind, which might very well be filled in, and it will be found that, in
most cases, there is nothing more appropriate than wood-carving. It will
be an easy matter for anyone in the least familiar with drawing to adapt
the designs in this work, or in the "Manual of Design," to such spaces.
_False Sofa-backs._ When a plain flat lounge or sofa is placed against a
wall its appearance may be greatly improved in one of two ways. Firstly,
a carpet or cloth may be hung on the wall, just matching it in size and
meeting it. Secondly, and this is very effective, get boards or panels
made into a piece, just as broad as the sofa is long, and from two feet
to any height you please. It may reach down to the ground, or begin with
the sofa. Carve it. This will seem to be the back of the sofa, or a
guard for the wall; in any case it will appear very well. It may be made
of separate panels, say six or eight inches by twelve or sixteen, made
up into a frame. Such pieces may be placed to back any kind of furniture
which rests permanently against the wall.
_Door Pieces._ Panels just as long as the door is wide, and from one
to two, three, or even four feet across, when carved, form handsome
decorations to place _above_ a door; they may also be used to place
above windows. Inscriptions, or simple figures with ornament, look very
well on them.
_Outside or Façade Pieces._ Many a house, be it mansion or cottage,
which seems utterly prosaic and plain, might be greatly improved if
between its windows, on the outside, there could be set ornamental
panels. These may be painted, carved in stone, moulded of Portland
cement or other artificial stone, and in many cases carved of wood.
Ornamented inscriptions in old English, and simple figures, are suitable
for these panels; in any case let those who adopt them try not to have
the commonplace cupids and ornaments generally seen in mural decoration.
It may not be in good form to be grotesque, but those who entirely avoid
it are almost always commonplace. Fig. 76.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.]
_Wood or Coal Boxes._ These are square boxes with lids, to be placed
by the fireplace. The coal-scuttle, with the coals, may be placed in
them. In carving everything of the kind it is a good idea to introduce
ornamental lettering and appropriate mottoes.
_Bread Platters._ These may be seen in every fancy or furnishing shop
where wooden wares are sold. They can be much improved by carving to
serve as round panels.
_Chimney-pieces._ These generally consist of pilaster panels and strips,
and anybody who can execute these in detail can have them made up. It is
desirable for the pupil to copy a few or many chimney-pieces, great or
small, from real ones, and adopt the ornaments from them. And as they
are articles which receive a great deal of wear and tear and rubbing,
it may be well to remember that too delicate finish is misplaced where
scrubbing with soap and sand is sure to set in some day, and where, at
any rate, dusting and other processes are inevitable. After a few years
the foliage or flowers undercut to the last degree, begin to shed their
leaves, and appear broken or ragged. Good flat-carving, which endures
anything, is better than this, and the roses, even if in high relief,
would look none the worse for being solidly though conventionally cut. A
good chimney-piece and a handsome high-backed armchair can be very well
executed by anybody who can do ordinary panel carving.
There is no fireplace in even the humblest cottage for which a
chimney-piece may not be made. Its upper portion can in most cases be
made to support shelves or a cabinet; when in a corner these of course
are triangular. Gothic or ornamented lettering may be used in the
ornament. For this, proverbs or quotations relative to the fireplace are
appropriate.
_Beams._ When the beams which support the floor above are left exposed,
the room is improved by being made higher. If these beams are carved,
even if it be done rudely, the whole room seems to be adorned. This is
strikingly the case when the beams are stained a dark brown, and then
touched up a little on the prominent points with gilding. If it be
too difficult to carve the beams _in situ_ or in place, it is easy to
ornament them with applied carved ornaments. Pains should be taken to
make these appear to be uniform with the wood.
_Racks._ These may be for umbrellas, hats, garments, pipes weapons, and
other purposes. Great ingenuity and taste can be developed in designing
them. Of one thing let the designer be very careful. Let him see that
the pegs or hooks are strongly fixed and are not ornamented. I have seen
such pieces of furniture, in which a four-cornered sharp-edged flower is
placed once and even twice on a hook, while on others there is at the
end a projection more than an inch in diameter, which is flat on the
back or under side, with a sharp edge. The result is, that when a coat
is hung by the loop on such a peg and is then turned or twisted once or
twice, as often happens, it is almost impossible at times to get it off.