in the formation of the Queen Anne style than any other influence. The
Oriental taste had reached Amsterdam and London before Paris felt it.
Throughout the Seventeenth Century, the English and Dutch East Indiamen
poured porcelain, lacquer, and other products of Oriental art into their
respective capitals, and even the bitter trade rivalry between the two
did not arouse the French from their indifference till the arrival of
the Siamese embassy in 1690. Long before this, however, Mazarin had
tried to bring Oriental goods into favour. The daughter of Gaston
d’Orléans, La Grande Mademoiselle, notes in her diary (1658), that the
Cardinal “took the two queens (Anne of Austria and Henrietta, wife of
Charles I. of England), the princess (Henrietta’s daughter) and myself,
into a gallery that was full of all imaginable kinds of stone-work,
jewelry, and all the beautiful things that came from China, crystal
chandeliers, mirrors, tables, cabinets of all kinds, silver plate, etc.”
All these Oriental wares were given away by the magnificent Cardinal in
a lottery in which every guest drew a prize.
Twenty-five years later, the same adventurous lady who wrote the above
had a quarrel with her unrecognized husband, the Comte de Lauzan. To
patch up peace, he sent her from England a cargo of Chinese wares.
Before the port L’Orient gained its name by its trade with that quarter
of the world, Paris received its Chinese and Indian goods chiefly
through London. Consignments from the distant Jesuit missions to their
headquarters were largely instrumental in bringing Eastern art to the
notice of the public. There is an entry in Evelyn’s _Diary_ (March 22,
1664):
[Illustration: PLATE XVIII]
“One Tomson, a Jesuite shewed me such a collection of rarities, sent
from ye Jesuites of Japan and China to their order at Paris, as a
present to be received in their repository, but brought to London by the
East India ships for them, as in my life I had not seen. The chiefe
things were rhinoceros’s horns; glorious vests wrought and embroidered
on cloth-of-gold, but with such lively colours, that for splendour and
vividness we have nothing in Europe that approaches it ... fanns like
those our ladies use, but much larger, and with long handles curiously
carved and filled with Chinese characters; a sort of paper very broad,
thin and fine like abortive parchment, and exquisitely polished, of an
amber yellow, exceedingly glorious and pretty to looke on; several other
sorts of paper, some written, other printed; prints of landskips, their
idols, saints, pagods, of most ugly serpentine monstrous and hideous
shapes, to which they paid devotion; pictures of men and countries
rarely printed on a sort of gum’d calico transparent as glasse; flowers,
trees, beasts, birds, etc., excellently wrought in a sort of sleve silk
very naturall.”
In England, porcelain had been a comparatively rare luxury confined to
the tables and closets of rich collectors until about 1630. Cromwell
laid a heavy duty on it. China-shops under the Restoration became one of
the favourite lounging-places of fops and curiosity hunters, and the
appointments made there caused them to fall into bad repute. Later,
emporiums of Oriental wares were known as India houses. Queen Mary while
only the Princess of Orange in Holland, had developed quite a craze for
porcelain and Indian goods of all kinds. When she became Queen of
England, Sir Christopher Wren designed cabinets and shelves for her
china in Hampton Court Palace.
Lord Nottingham in his news-letter descriptive of Queen Mary’s movements
(1689) says: “Her majesty being disappointed of her second play, amused
herself with other diversions. She dined at Mrs. Graden’s, the famous
woman in the hall, that sells fine ribbons and headdresses. From thence
she went to Mrs. Ferguson’s to de Vetts and other Indian houses.”
With such tastes in high places, it is not astonishing to find a popular
furore for China and everything Oriental, spurious and real. This
Chinese taste affected everything in architecture and interior
decoration.
With regard to architecture, the ill-understood Gothic had fallen into
very bad odour. John Evelyn’s opinion of it (1697) is worth quoting. He
says: “A certain fantastical and licencious manner of building which we
have since called _Modern_ (or _Gothic_ rather) congestions of heavy,
dark, melancholy and monkish piles without any just proportion, use or
beauty.... So when we meet with the greatest industry and expensive
carving, full of _fret_ and lamentable _Imagery_ a judicious spectator
is distracted and quite confounded.... Not that there is not something
of solid and odly artificial too, after a sort; but then the universal
and unreasonable thickness of the walls, clumsy buttresses, towers,
sharp-pointed arches, doors and other apertures without proportion;
nonsense insertions of various marbles impertinently placed; turrets and
pinnacles thickset with Munkies and chimæras and abundance of busy work
and other incongruities dissipate and break the angles of the sight and
so confound it that one cannot consider it with any steadiness.... Vast
and gigantic buildings indeed but not worthy the name of architecture.”
Domestic architecture, however, was undergoing considerable changes
under the new influences. These changes were in the direction of comfort
and cosiness, to the sacrifice of grandeur and magnificence. Of course,
novelty aroused opposition. Evelyn (1697) protests:
[Illustration: PLATE XIX]
“As certain great masters invented certain new corbels, scrolls and
modilions, which were brought into use; so their followers animated by
their example (but with much less judgment) have presumed to introduce
sundry baubles and trifling decorations (as they fancy) in their
works.... And therefore, tho’ such devices and inventions may seem
pretty in cabinet-work, tables, frames and other joyners-work for
variety, to place china dishes upon; one would by no means encourage or
admit them in great and noble buildings.”
The changes in domestic architecture are noticed by Du Bois, who issued
a new and sumptuous edition of Palladio (the plates engraved by Picart)
in 1715. Among other things he says:
“We see so many bungled houses and so oddly contrived that they seem to
have been made only to be admired by ignorant men and to raise the
laughter of those who are sensible of such imperfections. Most of them
are like bird cages, by reason of the largeness and too great number of
windows; or like prisons, because of the darkness of the rooms, passages
and stairs. Some want the most essential part, I mean the Entablature or
cornice; and though it be the best fence against the injuries of the
weather, it is left out to save charges. In some other houses, the rooms
are so small and strait, that one knows not where to place the most
necessary furniture. Others, through the oddness of some new and
insignificant ornaments, seem to exceed the wildest Gothic. It were an
endless thing to enumerate all the absurdities which many of our
builders introduce every day into their way of building.”
The changes in interior decoration that contributed to form the Queen
Anne style were largely due to the requirements of the effective display
and preservation of porcelain. The chimney-piece, especially, was
affected. As early as 1691, D’Aviler says in his book on architecture:
“The height of the cornice (of the chimney-pieces) should be raised six
feet in order that the vases with which they are ornamented may not be
knocked down.”
A glance through Marot’s book of designs will show a most lavish use of
china as an integral part of interior decoration. He piles up his
chimney-pieces with tier on tier on shelves loaded with porcelain of all
shapes and sizes, arranged, however, with an eye to symmetry. Brackets
up the walls, in the corners, and between the panels, all along the
cornice, and over the door are loaded with cups, bowls, and vases. The
panels themselves are sometimes painted with Chinese subjects, or
covered with real Oriental painted or embroidered fabrics. A glance at
Plate XVIII., the walls and chimney-piece of which are reproduced
closely from one of Marot’s designs, will show one of the more formal
Queen Anne rooms, properly decorated in accordance with the taste of the
day. This is a modest specimen of this style of decoration. One of
Marot’s plates shows more than 300 pieces of china on the chimney-piece
alone. The china craze was rapidly increasing. Addison writes: “An old
lady of fourscore shall be so busy in cleaning an Indian mandarin as her
great-grand-daughter is in dressing her baby.” In 1711, also he gives
the following description of a lady’s library:
[Illustration: PLATE XX]
“The very sound of a _Lady’s Library_ gave me a great Curiosity to see
it; and as it was some time before the Lady came to me, I had an
opportunity of turning over a great many of her Books, which were ranged
together in very beautiful Order. At the End of her Folios (which were
very finely bound and gilt) were great jars of _China_, placed one above
another in a very noble piece of Architecture. The Quartos were
separated from the Octavos by a Pile of smaller Vessels which rose in a
delightful Pyramid. The Octavos were bounded by Ten dishes of all
Shapes, Colours and Sizes, which were so disposed on a wooden Frame,
that they looked like one continued Pillar indented with the finest
Strokes of Sculpture, and stained with the greatest variety of Dyes.
That Part of the Library which was designed for the Reception of Plays
and pamphlets and other loose Papers, was enclosed in a kind of Square
consisting of one of the prettiest grotesque Works that I ever saw, and
made up of Scaramouches, Lions, Monkies, Mandarines, Trees, Shells, and
a thousand other odd Figures in China Ware. In the midst of the Room was
a little Japan Table with a quire of gilt Paper upon it, and on the
Paper a Silver Snuff-box made in the shape of a little Book. I found
there were several Counterfeit Books upon the upper Shelves, which were
carved in wood, and several only to fill up the number.”
As an example of the decorative use made of china by arranging it on
brackets even above mirror or panel, the reader is referred to Plate
XXIII., No. 2.
The Queen Anne room had its walls sometimes covered with tapestry and
sometimes decorated with painted or carved panels. In accordance with
the French and Dutch custom also, pictures were used with a conscious
decorative effect. Sometimes they were hung on the tapestry, also,
though not when the latter depicted a story of itself. In 1710, D’Aviler
defines the word picture (_tableau_) as a subject of painting, usually
in oil on canvas or wood, and contained in a frame or border. “Pictures
greatly contribute to the decoration of the interior of buildings. The
big ones figure in churches, drawing-rooms, galleries and other big
places. Those of medium size called easel-pictures are placed in the
spaces above the chimney-piece, above the doors and in the panels of the
walls, or else on the tapestry against the walls. The small ones are
symmetrically arranged in the chambers and cabinets of the curious.”
In the ordinary house, in the reign of Queen Anne, there was a strange
jumble of the old and the new. The late Jacobean carved oak, or walnut,
cane-bottom chair had not yet gone entirely out of use, but the new
styles were varieties of the chair and stool on Plate XXI., Nos. 1 and
4. These were usually of walnut, but mahogany was just coming into
fashion as a cabinet wood, and Queen Anne chairs with the frames made of
that wood still exist. The characteristics of this chair consist of the
cabriole leg, with and sometimes even without stretchers, the club foot,
and solid curved splat which very frequently assumes the jar shape.
Later in the period, the stretchers were discarded altogether. There was
very little carving except on the spring of the knee. The claw-and-ball
foot was rapidly coming into favour, and the tendency was constantly
towards increased lightness of frame. Even where the characteristic
square tapering leg of the Louis XIV. style is preserved, increased
lightness is noticeable. The turned stretchers, both of chairs and
settees, are shown on Plate XIX., Nos. 5, 6 and 7, and Plate XXI., Nos.
1, 4 and 10. Marot clung to the flat curved stretchers of the Louis XIV.
style, and his chairs are very large and heavy. The reason of this is
that he paid great attention to the upholstery, and his large and
brilliant designs required a correspondingly large surface for adequate
display. Many of his plates are devoted entirely to patterns for
materials for upholstery, and the geometrical flower-bed is the apparent
inspiration of much of his work of this nature. Some of Marot’s chairs
and stools are shown on Plate XXI., Nos. 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9. The chairs on
either side of the bed on Plate XXII. are also Marot’s. No. 7 on Plate
No. XXI. shows the lighter form of frame of this class of chair. The
settees, numbered 5, 6 and 7, on Plate XIX. should also be carefully
studied as types of this style. They are taken from contemporary prints
of court ladies. On one of them, Anne herself is sitting in the
original. No. 6, Plate XXI., represents the top of a chair back which is
very characteristic of the Marot school. One of the favourite ornaments
of this period was the urn in some form or other. The acorn was also
largely used for feet, and the flattened bulb was not entirely
superseded. The effect produced by the above-mentioned detail is found
in several other pieces of furniture of the day, clocks and mirrors
particularly. The urn is seen in No. 5, Plate XXIII., and the effect is
repeated in Nos. 1 and 6, Plate XX. Nos. 5 and 6 on that Plate also show
the combination acorn and flattened bulb employed as feet. No. 6 also
shows another decorative feature of the period in the heavy _chutes_ of
bell-flowers. The handsome clock, No. 6, Plate XX., from Marot’s design,
shows many Louis XIV. features. The sun in splendour is noticeable and
the winged cherub above the dial. The latter was made great use of in
the Queen Anne style. The mascaron also was largely adopted. Another
decorative feature which was carved on the centre lower rim of so many
chests-of-drawers, and dressing-tables was the shell. The cabinet-makers
were never tired of using the latter, and its constant appearance may
perhaps be accounted for by the fact that it was the principal charge in
the arms of the English company of cabinet-makers. It is seen on top of
the mirror in No. 2, Plate XIX., and the mascaron is used to beautiful
effect in the mirror No. 3 on the same plate. The mascaron appears as
the chief ornament in No. 3, Plate XX. Strange to say, this is not a
chair, as might be imagined, but a fire-back, as is also No. 4. The
shape of this fire-back, however, is going to be that which will
dominate in chair-backs in many styles and even to the present day holds
its own. The chair No. 8, Plate XX., is transitional between Jacobean
and Queen Anne. The couch (No. 9 of the same plate) is a fine example of
the Queen Anne style with its scrolls, cabriole legs and stretchers. The
winged effect of the scrolls connecting the legs is a very favourite
feature of the day. This should be compared with the couch by Marot in
Plate XVIII., which retains more of the Louis XIV. characteristics.
The bed on Plate XXII. is one of Marot’s designs and shows the Louis
XIV. influence. The detail No. 3, on the same plate, exhibits another
variety of head-board. No. 1 is a detail of a bed cornice and its
drapery; and No. 2 shows the pattern of a valance. Specimens of
lambrequin drapery, both for beds and windows, moreover, are shown in
the details, Nos. 1 and 4 on Plate XIX.
Typical contents of a fashionable home in England during the reign of
Queen Anne are to be gathered from the will and inventory of La Marquise
de Gouvernet, a French Protestant refugee, who was naturalized at
Westminster in 1691, and lived for thirty years in English aristocratic
circles, dying in 1722. She was very wealthy, and occupied a
distinguished position in London society. To her grandson and heir, she
bequeathed an immense quantity of jewels, furniture, pictures and
porcelain. The mere enumeration of the pieces of furniture affords a
good idea of a stylish interior of the Queen Anne period.
One small calico bed, 3 foot wide and 8 foot high, for the country,
being stitched with coloured flowers, with five armed chairs of
the same.
One suit of chamber hangings of cloth, painted with Indian figures,
nine pieces, 7 foot high.
One other suit of chamber hangings of cloth painted in the Indias,
drawn in porticoes, eleven in number, 7 foot high, very old.
One suit of chamber hangings of white damask, pillows of coloured
stuff fixed thereon.
One blue gauze Indian bed, worked with gold straw work, eight pieces
of tapestry, and the chairs of the same, very old.
A furniture of Indian damask of four colours, with the bed, 4 foot
wide, the door curtains, the window curtains and chairs of the
same, all very old.
One bundle of borders of old gold and silver brecard, with coloured
flowers embroidered thereon.
Two tapestry armed chairs.
Four pieces of blue damask hangings with borders of cross-stitch,
and three chairs.
Nine chairs of tent-stitch, the ground of gold colour.
Two couches, the ground violet with figures. Bottoms of Hungarian
Irish stitch chairs and two door curtains.
Two large Marselian quilts, and one Indian quilt, stitched in
colour.
One Indian quilt, stitched in yellow silk, basses and pillows of the
same, all old.
Two satin quilts.
One large India lackerd cabinet with figures.
One small ditto.
Two Indian lackerd boards, with varnished boxes and plates.
One table of Calambour wood, which encloses a toilette of the same
wood, ornamented with gold, containing two dressing-boxes and
looking-glass, one pin cushion, one powder box, and two brushes of
the same.
Two ditto cabinets upon tables of the same.
One Indian quilt stitched with coloured flowers.
Six pieces of tent stitch with figures.
One cloth bed worked on both sides, containing twelve pieces.
The lining of a bed of gold mohair, the counterpane, the head cloth
and the small valances.
One bundle of gold thread laces, very old.
Two pieces of cloth embroidered with silver and thirty-two pieces of
Tent stitch.
Thirteen breadths of dove-coloured silk serge 2¾ yards high,
embroidered in flowers with figures; 35 yards of the same in
several pieces, some of them drawn.
One four-leaf screen of the same damask, with the furniture of four
colours embroidered, and of the same embroidered damask sufficient
to make another four leaves at least.
One twelve-leaf lackered Tonquin screen with figures.
One four-leaf folding low screen, tent stitch, with antique figures,
and four pieces of the same work to add to it on occasion.
Two tables and two large stands of Calambour wood.
One small bureau of ditto wood, inlaid with rays of Prince’s metal
and one scrutoire of the same.
One little table and one glass cupboard of Calambour wood.
One lackered Tonquin coffer with figures.
Two small glass cupboards.
Two large looking-glasses with green ebony frames, and two other
large looking-glasses.
One bed of Spanish point, with festoons of gold and silver colour,
fixed upon white damask, four curtain valances and bases of the
same lined with white satin, the counterpane, headcloth and
tester, embroidered, five arm-chairs and two door curtains of the
same.
One suit of hangings, the ground white, half painted and half
worked, containing five pieces, one piece without a border.
One brown damask bed with gold coloured flowers, ten armed chairs,
one couch, one door curtain, eight chair bottoms and four pieces
of hangings of the same.
Two carpets of India velvet, the ground with red flowers.
One small tapestry carpet with gold ground.
One Indian carpet with gold ground and coloured flowers.
One damask bed with a violet ground and flowers of gold straw-work
and with colours with borders of velvet cut in Persian figures,
six pieces of hangings belonging to the bed, whereof the middle
are Persian carpets gold ground and the borders of gold coloured
silk serge, on which are fixed the same figures with the bed, nine
armed chairs, two door curtains, six borders, with figures and
birds.
Eight curtains of white damask and twelve yards of white mohair.
30 silver plates weighing 531 oz.
1 large silver dish, 66 oz.
4 small do., 125 oz.
1 silver pan, 36 oz.
1 do. basin, one deep dish, 33 oz.
1 silver kettle and cover, 107 oz.
1 do. chafing-dish or lamp, 47 oz., 9 dwt.
1 do. water boiler, 42 oz., 10 dwt.
1 do. chocolate-pot, 24 oz.
1 do., do., 11 oz., 10 dwt.
1 do. sugar mustard and pepper castor, 41 oz.
2 silver salt-cellars.
12 forks and 12 spoons, 58 oz.
1 large soup-spoon, 10 oz., 10 dwt.
1 skimmer 7 oz., 19 dwt.
8 fruit knives, 8 forks and 8 spoons.
12 silver hafted knives, 22 oz.
2 German silver salvers, gilt, 21 oz., 7 dwt.
[Illustration: PLATE XXI]
8 German silver salvers, gilt, 118 oz.
6 goblets and 3 vases of silver gilt, 78 oz., 15 dwt.
2 large salt sellars, 2 goblets, with covers of silver gilt, 91 oz.
1 silver teapott, gilt.
1 small silver skillet.
2 silver Indian teapotts, 30 oz.
2 pair silver branches, 138 oz.
1 pair Berlin silver candlesticks, 50 oz., 5 dwt.
3 pair small silver candlesticks, 26 oz.
2 pair silver candlesticks, gilt.
2 pair silver candlesticks, snuffers and snuff pan of same.
1 silver tea-table, 133 oz., 5 dwt.
1 silver bason on pedestal in form of stand, 79 oz., 8 dwt.
1 silver cistern pierced, supported by 4 dolphins.
1 small branched candlestick, silver gilt, 34 oz.
1 small German silver cistern, gilt, 33 oz.
2 Triangular German salt sellars, silver gilt.
1 small silver set half gilt, containing 3 small dishes, 4 plates, 1
goblet, 1 salt sellar, 1 knife, 1 spoon, and 1 fork of same, 58
oz., 2 dwt.
2 silver knobs for a grate and 5 handles for tongues fire shool,
&c., and four hooks to support the fire shool, etc., all of
silver.
1 German silver pott for broach and cover gilt.
1 small German barrell ornamented with silver.
1 silver clock.
2 greenish bottles with white flowers.
1 marble veind urn.
2 great beakes with serpents.
1 large beaker with colored flowers.
6 green goblets.
2 marble veind ditto.
1 large pott and cover and 2 small ones.
2 coruetts and covers.
2 coruetts without covers.
2 large coruetts.
3 large water pots.
2 bottles.
3 small bottles with colored flowers.
2 bottles, Phillimot with colored flowers.
1 pot, Phillimot and white.
8 urns.
1 large beaker.
2 small beakers.
2 beakers with figures.
2 bottles.
2 bottles of new China.
2 beakers of new China.
1 bottle all of one colour.
2 potts and covers of new China.
1 piece red china ware.
2 coruetts blew and white.
1 large dish.
2 Japan bowles.
2 green bottles.
2 coruetts and 2 beakers, blew and white.
4 green cupps.
2 small muggs.
1 small coffee colored urn with white flowers.
2 blew and white cisterns.
1 marble veind cisterns.
4 small marble veind cisterns.
1 large colored dish.
2 large green dishes.
17 green plates.
1 large blew and white dish.
6 dishes, white and colored.
[Illustration: PLATE XXII]
11 plates, white and colored.
1 bowle of the same sort.
1 blew and white bason, dragons at the bottom.
1 large blew and white pott and cover.
1 large blew and white urns.
2 blew and white bottles.
2 yellow cupps.
1 large brown tea pott, covered with a lyon.
1 other large brown tea pott.
2 colored tea potts.
2 colored sollet dishes.
2 colored beakers with roses.
2 cupps and covers of the same.
1 bowle of the same with roses.
2 black urns with colored flowers.
2 mustard potts.
2 potts and covers.
2 large blew and white urns.
1 blew and white bowle.
1 colored Japand dish.
20 plates, the ground green with colored flowers.
2 beakers, the ground white with circles.
1 bowle, the ground white, with colored circles.
1 teapot, the ground white, with colored circles.
2 other tea potts.
4 salvers with vine blossoms.
6 green dishes.