[Illustration: PLATE V.
_Photo, Mansell & Co._
THE "BUREAU DU ROI," MADE FOR LOUIS XV., NOW IN THE LOUVRE. For
description, see DESK.]
A decided, if not always intelligent, effort to devise a new style in
furniture began during the last few years of the 19th century, which
gained the name of "_l'art nouveau_." Its pioneers professed to be free
from all old traditions and to seek inspiration from nature alone.
Happily nature is less forbidding than many of these interpretations of
it, and much of the "new art" is a remarkable exemplification of the
impossibility of altogether ignoring traditional forms. The style was
not long in degenerating into extreme extravagance. Perhaps the most
striking consequence of this effort has been, especially in England, the
revival of the use of oak. Lightly polished, or waxed, the cheap foreign
oaks often produce very agreeable results, especially when there is
applied to them a simple inlay of boxwood and stained holly, or a modern
form of pewter. The simplicity of these English forms is in remarkable
contrast to the tortured and ungainly outlines of continental seekers
after a conscious and unpleasing "originality."
Until a very recent period the most famous collections of historic
furniture were to be found in such French museums as the Louvre, Cluny
and the Garde Meuble. Now, however, they are rivalled, if not surpassed,
by the magnificent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum at
South Kensington, and the Wallace collection at Hertford House, London.
The latter, in conjunction with the Jones bequest at South Kensington,
forms the finest of all gatherings of French furniture of the great
periods, notwithstanding that in the Bureau du Roi the Louvre possesses
the most magnificent individual example in existence. In America there
are a number of admirable collections representative of the graceful and
homely "colonial furniture" made in England and the United States during
the Queen Anne and Georgian periods.
See also the separate articles in this work on particular forms of
furniture. The literature of the subject has become very extensive,
and it is needless to multiply here the references to books. Perrot
and Chipiez, in their great _Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquite_ (1882
et seq.) deal with ancient times, and A. de Champeaux, in _Le Meuble_
(1885), with the middle ages and later period; English furniture is
admirably treated by Percy Macquoid in his _History of English
Furniture_ (1905); and Lady Dilke's _French Furniture in the 18th
Century_ (1901), and Luke Vincent Lockwood's _Colonial Furniture in
America_ (1901), should also be consulted. (J. P. B.)
FURNIVALL, FREDERICK JAMES (1825-1910), English philologist and editor,
was born at Egham, Surrey, on the 4th of February 1825, the son of a
surgeon. He was called to the bar in 1849, but his attention was soon
diverted to philological studies and social problems. He gave Frederick
Denison Maurice valuable assistance in the Christian Socialist movement,
and was one of the founders of the Working Men's College. For half a
century he indefatigably promoted the study of early English literature,
partly by his own work as editor, and still more efficaciously by the
agency of the numerous learned societies of which he was both founder
and director, especially the Early English Text Society (1864), which
has been of inestimable service in promoting the study of early and
middle English. He also established and conducted the Chaucer, Ballad,
New Shakespeare and Wyclif Societies, and at a later period societies
for the special study of Browning and Shelley. He edited texts for the
Early English Text Society, for the Roxburghe Club and the Rolls Series;
but his most important labours were devoted to Chaucer, whose study he
as an editor greatly assisted by his "Six-Text" edition of the
_Canterbury Tales_, and other publications of the Chaucer Society. He
was the honorary secretary of the Philological Society, and was one of
the original promoters of the Oxford _New English Dictionary_. He
co-operated with its first editor, Herbert Coleridge, and after his
death was for some time principal editor during the preliminary period
of the collection of material. The completion of his half-century of
labour was acknowledged in 1900 by a handsome testimonial, including the
preparation by his friends of a volume of philological essays specially
dedicated to him, _An English Miscellany_ (Oxford, 1901), and a
considerable donation to the Early English Text Society. Dr Furnivall
was always an enthusiastic oarsman, and till the end kept up his
interest in rowing; with John Beesley in 1845 he introduced the new type
of narrow sculling boat, and in 1886 started races on the Thames for
sculling fours and sculling eights. He died on the 2nd of July 1910.
FURSE, CHARLES WELLINGTON (1868-1904), English painter, born at Staines,
the son of the Rev. C.W. Furse, archdeacon of Westminster, was descended
collaterally from Sir Joshua Reynolds, and in his short span of life
achieved such rare excellence as a portrait and figure painter that he
forms an important link in the chain of British portraiture which
extends from the time when Van Dyck was called to the court of Charles
I. to our own day. His talent was precocious; at the age of seven he
gave indications of it in a number of drawings illustrating Scott's
novels. He entered the Slade school in 1884, winning the Slade
scholarship in the following year, and completed his education at
Julian's _atelier_ in Paris. Hard worker as he was, his activity was
frequently interrupted by spells of illness, for he had developed signs
of consumption when he was still attending the Slade school. An
important canvas called "Cain" was his first contribution (1888) to the
Royal Academy, to the associateship of which he was elected in the year
of his death. For some years before he had been a staunch supporter of
the New English Art Club, to the exhibitions of which he was a regular
contributor. He was married in October 1900 to Katherine, daughter of
John Addington Symonds. His fondness for sport and of an open-air life
found expression in his art and introduced a new, fresh and vigorous
note into portraiture. There is never a suggestion of the studio or of
the fatiguing pose in his portraits. The sitters appear unconscious of
being painted, and are generally seen in the pursuit of their favourite
outdoor sport or pastime, in the full enjoyment of life. Such are the
"Diana of the Uplands," the "Lord Roberts" and "The Return from the
Ride" at the Tate Gallery; the four children in the "Cubbing with the
York and Ainsty," "The Lilac Gown," "Mr and Mrs Oliver Fishing" and the
portrait of Lord Charles Beresford. Most of these pictures, and indeed
nearly all the work completed in the few years of Furse's activity, show
a pronounced decorative tendency. His sense of space, composition and
decorative design can best be judged by his admirable mural decorations
for Liverpool town hall, executed between 1899 and 1902. A memorial
exhibition of Furse's paintings and sketches was held at the Burlington
Fine Arts Club in 1906.
FURST, JULIUS (1805-1873), German Orientalist, was born of Jewish
parents at Zerkowo in Posen, on the 12th of May 1805. He studied
philosophy and philology at Berlin, and oriental literature at Posen,
Breslau and Halle. In 1857 he was appointed to a lectureship at the
university of Leipzig, and he was promoted to a professorship in 1864,
which he held until his death at Leipzig on the 9th of February 1873.
Among his writings may be mentioned _Lehrgebaude der aramaischen Idiome_
(Leipzig, 1835); _Librorum sacrorum Veteris Testamenti concordantiae
Hebraicae atque Chaldaicae_ (Leipzig, 1837-1840); _Hebraisches und
chaldaisches Worterbuch_ (1851, English translation by S. Davidson
1867); _Kultur und Literaturgeschichte der Juden in Asien_ (1849). Furst
also edited a valuable _Bibliotheca Judaica_ (Leipzig, 1849-1863), and
was the author of some other works of minor importance. From 1840 to
1851 he was editor of _Der Orient_, a journal devoted to the language,
literature, history and antiquities of the Jews.
FURSTENBERG, the name of two noble houses of Germany.
1. The more important is in possession of a mediatized principality in
the district of the Black Forest and the Upper Danube, which comprises
the countship of Heiligenberg, about 7 m. to the N. of the Lake of
Constance, the landgraviates of Stuhlingen and Baar, and the lordships
of Jungnau, Trochtelfingen, Hausen and Moskirch or Messkirch. The
territory is discontinuous; and as it lies partly in Baden, partly in
Wurttemberg, and partly in the Prussian province of Sigmaringen, the
head of the family is an hereditary member of the first chamber of Baden
and of the chamber of peers in Wurttemberg and in Prussia. The relations
of the principality with Baden are defined by the treaty of May 1825,
and its relations with Wurttemberg by the royal declaration of 1839. The
_Stammort_ or ancestral seat of the family is Furstenberg in the Black
Forest, about 13 m. N. of Schaffhausen, but the principal residence of
the present representatives of the main line is at Donaueschingen.
The family of Furstenberg claims descent from a certain Count Unruoch, a
contemporary of Charlemagne, but their authentic pedigree is only
traceable to Egino II., count of Urach, who died before 1136. In 1218
his successors inherited the possessions of the house of Zahringen in
the Baar district of the Black Forest, where they built the town and
castle of Furstenberg. Of the two sons of Egino V. of Urach, Conrad, the
elder, inherited the Breisgau and founded the line of the counts of
Freiburg, while the younger, Heinrich (1215-1284), received the
territories lying in the Kinzigthal and Baar, and from 1250 onward
styled himself first lord, then count, of Furstenberg. His territories
were subsequently divided among several branches of his descendants,
though temporarily reunited under Count Friedrich III., whose wife,
Anna, heiress of the last count of Wardenberg, brought him the countship
of Heiligenberg and lordships of Jungnau and Trochtelfingen in 1534. On
Friedrich's death (1559) his territories were divided between his two
sons, Joachim and Christof I. Of these the former founded the line of
Heiligenberg, the latter that of Kinzigthal. The Kinzigthal branch was
again subdivided in the 17th century between the two sons of Christof
II. (d. 1614), the elder, Wratislaw II. (d. 1642), founding the line of
Mosskirch, the younger, Friedrich Rudolf (d. 1655), that of Stuhlingen.
The Heiligenberg branch received an accession of dignity by the
elevation of Count Hermann Egon (d. 1674) to the rank of prince of the
Empire in 1664, but his line became extinct with the death of his son
Prince Anton Egon, favourite of King Augustus the Strong and regent of
Saxony, in 1716. The heads of both the Mosskirch and Stuhlingen lines
were now raised to the dignity of princes of the Empire (1716). The
Mosskirch branch died out with Prince Karl Friedrich (d. 1744); the
territories of the Stuhlingen branch had been divided on the death of
Count Prosper Ferdinand (1662-1704) between his two sons, Joseph Wilhelm
Ernst (1699-1762) and Ludwig August Egon (1705-1759). The first of these
was created prince of the Empire on the 10th of December 1716, and
founded the princely line of the Swabian Furstenbergs; in 1772 he
obtained from the emperor Francis I. for all his legitimate sons and
their descendants the right to bear, instead of the style of landgrave,
that of prince, which had so far been confined to the reigning head of
the family. Ludwig, on the other hand, founded the family of the
landgraves of Furstenberg, who, since their territories lay in Austria
and Moravia, were known as the "cadet line in Austria." The princely
line became extinct with the death of Karl Joachim in 1804, and the
inheritance passed to the Bohemian branch of the Austrian cadet line in
the person of Karl Egon II. (see below). Two years later the
principality was mediatized.
In 1909 there were two branches of the princely house of Furstenberg:
(1) the main branch, that of Furstenberg-Donaueschingen, the head of
which was Prince Maximilian Egon (b. 1863), who succeeded his cousin
Karl Egon III. in 1896; (2) that of Furstenberg-Konigshof, in Bohemia,
the head of which was Prince Emil Egon (b. 1876), chamberlain and
secretary of legation to the Austro-Hungarian embassy in London (1907).
The cadet line of the landgraves of Furstenberg is now extinct, its last
representative having been the landgrave Joseph Friedrich Ernst of
Furstenberg-Weitra (1860-1896), son of the landgrave Ernst (1816-1889)
by a morganatic marriage. He was not recognized as _ebenburtig_ by the
family. The landgraves of Furstenberg were in 1909 represented only by
the landgravines Theresa (b. 1839) and Gabrielle (b. 1844), daughters
of the landgrave Johann Egon (1802-1879).
From the days of Heinrich of Urach, a relative and notable supporter of
Rudolph of Habsburg, the Furstenbergs have played a stirring part in
German history as statesmen, ecclesiastics and notably soldiers. There
was a popular saying that "the emperor fights no great battle but a
Furstenberg falls." In the Heiligenberg line the following may be more
particularly noticed.
FRANZ EGON (1625-1682), bishop of Strassburg, was the elder son of Egon
VII., count of Furstenberg (1588-1635), who served with distinction as a
Bavarian general in the Thirty Years' War. He began life as a soldier in
the imperial service, but on the elevation of his friend Maximilian
Henry of Bavaria to the electorate of Cologne in 1650, he went to his
court and embraced the ecclesiastical career. He soon gained a complete
ascendancy over the weak-minded elector, and, with his brother William
Egon (see below), was mainly instrumental in making him the tool of the
aggressive policy of Louis XIV. of France. Ecclesiastical preferments
were heaped upon him. As a child he had been appointed to a canonry of
Cologne; to these he added others at Strassburg, Liege, Hildesheim and
Spires; he became also suffragan bishop and dean of Cologne and provost
of Hildesheim, and in 1663 bishop of Strassburg. Later he was also
prince-abbot of Luders and Murbach and abbot of Stablo and Malmedy. On
the conclusion of a treaty between the emperor and the elector of
Cologne, on the 11th of May 1674, Franz was deprived of all his
preferments in Germany, and was compelled to take refuge in France. He
was, however, amnestied with his brother William by a special article of
the treaty of Nijmwegen (1679), whereupon he returned to Cologne. After
the French occupation of Strassburg (1681) he took up his residence
there and died on the 1st of April 1682.
His brother WILLIAM EGON (1629-1704), bishop of Strassburg, began his
career as a soldier in the French service. He went to the court of the
elector of Cologne at the same time as Franz Egon, whose zeal for the
cause of Louis XIV. of France he shared. In 1672 the intrigues of the
two Furstenbergs had resulted in a treaty of offensive alliance between
the French monarchy and the electorate of Cologne, and, the brothers
being regarded by the Imperialists as the main cause of this disaster,
William was seized by imperial soldiers in the monastery of St Pantaleon
at Cologne, hurried off to Vienna and there tried for his life. He was
saved by the intervention of the papal nuncio, but was kept in prison
till the signature of the treaty of Nijmwegen (1679). As a reward for
his services Louis XIV. appointed him bishop of Strassburg in succession
to his brother in 1682, in 1686 obtained for him from Pope Innocent XI.
the cardinal's hat, and in 1688 succeeded in obtaining his election as
coadjutor-archbishop of Cologne and successor to the elector Maximilian
Henry. At the instance of the emperor, however, the pope interposed his
veto; the canons followed the papal lead, and, the progress of the
Allies against Louis XIV. depriving him of all prospect of success,
William Egon retired to France. Here he took up his abode at his abbey
of St Germain des Pres near Paris, where he died on the 10th of April
1704.
In the Stuhlingen line the most notable was KARL EGON (1796-1854),
prince of Furstenberg, the son of Prince Karl Alois of Furstenberg, a
general in the Austrian service, who was killed at the battle of
Loptingen on the 25th of March 1799. In 1804 he inherited the Swabian
principality of Furstenberg and all the possessions of the family except
the Moravian estates. He studied at Freiburg and Wurzburg, and in 1815
accompanied Prince Schwarzenberg to Paris as staff-officer. In 1817 he
came of age, and in the following year married the princess Amalie of
Baden. By the mediatization of his principality in 1806 the greater part
of his vast estates had fallen under the sovereignty of the grand-duke
of Baden, and Prince Furstenberg took a conspicuous part in the upper
house of the grand-duchy. In politics he distinguished himself by a
liberalism rare in a great German noble, carrying through by his
personal influence with his peers the abolition of tithes and feudal
dues and stanchly advocating the freedom of the press. He was not less
distinguished by his large charities: among other foundations he
established a hospital at Donaueschingen. For the industrial development
of the country, too, he did much, and proved himself also a notable
patron of the arts. His palace of Donaueschingen, with its collections
of paintings, engravings and coins, was a centre of culture, where
poets, painters and musicians met with princely entertainment. He died
on the 14th of September 1869, and was succeeded by his son Karl Egon
II. (1820-1892), with the death of whose son, Karl Egon III., in 1896,
the title and estates passed to Prince Maximilian Egon, head of the
cadet line of Furstenberg-Purglitz.
See Munch, _Gesch. des Hauses und des Landes Furstenberg_, 4 vols.
(Aix-la-Chapelle, 1829-1847); S. Riezler, _Gesch. des furstlichen
Hauses Furstenberg bis 1507_ (Tubingen, 1883); _Furstenbergisches
Urkundenbuch_, edited by S. Riezler and F.L. Baumann, vols. i.-vii.
(Tubingen, 1877-1891), continued _s. tit. Mitteilungen aus dem
furstlich. Furstenbergischem Archiv_ by Baumann and G. Tumbult, 2
vols. (ib. 1899-1902); Stokvis, _Manuel d'histoire_ (Leiden,
1890-1893); _Almanach de Gotha; Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_.
2. The second Furstenberg family has its possessions in Westphalia and
the country of the Rhine, and takes its name from the castle of
Furstenberg on the Ruhr. The two most remarkable men whom it has
produced are Franz Friedrich Wilhelm, freiherr von Furstenberg, and
Franz Egon, count von Furstenberg-Stammheim. The former (1728-1810)
became ultimately vicar-general of the prince-bishop of Munster, and
effected a great number of important reforms in the administration of
the country, besides doing much for its educational and industrial
development. The latter (1797-1859) was an enthusiastic patron of art,
who zealously advocated the completion of the Cologne cathedral, and
erected the beautiful church of St Apollinaris near Remagen on the
Rhine. He was a member of the Prussian Upper House in 1849, collaborated
in founding the _Preussisches Wochenblatt_, and was an ardent defender
of Catholic interests. His son, Count Gisbert von Furstenberg-Stammheim
(b. 1836), was in 1909 head of the Rhenish line of the house of
Furstenberg.
FURSTENWALDE, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of
Brandenburg, on the right bank of the Spree, and on the railway from
Berlin to Frankfort-on-Oder, 28 m. E. of the former city. Pop. (1905)
20,498. Its beautiful cathedral church contains several old monuments.
The industries are important, including, besides brewing and malting,
manufactures of starch, vinegar, electric lamps and gas-fittings,
stoves, &c., iron-founding and wool-weaving. Furstenwalde is one of the
oldest towns of Brandenburg. From 1385 it was the seat of the bishop of
Lebus, whose bishopric was incorporated with the electorate of Brunswick
in 1595.
FURTH, a manufacturing town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, at
the confluence of the Pegnitz with the Regnitz, 5 m. N.W. from Nuremberg
by rail, at the junction of lines to Hof and Wurzburg. Pop. (1885)
35,455; (1905) 60,638. It is a modern town in appearance, with broad
streets and palatial business houses. Of its four Evangelical churches,
the old St Michaeliskirche is a handsome structure; but its chief
edifices are the new town hall, with a tower 175 ft. high and the
magnificent synagogue. The Jews have also a high school, which enjoys a
great reputation. There are besides a classical, a wood-carving and an
agricultural school and a library. Furth is the seat of several
important industries; particularly, the production of chromolithographs
and picture-books, the manufacture of mirrors and mirror-frames, bronze
and gold-leaf wares, pencils, toys, haberdashery, optical instruments,
silver work, turnery, chicory, machinery, fancy boxes and cases, and an
extensive trade is carried on in these goods as also in hops, metals,
wool, groceries and coal. A large annual fair is held at Michaelmas and
lasts for eleven days. The earliest railway in Germany was that between
Nuremberg and Furth (opened on the 7th of December 1835).
Furth was founded, according to tradition, by Charlemagne, who erected a
chapel there. It was for a time a _Vogtei_ (advocateship) under the
burgraves of Nuremberg, but about 1314 it was bequeathed to the see of
Bamberg, and in 1806 it came into the possession of Bavaria. In 1632
Gustavus Adolphus besieged it in vain, and in 1634 it was pillaged and
burnt by the Croats. It owes its rise to prosperity to the tolerance it
meted out to the Jews, who found here an asylum from the oppression
under which they suffered in Nuremberg.
See Fronmuller, _Chronik der Stadt Furth_ (1887).
FURTWANGLER, ADOLF (1853-1907), German archaeologist, was born at
Freiburg im Breisgau, and was educated there, at Leipzig and at Munich,
where he was a pupil of H. Brunn, whose comparative method in
art-criticism he much developed. He took part in the excavations at
Olympia in 1878, became an assistant in the Berlin Museum in 1880, and
professor at Berlin (1884) and later at Munich. His latest excavation
work was at Aegina. He was a prolific writer, with a prodigious
knowledge and memory, and a most ingenious and confident critic; and his
work not only dominated the field of archaeological criticism but also
raised its standing both at home and abroad. Among his numerous
publications the most important were a volume on the bronzes found at
Olympia, vast works on ancient gems and Greek vases, and the invaluable
_Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture_ (English translation by Eugenie
Strong). He died at Athens on the 10th of October 1907.
FURZE, GORSE or WHIN; botanical name _Ulex_ (Ger. _Stechginster_, Fr.
_ajonc_), a genus of thorny papilionaceous shrubs, of few species,
confined to west and central Europe and north-west Africa. Common furze,
_U. europaeus_, is found on heaths and commons in western Europe from
Denmark to Italy and Greece, and in the Canaries and Azores, and is
abundant in nearly all parts of the British Isles. It grows to a height
of 2-6 ft.; it has hairy stems, and the smaller branches end each in a
spine; the leaves, sometimes lanceolate on the lowermost branches, are
mostly represented by spines from 2 to 6 lines long, and branching at
their base; and the flowers, about three-quarters of an inch in length,
have a shaggy, yellowish-olive calyx, with two small ovate bracts at its
base, and appear in early spring and late autumn. They are yellow and
sweet-scented and visited by bees. The pods are few-seeded; their
crackling as they burst may often be heard in hot weather. This species
comprises the varieties _vulgaris_, or _U. europaeus_ proper, which has
spreading branches, and strong, many-ridged spines, and _strictus_
(Irish furze), with erect branches, and slender 4-edged spines. The
other British species of furze is _U. nanus_, dwarf furze, a native of
Belgium, Spain and the west of France; it is a procumbent plant, less
hairy than _U. europaeus_, with smaller and more orange-coloured
flowers, which spring from the primary spines, and have a nearly smooth
calyx, with minute basal bracts. Furze, or gorse, is sometimes employed
for fences.
Notwithstanding its formidable spines, the young shoots yield a
palatable and nutritious winter forage for horses and cattle. To fit it
for this purpose it must be chopped and bruised to destroy the spines.
This is sometimes done in a primitive and laborious way by laying the
gorse upon a block of wood and beating it with a mallet, flat at one end
and armed with crossed knife-edges at the other, by the alternate use of
which it is bruised and chopped. There are now a variety of machines by
which this is done rapidly and efficiently, and which are in use where
this kind of forage is used to any extent. The agricultural value of
this plant has often been over-rated by theoretical writers. In the case
of very poor, dry soils it does, however, yield much valuable food at a
season when green forage is not otherwise to be had. It is on this
account of importance to dairymen; and to them it has this further
recommendation, that cows fed upon it give much rich milk, which is free
from any unpleasant flavour. To turn it to good account, it must be sown
in drills, kept clean by hoeing, and treated as a regular green crop. If
sown in March, on land fitly prepared and afterwards duly cared for, it
is ready for use in the autumn of the following year. A succession of
cuttings of proper age is obtained for several years from the same
field. It is cut by a short stout scythe, and must be brought from the
field daily; for when put in a heap after being chopped and bruised it
heats rapidly. It is given to horses and cows in combination with
chopped hay or straw. An acre will produce about 2000 faggots of green
two-year-old gorse, weighing 20 lb. each.
This plant is invaluable in mountain sheep-walks. The rounded form of
the furze bushes that are met with in such situations shows how
diligently the annual growth, as far as it is accessible, is nibbled by
the sheep. The food and shelter afforded to them in snowstorms by
clusters of such bushes is of such importance that the wonder is our
sheep farmers do not bestow more pains to have it in adequate quantity.
Young plants of whin are so kept down by the sheep that they can seldom
attain to a profitable size unless protected by a fence for a few years.
In various parts of England it is cut for fuel. The ashes contain a
large proportion of alkali, and are a good manure, especially for peaty
land.
FUSARO, LAGO, a lake of Campania, Italy, 1/2 m. W. of Baia, and 1 m. S.
of the acropolis of Cumae. It is the ancient _Acherusia palus_,
separated from the sea on the W. by a line of sandhills. It may have
been the harbour of Cumae in early antiquity. In the 1st century A.D. an
artificial outlet was dug for it at its S. end, with a tunnel, lined
with _opus reticulatum_ and brick, under the hill of Torregaveta. This
hill is covered with the remains of a large villa, which is almost
certainly that of Servilius Vatia, described by Seneca (_Epist._ 55).
There are remains of other villas on the shores of the lake. Oyster
cultivation is carried on there.