CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY
HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE
FINE ARTS
Cornell University Library
NK2230.E16 The practical book of period furniture, t
3 1924 020 511 139
Cornell University Library
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924020511139
BY
HAROLD DONALDSON EBERLEIN
AND
ABBOT McCLURE
WITH S50 ILLUSTRATIONS
THE COLOUR PLATE AND TEXT ILLUSTRA- TIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY ABBOT McCLURE
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
FOREWORD
Every book ought to have a definite reason for its being. In the present instance that reason is that hitherto there has never been a book of brief compass and succinct arrangement for ready reference to tell the reader what he wished to know and all that he needed to know in order to identify and classify any ' piece of period furniture, whether original or a repro- duction, that he might own or intend to buy. The Illus- trated Chronological Key at the beginning of the book is of inestimable value in showing at a glance the dominant characteristics of each period style. For the idea and plan of this Key the authors are wholly indebted to Edward Stratton Holloway, Esq., of the J. B. Lippincott Company, and they here desire to ex- press their full acknowledgment and appreciation. In the preparation of the following pages the authors have made an extensive and independent examination and analysis of much furniture in many places and trust that they have thereby been enabled to correct some inadvertent errours and inaccuracies and supply some omissions of other books dealing with this subject ; they have also made an exhaustive study of the available sources and authorities. They desire to express their obligations to the authors whose works are named in the bibliography, but especially their indebtedness to the illuminating publications of Mr. Macquoid, Mr. Cescinsky, Mr. Foley and Mr. Lockwood. To Mr. Lockwood they are also indebted for his kind permis- sion to quote in extenso from his ' ' Colonial Furniture in America " the ingenious and original analysis of the forms in which the cyma curve and its combinations
3
4 FOJtiii:WUitU
appear. For many courtesies and not a little assistance they record their sincere thanks to Messrs. Richard W. Lehne, Hale and Kilbum Co., E. J. Holmes and Co., the Chapman Decorative Co., James Curran and A. F. C. Bateman, all of Philadelphia; Cooper and Griffith, Arthur S. Vemay, H. Burlingham and C. J. Dearden, of New York ; C. J. Charles, Gill and Reigate and Maple and Co., of London and New York ; Robson and Sons of London; the officials of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the Pennsylvania Museum and ScHool of Industrial Arts, Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania His- torical Society, the authorities of Girard College, the staff of the Library Company of Philadelphia, the publishers of American Homes and Gardens, House and Garden, House Beautiful and Suburban Life, and to a great number of private individuals, especially Richard A. Canfield, Esq., ,of New York, to whom specific acknowledgment is made in the course of the work. In certain places slight repetitions purposely occur, as it was deemed advisable to iterate some points for the sake of the emphasis due them. The illustra- tions have been made from authentic examples of the periods to which the several pieces belong and acknowl- edgment to the possessors duly noted. In conclu- sion the authors hope that the carefully digested and systematic arrangement of facts which they have endeavoured to set forth in logical array may prove helpful to all furniture lovers and stimulate a study that must inevitably work for a general betterment in the adorning of our homes.
Harold Donaldson Ebeelein Abbot McClxjre
Philadelphia, September, 1914
CONTENTS
PAOB
I. Introduction 15
II. Jacobean 29
III. William and Mart 71
rV. Queen Anne and Early Georgian 97
V. Louis Quatorze and Loms Quinze 131
VI. Chippendale 144
VII. The Brothers Adam 184
VIII. George Hepplewhite 201
IX. Louis Seize 225
X. Thomas Sheraton 235
XI. Other Georgian Makers and Designers 262
XII. French and English Empire Furniture 274
XIII. American Empire ^286
XIV. Other American Furniture 302
XV. Painted Furniture 315
XVI. Advice to Buyers and Collectors 330
XVII. Furnishing and Arrangement 343
Glossary 353
Bibliography 357
Index 358
ILLUSTRATIONS
Bavarian dower chest from the National Museum, Milnchen. From a colour drawing by Abbot McClure Frontispiece
DOUBLETONES
PLATB PAan
I. Jacobean bedstead, Moreton, Salop 32
II. Grmling Gibbon mirror frame 50
III. William and Mary walnut drop-front secretary 72
IV. William and Mary carved walnut chairs 76
V. William and Mary oystered walnut cabinet. Marqueterie
chest of drawers 82
VI. William and Mary oystered and inlaid cabinet on stand. . 86 VII. William and Mary seaweed marqueterie high cabinet.
Marqueterie clock 90
VIII. Queen Anne black and gold lacquered comer cupboard . . . 102 IX. Queen Anne walnut bureau bookcase. Queen Anne mahog- any comer cupboard; exampleof "Architects'Fumiture." 112
X. Early Georgian mahogany bedstead 120
XI. Hogarthian hoopback, pierced splat mahogany chair.
Upholstered straight top Queen Anne settee 126
XII. Louis Quatorze arm-chair with cabriole legs, goat's feet and shaped stretchers. Louis Quatorze arm-chair with
straight carved legs and straight saltire stretchers 136
XIII. Louis Quinze arm-chairs with Rococo motifs 142
XrV. Chippendale hoop-backed chair in maker's early manner. Chippendale chest of drawers. Chippendale gilt mirror frame. Chippendale tripod bason stand. (All are of
authentic Chippendale origin.) 148
XV. Chippendale bureau bookcase with fretted bracket feet and
fretwork ornament (of authentic Chippendale origin).
Chippendale bureau bookcase with Chinese bracket feet 154
XVI. Chippendale mahogany chair with Chinese motifs (of
authentic Chippendale origin). Chippendale mahogany
arm-chair of Philadelphia origin 160
XVII. Chippendale cabinet in Chinese mode (of authentic Chip- pendale origin) 166
XVIII. Chippendale bombi mahogany writing table (of authentic Chippendale origin). Chippendale marble top mahogany
side table (of authentic Chippendale origin) 170
XIX. Chippendale fretted gallery table. Chippendale hanging cabinet. Chippendale candle-stand. Chippendale .ffisop gilt mirror (all are of authentic Chippendale origin) . . . 174
7
ILLiUSTKAllUiNS
XX. Chippendale mahogany console cabinet " in the French
taste" (of authentic Chippendale origin) 180
XXI. Adam sideboard, table, pedestals and knife urns (mahogany) 186 XXII. Adam painted cabinet. Adam painted side table 190
XXIII. Adam gilt mirror and console table 194
XXIV. Adam sideboard table with pedestals 198
XXV. Hepplewhite painted satinwood writing table 204
XXVI. Hepplewhite painted chair, barred shield back, square tapered legs. Hepplewhite oval honeysuckle back chair, round fluted legs. Hepplewhite hoopback chair, honey- suckle splat, straight grooved legs 210
XXVII. Hepplewhite range table, tapered legs and banded ancle. Hepplewhite inlaid serpentine front sideboard, tapered
legs and spade feet ; 216
XXVIII. Hepplewhite carved mahogany bedstead, fluted posts and
tmdercut floral wreathing 222
XXIX. Louis Seize sofa, arm-chair and stool 226
XXX. Louis Seize long sofa 232
XXXI. Mahogany late Sheraton sideboard. Inlaid mahogany
Sheraton sideboard with tambour work and metal gallery 236 XXXII. Sheraton inlaid mahogany cupboard. Inlaid Sheraton
mahogany bureau bookcase or secretary 240
XXXIII. Sheraton painted satinwood and caned settee 244
XXXIV. Sheraton inlaid mahogany bookcase or cabinet 248
XXXV. Painted caned seat Sheraton arm-chair, vase baluster arm
supports. Mahogany inlaid Sheraton sideboard of Amer- ican type, sprung front, reeded pillars and low gallery 254 XXXVI. Sheraton bedstead at Upsala, Germantown, Philadelphia. 260 XXXVII. Shearer inlaid mahogany sideboard with fluted and quilled legs. Mahogany inlaid serpentine front sideboard, heavy in proportions and probably to be attributed to Shearer 272 . XXXVIII. Mahogany brass-mounted French Empire console cabi- net. Mahogany brass-moimted French Empire sofa . . 280 XXXIX. American Empire painted and parcel gUt flap-top table. American Empire mahogany inlaid tilt-top pedestal
table 286
XL. Mahogany and satinwood caned-back Phyfe settee. American Empire carved mahogany sofa showing Phyfe influence. Reeded seat-raU, arms and top-rail. Eagle
legs and feet 290
XLI. Painted and parcel gilt American Empire rushbottomed settee. American Empire mahogany sideboard, acan- thus carving and feet and lion's head moimts 296
XLII. Girandole, wall mirror and two dressing stand mirrors of
American Empire period 3qO
ILLUSTRATIONS 9
XLIII. Block front mahogany secretory or bureau bookcase
American, late eighteenth century 304
XLIV. Mahogany secretary or bureau bookcase, American, late
eighteenth century 308
XLV. Eighteenth century American mirrors 312
XLVI. Mahogany card table, dished corners, money wells, round projecting corners. Walnut William and Mary table of
Philadelphia make. Trumpet turned legs, bun feet 314
XLVII. William and Mary silver and brown lacquer double-hood
cabinet. Painted "Pennsylvania Dutch" dower chest.. 324
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
FiQ. CHAPTER II— Jacobean j.^^,,
1. Jacobean oak cupboard 30
2o. "Monk's seat" 35
26. Wainscot chair 35
3o. Oak Yorkshire chair 36
36. Late Jacobean walnut chair 36
4. Oak settee 41
5. Oak refectory table 43
6. Oak chest 45
7. Small oak cupboard 47
8. Oak sideboard 48
9. Oak dresser of Yorkshire pattern 49
10. Oak chest with drawers S3
11. Oak chest 56
12o. Pear baluster leg 59
126. Melon bulb leg 59
12c. Ringed baluster leg 59
13. Characteristic forms of ornamentation 61
14. Additional characteristic forms of decoration 64
15a. Notching 65
156. Pear drop ,65
16. Characteristic mounts 68
CHAPTER III— William and Mary
la. Flemish scroll leg 75
16. Early "ringed" or collared cabriole leg 75
2. Upholstered square-back arm-chair 77
3. Settee with double arched back 79
4. Details of feet, legs and mouldings 81
5. One-piece highboy, Dutch influence 84
6. Characteristic double hood 86
7. Small secretary 88
8. Characteristic metal mounts 95
10 ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER IV— Queen Anne and Eablt Georgian
1. Typical chair legs ^^
2a. Knee, lion 101
26. Cabochon 101
2c. Satyr-masque l"!
3. Highly carved and gUt leg 102
4a. Arm-chair 10"
46. Side chair 105
6. Typical shapes of chair seats 106
6. Chair back and leg typical of late William and Mary and Early
Queen Anne Epoch 107
7a. Pierced splat-back arm-chair, Early Georgian 108
76. Square-back upholstered chair, Queen Anne-Early Georgian . . . 108
8a. Pierced splat-back chair 109
86. American rush-bottomed Colonial chair 109
8c. Windsor chair, early form 109
9. Small table of Hogarthian lines 113
10. Walnut cabriole-legged, drop-leaf table 114
11. High double chest 115
12. Queen Anne low chest with drawers 116
13. Lowboy with shaped apron and pointed club feet 117
14. Typical outline of shaped Queen Anne apron 118
15. Typical forms of interrupted hoods or broken curved pediments 120
16. Typical Queen Anne dresser 121
17. Mirror in black frame with gilt lines 122
CHAPTER V — Louis Quatobzb and Louis Quinze
1. Louis Quinze arm-chair 136
CHAPTER VI— Chippendale
1. Carved and gUt mirror 149
2a. Interlaced strap splat 157
26. Ladder-back pierced 157
2c. Pillared splat 157
3a. Ladder-back with hooped top rail 159
3b. Cupid's-bow top rail 159
4. Chinese fret back, arm detail, gadroon carving 161
5o. Pierced and fretted stretchers 162
5b. Fretted bracket between legs and seat 162
5c. Strap pierced splat 162
6. Sofa with arched back and stuffed over arms 163
7. Double chest of drawers, bracket feet 168
CHAPTER VII— The Bbothebs Adam
1. Decorative details 190
2. Bookcase of characteristic Adam contour 195
3. Characteristic mounts 200
ILLUSTRATIONS 11
CHAPTER VIII— Gborqe Hepplewhitb
1. Splat, oval and bar-back examples 210
2. Characteristic chair-back shapes 213
3. Secretary bookcase 218
4. Mounts 223
CHAPTER IX— Louis Skizb
1. Arm-chair 228
2. Arm-chair 229
CHAPTER X— Thomas Sheraton
1. Characteristic chair backs 244
2. Late types of chairs 246
3. Sheraton sofa 247
4. Sheraton Pembroke table, spade feet 249
5. Sheraton card table 249
6. Late Sheraton work table 250
7. Sheraton cabinet with characteristic tracery on doors 252
8a. Three-sectional bookcase 253
8b. Clothes press or wardrobe 253
9. Chair back with fluting and reeding 258
10. Typical mounts 260
CHAPTER XII— The Empire Period
1. Lyre-back chair 278
2. "Chariot" chair 278
3. Characteristic broad top rail 278
CHAPTER XIII— American Empire
1. Typical American Empire details 289
2. Roll-arm, rush-bottom chair 290
3. Characteristic Phjrfe contour sofa 292
4. Gondola or "sleigh" bed 293
5. Pedestal table 294
6. Pedestal drop-leaf table 295
CHAPTER XIV — Other American Furniture
1. Early American chairs 304
2. American mirror 309
3. American ladder-back chair. American "Carpenter's Sheraton"
chair 310
4. William Penn dat-back chair, rush bottom 313
5o. Fan-back Windsor chair 314
56. Comb-back Windsor chair ■■ 314
CHAPTER XV — Painted Furniture
1. Birch mirror frame with Biedermeyer design in black 324
2. Painted chairs of late eighteenth century 328
ILLUSTRATED CHRONOLOGICAL KEY
JACOBEAN PERIOD Plate I.
Fig. 1. Wainscot chair. Fig. 2. Cromwellian chair, upholstered. Fig. 3. Carolean chair, caned. Fig. 4. Jacobean court cupboard. Fig. 5. Late Jacobean marqueterie cab- inet. Fig. 6. Refectory table, bulbous legs.
Plate II.
Fig. 7. Gate table.
Fig, 8. Carolean upholstered chair and
settee. Fig. 9. Carolean day-bed.
WILLIAM AND MARY PERIOD Plate III.
Fig. 1. Table, flat arches and pendent
ornaments. Fig. 2. Double-hood cabinet. Fig. 3. Flat-top highboy. Fig. 4. Settee with double-hood back.
QUEEN ANNE-EARLY GEORGIAN PERIOD Plate IV.
Fig. 1. Queen Anne highboy. Fig. 2. Queen Anne bureau bookcase. Fig. 3. Queen Anne lacquered lowboy and chairs.
Plate V.
Fig. 4. Queen Anne wing chair.
Fig. 5. Double hoop-back chair.
Fig. 6. Decorated Queen Anne-Early Georgian double chair-back settee.
Fig. 7. Queen Anne flddle-back chair with stretchers.
Fig. 8. Early Georgian chair, interlac- ing splat.
Fig. 9. Queen Anne bureau or secretary.
Fig. 10. Queen Anne flddle-back chair.
CHIPPENDALE PERIOD Plate VI.
Fig. 1. Swept whorl toprail, vertically
pierced splat. Fig. 2. Upholstered armchair, French
style. Fig. 3. Ribband back, carved seatrail. Fig. 4. Interlacing ladderback.
" Stitched-up " seat. Fig. 5. Gothic fret-back, fretted legs. Fig. 6. Ladder-back armchair,drop seat. 12
Fig. 7. Gothic fret, splat, shaped arm. Fig. 8. Squareback, Chinese fret, canted
arm. Fig. 9. Back showing French influence
in detail. Plate VII.
Fig. 1. Settee in Chinese manner, canted
arms. Fig. 2. Upholstered, shaped back. Fig. 3. Triple chair-back settee. Fig. 4. Square upholstered back,
straight arms. Fig. 5. Cabriole leg, drop-leaf dining
table. Fig. 6. Card table, projecting corners.
Plate Fig. Fig. Fig.
Fig. Fig.
Fig.
Plate Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig. Fig.
Fig.
VIII.
1. "Spider leg" table, drop leaves.
2. "Piecrust" tripod table.
3. Pembroke table, clustered col-
umn legs,
4. Oval drop-leaf dining table.
5. Sideboard table, Chinese pierced
fret legs.
6. Serpentine front chest of
drawers. IX.
1. Bureau bookcase, swan-neck
pediment.
2. Cupboard with swan-neck scroll
pediment.
3. Secretary bookcase, traceried
doors.
4. Clothes press, veneered door
panels,
5. Tripod pole screen.
6. Lifting-Ud chest on detached
stand.
7. Tripod pole screen.
ADAM STYLE
Plate X.
Fig, 1. Oval wheel-back, square tapered
legs. Fig. 2. Upholstered oval back, single
curve arm supports. Fig. 3. Painted oval wheel-back, square
tapered legs Fig. 4. Sideboard table with pedestals. Fig. 5. Semi-circular console cabinet,
carved mahogany.
HEPPLEWHITE STYLE Plate XI. Fig. 1. Shield-back, converging bars. Fig. 2. Hoop-back, wheel instead of bars or splat. ^
ILLUSTRATED CHRONOLOGICAL KEY
13
Plate XI. — Continued
Fig. 3. Interlacing heart-back, single curve arm supports.
Fig. 4. Serpentine front chest of draw- ers.
Fig. 5. Painted satinwood pier or con- sole table.
Fig. 6. Serpentine front sideboard, tapered legs.
Fig. 7. Shield back, fretted splat, shaped arms.
Plate XII.
Fig. 1. Upholstered sofa, shaped top.
Fig. 2. Painted satinwood bureau book- case.
Fig. 3. Secretary cabinet, carved ma- hogany.
Fig. 4. Bedstead, legs square, tapered; block feet.
Fig. 5. Bedstead, painted and shaped tester.
SHERATON STYLE
Plate XIII.
Fig. 1. Square lyre-back, straight top- rail.
Fig. 2. Vase-back, straight raised top- rail.
Fig. 3. Square barred back, straight raised toprail.
Fig. 4. Straight panelled toprail, down- ward curved arms.
Fig. 5. Turned and painted, rush bot- tom.
Fig. 6. Caned work, down curve arms, baluster supports.
Fig. 7. Settee, reeded vase baluster arm supports.
Fig. S. Sprung front, flap top card table.
Plate XIV.
Fig. 1. Shaped front sideboard, tapered legs.
Fig. 2. Swell or bow front chest of drawers.
Fig. 3. Straight front sideboard, Amer- ican type.
Fig. 4. Secretarycabinet, tambourwork.
Fig. 5. Veneered and inlaid wardrobe.
EMPIRE PERIOD
Plate XV.
Fig. 1. Brass inlaid mahogany side- board. Fig. 2. Brass mounted mahogany couch.
Fig. 3. Brass mounted mahogany arm- chair.
Fig. 4. Brass mounted mahogany drop- front secretary.
AMERICAN EMPIRE PERIOD
Plate XVI.
Fig. 1. Scroll end sofa, panelled and
carved toprail. Fig. 2. Phyfe chair, reeded ourule legs
and uprights. Fig. 3. Scroll arm-chair,Phyfe influence. Fig. 4. Rush-bottom, painted chair. Fig. 5. Acanthus high-post bedstead. Fig. 6. American half-high bedstead,
pineapple posts.
Plate XVII.
Fig. 1. Bedstead with high head- and
foot-board. Fig. 2. Bureau, pillared front, paw feet. Fig, 3. Pedestal card table, flap top. Fig. 4. Phyfe lyre-pedestal card table. Fig. 5. Mahogany sideboard, pillared
front. Fig. 6. Pedestal card table, decadent
epoch.
OTHER AMERICAN FURNITURE
Plate XVIII.
Fig. 1. Philadelphia slat-back chair.
Fig. 2. New England splat-back chair.
Fig. 3. Philadelphia comb-back Wind- sor chair.
Fig. 4. Philadelphia Chippendale ma- hogany lowboy.
Fig. 5. Philadelphia turned walnut table and joint stool.
Fig. 6. Philadelphia Chippendale ma- hogany highboy.
Fig. 7. Late mahogany ladder-back chair.
Fig. 8. Bonnet-top New England high- boy.
Plate XIX.
Fig. 1. Mahogany fretted mirror frame.
Fig. 2. Mahogany roundabout chair.
Fig. 3. Philadelphia fretted mahogany and gilt mirror frame.
Fig. 4. Mahogany block-front chest of drawers.
Fig. 5. Pennsylvania wing chair.
Fig. 6. Philadelphia Sheraton card table.
Fig. 7. Philadelphia field bedstead.
Fig. 8. Half-high New England bed- stead.
The value of this book for practical pvirposes is greatly increased by the ex- tensive cross-references between the text and illustrations; descriptions in each instance being given direct reference to illustrations picturing the thing described.
These references are given as follows : e . g. Plate I, Page 32, refers to the full page
plate inserted at Page 32. Key II, 3, refers to the third figiu'e on
Plate II of the Chronological Key. Fig. 3 refers to that figure in the text of
the particular chapter being read. For
convenience the figure numbers in each
chapter begin with number 1.
ILLUSTRATED CHRONOLOGICAL KEY
FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF PERIOD FURNITURE
This Key gives the characteristic articles of furni- ture in the distinctive style of each successive period, thereby aiding the reader in identifying the period of any particular piece of furniture he may have in view.
In using the Key for this purpose note carefully the shape and prominent characteristics of the article to he identified and then run through the Key until those characteristics are found.
Then refer to the chapter on that period, where numerous other illustrations and full details are given, and if the article is a genuine piece of period furniture or a correct reproduction the identification can be made complete.
JACOBEAN PERIUU iOUB-iooo JACOBEAN (PROPER), CROMWELLIAN, CAROLEAN
See Text Pages 29-70 Material Usually Oak —
Fig. 1. Jacobean Chair Wainscot
Fig. 2. Cromwellian Chair Upholstered
Fig. 4. Jacobean Court Cupboard Characteri.stic Form and Ornament
Fig. 5. Late Jacobean Marqueterio Cabine Showing Transition to William and Mary
Kbt Plate I
JACOBEAN PERIOD— Conlinucd
Fig. 7. Gate Table (wings swing out like a gate to support leaves) Of a Type Persisting from Cromwellian Times through Kightecntb Century
Fig. 8. Carolean Chair and Settee. Covered with Embroidery
Fig. 9. Carolean Day-Bed
Key Plate II
WILLIAM AND MARY PERIOD ItiSS-i/u^
STRONG DUTCH INFLUENCE
Material Usually Walnut See Text Pages 71-9(
Fig. 1. Table, with flat arches and pendent ornaments
|
'i |
^^^^^1 /''-M^^^^l |
|
m M |
|
|
^ |
P- -— ^II |
|
i^ |
Fig. 2. Double-hood Cabinet Fig. 3. Flat-top Highboy
Inverted-cup legs, ogee arches and scroll stretchers very characteristic of period
Fig. 4. Settee with double-hood back and characteristic stretchers
Key Plate III
QUEEN ANNE-EARLV GEORGIAN PERIOD, 1702-1750 Materials Usually Walnut and Mahogany See Text Pages 97-130
Fig. 1. Q. A. Cabriole Leg and Club Foot
Highboy. Ogee Apron and Drop Ornament
Persisting from William and Mary Period
Fig.
2. Q, A. Walnut. Veneer Bureau Book- Double Hood- Top Persisting from William and Mary Period
A. Lacquered Lowboy, Mirror and Chairs. Note Sun Ray Motif on Apron and Shell Carving on Knees of Cabriole Legs of Lowboy
Key Plate IV
QUEEN ANNE-EARLY GEORGIAN jr-jiKiui^i.""""
FlQ. 4. Q. A. Wing Chair. Note Shell Orna- ment and Eagles' Heads at Knees
FiH. 5. Double Hoop-Back Chair. Note Eagle's Head Arms, Collared Ancles and Pteds i de Biche
FiQ. 6. Decorated Q. A. — Early Georgian Double Chair- Back Settee
Fig. 7. Q. A. Fiddle-Back Chaif with Stretchers
Fig. 8. Early Georgian Chair, Interlacing Circle Splat
FiQ. 9. Q. A. Bureau or Secretary
Fig. 10. Q. A. Fiddl^a'' Chair, Shell Cresting,** Feet and no StretcheS'
Key Plate V
CHIPPENDALE PERIOD, 1740-1780 Material Usually Mahogany See Text Pages 144-183
FiQ. 1. Swept Whorl Top-rail, FlQ. 2. Upholstered Arni-Chair, Fig. 3. Ribband Back, Carved VerticallyPiercedSplat, Carved French Style, Shaped Seat-rail Seat-rail, Leaf Foot
^ Cresting of Knees. Early
iG. 4. Interlacing Lad- er-back, ' ' Stitched-up ' ' Seat
Fig. 5. Gothic Fret Back.
Fretted Legs, Pierced
Stretcher
Fig. 6. Ladder-back Arm-
Chair, Drop Seat, Fretted
Legs and Stretchers
iQ. 7, Gothic Fret Splat, Shaped Arm
F^
isar:
Fig. 8. Square Back, Chinese Fret, Canted Arm
Fig. 9. Back, Showing
French Influence in
Detail
Key Plate VI
CHIPPENDALE P^ERIOD— Continued
Fig. 1. Settee in Chinese Manner, Canted Arms, Fret Brackets, Fretted Legs and Seat-rail
Fig. 2. Upholstered Shapf Back, Straight, Fretted Legs
Fig. 3. Triple Chair Back Settee with Gothic Fret Splats
Fig. 4. Square Upholstera Back, Straight Arms, Singli Curve Supports
Fig. 5. Cabriole Leg, Drop-Leaf Dining Table
Fig. 6. Card Table, Projectini
Corners, Splayed Gadroon Carving
in Underframing
Key Plate VII
CHIPPENDALE FEmOD— Continued
FiQ. 1. "Spider Leg" Table, Fio. 2. "Piecrust," Tri- Fi<S. 3. Pembroke Table, Clus- Drop Leaves pod Table tered Column Legs
Fig. 4. Oval Drop-Leaf Dining Table, Straight Legs, Beaded Corners
riG. 5. Sideboard Table, Chinese Pierced Fret Fia. 6. Serpentine Front Chest of Drawers,
Legs Fretted Canted Corners
Key Plate VIII
CHIPPENDAljJii irrjri,i.Ou — i^muiiiunu.
Fig. 1. Bureau Bookcase, Swan- neck Pediment, Traceried Doors, Chinese Bracket Feet
Fig. 2. Cupboard with Swan-neck Scroll
Pediment, Veneered Doors, Fluted Canted
Corners, Chinese Bracket Feet
Fig. 3. Secretary Bookcase, Traceried Doors, PuU-down Front. Writing Drawer
Fig. 4. Clothes Press, Veneered Door Panels, Chinese Bracket Feet
Fig. 5. Tripod Pole Screen
Fig. 6. Lifting-lid Chest on Detached Stand, Pierced Fret Legs
Fio. 7. Tripod Pole Screen
Key Plate IX
ADAM STYLE, C. 1762-1795 VIaterials Usitallt Mahogany and Satinwood
See Text Pages 184-200
Fig. 1. Oval Wheel-back, Square Tapered Legs, Block Feet, Stretchers
Fia. 2. Upholstered Oval Back, Single-Curve Arm Sup- ports, Hound Tapered Legs
FlQ. 3. Painted Oval Wheel- back, Square Tapered Legs, Spade Feet, Saltire Stretchers
Fig,
Semicircular Console Cabinet, Carved Mahogany, Square Tapered Legs, Spade Feet
Key Pi^te X
HEPPLEWHITE STYLE, <J. lYOO-i/ ao Materials Usually Mahogany and Satinwood See Text Pages 201-22
Fig. 1. Shield Back, Con- verging 'Barsj Tapered Legs, Spade Feet, no Stretcliera
FiQ. 2. Hoop Baclc, Wlieel Instead of Bars or Splat, Drop Seat, Grooved Legs, Stretchers
Fig. 3. Interlacing I Back, Single-Curve Supports, Taperi Grooved Legs, StretofeiJ
Fig. 4. Serpentine Front, French Feet, Shaped Fig. 5. Painted Satinwood, Half-Round Apron, Cook-beaded Drawers Console Table, Tapered Legs, Spade 1
Kb
Fig. 6. Serpentine-Front Sideboard, Tapered Legs, Fio. 7. Shield Back, Fretted Spado Feet Splat, Shaped Arms, Spade Feet
Key Plate XI
"t
HEPPLEWHITE STYLE— Continued
Fig. 1. Upholstered Sofa, Shaped Top and Kolled-ovcr Arms, Tapered Legs
Fig. 2. Painted Satinwood Bureau Book- case, Rectilinear Tracery
Fig. 3. Secretary Cabinet, Carved Mahog- any, Flowing Tracery, Adam Influence
FiQ. 4. Legs Square Tapered, Block Feet, Posts Reeded Vase Shape
Fig. 5. Painted and Shaped Tester,
Reeded Tapering Posts on Vase Base,
Square Legs, Block Feet
Key Plate XII
THE SHERATON STYLE, U. liSU-i»uo Materials Usually Mahogany and Satinwood See Text Pages 235-261',
Fig. 1. Square Lyre Back, Straight Top-rail, Rounded Seat, Round Fluted Legs
Fig. 2. Vase Back, Straight Raised Top-rail, Tapered Grooved Legs, Shaped Seat-rail
Fig. 3. Square Barred Back, Straight Raised Top- rail, Curved Arm Supports
" ^
f /■
Fig. 4. Straight-Panelled Top- rail, Downward- Curved Arms, Reeded Vase, Baluster Arm
Suppor
Fig. 5. Turned and
Painted Rush Bottom,
Canted and Spindled
Arms
Fig. 6. Caned Work,
Down- Curve Arms, Baluster
Supports Extended from
Legs, Splayed Feet
Fig. 7. tiettee, Xieeded-Vase, Baluster Arm Supports, Round Reeded Legs
FiQ. 8. Sprung Front, Flap-fW Card Table, Straight Tapered Lega
Key Plate XIII
SHERATON STYLE— Continued
Fig. 1. Sh:ipod- Front Sidobnard, Tapered Less. Spade Feet, Tainh'iur \\'nrk in Luwcr Part of Central Section
Fig. 2. Swell or Bow Front, French Feet, Shaped Apron, Satinwood Inlay
Fig. 4r. Secretary Cabinet,
Tambour Work, Shaped Top,
Spiked Ball Finials
Fig. 3. Straight- Front Sideboard, Deep Ends, Short Turned Legs, American Type
Fra. 5. Veneered and Inlaid
Wardrobe, Oval and Round
Panels, Shaped Apron
Key Plate XIV
n
EMPIRE PERIOD, 179b-l»i5U
Material Usually Mahogany
See Text Pages 274r-285^
Fig 1. Brass-Inlaid Mahogany Sideboard, Carved Backboard, Gilded Pillars, Ball Feet
Fig. 2. Braaa-Mounted Mahogany Couch, Swan-neck Finish at Head and Foot
Fio. 3. BTass-M9Q Mahogany Arm-l Square, Outward- Splayed I;egB
FiQ. 4. Brass-Mounted Mahogany Drop-Front Secretary
Key Plate XV
AMERICAN EMPIRE PERIOD, C. 1795-1830 Material Usually Mahogany See Text Pages 286-301
Fia. 1. Scroll-End Sofa, Panellfd and CiirvLHl Top-Rail, Reeded SoEit-Kail and Arms, Cornucopia Knees, Paw Feet
Fig. 2. Phyfe Chair, Reeded
Curule Legs and Uprights,
talm Carved Top-Rail
Fig. 3. Scroll Arm-Chair,
Phyfe Influence, Panelled
Top-Rail, Curule Legs
Fig. 4. Rush-Bottom Painted
Chair, Straight Legs, Panelled
Top and Croaa-rails .
Fig. 5. Acanthus, High-Post Bedstead. Ad Exclusively Americ"> Development
Fig. 6.
American Bedstead, Acanthus, Half- High Posts, Pineapple Tops
Key Plate XVI
AMERICAN EMPIRE PERIOD— Vontimiea
Fia, 1. Bedstead with High Head- and Foot-board, Akin to "Gondola" or "Sleigh" Type
Fig. 2. Bureau, Pillar Front,
Paw Feet, Swell Front Drawers
and Swung Mirror
Fig. 3. Pedestal Card Table, Flap Top, Acanthu.s and Claw Legs and Feet
Fig. 5. Mahogany .Sideboard, Pillared Front, Paw Feet, Decadent Epoch
Fig. 4. Pbyfe Lyre Pedestal Card Table, Brass Paw Feet
Fig. 6. Pedestal Card Table, SaoUed andVenr- d. Decadent !
Key Plate XVII
OTHER AMERICAN FURNITURE— 1640-lSOO Materials Oak. Walnut, Mahogany. Maple, Etc. See Text Pa(jes 302-314
Fia. 1. Philadelphia tHat-buck, Fiu. :i. New EiiKiiiud iSplut- Buck, ::. 1710. Ball Turning. Ball Feet C. 1715, Vaso and Ball Turning,
Spanish Feet, Dutch Influence
■4
i'lu. ii. Philtidelphia Couib-
back Windsor, C. 1740, Turned
Le^s and Stretchers
Fig. 4. Philadelphia Mahogan\- Lowboj' of Chippendale Pattern
Fig. 5. Philadelphia Turnea Walnut
Table and Joint Stool, C. 1695, Ball and
Vase Turning, Stuart Influence
Fia. 6. Philadelphia Ma- hogany Highboy of Chip- pendale Pattern
Fig. 7. Late Mahogany
Ladder - back. Showing
Sheraton Influence
Fig. 8. Bonnet-Top NewEngland High- boy of Persisting Queen Anne Pattern Cabriole Legs and Club Feet
Key Plate XVIII
OTHER AMERI^JAiN r uxx-i^^ x u^v
Fio. 1. Plain Mahogany Fretted Mirror Frame.
Fig. 2. Mahogany Roundabout or Corner Chair of Chippendale Pattern, Pierced Splata, Saltire
Stretrhers.
trtJ*i-;5i^^vP«V4 '
FiQ. 3. Philadelphia Fretted Mahogany and Gilt Mirror Frame, c. 1790.
Fig. 4. Mahogany Block-Front Chedt Fig. 5. Pennsylvania Fig. 6. Philadelphia
of Drawers, Moulded Bracket Feet. Wing Chair, c. 1730, Sheraton Card Table, Sprung
Ogeed Seat^rail, Ringed Front, Reeded Legs. Baluster Arm Supports.
Fig. 7. Philadelphia Field Bedstead,
Ogee or Tent Tester, Slender Turned
Posts.
Fig. 8. Half-High New England Bed- , stead, Reeded Posts, Pineapple Tops, Shera- j^ ton Influence.
Key Plate XIX
ILLUSTRATED CHRONOLOGICAL KEY
The Chronological Kiij Illmlratioiis appcdi- by Cimiicxi/ of thcfoUoiring:
Plate I.
Fig. 1. Metropolitan Museum.
Fig. 2. Penna. Hist. Wuo.
Fig. 3. Metropolitan Museum.
Fig. 4. Metropolitan Museum.
Fig. 5. Metropolitan Museum.
Fig. 6. Metropolitan Museum,
Plat 10 VIII.
Fig. 1. Messrs. Maple & Co. Fig. 2. Richard A. Canfleld, Esq. Fig. 3. Iliohard A. Canfleld, Esq. Fig. 1. Edmund B. Gilchrist, Esq. Fig. 5. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn. Fig. 6. Messrs. Maple & Co.
Plate II.
Fig. 7. Metropolitan Museum. Fig, 8. Metropolitan Museum. Fig. 9. Metropolitan Museum,
Plate III,
Fig. 1. Metropolitan Museum. Fig. 2. Chapman Decorative Co. Fig. 3. Mr. A. F. C. Bateman. Fig. 4. Chapman Decorative Co.
PuiTE IV.
Fig. I. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn.
Fig. 2. Messrs. Maple & Co.
Fig. 3. Messrs. E. J. Holmes & Co.
Plate V.
Fig. 4. Messrs. Gill & Reigate, Fig. 5. Messrs. Gill & Reigate. Fig. 6. Metropolitan Museum. Fig. 7. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn. Fig. 8. Mr, H, Burlingham. Fig, 9. Messrs, Gill & Reigate, Fig, 10, Joseph I, Doran, Esq.
Fig, 1, Messrs. Gill & Reigate.
Fig. 2, Messrs, Gill & Reigate.
Fig 3. Mr. Joel Koopman.
Fig, 4, H, D, Eberlein, Esq,
Fig, 5, Richard A, Canfleld, Esq,
Fig, 6, Richard A, Canfleld, Esq,
Fig, 7, John T, Morris, Esq.
Fig. 8. Richard A. Canfleld, Esq.
Fig. 9. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn.
Plate VII.
Fig. 1, Richard A. Canfleld, Esq.
Fig. 2, Messrs, Hale & Kilburn.
Fig. 3. Messrs, Maple & Co.
Kg. 4, Mr. R. W. Lehne.
Fig. S. Messrs. Maple & Co,
Fig. 6. Messrs. Maple & Co.
Plate IX.
Fig. Fig. Fig.
1. Messrs. Messrs.
3. Messrs.
Fig. 4. Messrs.
Fig. 5. Messrs.
Fig. 6. Messrs.
Fig. 7. Messrs.
Halo & Kilburn. Maple & Co. Maple & Co. Maple & Co. Maple & Co. Hale & Kilburn, Maple & Co,
Plate X,
Fig, 1, Messrs, Hale & Kilburn, Fig. 2, Mr, H Burlingham. Fig. 3. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn. Fig. 4. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn. Fig. 5. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn.
Plate XI.
Fig. 1. Mr. Arthur S. Vernay.
Fig. 2. Messrs. Robson & Sons.
Fig. 3. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn.
Fig. 4. Mr. Arthur S. Vernay.
Fig. 5, Richard A, Canfleld, Esq,
Fig. 6. James M. Townsend, Esq.
Fig. 7. Mr, R, W, Lehne,
Plate XII.
Fig. 1. Mr. Arthur S. Vernay. Fig. 2. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn, Fig. 3. Mr. Arthur S. Vernay. Fig. 4. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn, Fig. 5. Mr. Arthur S, Vernay,
Plate XIII.
Fig. 1. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn. Fig. 2. Mr. James Curran. Fig. 3. Mr. Albert J. Hill. Fig. 4. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn. Fig. 5. Miss Mary H. Northend. Fig. 6. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn. Fig. 7. Mr. Joel Koopman. Fig. 8. Miss Mary H, Northend,
Plate XIV.
Fig. 1. Miss Mary H. Northend Fig. 2. Messrs. Hale & Kilburn. Fig. 3. Miss Mary H. Northend. Fig. 4. Miss Mary H. Northend. Fig. 5. Messrs. Maple & Co,
ILLUSTRATED CHRONOLOGICAL KEY
Plate XV.
Fig. 1. Penna Museum and School of
Industrial Art. Fig. 2. Mr. Joel Koopman. Fig. 3. Metropolitan Museum. Fig. 4. Miss Mary H. Northend.
Plate XVI.
Fig. 1. Miss Mary H. Northend.
Fig. 2. Mr. Joel Koopman.
Fig. 3. Mr. James Curran.
Fig. 4. Miss Mary H. Northend.
Fig. 5. Mr. James Curran.
Fig. 6. Mr. Jamea Curran.
Plate XVII.
Fig. 1. Miss Mary H. Northend. Fig. 2. Mr. James Curran. Fig 3. Mr. James Curran. Fig, 4. Mr. James Curran.
Fig. 5. Mr. Joel Koopman. Fig. 6. Mr. James Curran.
Plate XVIII.
Fig. 1. H. D. Eberlein, -Esq.
Fig. 2. Miss Mary H. Northend.
Fig. 3. Mr. James Curran.
Fig. 4. Richard A. Canfield, Esq.
Fig. 5. John T. Morris, Esq.
Fig. 6. Richard A. Canfield, Esq.
Fig. 7. Mr. James Curran.
Fig. 8. Mr. James Curran.
Plate XIX.
Fig. 1. James M. Townsend, Esq. Fig. 2. Miss Mary H. Northend. Fig. 3. H. D. Eberlein, Esq. Fig. 4. Richard A. Canfield, Esq. Fig. 5. H. D. Eberlein, Esq. Fig. 6. H. D. Eberlein, Esq. Fig. 7. John T. Morris, Esq. Fig. 8. Miss Mary H. Northend.
THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
CHAPTER I
INTEODUCTOEY
IF there be sermons in stones, there are surely vol- umes of romances in old furniture. And they are the best kind of romances, too, because they are all true and not the laboured efforts of fictionaries, jaded with trying to find some new thing under the sun. We have but to open our eyes and unstop our ears to the language of furniture and a whole new world, richly filled with stirring memories, at once breaks upon us. But the value of an understanding of old furniture lies not merely in sentimental satisfaction and pleasing retrospect. It will give us a vigorous commentary on the economic history and social manners of the times in which it was made, if we care to take the pains to read a little between the lines. A dog ring, perhaps, on a table leg, brings vividly before us a picture of domestic manners when the master of the house was wont to fasten his hound beside him as he sat in hall. Or, per- chance, a well- worn table stretcher recalls the time when the floors were strewn with reeds and rushes and the men and women seated at the board were glad of a spot to rest their feet and keep them out of the "marsh," as it was significantly called, a place that readily be- came noisome with dampness, litter and scraps thrown to the dogs, for slatternly housekeeping was just as
15
16 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
common in the "good old days" of Queen Bess and tlie Wisest Fool in Christendom as it has ever been since.
More pleasantly suggestive are the china cupboards of a later reign when housewives, with proper pride in their domestic surroundings, addressed themselves to collecting Delft and such bits of Oriental porcelain as rich East Indian argosies fetched to the ports of Hol- land, after the fashion set them by busy Queen Mary, the estimable spouse of the little Dutch Stadtholder. Anon a chased silver mirror frame or some gorgeous gew-gaw of tinsel court-trappings, reminiscent of the Merry Monarch's amorous irregularities, or again a capacious "Drunkard's Chair," dating from the age of "good Queen Anne," tell all too eloquently of the "frailty of the flesh" and the temptations to which it has yielded. In wholesomer vein, the rich and multi- coloured upholstery stuffs from the looms of Spital- fields, fabrics which brightened the houses of the wealthy while Charles 11 was yet on the throne, and stiU more during the reign of William and Mary, speak to us of the industrious Huguenot weavers and England's lasting obligation to their cunning craftsmanship.
So it goes. Memories both, grave and gay flash in quick succession before the mind's eye, summoned to their place in the mental panorama by the curve of a chair leg or a faded tatter of ancient brocade. The glamour of antiquity makes a strong appeal to most persons of fine sensibilities. Those of a fanciful turn love to weave romances about old things and the people they were associated with. With us in America the desire to connect every old chest, table, bedstead or the like with some noted personage or some famous event has, at times, amounted to a mania. New Eng-
INTRODUCTORY 17
land, through its length and breadth, has been filled to overflowing with "genuine" household gear brought over in the Mayflower. Indeed, Mayflower furniture has become a standing joke.
So, too, is it with the tables Washington has eaten from, the chairs he has sat on and the beds he has slept upon. If half the tales were true that we are asked to believe, the Father of his Country must have spent far more than his allotted span of life merely in perform- ing the most astounding gastronomic feats or sleeping his wits away.
How much more sane and satisfactory it is to cast aside aU this clap-trap sentiment and twaddling decep- tion, accepting only such traditions as bear the most unmistakable hall-marks of authenticity, and measure our esteem for old furniture rather by its intrinsic merit ! The historic point of view has its own very real and unquestionable value, the suggestive aspect estab- lishes the connexion with social and economic condi- tions that affected the form and decoration of furni- ture and is, therefore, helpful to our general knowledge, but the truest and most satisfactory side from which to view the whole subject is its artistic and decorative value.
By regarding the making of furniture as an art, our reverence for it will be well founded and we shall be convinced of the worthiness and dignity of our study. We must quite put aside the mere stupidly utilitarian and narrow attitude that some assume in reference to furniture and consider the whole subject in a broader and more intelligent manner. Anything is to be held well worth while that will conduce to making the inti- mate surroundings of our daily life more livable and at-
18 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
tractive. It is a laudable desire to have everything about us dignified and beautiful no matter how humble its use. The Greeks followed this principle, and the experience of many centuries has assuredly proved that they were fit patterns for emulation.
Furniture making is not only one of the oldest branches of man's handiwork but is one of the noblest aids to architecture and has been recognised as such by the greatest architects. To cite one instance in this connexion, the Brothers Adam set great store by it and owed much of the success of their interiors to the pains they bestowed on the smallest details of furnishing* Every day we see good houses spoiled by bad or ill- chosen furniture and then again we see, on the other hand, many a discouraging and mediocre house in large measure redeemed by good furniture, well chosen and wisely placed.
Sympathetic students of the various periods of fur- niture find much of their delight in the subtle grace of line and proportion in which the old craftsmen ex- celled. This excellence they had because they put their best efforts, their very hearts and souls, into their work and took a proper pride in its achievement before these present days of rush and hurry and factory-made things, turned out in batches by soulless corporations.
But excellent reproductions of the old pieces are, nevertheless, made to-day, retaining the charm of their prototypes, so that those who are unable to purchase antique specimens may still furnish their homes in the best manner and at a moderate cost. Discrimination is necessary, and very practical helps will be found in the chapter on "Advice to Buyers and Collectors."
INTRODUCTORY 19
A fair working knowledge of the several period styles will tenfold increase our interest if we have begun to heed the call of the antique, and we may depend upon it that a discriminating acquaintance is not only a source of satisfaction in itself but is really an essential part of a truly liberal education and helps mightily toward a broad, humanising sense of apprecia- tion which everyone should cultivate. To know fully the charm and merits of old furniture, to realise the opportunities and resources it affords us in the appoint- ment of our houses, it is necessary that we understand *at least enough about the characteristics of the sundry periods to distinguish easily one kind from another.
Some thirty years ago were sown the seeds of a taste for old furniture. The taste grew and spread rapidly. Everybody supposed to have good taste began to admire antiques, or at least pretended to. Very few, it is true, then knew much about the subject, but that made no difference. Old pieces of all descriptions and periods were rescued from the neglect that had hitherto been their portion, or dragged from the oblivion of dusty attics, where they had lain unheeded for years, and heaped with undiscriminating admiration, regardless of real deserving. Later, after the first stages of dis- covery and acquisition, came a general desire to know something more about these now treasured heirlooms and "finds" than merely that they were "very old pieces."
The object of the following chapters is to give practi- cal, concrete information in this respect and point out the goodness of the several styles, supplying such char- acteristic details as may enable the reader to identify
20 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITUK±i
and distinguish types with certainty as -well as con- venience. By the aid of the ensuing pages a broad ac- quaintance with the subject is quickly obtained.
A word should be said about the conventional divi- sion into "periods." Such a division is necessarily somewhat arbitrary, but cannot well be avoided, and it is not to be desired that it should. Various systems of nomenclature have been contrived to designate the procession of styles but, of them all, the one here followed seems the most logical. By calling a period after the monarch during whose reign a style flour- ished, or after the designer whose influence most de- veloped it, we arrive at approximate accuracy of dates and have, also, the added advantage of a human and often exceedingly picturesque personality to attach our associations to, and such associations are undoubt- edly a help to memory. When a striking personality or a stirring and dramatic incident can be seized, and made the pivot around which we arrange a congeries of facts or observations, the human mind is so constituted that it retains a far more vivid impression of the whole and the inter-relation of the separate points than if there were no picturesque background or setting to in- vest the details with an element of interest. In speak- ing of periods, therefore, we mean the well-defined styles of furniture in vogue at some particular epoch. All the period styles — Jacobean, Queen Anne, Chippen- dale and so on — ^have certain peculiar and unmistakable characteristics, a slight acquaintance with which will enable an ordinarily observant person to classify prop- erly any article likely to be met with.
It is the happy office of this Peactical, Book op Peeiod FuENiTUEB to simplify the subject to a greater extent
INTRODUCTORY 21
than ever before by emphasising the fact that the fully developed styles of each period are markedly distinct from those which went before and those which followed after; so distinct that each is unmistakable and the differences easily recognised and mastered. The tran- sition pieces — those that partake of the characteristics of two adjoining periods — readily fall into place when the characteristics of each are known. It will be a great aid and simplification to remember this when we recall that furniture is subject to the same laws of gradual change and development that we find in every- thing else, one type merging almost imperceptibly into another. In almost every instance there are numerous cases of overlapping between consecutive periods.
It is by form that we most quickly recognise things, and even a novice, by giving a little study to the illus- trated chronological key of this book, will find himself growing familiar with the shapes of each period so that soon the whole field will lie out simply before him as a well-marked map.
Styles that matured in periods of which they were considered typical, really oftentimes budded forth feebly towards the close of the preceding epoch. Per- sistence in the perpetuation of types far beyond the periods of which they were representative, by dupli- cating old models, is even more noticeable than cases of premature arrival. This was naturally to be expected in country districts where the local joiners, far re- moved from new patterns and the stimulating influence of new ideas, just went on copying the objects they had before them with little or no change. Oaken settles of Cromwellian pattern were made in the reign of Queen Anne and even in that of George I. These tendencies
22 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITUKJi.
to overlap in both directions need not at all disturb our classification, however, as they are merely the excep- tions that prove the well-established rule.
In dealing with each successive period this book demonstrates its practical simplicity for purposes of ready reference and comparison. At the beginning of each chapter are given dates, reign and such general observations as may be necessary. Following this is a condensed enumeration of the different articles of furniture found in common use at the particular time of which the chapter treats.
By comparing these sections in one chapter after another it may be seen when, approximately, our dif- ferent household articles came into use and under what forms they first appeared. "We shall learn, for in- stance, that our modern sideboard has several lines of ancestry. On one side, it is partly descended from the dresser of Stuart and Queen Anne days and partly from the Jacobean cupboard; on the other, its lineage can be traced from the seventeenth century side or serving table, which sometimes had drawers and sometimes did not, through the "sideboard table" of the Chippendale period, an article wholly without drawers, down to the creations of Shearer, Hepplewhite and Sheraton in the latter part of the eighteenth century when drawers, cupboards and sundry other appliances of convenience were developed. To the dresser and court-cupboard side of its parentage, is unquestionably due the appal- lingly hideous superstructure of woodwork and mirrors with which the modern sideboard is so often unhappily crowned, an ill-conceived device that makes it look for all the world like a detached section of a barroom or barber shop.
INTRODUCTORY 23
After the list of articles to be dealt with, comes a section on contour. Too much stress cannot be laid on the supreme importance of carefully studying the shape of every object considered. By comparing the contour of an article of one date with the contour of a similar article of another date, and so on, we shall be able to trace the process of evolution through all its stages. At the same time we shall receive an object lesson of inestimable service in aiding us to acquire the faculty of quick and unerring judgment. By close attention to contour we also learn the invaluable habit of sys- tematic observation, keeping a keen eye open for little details that come to have more and more meaning for us the more we heed them.
For the student and lover of old furniture or for the collector of antiques there is no asset more useful than a trained eye, quick to detect. and remember the slightest variation of line or proportion. Such prac- tise of critical scrutiny incalculably benefits the sense of appreciation and furthermore stands one in good stead in a thousand other ways. It is not too much to say that anyone who thoroughly knows the contour of fur- niture in its successive periods, and has conscientiously followed the steps of its evolution, has learned the most important part of the whole subject and gained a grasp and mastery of which no expert need feel ashamed.
To the practised observer of contour, the Flemish scroll legs of late Carolean chairs, the cup-turned legs of William and Mary highboys and tables or the bun feet of their cabinets, the broken swan-neck pediments and cabriole legs of Queen Anne's reign, the hombe fronts of Chippendale's French work, the serpentine fronts or the tapered legs and spade feet of Hepple-
24 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
white's dainty prodxictions, all mean infinitely niore than they do to one who is not in the habit of observing. An acquaintance with these details will give the student or collector of old furniture an assurance and con- fidence in his own judgment that he may largely rely upon to guide him in his quest.
Next in order after a brief general review of con- tour comes a detailed discussion of the individual articles of furniture and their variant forms, with special contour analysis, and then follows a subject of fascinating interest. From oak to satinwood, we can discern how the material affected the style of furniture and the manner of its decoration. We can see why carving went out and marqueterie and veneer came in. We can understand the forms of Queen Anne or Chip- pendale chairs when we know the properties of the woods they were made of. We can perceive the devel- opment of certain types of chairs and settees, made possible by the rich upholstery stuffs that came into fashion late in the seventeenth century, and, further- more, we learn that those gorgeous and unsurpassed fabrics came to be made in England because Huguenot textile weavers, dissatisfied with conditions at home, settled at Spitalfields about 1670 and received a great addition in numbers and skill, a few years later, when their co-religionists were driven out of France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Immediately after materials, decorative processes are considered. Under this heading, in one chapter or another, come carving, veneering, inlay, marqueterie, painting, gilding, lacquer, and several sorts of turning. The reader's interest is aroused when he discovers that there were three kinds of carving used in the Jacobean
INTRODUCTORY 25
period and that sometimes all of them were employed to embellish the same piece of cabinet work. The intro- duction of veneer and the different kinds that won favour furnish entertaining material. Inlay and mar- queterie, as decorative processes, are of course closely linked together and were largely used in conjunction. We find that different modes of applying them were in vogue at different stages in the progress of the art and that in consequence the character of design was mate- rially affected. The intimate inter-relation between process and the character of design is a fascinating thing to watch, especially when we can note the pro- gressive stages of development from century to cen- tury. The extensive use made of painting and gilding in the adornment of English furniture, from early times right down to our own day, almost without a break, will doubtless come as a surprise to some readers. As con- venient decorative resources, however, our forbears frequently availed themselves of both and we are now just beginning to wake up again to the possibilities open to us in either field.
A view of turning and the sources whence the sev- eral kinds came will reveal to us more than one phase of international trade relations, but none of the decorative processes presents such varied and engaging aspects as lacquer. Brought in small quantities from the Orient, even as early as Tudor times, it elicited admira- tion and became increasingly popular as more and more arrived from year to year. Somewhat before the closing years of the seventeenth century it had come to be imitated with no mean degree of success by Eng- lish craftsmen and the enthusiasm for lacquered fur- niture became one of the dominating mobiliary influ-
26 fiRACTICAL BOOK OF PEtllOD JFURNITtJRE
ences of the era. Not only did lacquered furniture retain its vogue undiminished during a large part of the eighteenth century, but it, seems also to have created a widespread taste for Oriental wares and Oriental designs that cropped out persistently from time to time under one form or another with periodic recrudescence. Sir William Chambers came under the spell of Chinese influence and in turn gave it a great impetus by his work and his published designs. Chip- pendale and others threw themselves eagerly and not without a measure of success into a Chinese expression in their chair and cabinet making. Sheraton betrayed signs of the same tendency and now in our own day we are having a Chinese revival which has much to coBtt^ mend it apart from the perennial glamour of the far East,
In examining the types of decoration, so closely allied to the decorative processes, we name those most usually met with and note their recurrence under slightly varied forms. There is a peculiar fascination in following the progress of these types of decorative enrichment for furniture from the vermilion, chocolate or vivid green colouring in the Gothic fretwork of a fourteenth century chest or aumbry down through the mixed Eenaissance and mediaeval motifs of Jacobean days, the Chinese vagaries of Thomas Johnson, the graceful Pompeian designs employed by the Brothers Adam, the dainty devices used by Hepplewhite and Sheraton to surround Angelica Kauffmann's panels, all the way to the robust pineapples, honeysuckles, and cornucopias of the late Empire fashion.
Passing from types of decoration we come next to structure and get a glimpse of the methods employed id
INTRODUCTORY 27
each period, from the staunch house-building joinery of the seventeenth century to the dexterous shaping of hombe and serpentine fronts, or the neat adjustment of tambour work in the masterpieces of cabinet making produced in the eighteenth.
Following structure, comes a section in each chapter on mounts, an important subject too frequently slighted. If we would know fully the furniture of each period and be able to tell whether or not it has its original mounts or if we would be able to judge of the accuracy of a re- production, it is necessary for us to know whether a chest or cupboard ought to have knobs, pear drop or bail handles, whether the plates should be plain, chased or perforated and of what sort the scutcheons should be. The last section is devoted to finish, that is to say, to the various kinds of varnishes and wood preservatives that it has been customary to apply in the different periods.
It must be remembered that for the most part Amer- ican furniture was the same as English, either by importation or the following out of the current styles of the parent country by American workmen. There were, however, in addition to these styles, certain changes or developments that are strictly American, and these are fully treated in two chapters.
This volume will be found to embrace furniture both of plain and elaborate types, so as to be a competent guide to either, for an inspection of the antique shops in any of our large cities will show a wonderful array of every variety of period furniture, plain and ornate. Dealers have imported many excellent original pieces and great numbers of admirable reproductions are being made, so that anyone wishing to know the ground
28 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
must be equipped to judge of more than American fur- niture of Colonial and post-Colonial days. The field of period furniture is indeed broad, but it is reasonable, however, to conclude that by working from well estab- lished data, data that we have endeavoured to empha- sise and codify in the following pages, trustworthy identifications may be reached with scarcely an exception.
CHAPTER II
JACOBEAN PEEIOD 1603-1688
Eeigns of James I and Chaeles I; The Common- wealth ; Reigns op Chaeles II and James II
Jacobean Pebiod (proper) 1603-1649 Cbomwellian Pebiod 1649-1660
Caeolean Peeiod 1660-1688
WERE it not for the following exemption it might be hard upon the reader that this book necessarily begins with the Jacobean period, which is the most complicated of all. Jacobean furniture, however, is only and pre-eminently adapted to residences of the Tudor and Stuart type, so that if the reader's home is of a later style it would be as well for him to begin with the next chapter — that on William and Mary furniture — returning later to this section to inform himself upon its subject. Jacobean furniture is heavy and cumbersome, and therefore not well suited to modem apartments or houses other than those of the styles of architecture mentioned above.
For those whose needs embrace Jacobean furniture the authors have endeavoured to offset all diflSculties and make its study as easy as possible by treating it in the most practical and systematic manner. They would also cheer the reader by assuring him that the subse- quent periods are much simpler and less varied in their characteristics.
Before treating of Jacobean furniture itself it is necessary to say a few words regarding the terms used.
29
30 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
Wten we speak of the Jacobean or Stuart period, with reference to furniture, we ordinarily include every- thing between 1603, when James I ascended the throne
im^
C
Fio. 1. Jacobean Oak Cupboard, c. 1665, Characteristic Strapwork Frieze. Geomet- rical Panels Made of Applied Mouldings Inlaid in Centre. Detail of Frieze at Top.
By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
of England, and 1688, when the second James fled be- fore the victorious approach of William of Orange.
By a narrower but, at the same time, more strictly accurate application, the term "Jacobean" is re- stricted to the period from 1603 to 1649. The develop-
JACOBEAN PERIOD 31
ments between 1649 and 1660 are classified as ' ' Crom- wellian." To everything subsequent to the Kestora- tion and prior to 1688 the term "Carolean" is applied.
While bearing in mind the more usual and com- prehensive scope of the designation "Jacobean," the narrower and more exact usage is perhaps prefer- able as it enables us to refer readily to certain specific furniture types without incessantly quoting approxi- mate dates. Besides, the names "Cromwellian" and "Carolean" carry with them lively historical associa- tions that are not a little helpful in recalling the influx of varied agencies that materially affected the styles of furniture as well as everything else throughout the realm. Each of these minor epochs comprised within the general period from 1603 to 1688 was subject to its own special set of influences that all took shape in outward form. It is impossible not to accord due recognition to these differences and therefore, for the sake of greater exactitude and clearness, we shall here- after, as far as may be, differentiate the styles accord- ing to the subdivisions just noted.
As to the extreme limits of any mobiliary * period at either end, it would be not only arbitrary but mis- leading and inaccurate as well to say that such and such a furniture type began or ended at just such a date. As a matter of fact a process of evolution, sometimes slow and sometimes rapid, was always tak- ing place. Styles so overlapped that the best one can do is to give dates at which approximately boimdary posts can be set, dates at which certain features be- came noticeably prominent.
To show both how unwise and unsafe it is to take
* Pertaining to movable furniture, cf, Fr. meuble, Latin mobilis.
32 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PEKIUD jyuitiMixuivr.
too didactic or categorical an attitude, we may cite the instance of a cabinet reputed to have been made for Marie Antoinette and formerly classed by experts as unquestionably "Louis Seize" upon the evidence of its style. A few years ago it became necessary to re- pair it and when taken apart it disclosed the name of the maker who had died long before Marie Antoi- nette was bom. Keeping ever before us, then, this necessary latitude in judgment, for which we are bound to make allowance, we shall pass on to an enumeration of the articles of furniture in common use within the period covered by this chapter.
' It may be said here that, while their variety in num- ber and form is great, th-eir characteristics are un- mistakable and different from those of any succeeding period. The illustrations in the Chronological Key and throughout the chapter have been selected with such care that they will at once familiarise the reader with the work of this period.
ARTICLES
During the Jacobean, Cromwellian and Carolean portions of the Stuart period, that is to say, between 1603 and 1688, the articles of furniture in common use were chairs, stools, forms, settles or settees, love- seats, day-beds, bedsteads, mirrors, tables, footstools, chests, cupboards of sundry sorts, cabinets, buffets and dressers or sideboards.
CONTOUR
The contour and style of the furniture of the Jacobean period, as of every other period for that matter, more or less faithfully reflected the social, in-
JACOBEAN BEDSTEAD, MORETON, SALOP
By Courtesy of " House & Garden "
PLATE I
JACOBEAN PERIOD 33
tellectual and religious temperament and manners of the times. One can scarcely imagine Dean Hook seated in a dainty Sheraton chair, while one of Crom- well's lieutenants in buff and bandolier occupying an Adam settee would be as absurd an anachronism as Julius CsBsar driving abroad in a hansom or a motor car. The furniture was stout and staunch, even to clumsiness and severe in form and line even though bedizened with a superfluity of ornament. It matched the coarse manners, abrupt morals, and vigorous theology of the day with all their grotesquerie, terrible earnestness and redundancy of polemics, brimstone anathema and persecution. Contour and style were both thoroughly in accord with the genius of the people.
In the cabinet work of the later Cromwellian era the contour of carcases remained much the same except that cupboards, while still squatty, were apt to be of greater length and, with the growing strength of Dutch influ- ence, "bun" or ball feet on chests (Fig. 6) or cupboards became more common. Chests of drawers or chests with combinations of drawers and cupboards came more into fashion.
During the Stuart period there is such a diversity of contour resulting from the modification of native English traditions by an increasingly large influx of Continental influences that it is doubly essential to grasp the typical forms as exemplified in the Key at the beginning of the book and the line drawings in the text.
In the truly Jacobean or early Stuart period we find a predominance of straight lines, simplicity of structure and craftsmanship of downright British
34 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
vigour and energy. All the different sorts of cup- boards and dressers were of no great height and even the bedsteads with their ponderous testers carved and panelled, supported on heavy posts, were low — much lower than one would imagine from looking at pictures of them. The squat proportions of the furni- ture were due to and quite consistent with the usually low-ceiled rooms.
CHAIRS
Development in the form of chairs and the marked increase in their number during the three divisions of the Stuart period afford one of the most interesting and instructive features of that fruitful mobiliary epoch. Hardly anything so faithfully and fully reflects the manners and customs of an age and the changes taking place therein as furniture, and of all articles of furniture the chair is by far the most sensitive to new and foreign influences of changing styles — ^much more so than cabinet work. It reflected not only the flux of fashion but accurately registered political and social changes as well.
In the early Jacobean period, chairs were compara- tively scarce, stools and forms being in more general use. These early chairs usually had arms and were seats of great dignity. Both chairs and settles had high seats and usually heavy stretchers between the legs. Chair seats were square or almost so and chair- backs were high and perpendicular or so nearly per- pendicular that the rake was scarcely perceptible. The triangular seated and heavily turned chairs, whose pat- tern had been brought to England, probably by the Normans, were met with but were survivals in type.
The characteristic chair of this date was the wain-
JACOBEAN PERIOD
35
scot or panelled back chair (Key I, 1). These chairs probably owed their inspiration in the first instance to choir stalls. In Elizabethan chairs of this pattern, the top rail bearing the cresting is within the uprights of the back. In Jacobean chairs the top rail caps the up- rights and is part of the cresting. These wainscot chairs (Fig. 2, b) continued to be made long after the
(a) (6)
Fig. 2. a, Jacobean Oak "Monks Seat" or Table Chair, o. 1660; b, Jacobean Oak Panel-back or Wainacot Chair, c. 1630. Carved, turned and inlaid.
By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
/
Eestoration. Seats were made high with the express expectation of using either the stretcher or a footstool. There were also occasionally to be found X-shaped chairs pretty well covered with upholstery, but these occurred in the earliest Jacobean days and were so scarce that we can afford to pass them without further mention.
36 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
Slightly before the Commonwealth we find the York- shire and Derbyshire type of chair with open backs (Fig. 3, a). The uprights ended in carved finials and there were usually two or three carved and hooped crosspieces and these were often further ornamented by acorn pendants. Sometimes instead of the hooped
FiQ. 3. a, Jacobean Oak Yorkshire Chair, c. 1650. Height of back, 3 feet 7 inches; height of Beat, 17 inches; breadth of seat, 18 inches; depth of seat, 16 inches. 5, Late Jacobean Walnut Chair, c. 1685, formerly belonging to Robert Proud, now in the collec- tion of Pennsylvania Historical Society. Showing Flemish and Baroque influences in high caned back, scroll carving and ornate arched stretcher between the two Flemish scrolled front legs. Height of back, 52 inches; height of seat, 18^ inches; seat in front, 17 inches; seat in back, 14 inches; depth of seat, 15 inches.
crosspieces, there were several horizontal bars, the spaces between which w6re filled in with arcades of slender spindles and carved rounded arches.
At the time of the Commonwealth chairs were made in much greater numbers than previously, as the demo- cratic principles, then rampant, permitted master and
JACOBEAN PERIOD 37
servant alike to use the same kind of seat, whereas, formerly, the use of a chair implied certain dignity and position and the baser sort sat on stools. From this period date the low-backed chairs with turned legs, stretchers and uprights, the upper part of the back and the seat being padded and upholstered (Key I, 2) with leather or some sad-coloured stout goods. The backs had more rake than previously.
At the Restoration, and even before that date, when popular taste was undergoing a revulsion against the spirit of repression and dulness that had so long been uppermost, a fondness for carving, though in altered form, again came to the fore. Open backs appeared in greater number with either caning or vertical balus- ters or slats.
Top and bottom rails of many chair-backs showed a slight concave curve, more calculated to the sitter's comfort, while not a few arms were either curved longi- tudinally or bowed laterally. Others, longitudinally shaped, flared outwards from the posts. The knobbed turning of legs and stretchers, that had been popular in the Cromwellian period, retained considerable vogue for some time after the Eestoration and was employed concurrently with the new style of carving.
About 1665 spiral turned legs came into much favour and were used for tables and other articles of furniture as well as for chairs (Fig. 7). This detail of style is apparently attributable to Portuguese influence and probably due to an East Indian source.
Up to the Eestoration all the better chairs had been made of oak but walnut now became generally avail- able and lent itself much more readily than oak to deli-
38 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
cate carving and turning. Cane-backed chairs ap- peared at first without cresting, the uprights ending in carved finials. The top and bottom rails of the back were often decorated with a lightly incised pattern of zigzags or roundels. Afterwards cresting was added, usually of acanthus and roses, the latter the royal em- blem, from the prominent use of which in the decora- tion, this particular type of chair gained the name of ' ' Restoration Chair. ' ' Stretchers and uprights as well as legs were spirally turned, while Flemish scrolls and elaborate carving in backs and cresting came more and more into vogue. The caning at first had large meshes which, however, decreased in size in succeeding years.
The next step in chair development was the addition of an elaborately carved, scrolled and usually hooped stretcher between the front legs (Key II, 9). Very soon the Flemish scrolled front legs appeared and when these were set obliquely to the seat the approach to the cab- riole form at once became evident. In the middle and latter part of Carolean times chairs and sofas with seats and high, square backs, upholstered with gay im- ported fabrics or some of the handsome textures that were already coming from English looms (Key II, 8) came into fashion. These also had the Flemish legs and highly ornate hooped stretchers.
The last type of Stuart chair to which we must pay special attention is the high and almost perpendicular cane-backed creation of the end of the Carolean epoch, reflecting in every line strong Flemish and Dutch in- fluences (Fig. 3, b, and Key I, 3) . These chairs showed Flemish legs, scrolled ornament of pronounced Baroque character and caned or baluster backs.
JACOBEAN PERIOD 39
STOOLS AND FORMS
Stools were used in great numbers, especially before the democratic spirit of Commonwealtb days com- pletely broke down the rigid etiquette that had pre- viously obtained governing the use of chairs and led to their common use by all grades of society. The stool fulfilled the most varied uses as occasion demanded — it might be a seat for the end of the long, narrow tables, or a formidable missile in the hands of an irate Jennie Geddes.
Joint or " joyned" stools, particularly in the early part of the Stuart period, made up for the scarcity of chairs. They were commonly set at the ends of the long refectory tables, while at the sides were forms or backless benches which were only elongated stools. They were about the height of the chair seat of the period and were strongly made with turned and sometimes carved legs and stout stretchers. The un- derframing was also occasionally adorned with carving. The legs were often, though not always, given an out- ward spread.
As it became less and less the custom to rest the feet on the bottom rails or stretchers of tables or hang the heels on the rounds of chairs to escape draughts or dirt on the floor, we find footstools coming into more com- mon use, especially with the larger and more stately chairs whose seats were high from the floor.
In Carolean times footstools and bedsteps, made of oak or walnut, with caned tops became common. The legs were turned and sometimes scrolled or carved stretchers, like those between the forelegs of chairs, were added. Instead of legs some of the stools rested
AO PRACTICAL BOuJV UJ^ rJi^EiOD j urnNxxuxvjii
on bench ends. Stools often answered the purpose of small tables.
Forms or backless benches differed from the staunchly built and heavy stools only in respect of their great length, being made primarily to accommodate those sitting at the sides of the long tables. When not in use the forms were often stowed away on the rails or stretchers underneath the tables.
SETTLES, SETTEES AND LOVE SEATS
Settles (Fig, 4) or benches with arms and backs, often panelled and ornately carved, were in very gen- eral use all during the Stuart period. It was not at all uncommon for the part between the seat and the floor to be solidly enclosed by panelling while the seat itself was hinged, thus making the one article of furniture do duty as a seat and a chest or coffer at the same time.
Oaken settles were found so useful and satisfactory that the type persisted in both England and America until well into the eighteenth century and many ex- amples are of even later date. The specimen shown in Fig. 4 is of American make and was evidently always intended to have a cushion, as may be inferred from the cording. Settles without cushioned seats were rather the rule, however. The backs and, where the under- part was enclosed for a chest, the front below the seat, might or might not be ornately carved on rails, stiles and panels, according to the taste or the political and religious principles of the maker. The seats were of about the same height as chair seats and the backs, as a rule, were slightly higher than chair backs, though occasionally they were carried upward to an ungainly extent.
JACOBEAN PERIOD
SETTEES
41
The settee or sofa seems to have developed from the love-seat (see following paragraph) and was frequently- found in the houses of the well-to-do from Carolean times onward. They were first made with upholstered backs, seats and arms, and were much like short sofas.
Fig. 4. Jacobean Oak Settee; American, c. 1660. Cromwellian Type. Length, 6 feet 1 inch; height of back, 2 feet 10 inches; height of seat. 1 foot 4 inches; breadth of seat, 17 inches. ' ,
By Courtesy of Col. William J. Youngs, Garden City, L. I.
Legs and stretchers were like the legs and stretchers of chairs and the tops were straight, as may be seen by the example shown in Key II, 8. The wood was usually walnut, as they were not common until walnut had su- perseded oak as the fashionable wood.
Love-seats were but chairs of sufficient breadth of seat to accommodate two occupants side by side and were given the name ' ' courting chairs " or " love-seats ' ' in a spirit of jocularity. They may be regarded as the progenitors of the double chair-backed settee or *'sofa" of a later period.
42 PRACTICAL BOuxv ^r rrjixLKju snj jxim ± x \j xi,xj
DAY-BEDS
Day-beds (Key II, 9) were the seventeenth century forerunners of our reclining couches. They were of sufficient length and breadth to permit the occupant to recline at length. The head-piece was frequently ad- justable to any desired angle by means of chains or straps and pins.
Day-beds of early Jacobean date fared ill at the hands of Cromwell's soldiers and not many have re- mained to us. At the Restoration they again became a stock article of furniture. They were both caned and made for cushions. They were about the height of chairs and the legs were either turned, in the humbler types, or highly carved in those of more ornate pattern.
BEDSTEADS
Like their Elizabethan predecessors, the Jacobean or Stuart bedsteads were objects of fearsome and portentous appearance. Their possessors set great store by them and lavished what seems to us an alto- gether disproportionate amount of expense and pains in rendering them sufficiently magnifical to suit their notions of state. An examination of the comparatively small number that have come down to us — apparently only the more costly ones have survived — shows them unsanitary as well as cumbrously ornate (Plate I, page 32). The posts supporting the tester often stood clear of the actual bed. Both the underside of the canopy or tester and the bedhead were frequently panelled and elaborately carved as well as the posts and tester cornice. In Jacobean and Cromwellian bed-
JACOBEAN PERIOD
43
steads there was a modification in turning and detail of ornamentation as noted in a subsequent section.
For children and servants there were truckle or trundle beds that could readily be pushed out of the way. They were low affairs, scarcely raised from the floor. With the access of all manner of pomp and splen- dour at the Eestoration, amplitude of curtains and heavily upholstered and draped testers with abundance of embroidery found favour among the wealthy.
TABI.ES
During the Stuart period tables steadily became articles of more serious import than in preceding epochs. The change from movable boards set upon
Fin. 5. Jacobean Oak Refectory Table, c. 1635. Length, 89 inches; width, 33 inches; height, 30 inches. Heavily carved bulbous legs and low stretchers characteristic of the early period.
By Courtesy of Isaac W. Roberta, Esq., Pencoyd, Bala, Pa.
trestles to tables of permanent structure had occurred during Tudor times but it is not till the days of the Stuarts that we find them in any considerable num- ber. Then we meet with the long tables (Fig. 5 and Key I, 6) that follow the traditional lines of the trestle boards, ingeniously devised "drawing tables," gate tables with drop leaves, small rectangular tables, three-cornered cricket tables and many others.
44 PRACTICAL BOOK UJb' Jr'JBiKHJU jj ujxinij.uxu3j
The early Jacobean long or "refectory" tables were frequently of great length — some are known of even thirty feet or more — ^but narrow in comparison. Their structure is described in the section on "Structure." ' ' Drawing-tables ' ' were ingeniously contrived to double their length and seating capacity. This was accom- plished "by means of two shelves, sliding under the cen- tral top, but so arranged that upon their being drawn out, the upper top falls into their place, thus forming a level surface."
The gate table (Key II, 7), which originated in this period, was found so practical and useful that, with slight variations according to the characteristics of the age, it has persisted to present days, and so, in some one of its forms, may be said to belong to each period.
About the time of the Eestoratidn, owing largely to the prevalent habit of tea and coffee drinking, various shaped small tables began to be made in great numbers. They were also used for games. Drawers in tables became common at this date also. All the Stuart tables were substantially braced by stout stretchers near the floor. Bulbous legs (Key I, 6 and Fig. 12, 6) went out of fashion by the middle of the seventeenth century. Einged baluster and columnar legs appeared about the time of the Eestoration (Fig. 12, a and c) in tables as they did also in chairs.
CHESTS
From the very dawn of history, chests (Fig. 6) of one sort or another have been factors of tremendous importance in domestic economy. Both for storage
JACOBEAN PERIOD
45
purposes and as seats they have played a conspicuous part in household equipment. They were made of various materials and wrought in every degree of workmanship from the rude box of an unskilled joiner to the masterpieces of a cunning carver or inlayer.
Several differences of structure must be noted in the divers kinds of chests. The original and commonest type of chest had a lid which opened upward. Coffers
|
1 |
|
|
\ |
Detail of moulding.
Fig. 6. Jacobean Oak Chest, c. 1680, in Collection of Pennsylvania Historical Soci- ety. Flemish and Dutch Influence in Panels of Applied Moulding and "Bun ' Feet. Height, 35 inches; length, 53X inches; breadth, 23>^ inches.
were chests of such pattern strongly made for the safe keeping of valuables. Caskets were small chests, like- wise of this type, for the keeping of trinkets. Hutches' were chests with stationary tops and had doors opening in front instead of lids. All these varieties were found at the beginning of the Stuart period. About the middle of the seventeenth century appeared chests with one or more drawers in the lower part, the top having a hinged lid as formerly. Later in the century more drawers were added, until by the eighteenth we have not chests with drawers but chests of drawers, the fore-
46 PRACTICAL B00j3l On irrjixi.yjD i uxi-mixuxviii
runners of the modern bureau.^ In Carolean times we find high chests with drawers in the lower part, while the upper opens with hutch-like cupboard doors.
On nearly all the different sorts of chests of this period carving, geometrical panelling or inlay — accord- ing to the particular vogue of the day — ^were lavishly used for embellishment.
CUPBOARDS
The cupboard was a very favourite piece of furni- ture during the Stuart period and much care and ex- pense were lavished upon its decoration that it might worthily, express the state and rank of its possessor. It occurs under divers shapes as a court cupboard (Key I, 4), a livery cupboard, a hanging cupboard— the progenitor of the wardrobe — an almery and several more.
Hanging, Ctjpboakds were about five feet or even less in height, with openings in the doors to ventilate the clothing hanging within.
LiVEKY CtrpBOAEDS Were small affairs that were hung on walls or set on tables or other conveniently elevated places, the doors frequently pierced with balustered or spindle openings, and were meant to hold food, wine and candles.
^The word bureau is of course connected with writing, and in Great Britain a bureau is a writing-deslc. In America it has come to have an entirely different signification, and it would seem to be for the following reason. Chests of drawers were frequently made with a drop lid and pigeon-holes taking the place of the upper drawers and they were then called bureaux: when these writing facilities were dropped and the chests were composed entirely of drawers and used for toilet purposes solely the name bureau still persisted, and as its use is so universal it seems impossible to avoid employing it.
JACOBEAN PERIOD
47
Bread and Cheese Cupboards were bulky pieces of furniture sometimes divided into upper and lower com- partments and were meant for the storage of the house- hold larder.
Almekies were receptacles similar to livery cup- boards, and were intended to put doles into for pensioners or family retainers.
Court Cupboards, literally short cupboards (Key I, 4), were originally small cupboards set on sidetables. Afterwards the two were combined into one piece and the lower part, origin- ally but a table, was fitted some- times with shelves, sometimes with doors, making a lower cup- board. The upper part was be- decked with pillars supporting an ornate corniced top. The other va- rieties of cupboards consisted of straightforward rectangular car- case work without any pretense at architectural character.
Cabinets on high stands with carved or spiral turned legs were characteristic of late Carolean times (Key I, 5).
FiQ. 7. Jacobean Small Oak Cupboard, c. 1670. Total height, 5 feet 8 inches.
By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
BUFFETS, DRESSERS AND SIDEBOARDS
The buffet, the dresser (Fig. 9), the sideboard (Fig. 8), and all the other prototypes of that useful and now universal article of dining-room furniture were evolved
48 PRACTICAL BOuii oi) r^iitiux/ j:vjxx\ixij±\,±u
from modifications of the table or cupboard, or both, and flourished mightily in numbers and in sundry guises all during the Stuart period.
But little removed from the court cupboard in type was the buffet meant for the display of plate and also for convenience in serving. It was a heavy table placed against the wall with a superstructure on pillars, but without any cupboard. Akin to the buffet was the dresser (Fig. 9), with a cupboard in the lower part and
Fig. 8. Jacobean Oak Sideboard, c. 1665. Showing Flemish influence in geo- metrically panelled drawer fronts and applied ornament; also spirally turned legs. Length, 6 feet 6 inches; height, 34 inches.
By Courtesy of Mr. K. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
a back with open shelves. This type was probably of Welsh or Yorkshire origin, known in Wales as a "cwpwedd tridam," and persisted well into the eigh- teenth century. Another type was the heavy low table with deep drawers (Fig. 8), very like the sideboard that came into fashion late in the eighteenth century.
MIEROES
In the early Jacobean days, though men and women were not a whit less vain of their personal appearance than are their descendants, mirrors were not common.
JACOBEAN PERIOD
49
They were small, for large pieces of glass were not made, and were set in heavy frames. It was not till towards the latter part of the seventeenth century, when English-made glass was obtainable, that mirrors
FiQ. 9. Jacobean Oak Dresser of Yorkshire Pattern, c. 1660, Containing Many Characteristic Details of Ornamentation q. v. in Text. Length, S feet; height, 6 feet
8 inches.
By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
increased much in number or attained any considerable size.
In the Carolean period intricate pieces of bevelling were executed and also extremely elaborate frames were carved in pear, lime or pine (Plate II, p. 50) by Grinlinff Gibbon or men of his school.
50 PRACTICAL BGwK vjr rr^JXLyjxj r\jn.ni.i.vs\-rj
CLOCKS
About the middle of the seventeentli century the tall clock case made its appearance and later became a sub- ject for elaborate ornamentation. The tall case was first made for the purpose of concealing the weights and pendulum which had formerly hung in full view from a mechanism and dial supported by a bracket.
MATERIALS
There was the greatest diversity of materials used in the manufacture of furniture throughout the en- tire Stuart or Jacobean period.
Oak, the national wood of England, was of course the favourite and staple material from which Jacobean and Cromwellian furniture was chiefly made and con- tinued popular in Carolean times when powerful agencies were at work to supplant it. It has indeed retained a more or less constant measure of favour down to the present day when its vogue is again in the ascendant. In the later part of the Stuart period it was often used as a groundwork in combination with other woods. It was plentiful and strong and satisfied the proverbial British desire for weight, staunchness and durability.
Walnut, used only sparingly as a precious wood in Elizabethan and early Jacobean times, came into common use for furniture about 1650 and from thence onward was increasingly popular. Great numbers of walnut trees had been planted about 1560 and by the middle of the seventeenth century the timber had reached maturity. It was a more suitable medium for the scrolls, twists and curves then coming into fashion and less likely to chip than oak.
GRIXLING GIBBON MIRROR FRAME
By Courtesy of Richard A. C'anfield, Esq., New York City
PLATE II
JACOBEAN PERIOD 51
Cedab came into use about 1660. The most beau- tiful cedar furniture and the most frequently met with is of Bermudian origin. The Bermuda cedar is of peculiarly rich and dark colour.
Cherry "was used though not to any considerable extent till late Carolean times.
Elm and Beech were used for much of the simpler furniture, but the wood not being of par- ticularly durable quality little of either has survived.
Chestnut was occasionally employed and was con- sidered valuable.
Deal. The term "deal" properly belongs to the wood of the fir or pine, but is often used to designate the form in which lumber is cut. Eed deal is the wood of the Scotch pine and is highly esteemed and durable.
Pine, Pear and Limb were used for carving where griding or paint were to be applied.
Mahogany was used for inlay, in one instance be- fore the Eestoration, but only sparingly until late in the century. This of course applies to England. In Holland and Spain it came into use much earlier and some of the early Dutch mahogany furniture found its way to America. One well authenticated piece arrived m New York considerably before 1640.
Holly and Bog Oak were extensively used for in- laying.
Precious Woods prom the Indies and America, which, with the expansion of foreign trade from the time of the Commonwealth, were imported more and more constantly, were also used for inlaying.
Silver and Ebony, though rarely employed, were
52 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
used sometimes for furniture among the very wealtliy. They are included in the list only for the sake of com- pleteness.
Upholstery for the seats and hacks of chairs, settees and day-beds was either permanently attached or in the form of movable cushions.
Leather and "Woven Goods were both used.
With respect to the American Colonies it should be added that the abundance of ash, elm, maple, cedar and pine as well as oak and walnut supplied plentiful fur- niture materials.
DECORATIVE PROCESSES
Jacobean furniture, of the Jacobean period properly so called, was replete with ornament. It was frequently weighted to excess with a riotous pro- fusion of decoration that echoed the exuberance of the popular fancy and sprang from an involved wealth and ingenuity of invention or, perhaps, one might more truly say ingenuity of adaptation. Of tasteful moderation and becoming sense of restraint there was little, if any, till the severity of Cromwellian days ban- ished the "sinfully frivolous" intricacies of orna- ment in which cabinet makers of former regimes had freely indulged. In considering early Jacobean fur- niture we must always remember that the background for all this varied richness of decoration, the parent stock from which it all grew by logical process of evolution, was the furniture of Queen Elizabeth's day, and, furthermore, that that same Elizabethan furni- ture in turn had only just broken away from ecclesi- astical tradition which had till then dominated all mobiliary forms.
JACOBEAN PERIOD
53
The guiding inspiration was the spirit of the Eenaissance, filtered through various media and suffi- ciently modified by English conceptions to make its expression a thing of living interest and indicative of the national temperament in that Golden Age when
Fio. 10. Jacobean Oak Chest with Drawers, c. 1670. Height, 3 feet 8 inches; length,
3 feet; depth, 19 inches.
By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
family life began in good earnest to assume both the guise and reality of comfort and when little amenities and elegancies were somewhat heeded, when chimneys and glazed windows became common and domestic cleanliness, however short of modern demands for sanitation, was more than a mere name. The average reader is not likely to have frequent occasion to iden-
54 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
tify Elizabethan furniture, however, and it is not necessary therefore to dwell further upon it.
Notwithstanding the break from ecclesiastical tradition in Queen Elizabeth's time and the farther departure from its domination in the reign of James I, traces of it, nevertheless, are discernible in early Jacobean furniture, showing more clearly in severity of form or contour than in other respects. As to the sundry types of decoration bestowed on furniture, it is safe to say that until the Cromwellian era they may almost without exception be attributed to "the Eenaissance and its evolution from the Gothic" through a channel of British craftsmanship.
In the early days of the Commonwealth overmuch embellishment was taboo, uncompromising plainness was esteemed and also certain Dutch tendencies be- came noticeable. Indeed, under Charles I and even under James, Continental influence had cropped out from time to time and affected both the contour and ornamentation of furniture.
From 1660 onward all the Eestoration influences, Dutch, Flemish, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, modified somewhat, it is true, by native British tastes but nevertheless essentially foreign, came into plg,y and wrought a vast change in the fashion and form of English furniture. At this time, of course, the furniture of the American Colonies, except New York where the Dutch influence was unadulterated, faith- fully and exactly reflected many of the styles in the Mother Country.
During the early Jacobean portion of the Stuart period, even more perhaps than in preceding times, ornamental design was largely dependent on archi-
JACOBEAN PERIOD 65
tectural inspiration. In fact the architectural char- acter of much of the furniture reminds us that it may, in a sense, be called the offspring of architecture and that its manufacture and decoration is one of the most closely allied arts.
The processes of decoration ordinarily employed within the Jacobean, Cromwellian and Carolean periods were carving, inlay or marqueterie, turning, painting, gilding, lacquering, upholstering, panelling, applied ornament and veneering — surely an ample list of re- sources.
Carving was the traditional, favourite and hence most common method of decorative expression in the furniture of the Jacobean portion of the Stuart period, that is to say from 1603 to 1649. During Cromwellian days it enjoyed less ample vogue, thanks to Puritan austerity. At the Eestoration, Carolean influences re- newed the popularity of carved ornamentation but in a quite different form, however, that reached its height in the Baroque extravagances of the final years of the period. In Eestoration or Stuart work we find a free flowing treatment of roses and acanthus, and some- times human figures, along with the conventional Baroque scrolls. Sundry methods of carving were prac- tised in early Jacobean times and were capable of yielding considerable variety of effect in the hands of a skilful craftsman. The most usual were (1) the "Modelled" type of carving where the design stands out in well moulded relief, the surrounding background being lowered by gouge and chisel. (Fig. 13, and Key I, 4.) Such carving is usually sunk well into panels so that the part in highest relief does not pro- ject above the surfaces of the object. (2) "Flat"
66 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
carving was also popiilar. In this sort flat surfaces predominated and were thrown into relief by the groundwork being "sunk" or sharply gouged out (Fig. 11), (3) "Scratch carving" was easy of execu- tion and inexpensive and hence widely practised. It was just the reverse of ordinary carving in that the design, usually of simple foliage, was vigorously and sharply incised (Fig. 14, 6).
Fig. 11. Jacobean Oak Cheat, c. 1640,in Collection of Pennsylvania Historical Soci- ety. Length, 52 inches; height, 22 inches; width, 23 inches. Shows gouged ornament in bottom rail and stiles and incised carving elsewhere.
All these methods were sometimes used in orna- menting the same piece of furniture.
Inlay ob Marqubtebie. These two terms have properly the same significance. In practical use, how- ever, marqueterie is usually understood to connote greater elaboration of design and deftness of crafts- manship while the term inlay is applied, generally, to simpler operations. A further difference of usage seems to be that "inlay" is used to denote other ma- terials as well as wood, while "marqueterie" is used
JACOBEAN PERIOD 57
to designate wood only. In the furniture of the Stuart period every variety of inlay or marqueterie was ex- tensively employed. In the more expensive furniture, especially in the Carolean part of the period, large por- tions of the surface of various objects were completely covered with, intricate and flowing patterns of foliage (Fig. 13, 3), fruit, flowers, birds and beasts. In the earlier work, though some elaborate pieces are met with, we generally find stiff little panels and isolated sections adorned with bits of simple floral inlay, often in bog oak and holly without any of the artificially stained woods afterwards used to obtain richness an.d variety of colour.
Lacquee. Although specimens of lacquer from the Orient were known in England in Tudor times and pieces were imported with growing frequency during the early and middle seventeenth century, the art of lacquering or Japanning does not seem to have been extensively practised by English craftsmen in imita- tion of the Oriental process till nearly the end of the century's third quarter. Its popularity grew so rapidly that in 1688 was published a treatise on Japan- ning evidently written for the nse of amateurs among whom it became an immensely fashionable hobby and continued so for a considerable period.
Veneer. Some early examples of veneer, or a pro- cess approaching veneering, have been found but the practise did not obtain conspicuously till the middle or end of the Carolean epoch when the whorled or "oystered" veneer made from the transverse slices of small boughs came into vogue. There was an earlier veneer of walnut on oak while the former wood was still regarded as semi-precious.
58 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
Applied Oenament and Panelling. From the end of the Cromwellian epoch onward, when Dutch and Flemish influences were gaining more and more power, it was a common fashion to apply ornament to cabinet work in the form of panels (Fig. 14; 4, 9, 10 and 11, also Fig. 6) of various geometrical shapes made from mouldings mitred and glued on to the ground- work, pendants, bosses and the like (Fig. 1, frieze and stiles; Fig. 8, stiles).
Painting. From mediaeval times in England, as on the Continent, paint had been used for the embellish- ment of furniture. Throughout the Stuart period paint was employed to some extent for decorative pur- poses. Armorial bearings were blazoned in their proper tinctures on the panels of bed heads or chests. Other subjects of freer design were occasionally de- picted in similar places. Sometimes arabesques in two or three colours were painted on a solid ground of another hue. Cornices, also, were occasionally picked out in two or three colours. Frames of chairs and other pieces of, furniture, too, made of cheaper wood were not infrequently painted black or some dark hue and enriched by gilding. In the Carolean epoch a wider use was made of paint than formerly.
Gilding, though not employed as extensively as in France, was nevertheless one of the stock resources of embellishment for the furniture of the wealthy dur- ing the reign of the Merry Monarch.
IJpHOLSTEKY. In early Jacobean times upholstered chairs, settees or stools in small numbers were to be found in some of the great houses of the nobility but it was not till Cromwellian days, when chairs were made in greater numbers, that padded seats and
JACOBEAN PERIOD
59
backs (Key I, 2), covered with leather, were of com- mon occurrence. After the Restoration many of these chair seats and backs were brightened up with a cover- ing of Turkey work. From Carolean times onward upholstery was fashionable. Chairs, settees and stools were covered with elaborate needlework wrought by the ladies (Key II, 8), or with the gorgeous vel- vets and brocades of Continental or English manu- facture. In the latter part of Charles II 's reign wonder- ful fabrics were made in England by foreign refugee textile workers, as many remnants of their handiwork fuUy attest.
TxJENiNG (Fig. 7; Fig. 13; 12, 14, 15 and 16 ; Key I, 2 and 5, and II, 7) was a favourite and inexpensive decorative process from early times and was wrought in every variety. _, ,„ ^ . , , ,
„ . , ° . , , ■' , , Fig. 12. TypicalJacobean legs; ^,
bpiral turning, although early pearbaluster; B, melonbulb; C, ringed
instances are known, did not
become general till after the Eestoration. The sundry
types of turning are often valuable aids in determining
dates.
TYPES OP DECORATIVE DESIGN
Great importance attaches to the types of decora- tive design as well as to the sundry sorts of decora- tive processes employed. It is by carefully heeding just such small deta,ils that we shall learn most about furniture and become able to establish relationships
60 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
and approximate dates. In carving whether "mod- elled," "flat" or "scratch" the most favourite and frequently recurring types of design were as follows :
GuiLLOCHB, which (Fig. 13 ; 3 and 7 ; Fig. 14, 7) is an ornamental pattern of enrichment in the form of two or more interlacing hands or ribbons so braided or intertwined as to repeat the same figure in a continued series of circles. The circles, furthermore, frequently enclose rosettes, paterae, or other decorative details :
DiAPEEwoEK, which is a decorative pattern (see glossary), especially of a geometrical character con- sisting of interlaced circles, etc., in a simple figure often repeated. It is generally used in friezes or as a decoration for flat surfaces :
Steapwoek, an ornament of an architectural origin (Fig. 13; 8 and Fig. 1, frieze) consisting of narrow fillets or bands folded and crossed or interlaced in sundry patterns and repeats :
Cabochon and Caetouchb. Similar in a measure to strapwork is cabochon and cartouche work (Fig. 14; 3) in which there is an alternating succession of cartouches and decorated or bossed roundels :
Lunettes or half -circle patte'rns (Fig. 14; 6 and Fig. 11) more or less elaborate and floriated and often repeated in a long line were much favoured :
Tulip. The tulip either (Fig. 14; 12 and 5) natural or conventionalised was a frequent motif of Jacobean ornament :
Heaet. a conventionalised heart-shaped device (Fig. 10) lent itself to agreeable treatment in repeats as a frieze and is often met with 'in pieces of the forepart of the seventeenth century :
EosE. Quite apart from political considerations
JACOBEAN PERIOD
61
|
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|||
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a |
ixr |
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||
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rr |
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Fig. 13. Characteristic Forms of Jacobean Ornamentation. 1. Quartered Tulip. 2. Rose and Conventional S. Scrolls. 3. Ordinary Patterns of Jacobean (early) Inlay and Marqueterie. 4. Conventional Foliage Border. 5. Falmated Strapwork. 6. Channelling. 7. Carved Guilloche Panel and Gouged Pilasters, 8. Strapwork. 9. Nulled Cornice. 10. Egg and Dart Moulding. 11. Channelling. 12. "Cup and Cover " Bulbous Table Leg; Gadroon Cover, Fluted Cup. 13. Reeding (raised from surface). 14. Spiral Turning. 15 and 16. Specimens of Jacobean Pillar Turning.
62 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
which made it a popular decorative detail in Tudor times, the rose (Fig. 11 and Fig. 13, 2 and 7) proved itself so valuable as a species of ornament that it al- ways remained in high favour and is repeatedly found under varying modified but always recognisable forms :
Acanthus. The popularity of the acanthus leaf (Fig. 5, legs) as a decorative pattern is due not only to its inherent grace and beauty but also to its flexibility and the ease with which its expression may be adapted to the needs of the carver or decorator. Owing to this circumstance we find it in endless variety of forms :
Foliated and Flobiated Scrolls were especially affected (Fig. 13; 2 and 4, and Fig. 14; 1) in the adorn- ment of crestings for chair backs and for filling in nar- row panels :
Channelling, a system of parallel, vertical or hori- zontal grooves or channels cut or gouged into the sur- face (Fig. 13 ; 6 and 11) of a frieze or other woodwork:
Eeeding, a series of parallel lines of small convex or beaded moulding (Fig. 13 ; 13) or wood carved in re- lief. Being raised from the surface, it is the exact reverse of fluting which is sunk:
Fluting. Vide supra (Fig. 13; 12; lower part of bulbous turning) :
Geapevines for both fruit and foliage (Fig. 14; 1) were a much used device for the enrichment of narrow panels and also for rails and posts or stiles :
Gadeoons. The word gadroon or godroon comes from the French godron, a plait or ruffle. It is a ruffle (Fig. 13 ; 12 (upper part), and Glossary) or fluted orna- ment occurring in a considerable diversity of forms and in surfaces both straight and circular in contour. Often
JACOBEAN PERIOD 63
used in edges of table tops and is found in both concave and convex forms :
Nulling, made up chiefly of beading, cabling and hollows, is often used to ornament the bulbous legs of Jacobean furniture as well as in other places (Fig. 13; 9 and Fig. 9 ; apron below cornice) :
Human Figures, masques, fruit and grotesque ani- mals, though used in redundant and heterogeneous profusion in Elizabethan work, became less prevalent in Jacobean furniture carving and the human figure in contemporary costume ceased to be used as a decorative device after the time of Charles I :
Lozenge. The lozenge pattern began to appear conspicuously about 1625 and continued in favour dur- ing Cromwellian and even later times. In heraldry and in symbolic decoration the lozenge has always been regarded as appertaining especially to women (Fig. 9) :
Laueelling. The laurel leaf was a common motif for carving on rails, friezes and posts in cabinet work (Fig. 14; 7; corner post).
Besides the preceding types, especially named as being of usual occurrence in the carving of the period, there were others frequently met with, such as the palmated chain pattern (Fig. 13; 5), the pomegranate, the sunflower, in "Welsh carving the dragon and in both English and "Welsh work sundry other devices too numerous to be rehearsed, but all partaking of the same general character and treatment as those aforemen- tioned, so that sufficient has been said for purposes of identification.
In dealing with applied ornament the favourite forms to be noticed are :
Pendants, which usually went in pairs (Figs. 8, 9
Fig. 14. Additional Characteristic Forms of Jacobean Decoration. 1. Moulded Grapevine Carving. 2. Floral Ornament. 3. Cabochon and Cartouche Ornament. 4. Panelling of Applied Moulding. 5. Incised Conventional Tulip. 6. Double Inter- lacing Lunette Pattern. 7. Guilloche Ornament in Frieze; levelling on corner stile. 8. Common Zig-zag Inlay Border Pattern. 9, 10, and 11. Typical Applied Panel Forms. 12. Ordinary Forms of Tulip.
JACOBEAN PERIOD
65
and 10; posts and uprights) and were generally used to embellish posts or stiles in cabinet work:
Split Baluster, quite similar in character, except that the large pear-shaped part is bottom-most :
Maces ob Cannon, used for the same purpose as the above:
Notching, a form (Fig. 15 and Glossary) that came in towards the close of the Stuart regime :
Oval Bosses, Lozenges and Peaes, which were most frequently employed to adorn the friezes of cabinets (Figs. 1 and 15, and Glossary) and cupboards and usu-
A B
FiQ. 15. A, Notching: B, Pear Drop.
ally in combination with strapwork. This form of deco- ration was known as "jewelling." The diamond or lozenge not much used till Cromwellian period. Other applied forms also were known and the writers have seen one little chest covered with an aggregation of applied curlicues that looked like bacilli under a microscope :
Geombteicax. Designs. In panelled decoration, which, like the applied ornament, was mainly attached by the aid of the glue pot, the forms were wholly of geometrical design, and contorted into innumerable shapes (Fig. 14; 4, 9, 10 and 11, and Figs. 6 and 1) so
5
66 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
that the cabinet makers of the period would seem to have sat up nights devising what new and unheard-of effects they might achieve. If not always beautiful, their results were at least ingenious. Inside these panels, formed by mitred and glued-on moulding, were often found other raised and bevelled panels of divers shapes :
Balustees in turned work were usually of an ap- proximately pear shape (Fig. 12, A) :
Spindles turned were slightly knobbed or nuUed :
Steetchees turned were nulled or heavily knobbed :
Balls oe Bulbs turned mid-high the legs of tables in the "melon bulb" style (Key I, 6, and Fig. 12, B) :
Spieax, turning (Key I, 5, and Fig. 7) became com- mon after 1665.
In inlay or marqueterie the greatest diversity of patterns prevailed, governed mainly by the conceits of the individual craftsman, who indulged ad libitum in all manner of chequerings, birds, beasts, fruits, flowers and leaves (Fig. 14; 8, and Fig. 13; 3), some approxi- mately natural, others purely conventional, besides cross-banding, feather-edging and herring-boning, ex- amples of which are met with in many forms.
In late Stuart days a type of marqueterie ornament was coming into favour which flourished still more in the reign of WiUiam and Mary. Oblong inlaid panels (Key I, 5) often with arc-shaped ends, were filled with natural flower sprays or sometimes acanthus. The ' ' spiky" Dutch acanthus treatment somewhat displaced the earlier flowing English treatment.
In upholstery the designs were in brilliant parti- coloured cross-stitch embroidery (Key II, 8) with
JACOBEAN PERIOD 67
tapestry-like subjects or else brilliant brocades and out-pile velvets displayed flowers, foliage, fruit and birds.
STRUCTURE
In structure Jacobean furniture, even to the end of the Carolean epoch, was extremely simple and straight- forward. However much the types and processes of decoration may have been affected by Continental in- fluences, the subtleties of the foreign joiners did not gain an appreciable hold in England till a later date. Strength and staunchness of carcase were the objects aimed at rather than grace of contour. Heavy rails and stiles or posts were mortised and tenoned and pinned together with wooden pins. Legs were firmly braced with heavy stretchers (Figs. 1, 4 and 5) close to the ground. Neither serpentine, bowed nor hombe fronts had as yet come into English cabinet work and carcases followed rectangular principles. In arm chairs the front legs were carried up above the seat to form sup- porting posts (Key I, 1) for the arms. In side chairs the seat rails were tenoned into the legs until a weaker principle of construction began in late Carolean days (Fig. 3, h), in which the leg is socketed into the seat frame.
In old drawers the ' ' runners ' ' are mostly formed of broad grooves in the sides of the drawers themselves, a corresponding flange of wood being fixed in the inte- rior surface of the chest for them to bear upon.
Cromwellian carcase work remained much the same except that the carved ornamentation was not so lavish as it had been during the reigns of James and Charles.
The bedsteads were ponderous structures consist-
68 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
ing of pillars supporting a carved and panelled tester, while the bedstead proper, on which the mattress rested, was detached from everything except the headboard, having plain square legs of its own (Plate I, p. 32).
O
Fig. 16. Characteristic mounts of the Jacobean period.
MOUNTS
The mounts of Jacobean furniture were not con- spicuous. Scutcheons of iron or brass for keyholes were for the most part either very modest or lacking altogether. Sometimes a metal V-shaped flange was placed under the keyhole of chests as a guide for the key in a dark muniment room. In the later Carolean times, when the refinements of the Continental cabinet makers were more appreciated, we find gracefully shaped brass scutcheons either chased or fretted (Fig. 16, B and F).
The handles of drawers and cabinet doors in the
JACOBEAN PERIOD 69
earlier part of the period were simple knobs of either wood or metal (Fig. 16, I) or else — and, these a little later — drop loops (Fig. 16, C and D). "With Carolean refinements came pendent drops of brass (Fig. 16, E and G), sometimes hanging from chased or fretted mounts (Fig. 16, A). Drop loops continued in use also as well as plain knobs.
The early hinges were modest iron strap affairs or else concealed. Even the more ornate Carolean hinges, embossed occasionally with circular scallops or deftly fretted, were at the most not particularly elaborate. It was but rarely that conspicuous hinges were seen before a later date.
FINISH
Much of the early Jacobean furniture was quite in- nocent of surface finish. In other cases the wood was given a dressing with either oil or wax. Sometimes also a kind of varnish was used made by dissolving gum copal in boiling oil.
The usual finish was, first, an application of oil, gen- erally nut or poppy, to "feed" the wood, and, second, a coating of beeswax mixed wkh a little turpentine suf- ficient to make a thick paste.
After allowing the oil to dry in for some hours or, better still, for a day, the surface of the wood was wiped off, removing thoroughly all the oil "sweat," in other words that portion of the oil not absorbed by the wood. The wax was then applied and the surface thoroughly rubbed and polished with a woollen rag.
The persistence and accuracy of tradition in Eng- land are proverbial, and it is interesting to note in this connexion that a friend of the authors', whose father
70 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
was given a fine old carved oak chest by a Somerset- shire yeoman out of gratitude for some small legal services, asked the donor, then a very old man, how he had kept the chest in such excellent condition. His reply was that his father and grandfather had always bidden them "feed the oak with oil and polish it with wax."
When wax only was used, as appears to have some- times been the case, the pithy portions of surface were dark and the grain light. Where oil was applied, the reverse effect was produced.
For modem oak in finishing or refinishing oak, lin- seed oil is largely used.
CHAPTER III
WILLIAM AND MAEY
1688-1702
THIS is a concise and easily understood period — a welcome contrast to the Jacobean. It was of shorter duration and, consequently, styles had not the same opportunity to run through numer- ous changes. With the names of William and Mary we inseparably associate one clearly defined mobiliary type of unmistakable characteristics — hooded tops (Key III, 2 ; Plate IH, p. 72) , ogeed (Key III, 3 and 4 ; Plates IV, p. 76, and VI, p. 86) and flat arch (Key III, 1) aprons, straight cup-turned legs and shaped stretchers (Key III, 1, 2 and 3 ; Plate VI, p. 86). What were the deriva- tions and variant peculiarities of these pronounced characteristics we shall soon see. At the same time, there is present a sufficient element of variety and evolu- tion to make the period one of intense interest. Besides being interesting, it is exceedingly important as mark- ing, on the one hand, an almost complete revolution from the forms and principles of preceding times and, on the other, a rapid crystallisation into forms that endured through much of the eighteenth century and left an influence even after they had disappeared.
Because of the necessarily rapid transition to the Queen Anne style — the William and Mary epoch lasted but fourteen years — some of the typical forms and pro- cesses were of short duration.
There are always overlappings of styles, but there are times when marked changes occur with almost
71
72 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
startling rapidity and force even tlie most unobservant to note the presence of a wholly new influence. Such a time came just after the Eevolution of 1688 and in the section on "Contour" we shall learn wherein lay much of the difference from preceding types that then became apparent.
Between the arrival of "William and Mary and Queen Anne's accession, we can discern a marked in- crease in popular appreciation of refinement and sim- plicity. Queen Mary herself wielded an immense in- fluence upon public taste and she it was who gave the initial impetus to china collecting which, in turn, affected furniture types as well as social customs and brought a whole train of consequences in its wake. By her signal devotion to needlework the Queen also greatly encouraged the fashion for English women to br older elaborate covers in "petit point" (Key III, 4; Plate rV, p. 76) for upholstered chairs, settees and stools.
In this needlework upholstery we find the same strong, exuberant colour that ran riot in the gorgeous imported stuffs and rich fabrics of home manufacture with which men and women of the day were wont both to clothe their bodies and cover their furniture. Eng- lish colour sense was still fresh and lusty and joyed in broad, vigorous tone effects that would have horrified later generations. The advent of numerous Huguenot textile workers, driven out of their own country by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, vastly improved the quality and increased the quantity of the output of English looms, and many of the splendid textures they made were designed and woven with special reference to the national chromatic fancy. Marqueterie furni-
WILLIAM AND MARY WALNUT DROP-FRONT SECRETARY WITH
SINGLE HOOD TOP
By Courtesy of Messrs. Maple & Co., Tottenham Court Road, London
PLATE III
WILLIAM AND MARY - 73
ture (Plates V, p. 82, and VII, p. 90) appealed to the same colour sense and was in high favour. Love of colour, too, played not a little part in the fondness for lacquer work, the passion for which had become firmly established by the beginning of the period and retained a strong hold long after its close. Everywhere were found tables, cabinets, cupboards, chests and chairs with intricate and often beautiful gold Oriental decorations on a ground of black, blue, red or green. The early importation of Oriental lacquer had not only brought about its imitation and extensive man- ufacture in England but had also stimulated a strong Eastern taste that had led to the introduction, and eventually the domestic manufacture, of wall paper in bold Oriental patterns of landscapes, birds or flowers. All these things combined to give the furnishings of the latter part of the seventeenth century a varied wealth of colour quite unparalleled before or since. Other periods, perhaps, have seen greater magnificence within certain very restricted limits, but during the reign of WiUiam and Mary the well-to-do, through much of the country, shared at least some of this sumptuous rainbow brilliancy.
The Queen had excellent judgment in matters of fur- niture and interior decoration and her taste, through its dominance in Court circles,, had great weight in settling styles for the whole kingdom. Of course with a Dutch ruler on the throne, a consort who had assimilated Dutch ways, and Dutch courtiers attending them, we are not surprised to find Dutch styles everywhere in vogue, importations of Dutch furniture and a powerful Dutch influence governing the designs of English craftsmen. Although the materials used for much of
74 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
the furniture — lacquer, marqueterie, painting and gilding, and upholstery stuffs — ^were gorgeous in colour or substance, or both, there was a decided trend toward greater simplicity and purity of line. Colour and form, rather than elaborate scroll work now appealed to popular taste and grace of proportion was held of more account than intricacy or dexterity of carving.
Altogether distinct from the highly ornate and high- priced furniture, which only the wealthiest could afford, was the plain walnut furniture, made in ever increasing quantities to supply the demand among those of lesser means who were now beginning to pay more serious heed to the garnishing and comfort of their houses. Craftsmen kept the same chaste contour in plain wal- nut or veneer as in the more elaborate creations. The difference lay in material and surface decoration. Carving was often completely absent and the sole em- bellishment consisted of unostentatious mouldings and gracefully turned legs. It was, as Mr. Macquoid aptly expressed it, "attractive through simplicity of shape and quiet elegance of design."
ARTICLES
The articles of furniture most commonly in use during this period were chairs, stools of several sorts, forms and settles, settees or sofas, day-beds, bed- steads, various kinds of tables, chests and chests of drawers, highboys and lowboys, cabinets, secretaries, desks or bureaux, cupboards, buffets, dressers, mirrors and clocks. Other forms of furniture there were, of course, but their use was not general enough to war- rant placing them in the foregoing list of pieces of daily necessity in the household economy of the time.
WILLIAM AND MARY 75
CONTOUR
As mentioned, the contour of William and Mary- furniture is strongly individual and not to be con- founded with anything that went before. It is at this date that the curvilinear element comes into play and is everyw^here conspicuous. A few minutes' careful study of the William and Mary page of the Chrono- logical Key and the illustrations in this chapter will fix in the mind the characteristic features to look for in this period — legs with inverted-cup or spindle turn-
A B
Fig. 1. A, Flemish Scroll Leg. B, Early "Ringed" or Collared Cabriole Leg.
ings (Key III, 1, 2 and 3), shaped stretchers between these legs (Key III, 1, 2, 3 and 4), arches ogival (Key III, 3, apron) or flat (Key III, 1, apron), and rounded hoods to cabinets (Key III, 2), backs of chairs and settees (Key III, 4), occurring singly, double or treble or, sometimes, in the shape of a broken pediment formed from the single hood. Spirally turned and scrolled legs or legs with Spanish feet (Key III, 4) per- sisted from the previous age, but are here united with other William and Mary features. So also with the cabriole leg, which originated in this period. These and other forms of legs are shown in Figs. 1 and 4. The car-
76 PRACTICAL BOOK OP PERIOD FURNITURE
cases (bodies) of cabinet work remained rectangular. Full details will be found in the descriptions of the various pieces which here f oUow.
CHAIRS
In the very first part of the period, stretchers be- tween chair legs were either turned, sometimes with bulb turning, or scroll carved. The hooped and scrolled Spanish stretcher was often recessed slightly from the front legs as were also occasionally the turned stretchers. Turned and carved straight stretchers early gave place to shaped and serpentine stretchers of Italian origin. These shaped and serpentine stretchers were almost invariably arranged saltire-wise or in X-fashion between the chair legs and were often surmounted by a ball or finial at the point of intersec- tion (Figs. 2 and 3). Stretchers of this sort were either plain or moulded and were generally flat. They were, however, sometimes rising toward the point of intersection beneath the centre of the chair, settee or stool (Fig. 4, S).
Legs were Flemish scrolled, carved and moulded (Fig. 1, A); straight quadrangular (Plate VII, p. 90; Fig. 4, C and Z>), or octagonal (Fig. 4, H and Fig. 5), or round tapered and carved (Fig. 2), turned or moulded, with gadroons at top, and bun feet (Fig. 4, Z>) ; straight, with some form of turning, inverted cup, spinning top, spindle or baluster, with bun feet (Key III, 1, 2 and 3, and Fig. 4, N, 0, and P) ; straight with Spanish scrolled foot (Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, G), or, at the end of the period, cabriole with hoofs, cloven goat's feet (Fig. 4, 7), or club feet (Fig. 1, B). Many early cabriole legs had either an angle in the curve or were "ringed" or "col-
WILLIAM AND MARY
77
lared" with a moulding below the knee and sometimes both "ring" and angle occur (Fig. 1, B, and Fig. 4, E).
Seats were approximately square with a slight nar- rowing towards the back (Fig. 2) and the framing was either visible or upholstered. The front legs of side chairs were dowelled into the seat rails. At the ex- treme end of the period the front comers of seat framing were sometimes rounded.
Backs for the most part were high and were caned, carved, up- holstered or balustered. Often there was a combination of carv- ing and .upholstery or caning and carving. Nearly all of the caned and upholstered backs, especially, were high (Fig. 2), and the upholstered backs usu- ally had more rake than the caned backs. "Banister back" chairs had the same general characteristics as the cane- backed chairs, except that four or more split balusters were used in the back instead of caning. The tops of the upholstered backs were straight across (Fig. 2) or else shaped in Spanish wise with cyma curves and semi-circle, resembling in gen- eral outline the hooded cabinet work (Fig. 3). Up- rights of carved or caned chairs were ordinarily bal- uster turned. The carved wooden backs usually finished in elaborate cresting (Plate IV, p. 76), the central portion, containing most of the carving,being separated from the uprights and supported by the cresting and a
FiQ. 2. Upholstered Square- back Arm-chair with Straight Carved and Turned Legs. By Courtesy of Chapman Dec- orative Co., Philadelphia.
78 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
cross-rail just above the seat line. This cross-rail had scroll work or carving below to carry out a correspond- ence with the ornate cresting. Caned backs finished with carved cresting or plain moulded shaping. Among both caned and carved backs we find the cresting either carried over and dowelled to the uprights or fastened between the uprights which terminate in finials. In the caned backs with a moulded cresting the cane is stretched from uprights and crest, while with the other sorts of cresting the cane is stretched from a frame between the uprights.
Towards the end of the period the central splat began to assume a strongly individual form and the spaces between the splat and the uprights were often caned. In some instances the back approximated the fiddle shape, though it was not so clearly defined as in the succeeding period. When cabriole legs appear we find the back slightly "spooned" to fit the contour of the body. Arms were either of wood, shaped with an outward flare, or upholstered and rolled.
STOOLS
Stools were still in considerable demand in lieu of chairs. What has been said of chairs regarding struc- ture, form of legs, stretchers, upholstery and the like applies equally to stools. In addition to stools meant for one person to sit upon, there were long stools, as long as settees, that would accommodate two or three people. Joint stools with turned legs were found everywhere.
FORMS AND SETTLES
Forms and settles continued to be made in the coun- try districts and for those in humbler circumstances and were usually of oak.
WILLIA^I AND MARY
SETTEES
79
As settees were for the most part simply chairs lengthened out there is little additional to be said of them. Attention, however, must be called to the wings or flaps at the sides and the f requen|, shaping or double arching of the backs (Fig. 3). Settees with double arched backs usually had two squab cushions side by side instead of one long one (Fig. 3).
Fia. 3.
Settee with Double Arched Back, Fluted Spindle Legs and Spanish Scroll Feet with Shaped Stretchers. By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Xehne, Philadelphia.
DAY-BEDS
Day-beds were made with legs and upholstery con- forming to the prevalent styles as exemplified in chairs and settees. They even appeared — and this was notably the case in America — made of the less expen- sive woods with rudely turned legs and rush seats, and it was quite evident that they filled an important place in the households of some of the humbler members of the community.
80 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
BEDSTEADS
During this period many people continued to use the substantial oak bedsteads of Stuart days. For the newer houses, whose chambers were built with lofty ceilings, bedsteads were made with exceedingly tall, slender posts, round or octagonal, and testers with elab- orately moulded cornices. Some of these creations towered sixteen or seventeen feet in the air. Not only were these gigantic bedsteads well curtained, but the woodwork was practically invisible, being almost wholly covered with brocades, velvets, satins or silks closely "strained" or glued on so that no detail of the contour of the intricate mouldings would be lost. Chintzes were also much used for bed-hangings.
The less important members of the household slept in truckle beds, cupboard beds, "turn-up" beds or "press beds" (which shut up against the wall) or on pallets, all of which seem to have completely dis- appeared.
In America the bedposts never reached such an ex- aggerated height as they did in England.
TABLES
The typical dining table of the period was the gate which, when the leaves were extended and supported by the gates being pulled out, were generally round or oval in shape and could comfortably accommodate eight or ten persons (Key II, 7). The legs of these tables were turned.
Of common occurrence were small rectangular tables with cup or spindle turned legs, saltire stretchers and bun feet (Key III, 1, and section on Lowboys). While
WILLIAM AND MARY
81
the gate tables were plain, these small tables were often highly decorated with marqueterie or lacquer.
It was not an age of large tables such as those that
Fig. 4. Details of Feet, Legs and Mouldings Characteriatio of William and Mary Period.
had characterised earlier Stuart days and instead of the long refectory boards we find a host of small tables for cards, writing, dressing, tea, gaming and various other uses. 6
82 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
Besides gate tables, there were small folding tables made upon the same principle and having turned legs and "butterfly." tables with outward splayed turned legs and movable wing brackets to uphold little leaves on each side.
At this same time were found, chiefly in America (see Chapter on "Other American Furniture"), small rectangular, tables with four straight turned legs and straight turned stretchers. They were simpler than the tables with cup-turned legs and bun feet but full of grace. Joint stool^ of similar pattern frequently ac- compajoied them (Key XVIII, 5) .
CHESTS ,0P DRAWEES AND CHESTS
Chests of- drawers were of two kinds, having the carcase in oneior two sections respectively. Those of one section had three to five drawers. They were usu- ally four drawers in height, the upper space being occupied by two short drawers instead of one long drawer. The tops were flat and upon them often stood lace boxes, covered with lacquer or inlaid with mar- queterie to match the chest. In other words, the one-' section chest of drawers was a dressirPg cabinet.
When a chest of drawers had two sections, the upper was slightly smaller than the lower and the divi- sion between the two was marked by a bold moulding. The upper section usually had a straight top, fiiiished with a cornice and either a projecting ovolo (Fig. 4, ^) or a flat frieze. Sometimes the top was single hooded or the hood was shaped into a broken pediment. Chests of this' sort were known as "tallboys" and were near akin to highboys. On both one- and two-section chests the feet were either straight bracket (Fig. 4, F) or bun
» :5
ft- :
3 ■
Z
3 =
w -
WILLIAM AND MARY 83
(Fig. 4, 0, and Key III ; 1, 2 and 3) . The drawers were either separated and edged by broad half-round mould- ings on the stiles and rails of the carcase or else the stile and rail surfaces were flat and the drawer fronts flush with them. All the usual decorative processes were lavishly used on both sorts of chests of drawers.
Another variety of the two-piece chest of drawers had a lower section consisting of a very low stand (Key I, 5) on legs of spiral-turned, cup-turned or, very late in the period, cabriole pattern, the cabriole having an angle on the outer curve and a "ring" (Fig. 4, E) or collar (Fig. 4, E) of moulding below the knee. The stands with cabriole legs had no stretchers. These low stands sometimes had one long or two (Key I, 5) short shallow drawers. This latter variety of two-section chest of drawers was even closer to the highboy than the former, but was too low and squat to be so classified. These low two-section chests and the one-section chests were further marked by lack of prominent mouldings or projection at the top.
Low chests with lifting lids continued to be used.
HIGHBOYS AKD LOWBOYS
As a well-defined type of furniture the highboy dates from this period and continued to be made in England during the first quarter of the eighteenth century. In America it remained in popular favcSur much longer and was made in great numbers till the end of the eighteenth century. The name "highboy" is of com- paratively late American origin, and is little known in England, where the article so yclept is not so plentiful as in the States.
Highboys consist of two parts, a chest of drawers
84 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
and a stand with five or six legs, one, two or three drawers and a shaped skirt or apron (Key III, 3). In height William and Mary highboys ranged from four to six feet, or even more. The upper or chest por- tion was usually four drawers in height, the upper drawer space divided between two or three drawers. Bails and stiles of framework sometimes had half-
«i»
^
^
"^^
«>
^
*
Fig. 5. Unusual Type of Highboy in One Piece, Siiowing strong Dutch Influence.
By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
round moulding or double bead moulding making sur- rounds for the drawers, sometimes they were flat. The tops were generally straight, the cornice being some- times with and sometimes without a frieze. In the latter case the frieze was often of the projecting ovolo, torus or cushion type (Fig. 4:, A), and held a concealed drawer. Towards the latter part of the seventeenth century the tops were occasionally hooded, even triple hooded examples occurring.
The lower portion or stand was similar to a table
WILLIAM AND MARY 85
and had either five or six legs, three or four in front and two at the back, joined by shaped flat stretchers (Fig. 7), concave, serpentine or ogeed. Feet were of bun (Figs. 5 and 7) or inverted-cup (Fig. 4, B) shape. The legs were turned in spiral (Fig. 4, M), octagonal (Fig. 5), spindle (Fig. 4, 0), trumpet or inverted-cup (Key III, 3) fashion. The apron or skirt between the legs was cut into a simple arch (Key III, 1), or an ogee (Key III, 3), or a combination of cyma curve and arch and the edge was often relieved by a narrow bead moulding formed from a narrow strip of wood facing the cut. Above this shaped apron the base contained sometimes one, sometimes three drawers (Key III, 3). The usual arrangement was two deep drawers on either side and a shallow one in the centre. Towards the end of the century highboys were sometimes made with four cabriole legs (Fig. 4, E) without stretchers, sup- porting the base instead of the usual six straight turned legs.
Lowboys were small dressing tables similar to the bases of highboys. Occasionally they had five or six legs, but more usually four. Aprons were shaped as in the bases of highboys but the place of the two middle front legs was supplied by acorn pendants (Key III, 1). Drawers were arranged as in highboy stands. The flat serpentine stretchers were generally placed X- or saltire-wise (Key III, 1) with a ball or vase finial at the junction (Fig. 4, D and H).
CABINETS
Cabinets were nearly always in two parts, upper and lower. Closely related to the highboy was the cabinet set on a stand, and the fashion for cabinets of
86 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITUKJiJ
this sort seems to have been of Italian origin. The tops were usually straight and there was often a bold ovolo. frieze immediately below the cornice. The front, com- posed o,f two doors (Plates V, p. 82, and VII, p. 90), being opened, disclosed tiers of drawers, sometimes' built about a small central cupboard and sometime^; there were also pigeon-hole recesses. *Some of the cabi-. nets were without doors in front and displayed all the small drawers. When the cabinets were "oyster" ve- neered (Plate V, p. 82), inlaid with marqueterie' or lacquered, both the outer and inner sides of the doors were decorated, as were also the fronts of the iimer
PiQ. 6. Characteristic Double Hood of William and Mary Period.
drawers and cupboard. The division between the cabit nets and stands was clearly defined by mouldings and cornice, and the stands were much like tables, with or without drawers in the underframing, and had five or six legs, which were spiral-turned, C-scroUed (Fig. 4, Q), baluster- (Fig. 4, N), spindle- (Fig. 4, P), or cup- turned, flat stretchers concaved, shaped or ogeed and bun, block or inverted-cup feet.
Another form of cabinet, sometimes called a press cabinet, had drawers in the lower part and was virtu- ally a cabinet set on a low chest of drawers. Cabinets of this sort usually had a straight top but were also found with double hooded tops (Fig. 6), the corners and centre occasionally being adorned with vase-shaped finials (Key IV, 2). These cabinets generally stood on
WILLIAM AND MARY OYSTERED AND INLAID CABINET ON .STAND
WITH "TRUMPET TURNED" LEGS
By Courtesy of Messrs. Cooper & Griffith, New York City
PLATE VI
WILLIAM AND MARY 87
bun or straight bracket feet (Fig, 4, B, K, L, 8, and T) . A variation of this form of cabinet had doors in the lower portion as well as in the upper.
The most elaborate lacquered cabinets, as in the Carolean period, had straight tops, without cornice or mouldings, intricately chased and fretted brass mounts and were usually set upon ornately carved and gilt stands, not at all like the plainer table stands of other cabinets.
Cabinets meant for the display of china had glass paned doors (Key III, 2), straight or hooded tops and were set on lower and shorter legged stands which, how- ever, resembled the supports of other cabinets and highboys. All the forms of cabinets except the last, which was plain for obvious reasons, were frequently covered with elaborate decoration.
BUREAU CABINETS AND SECRETAEIEB OR DESKS
Writing furniture of this period was varied in char- acter. It may be classified under five types. First, there was the writing cabinet with drawers below, standing on bun or straight bracket feet. The whole front of the upper portion was a single falling flap, hinged at the bottom and showing, when open, drawers and pigeon-holes. The top was sometimes single hooded, sometimes straight with an ovolo frieze below the cornice (Plate HI, p. 72) .
The second type was practically the secretary or bureau-bookcase, having drawers in the lower part sur- mounted by a slant-top desk, hinged at the bottom of the flap. The upper cabinet portion, which showed a tendency to become higher towards the end of the cen- tury to suit the greater height of the rooms, generally
88 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FUKJNliUJttiL
had a double hooded top, sometimes with and some- times without vase-shaped finials at the comers and centre (Key IV, 2). The two doors had either mir- ror or wood panels with cyma and semi-circle heads as in Plate IX, p. 112. Above the slant top there were usually sliding candle brackets and there were sliding
supports for the lid when open. This type of desk or secretary really belongs to the transition between the William and Mary and Queen Anne periods and continued to be made, usually with the modification of a straight top, till about 1730.
A third type was the narrow slant top desk on cup- turned legs with flat-shaped stretchers and bun feet like the piece shown in Fig. 7. Sometimes it was Sur- mounted with a tall double- hooded cabinet with finial ornaments.
The fourth sort was the knee-hole secretary with a recess in the middle to make room for the knees of the writer. At the sides were tiers of drawers. The desk part either opened straight or with a slant flap, and there was usually no superstructure. Short cup- turned legs, shaped flat stretchers and bun feet were used or else straight bracket feet.
The fifth kind was the gate-legged desk' having a slant flap opening on hinges at the bottom, six spindle-
Fia. 7. Small Secretary with Typical Inverted Cup Legs and Shaped Flat Stretchers.
By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
WILLIAM AND MARY 89
turned legs braced by serpentine flat stretchers at their shoulders and flat-shaped stretchers just above the feet. The two central legs swung out like the legs of a gate table to support the flap when the desk was opened. All the usual decorative processes were applied to sec- retaries and bureau-cabinets or bookcases.
CUPBOAEDS
In this period the cupboards of earlier days were largely superseded by chests of drawers, cabinets and highboys. For the accommodation of china, the col- lecting of which had become fashionable, a piece of furniture was devised, for the description of which see "Cabinets" and Key III, 2. The three-cornered cup- board also made its appearance at the end of the period, having straight or broken pediment top, one or two doors above and one or two below, with occasionally a drawer between. Cupboards on six-legged stands are sometimes met with.
BUFFETS OR DRESSERS
Sideboards were not, as yet, but their place was taken by the dressers, "Welsh dressers as some call them, and by the buffets and court cupboards in use during the preceding period. Some of the dressers were sup- ported on legs, in others the substructure, enclosed by doors with characteristic ogeed panels, rested on the floor. The upper portion was open, mth shallow shelves for platters and plate. Towards the end of the century small walnut side tables with wooden or marble tops and four, five or six straight legs of char- acteristic shape (see "Highboys.") came into use.
MIRRORS
The more elaborate mirror frames found in Eng- land were carved by Gf^rinling Gibbon, Cibber or their
90 PEACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD J^UKJNiiujttiL
imitators. Pine or lime woods were generally used for this purpose. The plainer frames were of walnut, or sometimes of olive or ebony and were occasionally deco- rated with marqueterie in both England and America. They were small and square or rectangular and were composed of a broad ovolo band with smaller mould- ings at the inner and outer edges. The top was usually adorned with the hooded motif formed of a semi-circle or a semi-circle rising from quarter circles, and there was often an additional embellishment of foliated fret- work. The glass was ordinarily bevelled. Besides these there were small swivelled mirrors supported be- tween uprights rising from little stands with drawers which were placed on top of dressing chests. The tops of these small mirrors were often shaped like the panel heads of cabinet doors (Plate IX, p. 112). At this time mirrors were used for decorative purposes in the panels of cabinet and secretary doors.
CLOCKS
Both tall-case and bracket clocks were found in this period and were usually subjects for rather elaborate ornamentation. Marqueterie, oystering and lacquer were freely used in their decorations, particularly the tall-case clocks, many of which had a circular hole in the middle of the door filled with either clear glass or a bull's-eye. The tops frequently had the hooded or arched form. The dials were generally of engraved or chased brass,
MATERIALS
■'"Walnut. Walnut was such a favourite wood for furniture and so extensively used during this period that it is usually termed the beginning of the "age of
WILLIAM AND MARY 91
walnut." It was used as a groundwork and also as a veneer on a ground of oak or even a soft wood. Although small tables and chairs were occasionally made of walnut before this time, oak was used almost altogether for cabinet work down to the very end of the Jacobean period, except in rare cases where walnut was imported.
Oak. Notwithstanding the great vogue of walnut, oak was still considerably used by itself for cabinet work, particularly in country districts, or as a base or groundwork for the application of veneer or mar- queterie of other woods. It was also employed for panelling or wainscotting.
Deal,. Deal was used for panelling and also for heavy carving, such as cabinet stands, where the sur- face was to be gilt.
Pine, Peak- wood. Lime- wood and Cedab. These and several other soft woods were much used for elaborate carving that could ill be wrought in the harder woods, which were, of course, more difficult for the carver to manage. The surface was usually either gilt or painted.
Olive-wood and Ebony were used for small mirror frames.
Veneeb "Woods. Sycamore, laburnum, apple-wood, holly, box and many others were in constant use for in- lay and marqueterie.
Upholsteby Stuffs. From the very beginning of the period onward, upholstery for chairs, settees and stools commanded more and more attention. Backs, arms and oftentimes the seat framing were uphol- stered with a fixed covering, while movable or "squab" cushions, covered with the same goods, were placed on the seats. A settee usually had two squabs side by side.
92 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
Squabs were even put on oak settles that were ar- ranged with a cord and sacking bottom to receive them. Most stools and many chairs and settees had the seats upholstered with a fixed covering instead of squabs. The settlement of Huguenot textile weavers in England during the reign of Charles II, and the steady produc- tion of their fascinating fabrics bred a desire for more upholstered furniture where the gorgeous brocades and velvets might appear to advantage. The fashion ob- tained favour and reached its height in the ensuing periods with which we are now concerned. Gray col- oured damasks, brocades and velvets were the stuffs chiefly used. Instead of the heavy fringes of Carolean days the favourite trinuning consisted of wide galons of gold, silver or coloured braid. The same rich mate- rials were used for bed hangings. Another highly prized covering for settees and large arm chairs was made of the elaborate needlework done in "tent stitch" or petit pomt by the ladies in emulation of the example set them by Queen Mary. Less expensive stuff, such as figured chintz, also afforded material for upholstery, hangings and curtains.
DECORATIVE PROCESSES
The usual decorative processes in the William and Mary period were turning, carving, painting, gilding, veneering, marqueterie and lacquering or Japanning, as it was frequently styled.
Turning. The practise of turning appreciably in- creased during this period, while that of carving on flat surfaces declined.
Cabving. Carving in the round was considerably practised and, though Grinling Gibbon carved no fur-
WILLIAM AND MARY 93
niture other than mirror frames, his school of followers executed much admirable and elaborate work.
Painting. Paint, in conjunction with gilding, was chiefly used on the legs and stretchers of chairs, settees and stools, either to match or contrast with the vivid colours of the upholstery. Framework was often painted black and parcel gilt to harmonise with lac- quered furniture. A few examples occur of simple painted floral decoration.
Gilding, Ornate carvings in the round, such as console tables and stands for lacquered cabinets, were often wholly gilt, while painted legs and stretchers and sometimes whole chairs were parcel gilt.
Veneeb. Veneer of walnut, either plain or oystered, and sometimes of other woods, was com- monly set on a ground of oak or deal.
Maequetekie. One of the most popular decorative processes of this period was marqueterie, at times al- most rivalling the fabrics in richness of effect. The marqueterie of the William and Mary period was cut out of thin layers with a saw and set in a surrounding surface of veneer of the same thickness, both veneer and marqueterie patterns being glued to the ground work or backing. This process showed an advance in dexterity over the marqueterie methods of the Stuart period, when the pieces forming the design were set in cavities gouged out of the surface to be decorated, a performance very much like filling teeth. In order to secure flat surfaces for marqueterie embellishment the contour of furniture was held in far greater restraint than formerly.
Lacquer. In the last fifteen years of the seven- teenth century the passion for lacquer ware was so gen-
94 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
eral that it was made not only by regular craftsmen but by amateurs as a pleasant diversion. The English lacquer has not the smooth, brilliant adamantine sur- face of the Oriental lacquer, nor has the English gold the same metallic lustre,
TYPES OF DECORATION
William and Mary types of decoration were much less complex than those of the Stuart period, though quite as effective.
TuENiNG displayed the open twist or spiral, baluster and spindle forms, the details shown in Figure 4, and variations of them. Bun feet of several varieties must not be forgotten.
Cakving in relief of this period contains a great many examples of the favourite Dutch cockle or escallop shell and occasionally specimens of acanthus, pendent husks and similar motifs are met with. Flemish scrolls and Spanish scroll feet are frequent. In the round carving we find flowers, fruit, terminal figures, heads and laurel swags. These, of course, occur on highly ornate and gilded stands and consoles.
Maeqtjetebib patterns were mainly floral, although birds, animals, and even human figures sometimes oc- curred. During this period the acanthus pattern grad- ually superseded the flowers and towards the latter part gave way itself to the intricate seaweed design, which often occurred on the drawer fronts of chests and cabinets in two oblong panels with curved ends.
Lacqtjee evidenced an unmistakable western touch in the imitations of Oriental drawing. Conventional borders and diapers were also used. The ordinary
WILLIAM AND MARY
95
ground colours were black, red, green and blue. The figures of course were in gold.
Apeons or plain stretcher underframings were shaped on the lower edge with the oft-recurring ogee or modifications of its curves.
STRUCTURE
Structure of cabinet work was straightforward and simple. There were no recessed or shaped fronts to complicate the joinery. Chair and table legs were firmly braced with stretchers. In some of the chairs the cresting was tenoned between the uprights which terminated in finials. Others, not as strong construc- tionally, had the cresting dowelled on to the tops of the uprights. In some chairs front legs are mortised to the seat rail, in others their tops are merely set into sockets in the seat framing.
MOUNTS
Knobs, pear-drop handles and drops of slightly dif- ferent pattern, bails with plates plain or chased are
Fia. 8. Characteristic Metal Mounts of WiUiam and Mary Period.
the forms chiefly met with. Escutcheons and key-plates with cherubs' heads and also other elaborations are
96 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
found on some of the cabinet work. On lacquer cab- inets it was usual to have ornate chased and perforated hinges and key-plates.
FINISH
Furniture of the "William and Mary period was fre- quently finished with oil and wax as in the Stuart pe- riod. This was especially true of the plainer walnut furniture. Much of the marqueterie furniture was finished by an application of white gum shellac dis- solved in alcohol. This dressing was applied with a brush in thin coats and without a previous application of oil to the surface of the wood. After the necessary number of varnish coats had been given, a final polish was effected by rubbing with the mixture of beeswax and turpentine. This finish unfortunately rendered the wood liable to attacks by worms, which were attracted by the shellac. Walnut furniture that has never been treated with this finish or with any sort of varnish is much freer from the ravages of worms than furniture that has been polished with anything else than wax.
CHAPTER IV
QUEEN ANNE AND EAKLY GEORGIAN 1702-1750
Anne 1702-1714
Geokge I 1714^1727
Geobge II 1727-1760
THE period now to be treated is a long one but definite in its characteristics and easily grasped. The reigns of Queen Anne's two immediate successors are naturally and sensibly best treated with here for the reason that during a large portion of the early Georgian epoch the forms of fur- niture experienced little change and the process of mobiliary evolution was to be detected in ornamenta- tion rather than in contour.
As we foUow the history of furniture according to chronological sequence, the reign of Queen Anne seems always to have a sturdy, wide-awake character about it. "We feel that modern England has indeed begun when we reach that point. The last vestige of romantic mediaevalism vanished when James II, sung out of Ire- land to the infectious tune of "Lilliburlero buUen aUah ! ' ' fled across the Channel to France and left the way to the throne open to his little Dutch kinsman and rival. With the advent of the Stadtholder and his ami- able consort, to whose apron strings, however, her positive spouse declined point blank to be attached, although she had far more right to the throne than he, new forces began to work and a period of transition set in.
7 97
98 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
By the time of Anne's accession tlie new modern spirit had had a chance to grow and assert itself. One of the ways in which it did assert itself was in the evident desire and determination in all quarters to im- prove conditions of domestic comfort. The amenities of household equipment were more heeded and, further- more, the spirit of improvement was more widely dif- fused than ever before. It was not only in the houses of the very wealthy that a general betterment was noticeable but in the dwellings of those in less affluent case the change could be discerned as well. This in- crease in the demand for creature comforts and con- veniences, for finer houses and more furniture, meant, of course, that chair and cabinet makers throve apace.
Queen Anne furniture has certain clearly defined characteristics of form that enable one to distinguish it at once from antecedent types. In the chapter im- mediately preceding were rehearsed the peculiarly distinctive traits of William and Mary furniture. While there was the usual overlapping of styles we can say, however, with perfect assurance, that the forms we consider as typical of the William and Mary epoch were wholly discontinued in the early years of the eighteenth century and that the distinctively Queen Anne type developed and flourished for a long period of years, so that the furniture affinities of Queen Anne 's day belong rather with those of her successors' reigns than with those of her predecessors' — Whence the divi- sion adopted at the head of this chapter.
The typical forms of Queen Anne furniture are shown in the Chronological Key and the illustrations to this chapter, and are carefully described under the individual pieces. (During her own reign the surfaces
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 99
were for the most part plain, ornamentation being largely confined to the familiar and favourite shell (Fig. 1).
For the thirty or thirty-five years succeeding the death of Queen Anne, furniture exhibited no radical change in form but rather, as stated before, an elabo- ration of patterns, already well recognised, together with certain gradual minor developments in divers channels.
Mr. Herbert Cescinsky, in his admirable work, English, Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, has sug-
Fia. 1. Typical Chair Legs, Queen Anne Period.
gested a very lucid and comprehensive classification for the decorative types evolved during this era which we cannot do better than quote at this point. He says : "In dealing with the furniture of the years from 1714 to 1745, that is, from the accession of George the First to the middle of the reign of George the Second, it is inevitable that some system of classification is required. It is possible either to arrange examples in the order of their date, or to adopt the five-fold division of deco- rated Queen Anne furniture, carved with lion-heads, satyr-masques, or cabochon-and-leaf ornament and ar-
100 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
cMtects ' furniture. The latter system is the more ad- visable, as although examples of the five' classes neces- sarily exhibit, in their details, a tendency to overlap, the former would result in a mere jumble of specimens of every conceivable design and form, without any con- structional or evolutionary relation whatever,"
These fashions, for the sake of convenience, he roughly summarises as follows: Decorated Queen Anne, 1714 to 1725; the "lion period," 1720 to 1735; the "satyr-masque period," 1730 to 1740; the "cabo- chon-and-leaf period," 1735 to the rise of Chippendale to recognition as "almost the sole arbiter of the furni- ture fashions of England. ' ' The ' ' architects ' furniture period" is concurrent with all the four first mentioned.
The distinguishing characteristic of the decorated Queen Anne style is greater elaboration of carving than was formerly the fashion, the chief motifs being more cockle shells, occasionally with pendent husks below them (Key V, 4 and 6), distributed on the knees of chairs, settees and tables and the backs and seat rails of chairs and settees ; vigorously carved claw-and- ball feet (Key V, 4) and boldly executed eagles' heads (Key V, 5) to terminate the arms of chairs and set- tees, the same design occurring also at times in the backs. The "lion period" brought lions' heads on the knees, backs and seat rails of furniture in place of the details mentioned with the foregoing vogue (Fig. 2, A). The feet were oftentimes lions' paws. "Satyr-masque" furniture had grotesque heads where before were lions' heads (Fig. 2, C). The grotesques, in turn, gave way to the "cabochon-and-leaf " motif which Chippen- dale used as an important factor in "the design-basis of his earliest manner" (Fig. 2,B). Georgian "archi-
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 101
tects' furniture" comprised the larger pieces of cabinet work which were usually designed upon more or less architectural lines with pilasters and surmounting pediments (Plate IX, p. 112) . From time to time during this early Georgian era we can discern rudimentary forms cropping out here and there that afterwards crystallised into distinct features under Chippendale's hand.
One of the most significant incidents of the Queen Aime-Early Georgian period was the popularisation of
*5fX^
Fig. 2.
of (,A) Lion, (B) Cabochon, and (C) Satyr-masque, Phases of Early Georgian Furniture.
mahogany for chairs and cabinet work. Its entrance into popular favour from about 1720 onward was rapid. Fuller reference will be made subsequently to the cir- cumstances of its introduction. Suffice it to say here ihat its use produced important modifications in both structure and form of decoration. Furniture patterns, however, that were in fashion prior to 1720 do not seem to have changed materially because of the prevalence of the new wood, except that they became lighter and more graceful, and we also find far greater elaboration of carving, to which mahogany lent itself particularly
102 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
well. The time, barren of any striking originality, saw the craftsman bending his energies to the refinement and embellishment of accepted forms rather than the designing of new ones. Barring a few variations in chair back types, the most they apparently did in the
Fig. 3. Highly Carved and Gilt Leg.
way of invention was to devise or borrow, new Retails of decoration to meet the constant demand of their patrons for a measure of novelty.
ARTICLES
A catalogue of the articles of usual occurrence em- braces chairs, stools, settles, settees or sofas, day-beds, bedsteads, tables, chests and chests of drawers, high- boys and lowboys, cabinets, secretaries or bureau-cab- inets, bookcases, cupboards, buffets or dressers, mir- rors, gueridons or pedestals and clocks. There were also sundry minor pieces which it is not necessary to catalogue.
CONTOUR
A study of the contour of furniture in the Queen Anne-Early Greorgian period shows, in the first place,
\
QUEEN ANNE BLACK AND GOLD LACQUERED CORNER
CUPBOARD
By Courtesy of Mr. Richard W. Lehne, Philadelphia
PLATE VIII
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 103
the discontinuance of certain types that had enjoyed high favour in the days of William and Mary. To begin with, the perpendicular legs of chairs, settees, stools, tables and highboys with the inverted-cup- turn- ings, shaped stretchers and bun feet, went quite out of fashion, being superseded by legs of cabriole form (Fig. 1). Backs of chairs, especially the backs of upholstered chairs, which had hitherto risen to a great height, were made lower, as were also the backs of set- tees. Cornices about the tops of double chests and cabinets lost their prominent ovolo or torus frieze (Fig. 4, A, Chap. III). The single and double hooded tops of cabinet work did not endure much longer but developed a modification that was occasionally met with till fairly late in the reign — a kind of modified ogee superstructure above the double hood motif. Arched serpentine or ogee cresting of upholstered chair backs also went out of vogue.
In the heads of door panels and in mirror frames, especially, and also in the backs of chairs, the wave or cyma curve, either singly or in combinations, was an important element of form (Plate IX, p. 112). Mr. Lockwood, in the latest edition of his Colonial Furniture in America — a most useful book — ^has succinctly dealt with this detail. He says: "Two cyma curves placed
thus r *( formed the design of the chair backs. A cyma
curve thus ] formed the cabriole leg. Two cyma curves
placed thus _/" "\_ formed the scroll top found on highboys, secretaries and cupboards. When placed
thus .^ — N they formed the familiar outline found
on the skirts of highboys, lowboys and other pieces.
104 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURJNlTURJi
Mouldings, cupboard openings, and the inner edges of mirrors were cut in the same curve."
Although carcase work had hitherto been rectilinear and continued so in the main, we nevertheless find occa- sional examples of kettle front cabinets and low chests of drawers. The swell of their fronts, corners and sides was less sweeping in curve than the later bombe fronts of the Chippendale period and was apt to be broken into several small curves. They were of dis- tinctly Dutch inspiration. Backs of the better sort of chairs were "spooned" or steped to accommodate the back of the occupant (Fig. 4, 5). Backs of other chairs were straight or had a slight rake. Upholstered easy chairs were apt to have shaped wing head-rests and stuffed-over arms flaring outward (Key V, 4). Chairs began to be made without stretchers early in this period. Although the "square-back" chair came in long before that date (Fig. 7, B), the "hoop-back" chair (Fig. 4, A and B) continued to be made till about the middle of the century. )
[ Cabinet work increased in height with the incAas- ing height of ceilings and was frequently surmounted by pediments, unbroken, broken, rounded, swan-neckj or, better still, to invent a term, serpentine or bow, all of them, however, of flatter contour than those oc- curring in later times. (W^ith the increased use of ma- hogany in the latter part of the period, structure tended to become lighter. «
CHAIRS
r The typical Queen Anne chair is a distinct and strongly characteristic piece of furniture not to be confounded with anything else. It is also a singularly
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 105
beautiful and graceful creation and exceedingly com- fortable. It has cabriole legs and a fiddle-splatted, hooped and "spooned" back (Key V, 7 and 10; Fig. 4). The uprights of the back, a few inches above the seat, break at a sharp angle and curve in towards the splat only to swell out again in a graceful, sweeping curve at the top, which goes over in a bow without break of line to the other upright (Fig. 4). Variations there were,
Fia. 4. A, Early Queen Anne Arm Chair; B, Early Queen Anne Side Chair with Stretchers.
of course, but the general type was unmistakable. The earlier chairs had stretchers (Fig. 4, 5) to underbrace them, but these were dispensed with in most cases not long after the beginning of the period. Instead of a stretcher between the front legs there was a recessed stretcher (Fig. 4, B) connecting the two side stretchers, shaped, turned or moulded and either flat or rising. After the early disappearance of the stretcher it did not appear again, except in the cheaper turned furni-
106 PHACTICAL BOOK Uh' TJ^KiUU j^UKiNiiUitiii
ture of farmlioiise type, until CMppendale styles re- vived it. Early Queen Anne cabriole legs sometimes had hoof feet (Fig. 4, 7, Chap. Ill), solid or cloven, and occasionally Spanish scroll feet (Fig. 4, G, Chap. Ill), the latter form occurring especially in early New England chairs of the period, with straight turned legs. The usual form of foot, however, was the "Dutch" or club foot in one of its varieties (Fig. 1); pointed, slipper or round-cloven hoof feet appeared again later when claw and ball and paw feet came into vogue. The
Fig. 5. Typical Shapes of Queen Anne Chair-seats.
web foot (Fig. 8, A) occurs at this time. The common motif of carved decoration for the cabriole knee was the cockle shell, except in the cases noted in the in- troduction to this chapter. Back legs were either quad- rangular or rounded.
Seats varied in shape (Fig. 5) but were usually rounded or had at least rounded corners in front, and sometimes compound curves were introduced, giving the front of the seat a serpentine outline and project- ing the rounded corners like the bastions of a fortress. Seat rails or frames were ordinarily straight, except
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 107
for the carved shell ornament often found in the middle of the front.
Backs also varied in shape but held to the main characteristics of outline till the influence of Chippen- dale and his contemporaries began to be strongly felt. Some of the early hooped backs, though "spooned" in profile^had uprights rising straight from seat to crest- ing without angular or concave break like the side of
FiQ. 6. Back and Leg of Chair typical of Late William and Mary and Early Queen
Anne Epoch.
a fiddle. Then, again, there are instances of two such sharp curving breaks (Fig. 6) in each upright instead of the customary one. We sometimes find double-rail hooped backs (Key V, 5) where the splat terminates in a hooped cresting and above this, quite separate from it, is another hooped top rail connecting with the up- right. In the New England and New York rush-bot- tomed chairs with straight turned legs, Spanish feet and turned stretchers, the pronouncedly Dutch form of back, with the uprights of unbroken line (Fig. 8, j5),
108 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
was usually found. Tlie banister-back, being a vigorous and virile type, persisted for a time.
At different dates the splats displayed variations in form, but an approximation to the fiddle shape was always traceable. Nearly all of the early splats were plain, often covered with veneer of burr walnut. Later, in the decorated period (see Introduction to Chapter)
A B
Fig. 7. A, Pierced Splat-back Arm Chair of Early Georgian Type; B, Square-back Upholstered Chair of Queen Anne-Early Georgian Period.
ornamentation was added, at first on the edges and, last of all, came the pierced splat (Fig. 7, A) in the process of development.
Many of the earliest hoop-back chairs retain a high carved or moulded cresting above the splat, a survival of the high and elaborate cresting of "William and Mary days (Fig. 6). But this cresting soon disappeared and we find in its stead only a simple cockle shell (Key V, 10),. or else a hollowed space suggesting a head rest (Fig. 4,^). _
Wing chairs had a comfortable flare (Key V, 4),
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 109
easy, flowing lines anti cabriole legs, for the most part without stretchers. Some of the upholstered arm chairs with wooden arms had backs that followed the curving contour of side chairs. Arms were shaped and flared (Fig. 4, .1) outward, the supports being broadly chamfered and curved and attached to the sides of the seat frame. In the rush bottomed arm chairs with straight turned legs, the arm support was an extension of the front leg.
Fig. 8. A, Pierced Splat-back Chair; B, American Rush-bottomed Colonial Chair of
Period with Dutch Feeling: C, Windsor Chair of Early Form.
By Courtesy of Mrs. H. Genet Taylor, Camden, N. J.; Col. William J. Youngs, Garden
City, L. I.; and James M. Townseud, Jr., Esq., Mill Neck, L. I.
Another type of chair had a broad square, or ap- proximately square, upholstered seat and a square up- holstered back (Fig. 7, B). The seat rail is covered by the upholstery which comes close down to the tops of the cabriole legs.
It must not be forgotten that the "Windsor chair (Fig. 8, C) came into being during this period and has retained undiminished popularity ever since. The
110 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
earliest forms had either straight plain legs spreading outward or else simple cabriole legs with club feet. Oftentimes a central rudely-pierced splat was intro- duced into the back between the spindles (Fig. 8, C). Fan backs and hoop backs, as we know them, in Windsor chairs mark a later development (Chap XIV, Fig. 5).
The early Georgian or Hogarthian chair (Plate XI, p. 126) is worthy of special notice on account of its slightly different contour and proportions. In all the Hogarthian pieces the curve of the cabriole is much less flowing and all the proportions are seemingly heavier, although a great deal of this feeling is produced by the approximately straightened (Fig. 9) leg and the heavy shoulder of the cabriole. The so-called Hogarthian pieces constitute an interesting episode of design in the Early Georgian period.
The variations from the typical Queen Anne shape that came into evidence in the latter part of the Early Georgian period really foreshadow Chippendale modes and will be dealt with in that chapter. The decorated types of Queen Anne and Early Georgian chairs were substantially the same as the earlier type in contour and the successive phases of ornamentation — eagles' heads, lions, satyr-masques and cabochon-and-leaf — are treated in the introduction to this chapter and in the Section on Types of Decoration.
STOOLS
Stools continued in popular use during Queen Anne's reign. Indeed people were so accustomed to using them that they would have missed them sadly had they suddenly been obliged to do without. There were stools both long and short and they followed the styles
Queen anne and early Georgian in
prevalent in the chairs. The long stools often had "squab" or loose cushions.
Forms and settles, as in the preceding period, con- tinued to be made of oak in the country districts, where they were extensively used and where manners of living did not change as rapidly as in the cities.
SETTEES
The typical Queen Anne settee differed from the William and Mary settee in that it had usually a per- fectly straight slightly arched back, having got rid of the double hoop. As a rule the back was also much lower than the back of the William and Mary settee. The legs were cabrioled. The arms flared outward and were generally rolled over and stuffed. Sometimes they were carried up at the back to form wings. The next step in the progress of the settee was to have carved arms padded with upholstery for elbow rests. Then came carved and shaped arms without pads, and a back following the general contour of the hooped chairs. Last of all came the double chair back settee without upholstery, save on the seat, which followed the lines of chairs, and was in reality simply two chairs made into one (Key V, 6).
DAY-BEDS
Day-beds continued in popular use during the Queen Anne period and were made upon graceful lines similar to the chairs and settees. They usually had three or four cabriole legs to a side and rolled over or cabriole shaped head rests.
BEDSTEADS
The bedsteads of Queen Anne's day and of all the early part of the period called by her name had tall slender, round, square or octagonal posts that bore
112 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
aloft a high tester. It was usually the case that posts, tester, headboard and base were all upholstered or strained with some sort of fine goods, velvet or the like, and showed little or none of the woodwork, just as in the preceding period. Bedsteads of the early Queen Anne period are so rare that it has often been asked what the people slept in. As a matter of fact, the humbler classes . seem to have slept very largely in truckle beds, the yeomanry and lesser gentry in the old beds of a former day and only the wealthy indulged in the extravagance of these magnifical upholstered creations.
In early Georgian times it became again the fashion to carve bedposts (Plate X, p. 120), and we find the usual forms of ornamentation employed around the lower part and foot, the upper part being merely rounded or fluted. In the simpler bedsteads, the lower part of the posts was often plainly squared with block feet. Sometimes there were low headboards and some- times not. Posts still towered to a great height. The back posts were almost always plain, while the front posts had more care bestowed on them. This was be- cause the back posts were then wholly concealed by the curtains. Occasionally ornate testers are found, but more often only the tester frame, which was wholly covered by valances and hangings. The surest indica- tions of age in bedposts, so far as contour is concerned, are great height and slenderness.
TABLES
Queen Anne's day was a time of small tables or tables to be used at the side of a room. In the more pretentious houses we have the gorgeously carved and
i Si!
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M 2 O
D
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 113
gilt structures with marble tops, but they were not articles of common use. Gate tables, of course, con- tinued to enjoy great popularity and were always made in considerable numbers to supply a constant demand. The tables of most general utility that seem to have been used for dining tables, when gate tables were not used, were the cabriole-legged, drop-leaf (Fig. 10) tables with club feet or claw and ball feet and ogeed aprons at the ends. They were ordinarily four or five feet long and when the leaves were extended and the
Knee Omamenf
Fig. 9. Small Table of Hogarthian Lines. By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
legs, one at each end, pulled out to support them, six or eight people could be accommodated very comfortably. From about 1715 onward they were in common use for dining purposes. There were also larger tables made on the same principle with more legs for extension.
Tea tables of oblong shape had slender cabriole legs and occasionally had a raised rim, while others had the edges shaped with the accustomed ogee, cyma-curve and semi-circle forms. The underframing was shaped in the same way. Card tables with turn-over hinged tops made their appearance. The corners were
8
114 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
" dished" to hold candlesticks and there were four shallow oval wells for coins or chips. In some cases the corners were blocked or rounded where the legs joined the underframing. There were also circular tripod tables later in the period. Small bedside tables or work tables with shallow drawers were found, and some of the "turned" tables with straight legs continued to be made.
Fig. 10. Walnut Cabriole-Iegged, Drop-leaf Table, commonly used aa a Dining Table. In the Possession of H. D. Eberlein, Esq.
Many of the sideboard and console tables with marble tops were very sumptuous affairs with ornately carved and gilt bases in which sphinxes, eagles, grif- fins, human figures, animals, flowers and conventional rococo ornament played a part.
CHESTS OF DRAWERS AND CHESTS
Chests of drawers continued to be made in two sec- tions but the most usual form had but one section and was low enough to use conveniently as a dressing stand. They had usually three to five drawers. The chests in
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 115
two sections, though still made with the upper portion slightly smaller than the lower, were practically dis- placed in popular esteem by the highboy, which was a far more graceful article of furniture. These double chests of drawers, "tallboys" or chests on chests often had the corners and bracket feet chamfered and the
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FiQ. 11. High Double Chest, with chamfered and fluted pilaster corners and straight
bracket feet.
chamfered edge delicately fluted. When the corners were not chamfered they were frequently adorned with fluted pilasters and carved capitals or, in later pieces, with narrow fretted panels. The tops were sometimes straight, sometimes surmounted with rounded broken pediments formed from a hooded cornice centred in a
116 PEACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
graceful vase finial, with finials at corners to matcli, or with pediments of other character in use at the pe- riod (Fig. 15 ; Plate IX, p. 112) . The edges of drawers, instead of being flush with the stiles and rails, frer quently overlapped slightly and no half round mould- ings or beads were used in such cases. The lower part of these chests usually had three drawers and the upper four, the topmost space being divided for two or three small drawers. The ordinary low chests with a- lifting lid (Fig. 12) were in constant use, but were not made to
Fig. 12. Queen Anne Low Chest with Drawers. By Courtesy of Mr. A. F. C. Bateman, Philadelphia.
any great extent after about 1740. Some of these low chests in the Colonies had movable bases and were meant to be carried on the backs of sumpter mules and horses. Such chests were also made to be set one on top of another. These low chests, particularly in America, were apt to have a till and a secret drawer inside at one end and some of them had one or two drawers at the bottom. For both chests of drawers and chests straight bracket feet were customarily used, although occasionally bun feet are found, as well as chamfered bracket feet.
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 117 HIGHBOYS AND LOWBOYS
The age of Queen Anne is essentially an age of graceful highboys and lowboys (Key IV, 1 and 3). Fortunately they were made in great number and a goodly percentage has come down uninjured to our own day. They have four well proportioned cabriole legs and the highboys are made, usually, in two sections with either a straight top or a broken, scrolled or swan- neck pediment to finish them (Fig. 15). Segmental tops, also, are found but are not as common as the
Fia. 13. Lowboy with Shaped Apron and Pointed Club Feet. By Courtesy of Col. William J. Youngs, Esq., Garden City, L. I.
others. The upper part is detachable from the lower, so that the lower half may really be used as a lowboy (Fig. 13). Both sections have drawers and usually are ornamented with a cockle shell or sun ray motif on one of the middle drawers or some modification of the cockle shell. Of course lowboys were made separately and used as dressing tables, but what is said of the lower part of highboys applies equally to lowboys. In one type of highboy the lower section had two long drawers or the equivalent in smaller drawers. The apron was
118 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
comparatively straight and only relieved by some pen- dant-like shape with small cyma curves (Fig. 13). The other type had one deep drawer or two shallow drawers at each side with a shallow drawer in the centre and the apron was much more shaped and ogeed with cyma
Fig. 14. Typical Outline of Shaped Queen Anne Apron.
curves (Key IV, 3). Sometimes the straight topped highboys were surmounted by a pyramid of graduated steps for the display of bric-a-brac.
CABINETS
During much of the period elaborately carved and gilt stands (Fig. 3) continued to be made for lacquer cabinets. Also high stands of simple lines, not gilt, were considerably used for the same purpose. Besides these there were cabinets with chests of drawers in the lower part and the upper part closed, with two doors which, being opened, revealed tiers of small drawers for curios. Some of the cabinets had glass doors and shelves for rare china. The tops were straight, as a rule, and the contour was generally the same as that of high double chests. Lastly, there were cabinets with drawers below, either straight or kettle-fronted, double glass doors above and shelves for the display of china and shaped tops. They belonged early in the period.
BOOKCASES
The age of Queen Anne was not a period of numer- ous books in the average house, but in the latter part
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 119
of the Early Georgian era bookcases were made to some extent independently of the secretary or bureau book- cases. They ordinarily had two panelled doors in the lower part and glass doors above. In details of struc- ture and ornamentation they followed the other large cabinet work of the period.
SECRETARIES OR BUREAU BOOKCASES
There was considerable variety in the writing fur- niture of the period. First of all, there was the bureau bookcase (Plate IX, p. 112, and Key IV, 2), almost iden- tical with the type found at the end of the preceding period. This was slightly varied by the form with straight or scrolled broken pediment tops and rectan- gular panelled doors, and occasionally the addition of fluted pilasters at the corners (Fig. 11). Still a third variety had the slant-top desk portion supported on cabriole legs with the upper bookcase or cabinet super- structure like those in the preceding types. There were also slant-top desks with drawers below but without a cabinet section above and slant-top desks (small) sup- ported on cabriole legs. A slightly later form had slant top, three drawers below and short cabriole legs (Key V, 9). Towards the end of the period there were writ- ing or library tables with tiers of drawers at each side extending to the floor and the central part open for the legs of the sitter.
CUPBOARDS
Cupboards, three-cornered (Plate VIII, p. 102) and straight, were favourite pieces of furniture and received much attention in the way of ornamentation. There
120 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
were also hanging corner cupboards. In comer cup- boards the doors were sometimes circular fronted, so that the whole piece of furniture filled a quarter circle (Plate IX, p. 112). Tops of cupboards of all varieties were both straight and shaped (see Fig. 15) . Plate IX, p. 112, shows a good example of what was known as "architects' furniture," large pieces designed with a distinctly architectural feeling. This tendency to ar- chitectural detail was noticeable in much of the large cabinet work. Broken and scroll pediments as well as
Fia. 15. Typical Forms of Interrupted Hoods or Broken Curved Pediments.
straight pediments also occur (Fig. 15). A division is ordinarily made between the upper and lower sec- tions, the lower having a door or doors with a drawer above and the upper having only a door or doors of taller dimension. The upper portion was often glazed with square panes.
BUFFETS AND DRESSERS
Long buffets or dressers were made with the char- acteristic cabriole legs, club feet and shaped aprons They were made both without and with an upper part contammg open shallow shelves for platters and plate
E.UiLY GEORGIAN .MAHOGANY BEDSTEAD
By Courtesy of Richard A Canfield, Esq., New York City
PLATE X
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 121
(see Fig. 16), and the lower part contained drawers. They were not infrequently of oak banded with king-
Fia. 16. Dresser of Typical Queen Anne Form. By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
wood or rosewood. Sideboard tables (see Tables) with marble tops were largely used in dining-rooms.
MIRRORS
The shape of the typical Queen Anne mirror is that illustrated in Figure 17. Both large and small had broad ovolo moulded frames shaped with the double cyma motif at the top. In the tall mirrors the glass was usually in two sections and bevelled, the upper piece overlapping the lower without wooden moulding to mark the boundary. Mirrors of this shape were often highly carved and gilt. Small mirrors of much this
122 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
same shape were supported between uprights on little stands of drawers that were set on tops of dressing tables or single chests of drawers. Another type of mirror was slightly later and showed distinct traces of architectural feeling, being surmounted with a pedi- ment, broken or unbroken, having "dog-ear" trims at
Fia. 17. Mirror in Blark Frame with Gilt Lines. Brought to Philadelpliia in 1711. By Courtesy of Misa Susan Matlack Carpenter, Camden, N. J.
the upper outside corners and displaying much gilded ornament along with the well chosen walnut. This type was really Early Georgian rather than Queen Anne.
GUERIDONS OR PEDESTALS
These pieces of furniture for holding candelabra were found in the houses of the wealthy and were elab- orately carved and gilt, but occasionally examples are
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 123
found of plain wood and usually in forms suggesting survivals of type from the preceding period.
CLOCKS
The tall-case clocks and bracket clocks of the Queen Anne period at the beginning closely resembled those of the former reign. Brass dials were still in general use. Tops were straight, rectangular, ogival domed with brass ball or vase ornaments at summit and front corners, or single arched like the old William and Mary hood.
MATERIALS
Walnut. The wood of chief importance in this period is walnut, used both solid and as a veneer. The native English walnut of Queen Anne days is some- what lighter in colour than the imported walnut, exten- sively used in earlier times, a good deal of which came from Holland and France. There was a plentiful sup- ply of excellent walnut in America, especially in Penn- sylvania, and it was used here from the first.
Oak. Notwithstanding the overwhelming popu- larity of walnut, oak was still used to some degree by chair and cabinet makers, particularly in rural districts in England. It was not used to any considerable extent in America.
Mahogany. Although Sir Walter Ealeigh is cred- ited with the introduction of mahogany into England, it was very rarely and sparingly employed in English furniture making till the early part of the eighteenth century. From about 1720 onward it was extensively used, though it did not wholly supersede walnut in public favour till many years afterward. Its use be- gan in the American Colonies about the same time or
124 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
perhaps slightly earlier. We have records of some Philadelphia mahogany furniture that was made a few years prior to the foregoing date. There is at least one well authenticated piece of mahogany in the State of New York, the gate dining table in the Van Cortlandt Manor House at Croton-on-Hudson, that was brought here from Holland in 1638. Doubtless there are other pieces of Dutch origin in America dating from approxi- mately the same time.
Pine, Limb and Chestnut. These woods were used for elaborate carving that was to be covered with gilt. They were also used as groundwork to be veneered and lacquered in the same way as oak.
Peae, Beech, Elm and Yew. These woods were used in much the same way as pine and were largely em- ployed by country joiners.
Makquetebie Woods. Various woods such as those enumerated in previous chapters were used for mar- queterie and inlays.
Upholsteey. Damasks, brocades, velvets and needlework in "petit-point" were used as furniture coverings for the more expensive and elegant articles. Chintz was used for less pretentious requirements.
Maeble. Marble was employed for the tops of heavy gilt console or sideboard tables.
DECORATIVE PROCESSES
As in the preceding reign, the decorative processes embraced turning, carving, painting, gilding, veneering, marqueterie, inlay and lacquering.
TuENiNG. The turning of the Queen Anne-Early Georgian period, though not obtrusively ornate, was thoroughly well done, as a look at chair and table legs and stretchers will show.
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 125
Carving. Beyond the favourite cockle or escallop shell and the slight embellishment of knees, ear-pieces, and feet, carving was not largely practised on chairs, tables and general cabinet work of the early years of this period. Mirror frames, however, and the elabo- rately carved and gilt console and sideboard tables con- stituted a conspicuous exception. During the latter part of the period, beginning with the "Decorated Queen Anne" epoch, which came in about 1714, elab- orate carving is found on chairs and tables and occa- sionally on cabinet work. It is notable for its bold and vigorous execution. Until the "cabochon-and-leaf" epoch, the carving is apt to be in strong relief.
Painting. Furniture was sometimes painted white or perhaps another colour and parcel gilt. Large pieces of architectural furniture so treated were often very effective.
Gilding. Gilding was applied as a coating to wood elaborately carved and carefully prepared. It was also used to pick out and embellish portions of carving or turning on walnut and mahogany furniture (Key V, 4) .
Veneeeing. Veneering was used for its rich, warm effects on flat surfaces of cabinet work and in the splats of fiddle-back chairs until supplanted by the ascendency of mahogany. It was often effectively employed on drawer fronts and in panels while the rails and stiles were solid. It was even used in conjunction with carv- ing on the splats of chair backs.
Maequbteeib and Inlay. Though these processes were still practised to some extent in the first half of the period, the taste for them was gradually dying out.
Lacqueb. Having passed the stage of being a fash- ionable fad, lacquer held its ground on its own intrinsic
126 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PliiKlOD FURNITURE
merits as a valuable decorative factor. We find many- beautiful examples both in black and in colours — red, green, blue and yellow. It was sometimes, however, grievously misapplied.
TYPES OF DECORATION
TuENiNG displayed no particularly distinctive forms. The occasionally somewhat intricate turned forms of the preceding William and Mary period went quite out of fashion. Vase, ball and ring turning and baluster turning remained in style.
Cabving in the earlier part of the period was con- fined largely to representations of the escallop or cockle shell ornamerit to be found on the cresting of chair backs, in the central part of the seat rail and on knees of highboys and lowboys as well as on the knees of many of the fiddle-back chairs. The escallop shell was also found as a central decorative motif on the drawers of highboys and on the aprons of various pieces of cabinet work. Both convex and concave forms appear. Pendent fuchsia flowers and honeysuckles are met with occasionally in conjunction with cockle shells, especially on the knees and upper portions of the legs of some of the fiddle-backed chairs. When cabriole legs did not terminate in hoof and ball, club, web or slipper f eetlfchey were ordinarily carved with claw and ball and the work was wrought with more boldness and precision than was customarily the case at a later date.
One exception to this early simplicity in the matter of carving is to be noted in the case of the ornate gilt console and side tables and some of the mirror frames upon which a wealth of painstaking detail was lavished. Animals, birds and human figures (Fig. 3), boldly
HOGARTHIAN HOOPBACK, PIERCED
SPLAT MAHOGANY CHAIR
By Courtesy of Mr. C. J. Dearden, New
York City
STRAIGHT TOP UPHOLSTERED QUEEN ANNE SETTEE
By Courtesy of Messrs. E. J. Holmes & Co., Philadelphia
PLATE XI
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 127
carved in the round supported these tables, while the framing and other parts displayed successions of evo- lutes, drops and swags and sundry classic repetitive details.
With the incipience of the "decorated Queen Anne" style about 1714: we find a great elaboration of carving, particularly upon chairs and settees, whose arms were frequently terminated with eagles ' heads strongly exe- cuted. Besides eagles' heads, rosettes, tassels, acan- thus and sundry floriated scrolls were introduced as opportunity offered.
With the beginning of the ' ' lion period, ' ' about 1720, vigorously wrought lions' heads and feet in the form of furred paws were added to the list of carving details and are valuable indications of approximate date.
The ' ' satyr-masque period, ' ' beginning about 1730, intensified the grotesque element in carving and, as the name indicates, brought in the satyr masque in va- rious forms which appeared on the knees, seat rails, backs and arms of chairs and settees, the cresting of cabinet work and the framing of tables where erstwhile had been cockles, then eagles' heads and then lions' heads, which the satyrs supplanted in great measure. During all these sub-periods the cockle shell persisted with singular vitality and varying degrees of popu- larity.
By 1735, when the " cabochon-and-leaf period" may be said to have begun, we find this motif, either in con- cave or convex form, borrowed from the cabinet makers of the court of Louise Quinze, just as the lions ' heads and satyr masques had been borrowed from Grerman de- signs, becoming immensely popular at the expense of motifs that had hitherto enjoyed great vogue.
128 PRACTICAL BOOK OF ¥ii,RiUL> iUKJ\lTU±ti!J
Mabqtjeterie and Inlay were both going so rapidly out of fashion that no new decorative types were devel- oped. For what little ornamentation of this sort was practised at the very beginning of the period, William and Mary designs were made to serve.
Lacquer types of decoration experienced a change. Before the time of Queen Anne, the chief and best ex- amples of lacquer were to be found in the cabinets which ordinarily stood upon gorgeously carved and gilt stands. These cabinets were for the most part decorated with bold sprays and branches of trees and shrubs, with here and there human forms, animals, birds or fish.
In the early years after the accession of Queen Anne, the fashion changed. Lacquer was applied to everything — chairs, tables, cabinets, highboys, secre- taries and cupboards. The patterns became more strongly pictorial and often closely resembled the de- signs of landscapes, houses, gardens, people and bridges to be seen on old platters and plates.
STRUCTURE
By the beginning of the Queen Anne period the cur- vilinear element had become firmly established in Eng- lish furniture making. Chair seats displayed simple and compound curving outlines; kettle or swell front china cupboards or curio cases and chests of drawers testified to the skill of the cabinet maker; segmental and swan-neck pediments soared towards the ceiling; the graceful cyma curves, single or in combination, lent a fascinating charm to panels, doorheads and mirrors. With the increasing height of the ceilings, cabinet work assumed taller proportions. By the beginning of the
QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN 129
eighteenth century, chair and cabinet makers had learned to work more skilfully in walnut, and the furni- ture they shaped was lighter and more graceful than the product of the preceding period. Furniture was made of walnut throughout and the practise was grad- ually abandoned of veneering walnut on oak, although it was still done where an especially fine burred effect was desired in panels, doors or drawers. Stretchers also went out of common use early in the period.
MOUNTS
The elaborate pierced and chased mounts of the lacquer cabinets of the William and Mary period and the other varied and somewhat ornate key-plates, scutcheons and knobs went out of style in Queen Anne's time and were replaced by plainer brass work. Handles were usually of the bail pattern and scutcheons were sometimes plain, sometimes pierced and sometimes slightly chased. Oval key-plates were also found.
FINISH
What was said under the head of Finish in the WUliam and Mary chapter applies with equal force to the furniture made during the Queen Anne-Early Georgian period.
The oak furniture that continued to be made for cottages and farmhouses was usually given the tradi- tional finish of oil and wax, although, no doubt, occa- sionally oak pieces received a dressing of the varnish made with gum shellac and alcohol that became popular at the end of the seventeenth century.
Walnut furniture, though sometimes oiled and waxed, was ordinarily finished with the shellac and al-
9
130 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
cohol varnish, brushed on, without previous oiling, and polished with wax, or else was treated with one of the other varnishes that seem to have come into vogue under the influence of the great popularity enjoyed by the various kinds of Isiequered and Japanned ware. For full particulars concerning the making and use of these varnishes the reader may consult the "Treatise of Japaning and Varnishing" by John Stalker and G-eorge Parker, published at Oxford in 1688.
Mahogany, during this period, was given the same finish as that just described for walnut furniture.
CHAPTER V
LOUIS QUATORZE AND LOUIS QUINZE Louis XIV 1643-1715
W
Louis XV 1715-1774
""^"^7'HAT France thinks to-day the rest of Europe will think to-morrow." This dic- tum was uttered a good many years ago. It was largely true then and has been so ever since. Furniture styles were included in this most compre- hensive category, and quite properly so, for France set mobiliary fashions every whit as much as she did the fashions for wearing apparel.
England, despite her insular position, in no wise escaped the pervading French influence. From the Jacobean period — the first with which we are concerned in this volume — down to our own day, the French touch in the styles of English furniture has been manifest in one form or another and in greater or less degree ac- cording to circumstances. Sometimes the French ten- dencies suffered a temporary eclipse, as in the William and Mary period, when Dutch ascendency was at its height.
Even then, however, French textile workers, domi- ciled in England, designed and wove the gorgeous fabrics that helped to make that multi-coloured epoch of furniture one of the most dazzlingly brilliant in English history and infused a goodly share of their native grace and intuitive artistic feeling into the pro- duct of their looms.
131
132 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FUKJNiTUKli;
Again, at times, we find French feeling strongly in evidence, as in much of Chippendale's work or the de- signs of Sheraton, and sometimes, indeed, it dominates the whole field, carrying all before it as it did in the Empire period. Occasionally French forms were de- liberately copied, as we shall see in some of Chippen- dale's choicest pieces, but usually the Gallic bias was partially disguised under a shell of English adaptation — a French voice speaking out of an English body.
The practical result of this influence will be shown in the following chapters, and the subject is greatly clarified by the present survey in its proper chrono- logical relation to English adaptations of Gallic forms and motifs.
These English adaptations might be passing good or villainously bad. It depended entirely on the indi- vidual skill and taste of the adapter. All the same, let the expression of the moment be what it might, the French leaven was there and working.
What was true of English furniture was, of course, true of American furniture in Colonial and post-Colo- nial times. In fact, in the early part of the nineteenth century, our great grandparents went to even greater lengths in their homage to French taste than ever their British cousins did, owing, doubtless, to the active sym- pathy of France in the struggle for American Inde- pendence and the subsequent visit of the popular La Fayette.
The long enduring Louis Quatorze and Louis Quinze periods, rich in varied furniture developments, wrought such marked results in the form and adornment of English cabinet work and chair making that we must know somewhat of the general characteristics of each
LOUIS QUATORZE AND LOUIS QUINZE 133
style if we would really understand the course of evo- lution on British soil.
When Louis XIV was delivered from the narrow bondage, under which his early years were spent, his mind was firmly set to be absolute master of his king- dom and rule right royally. Now that the gloomy re- straint of severe tutors and the parsimonious manage- ment of Mazarin were things of the past, the pendulum swung to the opposite extreme and the young monarch burst forth into a reign of unparalleled and magnificent extravagances. Efficient ministers, who supplied the enormous sums necessary, ably served him in his efforts to glorify his court and all its appointments. The greatest artists and craftsmen France could produce vied with each other in executing his princely plans.
Colbert's scheme of quartering them in the Louvre and giving them constant occupation worked well both for the sake of economy and the amount of work actually achieved by their systematic employment in the palace studios. The furniture they designed and made was sumptuous in the extreme and, along with the other equipments of the royal households, contributed not a little to Louis's title to his sobriquet "the Sun King."
Li all the splendour of his long reign of gorgeous pomp and pompous gorgeousness there was, never- theless, a distinct touch of severity. With all the gold and glitter and wealth of living colour there was a feel- ing of austere and rigid formality that the profusion of elaborate ornament tended, perhaps, to enhance rather than mollify; and when death removed "Le Grand Monarque" from a nation deeply thankful for the deliverance, both court and people were ready for a new style, dominated by a note of softer grace.
134 PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE
The style of the Eegence voices a new influence. Thence onward furniture and decorations were in lighter vein. With a new generation of artists and craftsmen, imbued with new conceptions, ready, when he took the reins of government into his own hands, to do the bidding of the Fifteenth Louis and carry out the programme of lavish expenditure inspired by Madame de Pompadour, French furniture fell into a riot of be- wildering variety.
During the Louis Quinze period we find more diver- sity and flexibility of style than in the preceding reign. The process of evolution works more rapidly. Through all the forms, however, the curvilinear principle is plainly dominant in contrast to the Louis Quatorze fur- niture in which the principle is rectilinear despite the abundance of ornate embellishment.
In this important respect the change that took place between the mobiliary styles of the Louis Quatorze and Louis Quinze periods is analogous to the change that took place in England between the end of the Jacobean or Stuart period and the early years of Queen Anne's reign.
ARTICLES
Space forbids and there is no necessity that we should enter into a detailed catalogue of aU the articles of furniture used in the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV. It will serve the present purpose and sufficiently amplify the principal characteristics of style — particu- larly the characteristics that visibly influenced English furniture — ^if we enumerate the chief objects.
The list includes chairs, stools, or tabourets, canapes or sofas, bedsteads, tables, consoles, cabinets, com-
LOUIS QUATORZE AND LOUIS QUINZE 135
modes, armoires, bureaux or escritoires, torcheres, mirrors and clocks. Besides these there were all kinds of meubles de luxe.
CONTOUR
The kernel of the whole matter is reached by saying that in Louis Quatorze furniture the structural lines were almost invariably perpendicular or horizontal — in other words, rectilinear — ^while in furniture of the Louis Quinze period the cabinet-makers apparently pre- ferred to curve their structural lines.
There were, to be sure, the usual overlappings be- tween the latter years of one regime and the former years of the other. We find furniture with cabriole legs and curving lines appearing before the end of Louis the Fourteenth's reign and we also find cabinet work of rectilinear structure made long after the be- ginning of his successor 's.
The homhe or swelling fronts of commodes and garderobes, however, the cabrioled legs and serpentine tops of tables and consoles and the general scrolled treatment that went with the Eococo phase of ornamen- tation, which flourished exuberantly in this period, were unmistakably characteristic of the Louis Quinze style and more strongly than aught else bespake the con- structional change from the methods of the Louis Quatorze epoch, when cabinet work frequently had a tall, perpendicular aspect.
CHAIRS
Louis XrV. All the chairs of this period were in- stinct with dignity. In the earlier part they were often pompous and stiff as well, while in later years grace and comfort were characteristics more in evidence.
136 PRACTICAL BOUii UJ<' I'JUKIUJJ iUKJNlTUiiE
Legs at first were often straight, carved and moulded and joined by straight X or saltire stretchers, likewise elaborately carved and moulded (Plate XII, p. 136). About the end of the seventeenth century a graceful cabriole form appears, sometimes with a more pro- nounced curve than at others. The proportions were well moulded and the foot was not seldom either a scroll resembling a dolphin's head or cloven hoof or pied de
Fia. 1. Louis Quinze Arm Chair. By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.
biche-{Plaie XII, p. 136). Some of the chairs were made