FURNITURE 379
his workshop at Mortlake under favourable auspices, for court
and nobility furnished a rich clientele. One of the most famous
Mortlake tapestries is 'Vulcan and Venus', now in the Victoria
and Albert Museum. Until Crane's death in 1636, the looms
were kept busy, but orders were infrequent during the civil war.
Under the commonwealth the council of state, probably to
encourage native manufactures, showed great interest in the
enterprise at Mortlake and even allowed prisoners captured
during the naval war against the Dutch to be employed as
tapestry weavers there. The revival was short-lived, however,
for Charles II did not share his father's delight in the fine arts.
Furniture was both a decoration and a necessity of the home.
Throughout Elizabeth's reign observers had seen the growing
luxury of all classes, and some thought they detected in it signs
of a decline in English endurance. Certainly, compared with
the furniture of a baronial castle, that of a Jacobean house
might well have seemed effeminate. The rushes, often so noi-
some, which, until towards the end of the sixteenth century, had
served to cover the floor, were giving way to carpets or matting.
Surviving examples prove that there was a 'most remarkable
school of carpet-weaving . . . national in spirit, design, and
colour'.1 Englishmen also sought eagerly for both Turkish and
Persian carpets. The old trestle table was being replaced by a
table with ornamental legs joined by stretchers, and the benches
by joint-stools, which continued to be used for sitting at table
except by the master and mistress of the house. When a dis-
tinguished guest was being entertained, he alone was offered a
chair. As late as 1669, when the grand duke of Tuscany was
visiting Wilton, the earl of Pembroke had provided an arm-
chair at the head of the table for his guest, but the duke insisted
on giving it to his host's daughter, whereupon the earl instantly
drew forth another similar chair for the duke, the rest of the
company sitting upon stools.2 The chairs used at this time were
of many kinds. The old X-type still survived, but was now often
upholstered with cloth of gold, satin, or less expensive material.
There were oak-panelled arm-chairs as well as plain upright
armless chairs,3 upholstered in leather (tacked into place with
1 Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furnitttret i
(1924), 188. * Travels of Cosmo the Third (1821), p. 150.
3 It is said that the absence of arms was to accommodate the enormous skirts
women often wore.