Jacobean Furniture And English Styles In Oak And Walnut

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00632 4776

JACOBEAN FURNITURE

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JACOBEAN -FURNITURE

AND ' "

ENGLISH STYLES IN OAK AND WALNUT

BY

HELEN CHURCHILL CANDEE

AUTHOR OF "DECORATIVE STYLES AND PERIODS,"
"THE TAPESTRY BOOK," ETC.

WITH FORTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS-

NEW YORK

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

Copyright, igj6, by
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

All rights reserved

CONTEXTS

CHAPTEB PAGE

I EARLY JACOBEAN STYLES .3

. James I Crowned 1603.

II JACOBEAN* STYLES TO CHARLES II 14

III THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY ...... 27

End of the Pure Jacobean.

IV CAROLEAN STYLES OR THE RESTORATION ... 37

Charles II, 1660 to 1685.

V THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ... 48
William and Mary, 1689^-1702.

ILLUSTRATIONS

?LATE

I The small Jacobean room of elegance

and intimacy Frontispiece

FACING
PAGS

II Late Tudor mantel 4

III Late Tudor bed 5

IV Large oak chest 6

V Early Jacobean chest of carved oak ... 7

VI Oak chest with drawers , 8

VII Oak stand and marquetry cabinet ... 9
VIII Gate-leg table, forming console with gate

closed 10

IX Oak chairs H

X Oak chest of drawers 12

XI Early Jacobean cabinet 13

XII Oak chairs 16

XIII Spiral turned chair, characteristic of first half

of Century 17

XIV Oak cabinet, dated 1653 .20

XV Oak gate-leg dining table 21

XVI Oak day beds 24

XVII Stuart chairs ......... 25

XVIII Marquetry cabinet about 1700 . . . . '. 28

XIX Walnut cabinet 29

XX Stuart settee with carving. Second half of

XVII Century 42

ILLUSTRATIONS

XXI

XXII

XXIII

XXIV

XXV

XXVI

XXVII

XXVIII

XXIX

XXX

XXXI

FACING
PAGE

Charles II chairs in varying styles in carving 43

Walnut sofa 44

Gilt mirror, time of Charles II .... 45
Interesting chair transitional between Stuart

styles and William and Mary ....
Chairs in variants of William and Mary .
Chest of drawers in burr walnut veneer .

Small walnut table 51

Carved chairs. Period of William and Mary 52
Walnut chairs, William and Mary . , * 53
Queen Anne single chair. Queen Anne arm

chair. Walnut Queen Anne chairs . . 54
Queen Anne chair 55

48

49
50

JACOBEAN FURNITURE

CHAPTER I

EARLY JACOBEAN STYLES
JAMES I CROWNED 1603

WHEN a passion for collecting antique fur-
niture first swept America, and prizes
were plucked from attics, cellars and old
barns, the eagle eye of the amateur sought only those
fine pieces that were made in the age of mahogany
and satin-wood. Every piece was dubbed Colonial
with rash generalisation until the time when a little
erudition apportioned the well-made distinctive fur-
niture to its proper classes. Then every person of
culture became expert on eighteenth century furni-
ture, and the names of Chippendale and his prolific
mates fell glibly from all lips.

That much accomplished, the collector and home-
maker then threw an intelligent eye on another page
of history and realised that the seventeenth century
and certain bits of oak and walnut that had stood
neglected, belonged to an equally interesting period
of America's social development.

4 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

All at once the word Jacobean was on every
tongue, as Colonial had been before. Attics, cel-
lars and barns were searched again, this time for
oak and walnut, not mahogany, and for heavy square
construction, not for bandy legs and delicate re-
straint. It was the marvellous carved chest that first
announced itself, and then a six-legged highboy, and
the lower part of a thousand-legged table which
now we call a gate. These, we said with inspiration,
are the gods of the first settlers; mahogany is but
modern stuff.

But this time we were more savant than before,
and instead of starving our eager minds on the occa-
sional resurrected American bit, we went at once to
the source, to England, and there found in abundance
(for the long purse) a charming sequence of styles
covering all the times of our earlier history as settlers
and colonisers. Thus were we able to identify these
strange early pieces of our own and to recognise our
quarry when found in a dusty corner.

That very old pieces still are found, pieces brought
over here in the days of their mode, is proved to any
collector. In two towns on Long Island Sound I
recently found for sale two six-legged highboys,
William and Mary, and that great rarity, a straight
oak chair known as a Farthingale chair, made with-
out arms for the purpose of accommodating the enor-
mous crinoline or farthingale of its day. This
chair may have supported the stiffly dressed ladies of

Plate II LATE TUDOR MANTEL
From a house built in 1606, which shows a toning of Tudor style into Jacobean

Plate III LATE TUDOR BED

With motifs which characterised early Jacobean caning, dated 1593

EARLY JACOBEAN STYLES 5

Elizabeth's court, so like It was to the Italian models
of Tudor times.

The pity of it is, that no sooner had the artistic eye
of the true collector begun to search for seventeenth
century furniture than the commercial eye of the
modern manufacturer began to make hideous varia-
tions on its salient features. He caught the name of
Jacobean and to every piece of ill-drawn furniture
he affixed a spiral leg and the Stuart name; or, he
set a serpentine flat stretcher and called his mahog-
any dining set, William and Mary, These tasteless
things fill our department stores, and it is they that
are rapidly filling American homes. And the worst
of it is, that both buyers and sellers are startlingly
yet pathetically glib with attaching historic names to
the mongrel stuff, and thus are they misled.

New furniture must be made, however, or resort
must be had to soap-boxes and hammocks. The old
models are the best to follow for the reason that the
present is not an age of creation in this direction.
The stylist is always a hobby-rider, and I must con-
fess to that form of activity, but it is always with
the idea in mind to make and keep our homes beauti-
ful. And so I make the plea to manufacturers to
stick to old models of tried beauty, and to buyers to
educate their taste until they reject a hybrid or mon-
grel movable with the same outraged sense that they
reject a mongrel dog.

Now let us pass through the gate that leads to

6 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

happy hunting-grounds o study where we find his-
toric men and women, both royal and common, mak-
ing the times that called for the furniture we now
admire as deeply as they admired it.

One might almost say that since Henry the
Eighth's introduction of the styles of the Italian
Renaissance into England, that country has produced
no original style of furniture. But lest this state-
ment be resented by affronted savants and hurt senti-
mentalists, side by side with that fact must be placed
another, that England has played upon the styles she
imported with such skill and grace that she has thus
produced variants of great and peculiar beauty.

England has taken the furniture creations of
Europe through the centuries and has impressed
them with her national traits, with a resulting beauty
entirely her own. The effect is bewildering to all
but the student of styles, for without study one is
often unable to account for certain alterations of de-
tail and construction. It cannot be too often re-
peated that as each nation in turn adopted the Italian
Renaissance, that nation impressed its own signet
upon the style. Thus came all the variations.

It is to be remembered that in the case of England,
the affair is one of great interest and complica-
tion. In the sixteenth century Pistaccio and his
artist mates hurried from Italy at the bidding of
Henry VIII and planted their classic patterns in the
British kingdom. That was an infusion of the pure

Plate IV LARGE OAK CHEST
In noblest type of early Jacobean carving
of Charles

EARLY JACOBEAN STYLES 7

blood of the Renaissance, and it lasted well Into
Elizabeth's time before the Anglo-Saxon tempera-
ment altered it characteristically.

By the time James I, in 1603, established the Stuart
reign, the style became markedly British, and British
styles called Jacobean in compliment to James' Latin-
ized name, prevailed until another imported fashion
came along. Then came another and another, and
so on even until the end of Georgian styles and the
beginning of Victorian.

The Jacobean style developed serenely, playing
happy pranks with itself, altered by mechanical in-
ventions and by new woods, until the second half of
the seventeenth century, when Charles II introduced
strong French influence and Portuguese which was
not greatly different from Spanish. The French in-
fluence came lightly from the light ladies of the
frivolous court, and the Portuguese from Charles'
queen, Catherine, whose home was Braganza. Bom-
bay as her dowry threw Eastern colours and design
into the melee.

British styles were not yet to be let alone, for no
sooner was the French way set than the Dutch pat-
tern appeared, brought over by William and Mary.
Delicately it came at first, giving place for hints
from the court of Louis XIV, and then in full force
by the time Anne took the sceptre in 1703. And alt
these styles imported throughout the seventeenth cen-
tury, what were they but the several interpretations

8 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

of the Renaissance as it was expressed in France,
Portugal, and Holland ? Let not the student stagger
under these complications of English styles, for al-
though there are yet more reasons for the shapes and
ornament of furniture in England during the seven-
teenth century they are all bright with incidents of
kings and courts.

Tudor monarchs stop in 1603 at Elizabeth's death,
but Tudor styles were not at once outgrown, rather
they linger along far into the seventeenth century,
heavily and elegantly regarding the newly throned
Stuarts and their bewitching manners. The Tudor
table, for instance, was a serious piece of furniture,
put together as squarely and solidly as a house. Its
enduring qualities are proved by the number of these
tables still extant which, as refectory tables, are
the smart thing for the dining-room of to-day. Bul-
bous legs with Italian carving, heavy square stretch-
ers low on the ground, and draw-tops, are the distin-
guishing features. It is even suggested by the
erudite that these tables are the last flicker of the
style left by the Romans during their occupation of
England, so like are they to pictured tables of Rome
at that time.

To fix in the mind certain important motifs used in
early Jacobean carving, a pause may be made before
the fine oak bed pictured in Plate 3, that we may
discuss them. It is dated 1593, ten years before
James I, but, although Tudor, it has certain decora-

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Plate VII OAK STAND AND MARQUETRY CABINET
Here are combined the Jacobean robust strength and Spanish Moresque detail

EARLY JACOBEAN STYLES 9

tive features, the development of which was left to
the Jacobean styles of the seventeenth century. Note
especially among these the characteristic round arch
savouring of the Norman, of which two are shown
on the bed's head. These arches frame a rough Inlay
which appears also on the square blocks of the tester.
Holly and bog oak were the favourite woods for this
inlay on oak, woods obdurate enough to make the
labour difficult. The half -circle repeat is used freely
as a moulding on the headboard, and this develops
in later furniture into an important motif. The gen-
eral construction of this bed is noble in its propor-
tions, and in all changes of fashion must it stand
with the dignity of a temple.

As pictures on a screen melt one into another, so
styles merge. Plate 6 shows a chest full of Jacobean
promise yet retaining Tudor feeling. The fact that
it has drawers under the coffer pronounces it as a
novelty of the early seventeenth century, and there-
fore Jacobean.

It especially well illustrates the pattern for carving
that occupied workers through the reign of James L
There is the Norman arch, low, and wide, set on short
supports which have now lost their architectural look
of a column. The arches at the ends have as orna-
ment the guilloche, that line of circles that sinuously
proceeds through all that time. The carving just
under the lid shows the characteristic S curve in one
of its many varieties, and the line of decoration just

10 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

above the drawers Indicates the development o the
half-circle. Thus are shown in this one early piece
the principal motifs of the carvers who were coaxing
the models of a past Renaissance into an expression
that was entirely British.

The small oak cupboard on Plate n is another
transition piece, being in feeling both Tudor and
Jacobean. Here the guilloche is enlarged to form* a
panel ornament, and the acanthus becomes a long
fern frond to ornament the uprights. One hardly
feels, however, that this piece was ever the accom-
paniment of elegant living, although much antiquity
gives its present distinction.

Continuing with the low round arch as hn orna-
ment in the low-relief carving of James' time, an
example of its use is given in the folding gate-legged
table which is the property of the author (Plate
8). The turned legs finished with squares, top
and bottom, are characteristic of the first quarter of
the century. The arch is here used as an apron to
give elegance, and above is a drawer carved with
leaves. In construction this table presents three
sides to the front, as does the cabinet just considered,
and its Italian inspiration is evident. Like all old
oak of the time, it is put together with wooden pegs$
and bears the marvellous patine of time.

Had the chairs of early Stuart time not been
heavily made and squarely constructed we would nofc
have had so many examples with which to gladden

Plate VIII GATE-LEG TABLE, FORMING CONSOLE WITH GATE
CLOSED

The turaed legs with square bases and tops indicate date as early as 1610
i3eep apron carved with fretted arch is an unusual feature

The

I

Plate IX OAK CHAIRS
Early XVII Century Italian Inspiration

EARLY JACOBEAN STYLES II

the eye. Almost without exception they are variants
of the Italian, originality having not then appeared
possible to chair makers. Three of the four chairs
in the plates illustrate this so well that it is worth
while to make a comparison with old Italian chairs.

The chair on Plate 9 with a screscent-shaped carv-
ing on the back had its first inspiration in Venice, that
great port getting the idea from the wares of Con-
stantinople which the merchant ships brought to her
with prodigality. All of these chairs are of the
squane construction that .endures, and all have bal-
uster legs but of different styles of turning. All are
understayed with honest stretchers, but one has the
front stretcher close to the floor, indicating a little
earlier mode. The colonnade of arches forming the
back is nearer its Italian origin where a column sup-
ports the arch rather than a bulbous spindle.

One more feature to note on these chairs, that is
common to both late Tudor and early Jacobean
styles, is the decoration of split spindles or pendants
applied to a flat surface. This decoration is a fa-
vourite for wood panelling, for chests of drawers and
all large pieces about the middle of the century.

We have but to call to mind the costume of Henri-
etta Maria, the queen of Charles I, to realise why
these armless chairs were the most popular of the
time ; the voluminous skirts of the ladies of the court
whom others imitated could not have been
squeezed into an arm chair with courtly grace.

12 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

The sort of room in which this furniture was set
how happy we of to-day would be to have their panel-
ling! Occasionally an entire room is taken from
some old English home and set up in one of our
American dwellings, such as the rooms now owned
by Mr. Frederick Pratt and Mr. W. R. Hearst. And
thus we know what beauty surrounded the English
family three hundred years ago. Panelling in
squares covered the walls from floor to ceiling or to
a high level, above which hung tapestries or embroid-
eries. And as the architect of the house composed
the panelling it was drawn with such skill as to miss
either hap-hazard or monotony.

The linen-fold panel of Gothic and early Tudor
popularity was no longer repeated. The true
Jacobean panel is small and square with carving on
the pilasters and cornice in rooms of elegance. To
this day no more home-like way of treating the walls
of large rooms has been devised than this wood
panelling, which gives a sense of seclusion and of
richness that is never so well imparted except by the
use of tapestry and the combination of the two
nearly approaches perfection.

Jacobean styles,, so-called, extend through the
greater part of the century, but each succeeding
Stuart marked his special progress on them. The
styles of the first kings, James I and his son Charles I,
lifted the family movables from heaviness to com-
parative lightness, and grew away from the Renais-

Plate X OAK CHEST OF DRAWERS
An interesting example of the Jacobean use of decorative mouldmgs

Plate XI EARLY JACOBEAN CABINET

Carved and put together with wooden pegs. A guilloche carving ornaments each

nan**!

panel

EARLY JACOBEAN STYLES 13

sauce in truly original ways. On this fact rests
much of Its interest. The other great fact for us is
that these years of the first Stuart kings were the
years of the first American colonisation.

CHAPTER II
JACOBEAN STYLES TO CHARLES II

BRUTALLY natural we may call the earlier
characters in English history, but attached to
the Stuart name there is always poetic ro-
mance. And without romance what would our
lives be! So when we sit in our loved library or
dining-room at home, embellished by a few bits of
furniture such as the Stuarts lived among, those bits
are like consolidated stories, things to dream about in
the hours of ease.

James I and his son Charles cared about things
they lived with, and cared, too, about giving them as
much as possible a certain lightness of effect, in re-
volt from Tudor bulk. Perhaps the necessity for
surpassing strength was waning. Men no longer
wore tons of armour, furniture in the seventeenth
century no longer journeyed from castle to castle.
Inigo Jones was at work also, with his marvellous
talent at classical architecture, setting a standard of
cheerful elegance in design that lightened the Tudor
magnificence.

When James I began to rule in 1603, Inigo Jones,
a lightsome young* man of thirty, was employed by

14

JACOBEAN STYLES TO CHARLES II 15

the King as a composer of masques. After develop-
ing Ms architect's talent he produced the palace at
Whitehall, Hatfield House and other residences.
His also was the invention that threw over the steps
to the Thames the noble water-gate, York Stairs,
that stands there now, a record of the merry days
when ladies and cavaliers, all gay as flowers, crossed
the greensward, filed under this richly carved arch,
and were handed into elegantly equipped barges on
the river.

While things of an artistic sort were progressing
in England, other events closely concerning us in
America were also active. The entire century runs
two parallel lines of history, one that of the gaiety
of the house in power, the other that of the struggle
of the people divided into religious sects. While
" 'twas merry in the Hall, when beards wagged all/ 5
persecution was rife among religionists, and the
Puritans were finding it hard to stay in their own
loved land.

Thus came the sufferers to America to plant new
homes; and thus coming, brought with them such
furniture as was in vogue at the time of migrating.
And so it happens that our earliest bits of furniture,
chairs that supported grim Pilgrim fathers, tables
which were set out by provident Puritan mothers and
maids, are Jacobean in mode. The chair of Elder
Brewster which has asylum in Hartford, Conn,, is a
fine example of the heavy turned work of the day,

16 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

and numerous oak chairs show the strap-work and
other low-relief carving so well known in early
Jacobean pieces.

One especial class of chair (Plate 12) when found
in England is called for one of its shires, Yorkshire,
but when drawn from New England hiding places,
we name it a wainscote chair. The design of the
back easily gives reason for the name, for it is formed
from a bit of panelling similar to that in vogue for
walls. Stolid and strong are these chairs, square-
built and stayed with four strong stretchers, usually
near the floor.

The collector considers the charm irresistibly in-
creased when the front stretcher is well worn with
the friction of many feet, the resting feet of a long
procession that has walked down the centuries.
Even better is the smoothness of the chair-arms
which comes by contact with the human hand, that
restless member with a habit of idly rubbing an in-
viting surface. Like all makers of chairs, the ancient
cabinet-maker left back-legs in utilitarian simplicity,
while he limited variety to the front-legs. In this
type of chair, turning gave the usual ornamentation.
This baluster effect had many varieties, but all united
in finishing with a square block at the bottom and
where the seat-frame met the leg, or where the front
stretcher crossed, if it was placed high.

The ornamentation "of the back was done with the
light spirit that distinguished early Jacobean. styles

Hate XII OAK CHAIRS
Called both Watnscote and Yorkshire chairs

Rate XIII SPIRAL TURNED CHAIR, CHARACTERISTIC OF FIRST HALF
OF CENTURY

JACOBEAN ST1XES TO CHARLES II 17

from the preceding Italian models, yet without the
elegance that appeared later In the century. These
chairs undoubtedly have charm and interest, but as
works of art they are not comparable to those which
preceded, nor to those which followed. They were,
however, distinctly English, and as such, command
interest.

A close study of the motifs used by the wood-
carver shows all the favourite lines, the guilloche,
that ever interesting play upon circles, the S curve in
pairs, the rounded arch, the half-circle, the rose and
the tulip. Cushions were a part of the chair's equip-
ment. The tired ladies of the seventeenth century
were not asked to recuperate on a thick oak plank un-
softened by padding. Loose cushions of velvet and
of embroidery -were usual, for this was an age when
handsome fabrics were made all over Europe, and
freely used in flashing blue and ruby red against the
oak.

Nearly allied to the wainscote chair, yet infinitely
more refined, is the chair of spiral parts, with back
and seat upholstered. Without arms it was favoured -
by ladies of voluminous petticoats who pattered about
the thrones of James I and Charles I. With arms it
is sometimes called Cromwellian, suggesting that the
doughty Dictator ruled therefrom. But the auster-
ity of the wainscote chair seems more fitting to his
resolute manner. -

This turned chair with its padded back and seat,

18 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

so often dignifies our modern interiors that it is worth
our while to know about it. While the wainscote
chair belonged more especially to cottage furniture
which was made all over England according to vary-
ing local taste, this chair was more or less of an
aristocrat, and furnished the halls of wealth. Its
origin is Italian. France used it freely, but she too
got her first model from the Italians. In the time
these chairs prevailed, England outside of London
was scant of luxury. The homes of all but the
wealthiest were short of the comforts that ameliorate
the jolt of life's car in these our modern days.

But the whole country was sprinkled with inns and
taverns wherein were gathered such luxuries as the
times afforded, and thither went the man of the
family, bored by the too rigid manner of the home.
Those who travelled, too, in the saddle or by lumber-
ing coach, fell happily into the warm embrace of the
chairs at the hospitable inn at each stop on the jour-
ney. The post-road made the string, the inns the
pearls, and in this way the surface of England was
covered with a net for the delectation of the restless.
But old-time descriptions of the highways, their ruts
and sloughs, their highwaymen even, show how
laborious were the journeyings and how more than
glad were travellers to alight.

Ben Jonson declared a tavern chair to be the
throne of human felicity. Thus he spoke praise, not
only of the inn but of such furniture as pleases us in

JACOBEAN STYLES TO CHARLES II 19

these days. If, therefore, any husband o to-day
rebel against the stiffness of backs, or weakness
of legs, of the antique chairs at home, let him be
reminded of Jonson's opinion on these same
chairs.

The chair with spiral legs and other members runs
through the larger half of the century, and has sig-
nificant variations. One shown on Plate 13 has a
female head on the uprights of the arms, which rep-
resents Mary of Modena. The figure is given at
full length in a model that our furniture manufac-
turers have many times repeated.

While baluster legs for chairs and other furniture
were a product of the reign of the first James, we
may set down the more elegant spiral twist as an evi-
dence of a better developed taste for which a few
leaders were responsible. Such a man as Inigo
Jones must have influenced widely the public taste
in all liberal arts. Although his examples were set
in the larger art of architecture, the crowd swagger-
ing about the Banqueting Hall, which still excites
our delight at Whitehall, must have been inspired
to introduce a daintier style at home.

It was in 1625 that Charles I succeeded his father,
and soon after Invited Van Dyck to be of those who
surrounded the royal person. It sometimes seems to
the art-seeking tourist, that Charles 1 patronage of art
had as motive the production of an infinity of por-
traits of his own much-frizzed, much-dressed self.

20 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

But apart from painting portraits of the King, which
the model made a bit pathetic, through the attempt
to associate majesty with preciosity, Van Dyck had
a large part in improving England's taste. Another
name is that of Sir Francis Crane, he who helped his
royal master with the noble art of tapestry-making at
the Mortlake Works,

To continue with the use of the spiral leg as its
modern use creates interest in the subject it is found
as the support on those most enticing of tables, the
gate-leg. Not that all gate-leg tables are thus made.
Alas no, economy travels heavily in all ages, so the
less expensive baluster turning prevailed. But the
spiral is the favourite and gives great value to the old
tables. Rarely indeed are they to be found at bar-
gains since we in America have taken to collecting
Jacobean furnishings.

Gate-leg tables are labelled with the name of Crom-
well by those liking to fix a date by attaching to it a
ruler. Without doubt, the great Commoner leaned
his weary elbows on such a table when things went
wrong, or curved a smiling lip above it if he could
smile when the table was weighted with savoury-
Puritan viands. But for many years before Crom-
well, English homes had found the gate-leg table a
mobile and convenient replacer of the massive re-
fectory tables of Tudor or Roman inspiration.

In large size these tables set a feast for the family,
in smaller drawing they held the evening light; or,

Plate XIV OAK CABINET, DATED 1653

Decorated with split spindles, am! with inlay motlier-of>pearl, ivory and, ebony

The legs show tendencies not developed until the next century

under Queen Anne

Plate XV OAK GATE-LEG DINING TABLE

With oval top and rarely proportioned spiral legs A drawer distinguishes the
piece

JACOBEAN STYLES TO CHARLES II 21

smaller yet, they assisted the house-mother at her
sewing. The wonder Is not that we of to-day find
them invaluable, but that mankind ever let them go
out of fashion. Collect them if you have the purse,
but if you must buy a modern copy, remember that
mahogany was not in use for furniture in England
until the century after, for modern manufacturers
flout chronology and produce gate-leg tables in the
wood of which the originals were never made. They
even lacquer them, in defiance of history.

Since the fashion is for old tables in the dining-
room, these Jacobean gate-leg tables are found prac-
tical as well as beautiful The large size, about four
and a half feet wide by six feet long, accommodates
a moderate family and presents none of the incon-
veniences that make certain antiques mere objects of
art or curios. I must confess to a thrill of delight
when sitting at such an old oak board set out with
old lace and silver, not only for its obvious beauty,
but by the thought of the groups who have gathered
there through three hundred years, groups of varying
customs, varying habits of thought, varying fashions
in dress, yet human like ourselves, and prone to make
of the dining-table a circle of joy,

The inlaid cabinet on Plate n is an aristocrat.
Though it is dated 165,3 it exhibits the split spindles
of earlier years, and these are executed with sucli
nice feeling that they accord well with the Italian
look of the piece. In truth, its principal decoration

2 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

is Italian, an elaborate use of inlay in mother of
pearl, ivory and ebony. Its feet, too, are entirely
un-English, yet it remains a Jacobean piece of Eng-
lish make. The influences always at work in Eng-
land left their mark on the development of English
styles. Always and always a monarch was marry-
ing a foreign wife, or importing a court painter or
architect, and these folk naturally brought with them
the fashions of their own countries. It seemed as
though the English knew that native art was not a
flower of the first order of beauty and so were modest
about it, and ever willing to adopt the art of other
countries.

It is the custom of the inexact to include in Jaco-
bean furniture all the styles of the seventeenth cen-
tury up to the time of William and Mary, and this
gives to such loose classification an extraordinary
variety. Furniture does not die with a monarch, nor
do new designs start up in a night ; goods last after
the master has gone, and the new master uses the old
style until a later one has been evolved. James died
and Charles I took his place in the year 1625, but the
lightening and elaborating of furniture came not all
at once, and depended as much on mechanical inven-
tion and the use of new woods as on the rise and fall
of monarchs.

And yet, as the first man to be pleased was the
king, and as the king in Charles* case had a lighter
nature than his forerunners and had moreover a Con-

JACOBEAN STYLES TO CHARLES II 8

tinental encouraging of that lightness, we fancy we
see an evidence of gaiety, of Jocundity, in the furni-
ture of his day. He was a king who intended to take
all the privileges of his state, and one of these was to
surround himself with beauty of the type that brought
no reminders of hard living nor serious thinking, no
hint of grim Puritan asceticism.

So the oak of England which had supplied austerity
was now carved into shapes hitherto unknown.
Typical of the results of elaborate oak carving are the
chairs in Plate 17. The arm-chair is a typical ex-
ample of a chair of the middle years of the century,
and later. Here the square construction of the
chair is not altered from Tudor days, but note how
every part has been lightened, until an elegance and
beauty have been attained w r hich make it worthy of
the finest rooms of any time. The carver when given
free rein has left little of the chair untouched. Legs,
stretchers and uprights, are all made with a well pro-
portioned spiral, and at each square of joining a
rosette is carved.

Here also is seen an innovation in the ornamental
stretcher across the front which, instead of being
near the ground, is raised to a height out of reach of a
ruthless boot which might mar its elaboration. This
stretcher shows the use of the long curving palm in
place of the classic acanthus, and also introduces the
fat little cherubs which French designers affected.

Other points to notice are the very open back, com-

M JACOBEAN FURNITURE

posed of spirals and three rows of carving. It was
at this time that pierced carving* came Into vogue, so
far surpassing in beauty the wainscote backs.

The incising of the seat- frame is another peculi-
arity of the middle of the century. Perhaps the most
interesting matter of all is the caning. Wooden
seats were the only ones hitherto ; although cushions
had been used to soften them, they lacked at best the
reciprocal quality that we call "giving." Springs
were far in the future, but a luxury-loving aristocracy
seized at once upon this amelioration.

There is more or less quibbling upon the subject of
caning, as to the date of its introduction. No one can
fix it exactly, which robs the enthusiast of the
pleasure of announcing with oracular precision, that
his chair is of certain year because of its caning.
The middle of the century saw it, the first part did
not, but it lasted through varying styles of furniture,
and is lasting still.

Its origin is undoubtedly Eastern, for the tenacious
splints from which it is woven are from warmer
climes than England's. And that brings us again to
one of those little facts in history of which our house-
hold gods are ever reminding us, the trade that united
India with Portugal, Portugal with Flanders, and the
Flemish with England.

The small chair in the Plate is, to the careless eye,
a little sister to the larger, but the wise observer notes
at once the substitution of the S curve heavy in carv-

Plate XVI OAK DAY BEBS
Carved after manner in vogue in second half of XVII Century

T

JACOBEAN STYLES TO CHARLES II 25

Ing for the more elaborate pierced palm. Also the
cane panels in the back, and the very decided change
in the shape of the front legs. The heavy S curves
are the same which later on gain in thickness and
evolve into the ogee curve seen later, and which is
often mistakenly ascribed to William and Mary, al-
though originating earlier and receives the name of
James II. Arbitrary names are hard to make con-
sistently exact ; dates are hard to place on every piece,
but is it not enough to know within a very few years
the time of making of one's valuable antiques ?

To finish the scrutiny of the smaller chair, note the
curve of the front legs, the first attempt at deserting
the straight perpendicular line of construction. This
is the beginning of an insidious French influence
which prevailed throughout the last third of the cen-
tury. It beautified, of course, as the gift of France
to the world is the luxe of the eye, but from the time
of its introduction dates the end of the furniture
which was of solely English invention.

So comes the end of this early Jacobean mode, in
its best time of flowering when it was drowned in a
flood of foreign influence. It was in the styles pre-
vailing through the reigns of the first two Stuarts
and of Cromwell, that England expressed only her-
self in her furniture. It is this which makes the
periods rich with originality and of peculiar interest.
When the Jacobean styles began Shakespeare was
living those sad years whose disillusion produced his

26 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

later plays, and Jacobean styles were at their height
at the Restoration when Charles II played the part
of king for his royal pleasure.

CHAPTER III
THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY

END OF THE PURE JACOBEAN

TWO matters influenced greatly the furniture
makers of the middle of the seventeenth
century. And these had less to do with
kings and courts than with humble folk. One was
the Invention of a saw, the kind of a saw that would
divide a plank into as many thin sheets of wood as
were desired. Naturally, those who looked upon
these thin sheets Imagined new ways of using them
for the embellishment of furniture.

Heavy carving had been almost the only ornament
when inch-thick planks were the usual material.
Now, a wondrous field of possibilities lay before the
ambitious In the way of inlay and veneer. Possibly
Andre Boulle in France gave the inspiration, but
even so the English Inlay Is a matter all by itself.
From the Invention of that saw arose a style of dec-
oration that developed from such simplicity as the
rare and occasional flower seen on early Jacobean
panels, to the exquisite elaboration known as the sea-
weed pattern, and other masses of curving filaments,
which found highest perfection in the last quarter of
the century.

27

28 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

The cabinets on Plates 18 and 19 illustrate the al-
most unbelievable fineness of the work. In the
larger cabinet the inlay is drawn with a free hand
and is less characteristic of English design than the
other, excepting the naivete of the birds and trees,
and the central panel wherein a gaily caparisoned
youth strides a horse held by an infinitesimal blacka-
moor a bit of the East's submission thus noted.

Wherever a plain surface was found, the new
ornament seized it. Cabinets and chests of drawers
offered the best opportunities, but next to them were
tables. The tops gave a fine field although there
is always a lack of unity of feeling between a table
maker and a table user. The one thinks the table
should be left inviolably empty, the other regards it
as a rest for books and bibelots. But there is also
the drawer of the table and its apron, so upon these
the inlay designs were put in all their dainty beauty
of design.

This class of work must not be in any way con-
fused with the Dutch inlay of a later epoch and which
is imitated to-day ad nauseam. If you have naught
else to guide you in knowing the old English from
modern Dutch, there are the shapes of the pieces on
which the inlay is put, besides the pattern of the
work.

The second matter which made a change in the
general aspect of furniture in the second half of the
seventeenth century was the use of walnut wood in

Plate XVIII MARQUETRY CABINET ABOUT 1700
Showing Dutch Indian influence in its design and ornament

Plate XIX WALNUT CABINET

With veneer and Inlay of seaweed pattern showing the extreme skill of cabinet

workers in the second half of the XVII century.

Drop handles are noticeable

THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY ^9

place of oak. It is a pretty bit of history, that of
the rich-toned walnut. As far back as Elizabeth's
day f urniture of that wood was imported from Italy
in all its beauty of design, colour and finish. The
wise queen ordered trees brought from Italy and for-
ests planted, that England might have a supply of the
admired wood. She did not live to see the trees of
use, but in the century following hers* it came sud-
denly into vogue. Imagine the delight of those w r ho
had been working in the more obdurate oak, to feel
this finer, softer w r ood under the tool.

Putting together the invention of the saw which
could slice wood as thin as paper as well as fret it
into sea-weed, and the adoption of \valnut wood, still
another type of beauty in furniture was produced,
that of the plain large-panelled scheme. By cunning
skill panels of walnut veneer were produced where
the grain of the wood suppled the design. Add to
this the wonderful finish of the cabinet-maker, and
the piece had the beauty of bronze and the simplicity
of classicism. But no picture can give adequate idea
of the beauty of the old burr walnut. Its bronze
surface of innumerable tones, all polished by gen-
erations of caressing hands and never by varnish,
must be seen and touched to be appreciated. The
patine of time is heightened by the patine of affec-
tion, and both together make of the plain walnut
furniture a thing of appealing beauty to those who
love restraint in ornament.

SO JACOBEAN FURNITURE

A word about this thing we call patine. It began
in these old pieces with the original finish of the old
maker, who, having done all of the work himself, was
tenderly careful of results. This early necromancer
played on the wood of his precious meuble with
soothing oil, with tonic of turpentine and with pro-
tective wax. With the oil he fed the open pores of
the wood, until all were filled against the attack of
less judicious nutriment, then with pungent turpen-
tine and fragrant honest wax, he rubbed patiently
the surfaces. No varnish, as he valued his art.
Varnish as we know it now was not in his laboratory.
It was not needed when every man was lavish of the
labour of his hand.

Thus was begun the patine for which we collectors
cry to-day. But the assistance of the housewife was
a necessary adjunct, for never through all the cen-
turies must she do other than rub with oil and wax
the fine old oak and walnut. I have seen the work
of centuries destroyed by a modern vandal with a can
of varnish.

The lawns of England are made by centuries of
unremitting care. The patine on old English furni-
ture is brought about by the same virtue. If there
be any who do not value the rare old finish, then for
his household wares the, manufacturers provide a vat
of varnish into which whole sets of chairs are dipped
to avoid even the labour of brushing on a coat of the
shiny stuff.

THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY 31

Roundhead and Cavalier each had to be suited
with furniture, so the varying styles, the elaborate
and the plain, met all requirements. In the midst of
it all reigned Charles, the second of the Stuart kings,
fostering art with his wondrous assistant Van Dyck,
and making a thousand mistakes in the art of govern-
ment, yet ever standing a romantic figure. We feel
an interest in all that concerned his life as a man,
feeling more pity than indignation at his futile de-
scent upon Parliament to pluck therefrom the five
members who offended him. And who does not,
when in London, glance at his high-bred marble
effigy at Whitehall with a secret sympathy for his
miserable end? We all love a gentleman, and time
has nothing to do with effacing that. The elegance
Charles I introduced into his time delights us now,
and we thrill at the thought of owning any of the
fine accessories with which he or his nobles sur-
rounded themselves.

After Charles came the Commonwealth. Repub-
lican as we are, we feel an unaccountable revolt
against any suggestion of Cromwell's taste in life's
elegant accessories. He was the great Commoner,
and as such has no skill at dictating fashions for
aristocrats. So we accord to him a leather-covered
chair with spiral turned frame, and a gate-leg table,
feeling he should be grateful for the award, as even
these things wer^e not of his own invention.

Of the two great divisions, the Cavaliers and the

m JACOBEAN FURNITURE

Roundheads, the aristocratic party fell into subjec-
tion. All that was austere came to the fore, and all
that had the charm of gaiety and mirth, elegance and
extravagance, was disapproved by those in power.
Cromwell's personality did not inspire the makers of
pretty kickshaws for my lady's boudoir, nor luxuries
for my lord's hall So nothing was to be done by the
cabinet-makers but to repeat the previous styles.

The asceticism of the Puritan inspired no art in
the few years of Roundhead rule, but there is no
telling what might have happened had Cromwell
stayed several decades in power. At the end he took
most kindly to living in the royal palace of Hampton
Court. The quick assumption of elegance of the
beggar on horseback is proverbial. After Napoleon
had forgotten his origin, no king was more acquisi-
tive than he in the matter of thrones and palaces, nor
more insistent in the matter of royal pomp. But
"Old Noll" did not live to rule like a prince of the
blood, nor to develop a style of luxurious living that
left a mark on the liberal arts.

The development of walnut furniture went imper-
ceptibly on, with oak still much in use, when all at
once a new fact in history gave a new excuse for
changes in the mode. The Cromwells passed and
the people of England took back the House of Stuart,
and did it with such enthusiasm that even the furni-
ture reflected it at once. But It is just this reflection
of events in the art of a period that gives undying

MIDDLE OF CENTURY 33

Interest to old styles, and especially to those ancient
pieces that are left from the hands which made them
and those who first used them in palace or cottage.

Back, then, came the old delight in royally born
royalty, in being governed by a king and not by a
commoner. With open arms the king was wel-
comed, and Cavalier families that had been in sad
plight, blotted out by confiscation and disapproval,
sprang lightly back to their former places. This was
the time of the Restoration, that time when England
adopted the rottenness of the Continent to stimulate
whatever of vice lay in the Briton, forgetting to take
with it the fundamental good. But the naughty
game was one so prettily played that we never tire
of its recounting. And as it produced so many
changes in house f uraishings, it must be considered.

It was in 1660 that Charles II was called to smile
from the throne on a pleased public. It was about
that time that a queen was chosen for him, Catherine
of Braganza, who brought with her, very naturally,
some goods of her ow r n.

The styles in England at this time were espe-
cially England's, he native effort fred from copy-
ing Italy's Renaissance, But on this fell a sudden
avalanche of new ideas greatly at variance with
her methods, and from now on the styles of England
took Inspiration from the styles of the Continent, and
have ever since continued the game.

But let this sink into the consciousness: each

34 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

style adopted takes on the strong characteristics of
the country adopting them. If to originate a decora-
tive style was not the natural impulse of Britain, it
was her talent to alter that style in a way that ex-
pressed her characteristics. In the time of Charles
II she had a love for the light side of life, coupled
with prodigality and elegance, and this can be read
to-day in the relics of those times.

Catherine the Queen brought no children to inherit
the throne the Duke of York being accused of hav-
ing selected purposefully a barren mate for his
brother but she brought Bombay as a dower. So,
with her Portuguese furniture and her Eastern de-
signs, her gifts turned the heads of artists and arti-
sans. In England are found those chairs for which
we go to Portugal, yet they were made in England in
the seventeenth century, the high-back straight chair
covered with carved leather in both back and seat,
put on with a prodigality of big nails, and having
bronze spikes as a finish to the uprights of the back.
The fluted foot came then, a sort of compromise be-
tween a claw and scroll, and known in our land as a
Spanish foot, and used until the end of the seven-
teenth century. It is found on much furniture of
early Colonial times prior to Anne's day.

But perhaps the first change in Charles' reign was
seen on the chairs of pierced carving of palm and
S curve and cherub, with caned seats or backs. The
carving on these chairs at once took as its popular

THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY 85

device the crown, the crown which had been hidden
out of sight in the years of the Commonwealth. As
if to show the wealth of affection with which it was
welcomed, it was repeated as many as five conspicu-
ous times on one chair. With what complacence
must Charles have looked upon this gentle flattery!

For the Queen's satisfaction there were matters
from the Near East in the way of ivory and ebony
inlay, carved ebony, introductions of small black be-
ings into designs, always in obvious subjection to
white masters. But these were exotics of a sort
that English taste preferred to import rather than
manufacture. Ladies who took to embroidering af-
fected the Bombay designs and colours.

Charles II had been reigning but six years when
the Great Fire swept away uncountable treasures in
the way of furniture. To be sure, there was all the
rest of England. But at that time London was prac-
tically all of elegant England. Country gentlemen
had estates and big houses, but owing to the impos-
sibility of transportation on the always miry, rutted
roads, they went without the luxuries of town life.
So, with the Great Fire of London perished so much
of old oak and walnut furniture as to make collectors
weep who turn their thoughts thereon.

But as the phoenix rises unabashed from the
flames, so rose the inspirations of Sir Christopher
Wren, Grinling Gibbons, and of minor artists and
artisans. Wren rebuilt the fallen monuments, giving

36 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

to the world his great St. Paul's, and a pit tern <H
church steeple that climbs high in American settle*
ments as well as all through London ; and he lesser
workers gave men new patterns in beds arid chairs
for repose, and in tables for comforting viands, for
games, or for the gossip which was a deep T game of
the day.

CHAPTER IV

CAROJLEAN STYLES OR THE RESTORATION
CHARLES II, 1660 TO x6&5

IF It was to the Queen of Charles II that the
Carolean period of furniture owed its Portu-
guese strain and the evidence of strange things
from the East, it was from a woman of quite another
sort that the predominating influence came. French
styles were the vogue at court, not because the
Queen, poor dull woman, wished it, but because
Louise de Querouailles was the strong influence, and
with her advent came follies and fashions enough to
please the light side of one of the lightest of mon-
archs. France, In the person of Louis XIV, felt that
England would bear watching while a Stuart strut-
ted and flirted, oppressed and vacillated. And the
French ways of those days being directed by such
craft as that of the astute Cardinal Mazarln, a
woman was sent from France to charm the King and
stay closer beside the throne than any man could bide.
Charles created the light and lovely Louise the
Duchess of Portsmouth and the mother of the little
Duke of Richmond; and, that so much of extrava-
gant beauty might be royally housed, he spent much

37

38 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

time and more money in fitting her ap%ftments at
Whitehall. Three times were they dei^lished ai
her whim, the extravagant fittings failing^isutt her
insatiable caprice.

Such procedure was hotly stimulating to artists
and artisans. In the first attempt they sought to
produce their best, but seeing it displease, they were
lashed on to more and yet more subtle effort until at
last the pretty lady of too much power had forced
the production of elegant new styles which smacked
of her native France. Thus went by the board the
efforts of English styles to remain English, and thus
began that long habit of keeping an eye on French
designs*

We think of Charles II as a figure-head of ro-
mance, because the rosy mist of poetic fancy clings
to the members of the Stuart family from Mry of
Scots down to but not including that Duke of
York who minced about the throne of Charles II
with his soul concentrated on securing from his
brother his own personal advancement.

The horrors of Charles' reign, the Bloody As-
sizes, the Monmouth incident, his neglect to recog-
nise the seriousness of his responsibilities, ai! these
things are lost in the elegant frivolity of the life led
at his court. Cares, ennuis, tragedies, were flicked
aside by white hands thrust from brocades and lace,
and a merry measure was the antidote for soul-sick-
ness.

CA. STYLES OR THE RESTORATION 39

10 made music or danced to it, those who
rh, he naughtier the better) and sang their

verses, tL<-se who led at toasts and feasting, those
who wore the richest dress, were the persons of im-
portance under the patronage of Charles II, in the
time of the Restoration.

Nell Gwynn, she of the quick smile and quick tear,
and vulnerable heart, was of the King's favour to the
extent of honouring him with the little Duke of St.
Albans; and on her Charles lavished accessories of
elegant living similar to those he bestowed on
Louise de Querouailles. The bewitching actress
lived her quickly changing moods among the furni-
ture that now graces our modern rooms here on this
side of the water.

We were not importing many of those elegances
in 1664. That was the date when Charles' brother
James, Duke of York, left the luxurious court at
London and came to give royal dignity to the little
American town of New Amsterdam on the day when
its Dutch dominion ended and the city was re-
christened New York.

While considering the fascinating women of the
court, Hortensia Mancini, for whom beautiful fur-
nishings were made, must stand as the most al-
luring of them all because she ever eludes the critic
or dissector. Somewhat of her uncle Cardinal
Mazarin was in her astute secretiveness, but a baf-
.fling quality all her own made her proof against sur-

40 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

rendering her soul to any man's probing or -
man's charm. So rich she was that money cor!. >
tempt; so clever, with Italian wit added to 3:?
culture, that none could surpass her in repar'c
discourse; so full of mystery was her daH
piquant beauty that all might envy her yet "'
sionately unhappy, that none would wish to ex-'iV
with her.

Add to the list of women Barbara Palmer^ I
ess of Cleveland, who represented a heavy v^li-
ousness and a prolific motherhood for the Kiny,
we see the women favoured by the King's ar i
and for whom the beautiful furnishings of the
were produced.

Though Charles II had no royal factories ^
Louis XIV was conducting in France, plenty of
objects of art were yielded by the workers. Tha
astonishing aberration of taste, silver furniture, h;'5
a vogue at this time, the King considering his fa-
vourite worthy of such extravagance. It must
been ugly by its ^appropriateness, however pr<*Uy
was the woman it served.

Louise de Querouailles had hers set in a
lined all with mirror glass, which at that time wss> an
expensive novelty. But it pleased the King to v, an-
der into the apartment of his favourite satellite and
see the lovely image of the Duchess of
sitting among her silver movables, reflected so
times in the walls that the world seemed peopled

CAROLEAN STYLES OR THE RESTORATION 41

with adorable women. Nell Gwynn also had her
mirror room.

It was the Duke of Buckingham who made the
mirror-lined room possible by establishing a factory
for mirrors. Previous to this time they were ex-
ceeding rare in England. Now a leaf was taken
from Italy's books and mirrors w r ere made at home,
with bevelled edges, and also with bright blue glass
framing, inside the wooden frame.

Grinling Gibbons was at w r ork on his carvings and
inventions, and w T e have record of him as a decorator
in a letter in which he tells his lady client : "I holp
all things \vill please you." It was the year after
the Great Fire, 1667, that Gibbons began to make a
feature of the garlands and swags of flowers and
fruit, carved with excessive exuberance, that are as-
sociated with his name and that of Queen Anne in
decoration. To gain his effects he used the fine soft
limew r ood as yielding to his tool almost like a plastic
stuff.

In social England Bath played an important part,
and thither went for new scenes the merry gossiping
crowd for their routs and aristocratic carousing.
This was the time of the sedan-chair, of the dropped
note, the flirted handkerchief, the raised eyebrow
and the quick eye-flash, all full of poignant meanings
of their own. Life was a pretty game, insistently a
pretty one, and following the mode, its accessories
were pretty. At Bath the same elegant crowd

4<E JACOBEAN FURNITURE

played as In London, transferred by shockingly
primitive coaches over outrageously rutted roads.
The wonder 'is they ever cared to undertake such
hardships as those imposed on travellers in England
in the seventeenth century. But at Bath we see
them, at the famous spas, with Nell Gwynn, way-
ward and ardent, charming the men, slighted by the
women.

To be specific about the furniture styles of the
times is satisfactory to the student, to the desired
end that old pieces may be known from imitation,
and that good adaptations may be distinguished from
bad. In general it may be said that lightness con-
tinued to be the ideal in construction, particularly in
chairs and tables, and that carvings grew ever finer
in workmanship. Chair backs also grew narrower
and higher. Caning was retained, but seats were
covered with a squab cushion, or upholstered. A
minute examination of the chairs on Plate 21 leads
to the detection of certain characteristics. This
Plate shows a particularly good example of the
chairs as they depart from the fashion which pre-
vailed immediately before the Fire, and as they
merged into the style of William and Mary.

These chairs have details in common with chairs
that preceded them, but as a whole, they are entirely
different. They do not tell the same story, convey
the same message, as the chairs of Charles I, for
example. And that shows the subtle power of fur-

Plate XXI CHARLES II CHAIRS OF -VARYING STYLES IN CARVING

CAROLEAX STYLES OR THE RESTORATION 43

niture to express the spirit of the times In which It
was made. "Feeling" is a word for the serious col-
lector. Ability to read "feeling amounts almost to a
talent, and is certainly an instinct. Those who pos-
sess it know without recourse to detail where to place
a piece of furniture never encountered before, and
this even though it be one of those erratic pieces that
appear in all periods. The feeling, then, of these
chairs is French, but a transplanted French, growing
under alien influence.

Descending upon details, the shape of the legs is
so much at variance with those of the preceding fash-
ion that they seem to alter the scheme of construc-
tion. By means of the change from a straight line
to a curve the chair loses in honesty and In balance
while growing in elegance.

Another point to notice is the change in the ar-
rangement of stretchers, also the lifting from the
floor of the elaborate front stretcher which Is made
to match the ornamental top of the chair back. The
seat-frame retains the incising of the former fashion,
and the square blocks at points of intersection carry
the familiar carved rosette. The backs have strong
points of interest. The radical change is In the up-
rights, which, instead of being wide, flat carvings of
leafage, are gracefully designed posts. A long step
in the way of beauty was made when this style of
back was adopted, a treatment which developed later
in the century into the exquisite carved backs, which

44 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

even exceeded the French in graceful invention. An
examination of the chairs of 1685 will show the per-
fection of the style which was begun by Charles II,
adopted by James II and further developed under
William and Mary.

To continue the lesson of the chairs, It was here
that the old flat S curve began to alter into the richer,
more robust C curve. The leg of chairs carved in C
scrolls follows the shape of the curves, and furniture
of this pattern has exceeding charm, especially when
the front stretcher has been treated by an inspired
hand. Much sought are the chairs and sofas of this
period, and when covered with needle-point are
keenly valued for use in the superb living-room
which in modern homes often takes place of the
drawing-room.

Happy indeed is the collector who can find such an
old English sofa as that In the Metropolitan Mu-
seum on Plate 22. It is entirely characteristic, and
shows not only the interesting fashion in carving, but
the large advance in upholstering. Such comfort-
able work was unknown before the reign of Charles
II. If we have curiosity as to the appearance of the
gentlefolk who used such furniture, the embroidered
cover of this piece shows lovely woman in her hours
of ease, and mankind hovering near with a wish to
please. But this very embroidery shows how diffi-
cult a matter it was for the English to draw with
true hand and free, a purely decorative motive; for,

3 8

! S

BI

Plate XXIII GILT MIRROR, TIME OF CHARLES II
When mirrors were freely made in England

CAROLEAX STYLES OR THE RESTORATION 45

outside the figures of the medallions, the whole thing
is meaningless and without consistency.

For a clue to the inspiration of English work in
the last quarter of the century, which embraces that
of Charles' reign, that of James II and of William
and Mary, it is advisable to turn a keen eye on the
artistic and political actions of France. The Great
Louis was on the throne, and the great Le Brun was
the leader in the decorative art of the day.

One of the political mistakes of Louis XIV was
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, that edict
which had protected from persecution so large a
number of Protestant workers in the liberal arts.
Among these people were tapestry weavers, silk
weavers, glass workers, wood carvers, members of
all the crafts that contribute to the beauty of the
home. Eventually they came to England for safe
haven.

It is impossible to over-estimate the benefit to Eng-
land in an aesthetic way of the advent of all these
skilled workers, men whose equal were to be found
in no other country. Louis XIV had made a royal
hobby of exquisite furnishings. He had placed their
manufacture among the royal pleasures and also
among the state duties. He had glorified the art of
furnishing as it had never before been done, by the
magnificent institution of the Gobelins factory.
Here men learned their craft an infinite variety of
crafts and achieved perfection. All at once many

46 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

of these workers were forced to flee or meet death
under the new dictum of the King. And thus Eng-
land received the outcasts to her own enrichment.

One of the industries in which England was behind
the Continent was the manufacture of silk. The
French refugees were soon established in London at
Spitalfields, reproducing the magic weaves they had
formerly made for the imperious pleasure of the
royal favourites in France. Satins, brocades, taf-
fetas of wondrous dye and lustre, flowed from the
looms of the able weavers who thus drowned their
nostalgia in excess of a loved and familiar occupa-
tion.

One result of this mass of beautiful material being
thrown to a delighted public, was the change made
in the fashion of interior wall-treatment. The beau-
tiful oak panelling of other days oppressed with its
seriousness the light mood of Charles II and his light
companions. The gay sheen of silk was more sym-
pathetic and enlivening. On the walls, then, went
the silk. In Anne's time the panels grew larger, then
became a wainscot and sank to the height of a man's
bewigged and capricious head; then lowered to a
chair's height for the Georgian era. And above
flowed the gracious lines of silken fabrics concealing
all the walls, made in Spitalfields by the French
refugees and their followers.

The pretty Duchess of Portsmouth had her rooms
hung with silk and with wondrous tapestries from

CAROLEAN STYLES OR THE RESTORATION 47

France, though England made both silks and tapes-
tries. Beds of the day retained the high posts and
tester or canopy, heavily draped, and the bed was
similarly covered. The bed was carved, even to the
tester, in French inspiration, and was elegant indeed.
In such a bed came the King at last to lie in mortal
illness in the palace at Whitehall, where the lovely
Louise had first place by the royal invalid, while the
Queen was treated as a negligible quantity. The
Duchess of Cleveland, that other favourite, was not
far in the background, and the King in his last hours
remembered still another when he implored : "Don't
let poor Nell starve."

CHAPTER V

THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
WILLIAM AND MARY. 1689-1702

THE style named for William and Mary em-
braces all the changes that occurred from
late Carolean days until the time of Anne,
and even includes some of the models and details that
are given the name of that queen. Dutch influence
comes largely into both, but was stronger in the style
known as Queen Anne's. Mixed up with other in-
fluences were those not only of Holland but of the
countries with which her political life was concerned.
Spain contributed certain details, and as for the
Dutch connections with the Near and the Far East,
they supplied an infinity of inspiration.

Nothing more piquant to the decorative spirit
could be imagined than the fantastic motifs of Indian
and Chinese importation. To us, surfeited as we are
from babyhood with Chinese toys and Indian stuffs,
it is hard to look upon these things as startling novel-
ties. But in those days of less travel they were
delicious exotics. Among persons of fashion, there
was a rage for the living evidences of the strange
East, and more than popular as pets in the drawing-

48

Plate XXIV INTERESTING CHAIR TRANSITIONAL BETWEEN STUART
STYLES AND WILLIAM AND MARY

CHAIRS IN VARIANTS OF WILLIAM AND MARY

Covered with petit point of the time

WILLIAM AND MARY CANED CHAIRS, ONE WITH FLUTED SPANISH

FOOT

Hate XXV

END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 49

room became the exotic monkey and the vivid parrot.
If these creatures, leashed to a standard, could be
tended by a tiny black human, then fashion was
pleased to an infantine joyousness.

Every ship that came in from far Eastern coun-
tries brought wise parrots and tiny frisking mon-
keys, and these were valued by decorative artists
for models, as well as by my lady to pique gay con-
versation in her drawing-room.

William and Mary styles, like all of the seven-
teenth century, are at present in high vogue in
America, and for this reason it interests us to study
them. They come in after the use of oak has passed
its vogue, and when walnut prevails, although woods
of lighter colour, such as pearwood and sycamore,
are employed. In chairs and sofas, carving prevails
as decoration ; but in cabinets and tables, the prefer-
ence is for veneer and for inlay.

At this time occurs a change in the style of cabi-
nets. Hitherto they had been closed cupboards;
now, because of the fashion for collecting Delft
china from Holland, a need came for cabinets that
would display the collector's treasure. As furniture
makers ever express the whims and needs of the day,
so they at once invented the cabinet with shelf -top
protected by glass. A feature of the design Is the
hooded top, so characteristic of William and Mary.

Two types of carving prevailed in chairs in the
last twenty years of the seventeenth century, that of

50 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

the broken C curve, originating under Charles II,
and that of great elaboration which in some respects
caught its details from the French. A study of the
plates will show that the post-like upright which
flanks the back is retained in both cases. Examples
of fine carving under William and Mary show the
free fancy of the designer and the skill of the worker
who was possibly the designer as well. But the
original chairs must be seen to gain any idea of the
beauty of colour and finish. The whole bears the
look of bronze that has been polished with caressing
hands for centuries.

The shape of the leg in these finely carved chairs is
to be noticed, as it is fathered by the chair-leg in
vogue under Louis XIV in France, and in slight
variations it prevails all through the William and
Mary period. It is noticeable by a pear-shaped en-
largement near the top. The Spanish foot is often
seen on this style.

Petit point, gros point, or mere cross-stitch em-
broidery you may call it, was a fashionable occupa-
tion for dame and damsel. In Charles IFs time the
stuffed high-relief stump work pleased the court.
Sorry stuff it looks now, much like the court ladies
of that time, in that its colour and gilt are gone and
its false art is pitifully exposed. But the good hon-
est embroidery in wool and silk still stands, and is
again tremendously in vogue.

It was Madame de Maintenon who gave such in-

Plate XXVI CHEST OF DRAWERS IN BURR WALNUT VENEER
Mounted on legs, used in the last quarter of the XVII century

Plate XXVII SMALL WALNUT TABLE

With spiral lees and inlay.

Here is seen the beginning of the flat serpentine
stretcher

END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 51

spiration to the work in France that England copied.
Her school at St. Cyr, which she conducted solely for
the purpose of giving happiness and education to
penniless daughters of fallen aristocrats, at that
school the young girls executed work that ranks with
objects of art. A well-known American collector
has a large sofa executed thus under the hand of
Madame de Maintenon which represents scenes from
a play of Moliere's, the piece having also been given
by these same young girls, then the cartoons drawn
by an artist of high talent.

So petit point was almost a high art in France in
the time of William aiid Mary, and England did her
best to follow the fine pattern set her. If, in judging
whether this work be French or English, the mind
hesitates, it is well to take the eye from the medal-
lions and study how the designer filled the big field
outside. In French drawing the whole is a harmoni-
ous composition; in the English, the hand is crude
and uncertain, and the motifs meaningless, though
bold, without coherence or co-ordination. Nowa-
days the lady who wishes to embroider a chair gets
from Paris a medallion already complete and fills in
the surrounding territory at her pleasure. It would
seem that the ladies in England did the same in the
seventeenth century, but with less taste.

Among minor points of interest, those little points
used by the amateur in Identifying, is the marked
change in the stretcher. Away back in the begin-

52 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

nlng of the century, as seen on chairs and tables, It
was heavy, made of square three- or four-inch oak,
and placed almost on the ground. The first change
was in using thinner wood; the next was in giving
the stretcher a look of ornamental lightness by turn-
ing. When this happened the front stretcher of
chairs was lifted from the ground to spare it the
heavy wear apparent in older pieces. When carving
attacked the stretcher, then it was placed well out of
the way of harm, and it took on the ornamental effect
of the chair's back. The Portuguese style of
stretcher copied closely the carving on the top of the
back in graceful curves.

It was when the larger pieces of furniture took on
a certain lightness of effect that a change in their
stretchers occurred, and this was in the period of
William and Mary. The stretcher became wide, flat
and serpentine. In chairs it wandered diagonally
from the legs, meeting in the centre. In tables its
shape was regulated by the size of the table top. In
chests of drawers it wavered from leg to leg of the
six which like short posts supported the weight. If
the piece of furniture was inlaid these flat stretchers
offered fine opportunity for continuing the work.

Strangely enough the stretcher, in chairs at least,
disappeared at just the time it was most needed.
That was at the introduction of the curved or cabri-
ole leg, in the early days of Queen Anne. Those
who know by experience how frail the curve makes

Plate XXVIII CARVED CHAIRS. PERIOD OF WILLIAM AND MARY
With all the fine characten sties of the carved designs of the time

Plate XXIX WALNUT CHAIRS, WILLIAM AND MARY
the exquisitely carved backs, stretches and legs characteristic of the time

END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 53

this sort of construction, sigh with regret that the
fine old Queen Anne pieces of their collection cannot
be consistently stayed according to the older method.

It was in the interesting time of William and Mary
that the kneehole desk made its appearance. A cer-
tain enchanting clumsiness marks these desks from
later products on the same line, and a decided flavour
of Chinese construction. Such a desk was recently
rooted out of the dark in an obscure Connecticut
town, it having been brought over in the early days,
and, not being mahogany, has lain despised by local
dealers until one more "knowledgeable" than his fel-
lows discovered that it was Elizabethan !

A contribution made by China was the art of lac-
quering. Although it was not in the fulness of its
vogue until the century had turned the corner in
Queen Anne's reign, it had its beginnings in the
earlier importations of lacquer and the desire of the
cabinet-makers to imitate the imported art.

Varnish as we know it had never been in use, else
had we missed the wonderful hand polish on old oak
and walnut that cannot be imitated. And when it
appeared it was only to use it in the Chinese manner,
as a thick lacquer over painted or relief ornament.
As the art of lacquering grew, cabinets of great elab-
oration became fashionable, and these were in many
cases imported from China as the cunning handicraft
of the Chinese exceeded that. of the English in mak-
ing tiny drawers and tea-box effects. Then these

54 JACOBEAN FURNITTJBE

pieces were sent to England where they were painted
and lacquered by ladies as a fashionable pastime, and
were set on elaborate carved stands of gilt in a style
savouring more of Grinling Gibbons than of China,
which is the true accounting of the puzzling com-
bination of lacquer and gold carving.

The metal mounts or hardware of furniture
throughout the seventeenth century was simple be-
yond necessity, yet this simplicity has its charm. In
earliest days, iron locks and hinges of a Gothic pru-
dence as to size and invulnerability, ushered in the
century, but it was still the time of Shakespeare, and
that time threw a glance back to the Gothic just left
behind.

Knobs were needed as drawers appeared, and these
were conveniently and logically made of wood, and
were cut in facets like a diamond. But the prevail-
ing metal mount for the rest of the century was the
little drop handle that resembles nothing so much as
a lady's long earring. It is found on old Jacobean
cabinets, side-tables, and all pieces having drawers
and cupboards. Its origin is old Spanish, and that
smacks always of Moorish. With unusual fidelity
this little drop handle clung until under Queen Anne
(1703) the fashion changed to the wide ornamental
plate with looplike handle, and that in turn served,
with but slight variations, throughout the century.

In summing up the seventeenth century as a
whole, it seems to show a British and insular attempt

QUEEN ANNE SINGLE CHAIR

Made of walnut with carved motives
gilded. This type of chair shows the
strong- effect of Chinese motifs, espe-
cially" on the legs

QUEEN ANNE ARM CHAIR

Upholstered in gros point with splat

black, and Dutch shell on curved legs,

Metropolitan Zhiteurn of Art AVw

York

WALNUT QUEEN ANNE CHAIRS

With carbriole leg and claw and ball foot adapted from Chinese Spanish leather

set on with innumerable nails elegantly covers the taller. These
chairs foreshadow the Georgian styles

Plate XXX

Plate XXXI QUEEN ANNE CHAIR

With marquetry back and carved cabriole leg with hoof and serpentine stretcher
Courtesy of P, W. French

END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 55

to form its own styles, to dress Its homes and palaces
in a British way, regardless of what the world else-
where was doing. Bits of outside product came
drifting across the Channel, but these were not
treated with too great seriousness. They were never
adopted intact with all the feeling of foreign thought
shining from their elegant surfaces, but rather were
cut apart and certain bits were used to tack onto the
more British work And it is just here that is found
the secret of the charm which lies in old English
furniture. It is the endeavour of England to tell her
own story, and her story is necessarily different from
that of France, Portugal, Spain, Holland, the East.
So, although she borrows motifs from foreign lands,
it is only to indicate her historical connection with
them and not to make a witless copy of their wares.

This holds true even at the time when two great
artists dominated the decorative arts in Europe, Ru-
bens and Le Brun, and that decorative monarch,
Louis XIV, ruled art as well as politics. Yet the
insularity of England kept her, happily, from realis-
ing the fine flowering of French art to imitate it, and,
instead, she expressed her own sturdy characteristic
development.

And so we love the evidences of sincerity and the
pursuit of beauty that our English ancestors made
for us, and in our homes of ease, with these things
about us, we like to dream of the men and women
who created and used these dignified time-kissed old

56 JACOBEAN FURNITURE

pieces. And in dreaming we forget the frailty and
cruelty of courts and rulers and think on the nobility
and courage of the lesser yet greater folk who laid
the foundation of our country.

THE END

TABLE OF INTERESTING DATES

JAMES L 1603 TO 1625
Shakespeare died 1616

First American Colonies, Yorktown, 1607
First American Colonies, Plymouth, 1620

CHARLES I. 1625 TO 1649

Inigo Jones, Architect, died 1651
Van Dyck, court painter
Sir Francis Crane

COMMONWEALTH UNDER CROMWELL, 1649 TO

CHARLES II. 1660 TO 1685
The Restoration

Queen Catherine of Braganza, 1660
Bombay Influence and East India Company, 1660
Great Fire of London, 1666
Sir Christopher Wren, 16321723
St. Paul's commenced, 1675
Grinling Gibbons, 16481726
Mirror Factory, 1673
Chatsworth Built, 1670

JAMES II. 1685 TO 1688

Revocation of Edict of Nantes, 1685
Spitalfields Silk Factories, 1685

WILLIAM AND MARY. 1689 TO 1702
Daniel Morot
Hampton Court, principal parts built

QUEEN ANNE. 1702 TO 1714