Vale Uniyersiti' Library

39002027570846

YALE UNIVERSITY
ART LIBRARY

LITTLE BOOKS ABOUT
OLD FURNITURE
II. QUEEN ANNE

SEVEN kCENTURIES OF
LACE. By Mrs. JOHN HUN-
GERFORD POLLEN. With a
Preface by Alan Cole. Royal 410,
with 120 illustrations, price 30s. net.
LONDON : WILLIAM HEINEMANN

Queen Anne Walnut Tallboy and Stool
(Early Eighteenth Century).

LITTLE BOOKS ABOUT OLD FURNITURE
ENGLISH FURNITURE : BY J. P. BLAKE
t? A. E. REVEIRS-HOPKINS. VOLUME II

THE PERIOD OF
QUEEN ANNE

i

ILLUSTRATED

FREDERICK A, STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

Capyright London J911 by William Heiitemann

INTRODUCTION
The sovereigns of England, unlike those of
France, have seldom taken to themselves the
task of acting as patrons of the fine arts. There
fore when we write of the " Queen Anne period "
we do not refer to the influence of the undis
tinguished lady who for twelve years occupied
the throne of England. The term is merely
convenient for the purpose of classification,
embracing, as it does, the period from William
and Mary to George I. during which the furniture
had a strong family likeness and shows a develop
ment very much on the same line. The change,
at the last quarter of the seventeenth century,
from the Jacobean models to the Dutch was
probably the most important change that has
come over English furniture. It was a change
which strongly influenced Chippendale and his
school, and remains with us to this day.
The period from William and Mary to
George I. covered nearly forty years, during
which the fashionable furniture was generally
made from walnut-wood. No doubt walnut was
used before the time of William and Mary,
notably in the making of the well-known Stuart
chairs with their caned backs and seats, but it
11 V b

vi INTRODUCTION
did not come into general use until the time of
WiUiam. It continued in fashion until the dis
covery of its liability to the attacks of the worm,
combined with the advent of mahogany, removed
it from public favour. Walnut nevertheless
remains a beautiful and interesting wood, and
in the old examples the colour effects are prob
ably unsurpassed in English furniture. Its liability
to " worming " is probably exaggerated, and in
the event of an attack generally yields to a
treatment with paraffin. Certainly the furniture
of what is termed the " Queen Anne period "
is in great request at the present day, and as the
period was so short during which it was made,
the supply is necessarily limited.
We referred in the introduction to the first
volume to the fact that the present series does
not in any sense pretend to exhaust what is
practically an inexhaustible subject. The series is
merely intended to act as an introduction to the
study of old English furniture, and to provide
handbooks for collectors of moderate means. The
many admirable books which have been already
written on this subject seem to appeal mostly to
persons who start collecting with that useful but
not indispensable asset — a large income. In the
present volume, although rare and expensive pieces
are shown for historical reasons and to suggest

INTRODUCTION vii
standards of taste, a large number of interesting
examples are also shown and described which are
within the reach of persons of moderate incomes,
and frequently an approximate price at which
they should be acquired is indicated.
In collecting the photographs necessary for this
volume we are indebted to the Director and Secre
tary of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South
Kensington, London, for placing the various
exhibits at our disposal, and particularly for causing
a number of new exhibits to be specially photo
graphed. However good a photograph may be, it
can only be a ghost of the original, which should
always, if possible, be examined. We would there
fore strongly recommend readers when possible to
examine the museum ob j ects for themselves. The
South Kensington collection, admirable as it is, is
still far from complete, and increased public
interest should contribute to its improvement.
For the further loan of photographs we are also
indebted to Mr. F. W. Phillips, of the Manor
House, Hitchin, Herts ; also to Mr. J. H. Sprin-
gett. High Street, Rochester ; Messrs. Mawer and
Stevenson Ltd., 221 Fulham Road, London, and
others to whom we acknowledge our indebtedness
in the text. J. P. Blake
21 Bedford Street, W.C. A. E. ReveIRS-HopKINS

CHAPTERS
rAGB
I. THE QUEEN ANNE PERIOD i
II. SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN AND GRIN-
LING GIBBON i8
III. MIRRORS, STOOLS, AND SOME NOTES
ON A QUEEN ANNE BEDROOM 34
IV. CHAIRS AND TABLES 47
V. CHESTS OF DRAWERS, TALLBOYS,
CABINETS AND CHINA CABINETS 65
VL SECRETAIRES, BUREAUX, AND
WRITING-TABLES 76
VII. CLOCKS AND CLOCK-CASES 82
VIII. LACQUERED FURNITURE 95

BIBLIOGRAPHY
It is with pleasure we acknowledge our obligations to the
following authorities :
Percy Macquoid : " The Age of Walnut."
(The standard work on the furniture of this period.)
F. J. Britten : " Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers."
(Exhaustive in its treatment, and fully illustrated. The
standard book. A new edition has recently been published.)
John Stalker, " Japanning and Varnishing."
(The earliest English book on this subject. Published in
i688 during the craze for japanned furniture.)
Lawe : " History of Hampton Court," vol. iii.
AsHTON : " Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne."
Evelyn: "Diary."
Macaulay : " History of England."

CHAPTER I: THE QUEEN
ANNE PERIOD
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1689-1702
ANNE, 1702-1714
GEORGE I., 1714-1727
William the Third was a Dutchman, and, al
though he was for thirteen years King of England,
he remained a Dutchman until his death. His
English was bad, his accent was rough, and his
vocabulary limited. The friends whom he trusted
were Dutch, and they were always about him,
filling many of the offices of the Royal House
hold : he had a Dutch guard. He came to
England as a foreigner and it remained to him a
foreign country. His advent to the throne
brought about certain changes in the style of
furniture which are generally described as " the
Dutch influence," which, however, had its origin
at least as far back as the reign of Charles II.
Both William and Mary were greatly interested
in furnishing and furniture. They took up their
residence at Hampton Court Palace soon after
their coronation, and the place suited William
so well and pleased him so much that it was very
diflficult to get him away from it. William was a
II I A

2 OLD FURNITURE
great soldier and a great statesman, but he was
more at his pleasure in the business of a country
house than in the festivities and scandals of a
court life, both of which he perhaps equally
disliked. The Queen also cordially liked country
life, and no less cordially disliked scandal. Mr.
Law, in his interesting book on Hampton Court,
mentions the story that Mary would check any
person attempting to retail scandal by asking
whether they had read her favourite sermon —
Archbishop Tillotson on Evil Speaking.
With the assistance of Sir Christopher Wren
as Architect and Grinling Gibbon as Master
Sculptor, great changes were made in the Palace
at Hampton Court. The fogs and street smells
of Whitehall drove William to the pure air of
the country, and there was the additional attrac
tion that the country around the palace reminded
him in its flatness of his beloved Holland. When
one of his Ministers ventured to remonstrate
with him on his prolonged absences from London,
he answered : " Do you wish to see me dead ? "
William, perhaps naturally, cared nothing for
EngHsh tradition : he destroyed the state rooms
of Henry VIII. and entrusted to Wren the task
of rebuilding the Palace. The architect appears
to have had a difficult task, as the King con
stantly altered the plans as they proceeded and

OLD FURNITURE 3
It is said, did a good deal towards spoiling the
great architect's scheme. In William's favour
it must be admitted that he took the blame for
the deficiencies and gave Wren the credit of the
successes of the building. The result — the attach
ment of a Renaissance building to a Tudor
palace — is more successful than might have been
expected. The King's relations with Wren seem
to have been of a very friendly sort. Mr. Law
mentions the fact that Wren was at this time
Grand Master of Freemasons ; that he initiated
the King into the mysteries of the craft ; and
that William himself reached the chair and
presided over a lodge at Hampton Court Palace
whilst it was being completed, which is in the
circumstances an interesting example of the
working rather than the speculative masonry.
Mary was herself a model housewife, and filled
her Court with wonder that she should labour
so many hours each day at her needlework as if
for her living. She covered the backs of chairs
and couches with her work, which was described
as " extremely neat and very well shadowed,"
although all trace of it has long since disappeared.
It is appropriate to observe, as being related to
decorative schemes and furnishing, that the taste
for Chinese porcelain, which is so general at
this day, was first introduced into England by

4 OLD FURNITURE
Mary. Evelyn mentions in his diary (June 13,
1693) that he " saw the Queen's rare cabinets and
collection of china which was wonderfully rich
and plentiful." Macaulay expresses his opinion
with his usual frankness. He writes : " Mary had
acquired at The Hague a taste for the porcelain of
China, and amused herself by forming at Hampton
a vast collection of hideous images, and vases upon
which houses, trees, bridges, and mandarins were
depicted in outrageous defiance of all the laws of
perspective. The fashion — a frivolous and inele
gant fashion, it must be owned — which was thus set
by the amiable Queen spread fast and wide. In a
few years almost every great house in the kingdom
contained a museum of these grotesque baubles.
Even statesmen and generals were not ashamed
to be renowned as judges of teapots and dragons ;
and satirists long continued to repeat that a fine
lady valued her mottled green pottery quite as
much as she valued her monkey and much more
than she valued her husband." It is strange to
consider in these days how greatly Macaulay,
in this opinion, was out of his reckoning. There
is, perhaps, no example of art or handicraft upon
which the opinion of cultured taste in all coun
tries is so unanimous as in its admiration for
good Chinese porcelain, amongst which the
Queen's collection (judging from the pieces still

Fig. 1. MANTELPIECE IN HAMPTON COURT PALACE

Fig. 3. ROOM IN CLIFFORD\S INN (PERIOD WILLIAM AND MARY)

Fig. 4
CARVING IN PINEWOOD
ATTRIBUTED TO
GRINLING GIBBON

Fig. 5. TURNED B.ALUSTERS
(LATE SEVENTEENTH AND EARLY
EIGH lEENTH CENTURIES)

Fig. 6. DOORWAY
(LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)

Fig, 7. OVERMANTEL
(L.ATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)

Fig. 8. DOORWAY
(FARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY)

Fig. 9. MANTELPIECE
(EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY)

OLD FURNITURE 5
remaining at Hampton) must be classed. Mary
was probably the first English queen to intimately
concern herself with furniture. We have it on
the authority of the Duchess of Marlborough
that on the Queen's first visit to the palace she
engaged herself " looking into every closet and
conveniency, and turning up the quilts upon
the beds, as people do when they come into an
inn, and with no other concern in her appearance
but such as they express."
We find in this period lavishly painted ceilings,
woodwork carved by Grinling Gibbon and his
school, fine needlework, upholstered bedsteads,
and marble mantelpieces with diminishing shelves
for the display of Delft and Chinese ware. The
standard of domestic convenience, in one respect,
could not, however, have been very high, if one
may judge from the Queen's bathing-closet of
this period at Hampton Court Palace. The bath
is of marble and recessed into the wall, but it
is more like a fountain than a bath, and its use
in the latter connection must have been attended
by inconveniences which modern women of
much humbler station would decline to face.*
* The bathroom is, however,not in itself so modern in England
as might be supposed. Wheatley mentions that as early as the
fourteenth century a bathroom was attached to the bedchamber
in the houses of the great nobles, but more often a big tub with
a covering like a tent was used.

6 OLD FURNITURE
Good specimens of the wood-carving of
Grinling Gibbon (born 1648, died 1721) are to
be seen at Hampton Court, to which Palace
William III. appointed the artist Master Carver.
He generally worked in soft woods, such as lime,
pear and pine, but sometimes in oak. His subjects
were very varied — fruit and foliage, wheat-ears
and fiowers, cupids and dead game, and even
musical instruments — and were fashioned with
amazing skill, resource, and ingenuity. He
invented that school of English carving which
is associated with his name. His fancy is lavish
and his finish in this particular work has never
been surpassed in this country ; but it is doubtful
whether his work is not overdone, and as such
may not appeal to the purer taste. Often his
masses of flowers and foliage too much suggest
the unpleasant term which is usually apphed to
them, viz., " swags." Frequently nothing is left
to the imagination in the boldness of his realism.
Fig. I shows a very happy example of his work
over a mantelpiece in one of the smaller rooms
in Hampton Court Palace, which is reproduced
by the courtesy of the Lord Chamberlain, the
copyright being the property of H.M. the King.
Upon the shelf are pieces of china belonging to
Queen Mary, but the portrait inset is of Queen
Caroline, consort of George IV. In the grate

OLD FURNITURE 7
is an antique fire-back, and on either side of
the fire is a chair of the period of Wilham and
Mary. The Court bedsteads (and probably on a
smaller scale the bedsteads of the upper classes
generally) continued to be at once elaborate and
unhygienic, and were fitted with canopies and
hangings of velvet and other rich stuffs. King
William's bedstead was a great four-poster, hung
with crimson velvet and surmounted at each
corner with an enormous plume, which was much
the same fashion of bedstead as at the beginning
of the century. Fig. 2 is an interesting photo
graph (reproduced by permission of the Lord
Chamberlain) of three Royal bedsteads at Hamp
ton Court, viz. William, Mary, and George II.
The chairs and stools in front are of the period of
WiUiam and Mary. The table is of later date.
Most of the old furniture at Hampton Court,
however, has been dispersed amongst the other
Royal palaces.
An excellent idea of the appearance of a
London dwelling-room of this period is shown
in Fig. 3. It was. removed from No. 3 Clifford's
Inn, and is now to be seen at the Victoria and
Albert Museum. The owner, John Penhallow,
must have been well-to-do, as the fine carving
about the mantelpiece and doors was expensive

8 OLD FURNITURE
even in those days. The festoons of fruit
and flowers of the school of Grinling Gibbon
around the mantelpiece, in the centre of which
are the arms of the owner, and the broken
pediments over the doors surmounting the
cherubs' heads, are characteristic of the time.
The table with the marquetry top and " tied "
stretcher is of the period. The chairs retained
for a time that rigid resistance to the lines of
the human form which marks the Stuart chairs ;
but very soon adapted themselves in a physio
logical sense.
What is termed the Queen Anne period of
furniture may be said to date from the reigns of
William and Mary (i 689-1 702), and Queen Anne
(1702-1714), to that of George I. (1714-1727).
The Dutch influence of William and Mary became
Anglicised during the reign of Anne and the first
George, and the influence remains to this day.
Mahogany was introduced about 1720, and thence
forward the influence of Chippendale and his
school came into force.
The Queen Anne style has probably been
over-praised, a little misunderstood, and possibly
a trifle harshly treated. Mr. Ernest Law, whose
studies of this period we have already mentioned,
describes it as " nothing better than an imitation
(A the bastard classic of Louis XIV., as distin-

OLD FURNITURE 9
guished from the so-called ' Queen Anne style '
which never had any existence at all except in
the brains of modern aesthetes and china maniacs,"
and as a case in point refers to Queen Anne's
drawing-room at Hampton Court Palace. This
verdict is no doubt a true one as regards the
schemes of interior decoration, with their sprawl
ing deities and the gaudy and discordant groupings
of classical figures of Verrio and his school, to
be seen at Hampton Court and other great
houses. Verrio, as Macaulay wrote, " covered
ceilings and staircases with Gorgons and Muses,
Nymphs and Satyrs, Virtues and Vices, Gods
quaffing nectar, and laurelled princes riding in
triumph " — a decorative scheme which certainly
does not err on the side of parsimony. The taste
of a Court, however, is by no means a criterion
of taste in domestic furniture. There can be no
doubt but that to this period we are indebted for
the introduction of various articles of furniture
of great utility and unquestionable taste. The
chairs and tables in particular, depending as
they do for charm upon simple lines and the
transverse grain of the wood, for neatness of
design and good workmanship are unsurpassed.
Amongst other pieces the bureaux and long-
cased clocks made their appearance ; also double
chests of drawers or tallboys, mirrors for toilet-

10 OLD FURNITURE
tables, and wall decoration; and washstands
came into general use, as well as articles like
card-tables, powdering-tables, &c.
The houses of the wealthy were furnished
with great magnificence and luxuriousness, and
in a gaudy and ultra-decorative fashion. Restraint
is the last quality to be found. Judging however
from the many simple and charming specimens
of walnut furniture surviving, the standard of
comfort and good taste amongst the middle
classes was high. Table glass was now manu
factured in England ; carpets were made at
Kidderminster ; chairs grew to be comfortably
shaped ; domestic conveniences in the way of
chests of drawers, writing bureaux, and mirrors
were all in general use in many middle-class
houses, Mr. Pollen, whose handbook on the
Victoria and Albert collection is so much appre
ciated, writes of the Queen Anne furniture as being
of a " genuine English style marked by great
purity and beauty."
Anne, as the second daughter of James II. ,
was the last of the Stuarts, with whom, however,
she had little in common, and indeed it is with
something of an effort that we think of her as a
Stuart at all. Personally she had no more influence
upon the period which bears her name than the
Goths had upon Gothic architecture. The term

OLD FURNITURE ii
" Queen Anne " has grown to be a conveniently
descriptive term for anything quaint and pretty.
We are all familiar with the Queen Anne house
of the modern architect, with its gables and
sharply pitched roof. This, however, is probably
suggested by various rambles in picturesque
country districts in England and Holland ; but
it has nothing in common with the actual houses
of the period under review.
The bulk of the genuine furniture which has
come down to us was probably from the houses
of the merchant classes, the period being one
of great commercial activity. The condition of
the poor, however, was such that they could not
concern themselves with furniture. Mr. Justin
McCarthy, in his book on these times, estimates
that one-fifth of the population were paupers.
A few rude tables and chairs, a chest, truckle-
beds, and possibly a settle, would have made up
the possessions of the working-class house ; and
it is probable that not until the nineteenth cen
tury was there any material improvement in their
household surroundings.
It was a time in which the coffee- and chocolate-
houses flourished ; when Covent Garden and
Leicester Square were fashionable neighbour
hoods ; when the Sedan chair was the fashionable
means of transit ; when the police were old

12 OLD FURNITURE
men with rattles who, sheltered in boxes,
guarded the City ; and when duels were fought
in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The coffee-house was
a lively factor in the life of the times : although
wines were also sold, coffee was the popular
drink. The price for a dish of coffee and a seat
by a good fire was commonly one penny, or
perhaps three-halfpence, although to these
humble prices there were aristocratic exceptions.
Anderton's Hotel in Fleet Street, " The Bay
Tree " in St. Swithin's Lane, and the now
famous " Lloyd's " are interesting developments
of the Queen Anne coffee-houses. Coffee itself
was retailed at about seven shillings per pound.
Chocolate-houses were small in number, but in
cluded names so well known at the present time
as "White's" and the " Cocoa Tree." Choco
late was commonly twopence the dish. " Fancy
the beaux," Thackeray writes, " thronging the
chocolate-houses, tapping their snuff-boxes as
they issue thence, their periwigs appearing over
the red curtains."
Tea-drinking was a social function and mainly
a domestic operation, and to its popularity we
owe the number of small light tables of this
period. Snuff, or the fan supply each pause of chat.
With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.

Fig. io. MIRROR FRAME
(ATTRIBUTED TO GRINLING GIBBON)

Kjg. II. SIMPLE WALL MIRROR
(yUEEN ANNE PERIOD)
(The property of Mr, F. W. Phillips, The
Manor House, Hitchin)

Fig, 12, SIMPLE TOILET MIRROR
(QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)
(The property of Mr. F. W. Phillips, The
Manor House, Hitchin)

(QUF;EN .ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. 14. W.ALL MIRROR
QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig, is
•GESSO" .MIRROR (QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. i6. " GESSO " .MIRROR
(<JUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. 17. FINE "GE.SSO" MIRROR
(QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. i8
MIRROR FROM "FLASK" TAVERN
PIMLICO, DATE ABOUT 1700

Fig. 19. M.ARQUETRY MIRROR
(EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY)

Fig, 20

TOILET MIRROR WITH DRAWERS (QUEEN
ANNE PERIOD)
(Property of Messrs. Mawer & Stephenson Ltd.
221 Fulham Road, S.W.)

Fig. 21. TOILET MIRROR ON STAND
(ijUEEN .\NNE PERIOD)

OLD FURNITURE 13
The price of tea fluctuated very much — some years
it was much cheaper than others, varying from
lOJ. to 30J. per lb., although it is said that in
the cheaper sorts old infused leaves were dried
and mixed with new ones.
As regards china and porcelain, the Chinese
was in great request, following, no doubt,
on the fashion set by Queen Mary. The
English factories — Worcester, Derby, Chelsea,
Bow, Wedgwood, and Minton — only started
in the last half of the eighteenth century.
Mr. Ashton, in his interesting book on
" Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne,"
quotes the following advertisement, which points
to the continued popularity of decorative
china :
" Whereas the New East India Company did
lately sell all their China Ware, These are to
advertise that a very large parcel thereof (as
Broken and Damaged) is now to be sold by
wholesale and Retail, extremely cheap at a
Warehouse in Dyer's Yard. Note. — It is very
fit to furnish Escrutores, Cabinets, Corner Cup
boards or Spriggs, where it usually stands for
ornament only."
This fashion first brought into use the various
forms of cabinets used for the display of china.
The earliest pieces would therefore date from

14 OLD FURNITURE
the end of the seventeenth, or the beginning
of the eighteenth century.
In the first volume of this series we referred
to a characteristic of Elizabethan woodwork,
viz. inlaying — the laying-in of small pieces of
one or several kinds of wood in places cut out
of the surface of another kind. In the period
under review two further practices are deserving
of special notice. The first is veneering, which
consists of wholly covering one sort of wood
(frequently a common wood, such as deal or
pine, but also oak) with a thin layer of choice
wood — walnut, mahogany, &c. The object of
veneering was not for purposes of deception, as
it was not intended to produce the effect that
the whole substance was of the choicer sort of
wood ; but by means of applying these thin
overlays a greater choice of wood was possible,
and a more beautiful effect was produced by the
juxtaposition of the various grains.
Although at the present time the term veneer
is frequently used as one of approbrium, the
principle it stands for is a perfectly honest one.
It is very much the same as the application of
the thin strips of marble to the pillars and walls
of St. Mark's at Venice, which is called incrus
tation, and of which Ruskin writes in the " Stones
of Venice." The basis of St. Mark's is brick,

OLD FURNITURE 15
which is covered by an incrustation or veneer
of costly and beautiful marbles, by which rich
and varied colour effects are produced which
would have been impossible in solid marble.
The same principle applies to veneers of wood,
in which there is likewise no intention to deceive
but rather a desire to make the most of the
materials on hand. It would have been impossible
to construct a great many cabinets of solid walnut-
wood, nor would the effect have been so satis
factory, because, as already pointed out, the fact
of veneers being laid in thin strips immensely
increases the choice of woods and facilitates the
composition of pleasing effects. There is, more
over, often a greater nicety of workmanship in
the making of veneered furniture than in the
solid article, and it is indeed often a complaint
that the doing up of old veneered furniture is
so expensive and troublesome. In old days veneers
were cut by hand — sometimes one-eighth of an
inch thick — but the modern veneer is, of course,
cut by machinery, and is often a mere shaving.
In the period under discussion walnut-veneer
ing reached great perfection, beautiful effects
being produced by cross-banding various strips
and varying the course of the grains and the
shades. Oak was first used as a base, but later
commoner woods such as deal.

i6 OLD FURNITURE
It is a mistake to condemn an article because
the basis is not of oak. As a matter of fact, after
a time oak went out of use as a basis for the
reason that it was unsatisfactory, the veneer
having a tendency to come away from it. We
frequently find the front of a drawer in a chest
of pine, to take the veneer, whilst the sides and
bottom of the drawer are of oak.
Marquetry, which is also a feature in furniture
of this period, is a combination of inlaying and
veneering. A surface is covered with a veneer and
the desired design is cut out and filled in with
other wood. Its later developments are of French
origin, and it was first introduced into England
from Holland towards the end of the seventeenth
century, after James II. (who had been a wanderer
in Holland) came to the throne.
Most arts date back to ancient times ; and the
arts of woodcraft are no exceptions. Inlaying,
veneering, and wood-carving reach back to the
temple of Solomon ; and the Egyptians also
practised them. Ancient inlay, moreover, was
not confined to woods — ivory, pearls, marbles,
metals, precious stones all being requisitioned.
During the reigns of Wilham and Mary,
Anne, and George the First, events of great
importance transpired. St. Paul's, that great
monument to Wren and Renaissance architec-

OLD FURNITURE 17
ture, was opened ; the Marlborough wars were
fought ; the South Sea Bubble was blown and
burst ; Sir Christopher Wren and Grinling
Gibbon completed their work ; Marlborough
House and Blenheim were built ; Addison, Pope,
and Daniel Defoe were at work ; Gibraltar was
taken ; England and Scotland were united ; the
Bank of England was incorporated ; and last,
but not least, the National Debt started.

II

CHAPTER II : SIR
CHRISTOPHER WREN AND
GRINLING GIBBON
The temper of a nation is reflected in its archi
tecture and, in a lesser degree, in its furniture.
When we look at the furniture of the last of
the Stuarts, Mary II. and her sister Anne, we
see written all over it in large letters one great
virtue — sobriety.
In the oak furniture of the last of the Tudors
and the first of the Stuarts (Elizabeth and
James I.) we find the same sober note ; but in
the main it is more essentially English. In the
Augustan era of Elizabeth we certainly see in
the more pretentious examples of Court-cup
boards and cabinets the influence of the Renais
sance ; but the furniture made by the people
for the people is simply Enghsh in form and
decoration. During the troublous times of the two Charles
and to the end of the revolution which placed
William and Mary on the throne, the country
was alternately in the throes of gaiety and Puri
tanism ; and a dispassionate view leads one to
suppose that " Merrie England " had the greater
i8

OLD FURNITURE 19
leaning towards merriment. The people of
England knew well enough that sobriety was
good for them, and Cromwell gave it in an
unpalatable form. The remedy was less to the
country's liking than the disease, and with the
Restoration in 1660 the passions of the nation
ran riot in the opposite extreme.
The final lesson came with the twenty-nine
years of misrule under Charles II. and James IL
Having drained the cup of degradation to the
dregs, the country set about her real reformation
by the aid of Dutch William, himself the grand
son of a Stuart, and his cousin-consort Anne, the
daughter of the self-deposed James.
James II. had learnt his lesson from the errors
of his brother Charles, but was not wise enough
to fully profit by it. He realised that misrule
had stretched his subjects' patience to the
breaking-point, and during his short reign there
was a certain amount of surface calm. But
beneath was the continual struggle for absolutism
on the part of the monarch and emancipation
on the part of the people. The subject is famihar
to students of history.
With the advent of the Orange regime we find
a distinct revolution in English furniture. There
is no evidence of a sudden change. We find
comparatively severe examples during James II.'s

20 OLD FURNITURE
reign and flamboyant patterns dating from the
days of William. The transitional period was
shorter than usual, and once the tide had gathered
strength in its flow there was very little ebb.
The Civil troubles in the country had given
a severe check to the arts : the influence of the
Renaissance upon furniture was upon the wane,
and the ground was lying fallow and hungry for
the new styles which may be said to have landed
with Wilham of Orange in Torbay in 1688.
The main influence in the furniture was Dutch,
and the Dutch had been to a large extent in
fluenced by a wave of Orientalism.
Twenty- five years before this, England's most
renowned, if not greatest, architect had designed
his first ecclesiastical building — the Chapel of
Pembroke Hall, Cambridge — in the classical style
which he made famous in England.
Christopher Wren was born in 1631 or 1632.
He was son of Dr. Christopher Wren, Dean of
Windsor, and nephew of Matthew Wren, Bishop
of Ely, who, to celebrate his release from the
Tower, built Pembroke Hall Chapel in 1663,
employing his nephew as architect.
In 1664, when Christopher Wren was about
thirty-two years of age, he came in contact
with John Evelyn, the diarist, who in his journal,
under date July 13, writes of him as that " miracle

OLD FURNITURE 21
of a youth." The acquaintanceship ripened into
a friendship, only broken by Evelyn's death in
1706. From Evelyn's diary we are able to glean
many things concerning the then rising young
architect. The idea of the Royal Society was
the outcome of a meeting in 1660 of several
scientists in Wren's room after one of the lectures
at Gresham College. On being approached on
the desirability of forming the Society, Charles II.
gave his assent and encouragement to the project,
and we learn that one of the first transactions
of the Society was an account of Wren's pendulum
experiment. The Society was incorporated by
Royal Charter in 1663.
It would appear that Wren had no world-wide
reputation as an architect at the time, but,
probably through the instrumentality of his
friend Evelyn, he was appointed by the King
as assistant to Sir John Denham, the Surveyor-
General of Works, and in the opinion of one of
his biographers, Lucy PhiUimore, " the practical
experience learned in the details of the assistant-
surveyor's work was afterwards very serviceable
to him."
We find him occupied in 1664 in plans for
repairing old St. Paul's and in building the
Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford, which was finished
in 1669. During the plague of 1665 Wren made

22 OLD FURNITURE
a tour of the Continent, and there absorbed
ideas which fructified in the new style of
classical architecture which has made his name
famous. During further discussions concerning
the much-needed repairs to St. Paul's came the
fire of London in 1666. This solved the difficulty,
for St. Paul's was left a gaunt skeleton in the City
of Desolation. Wren's plans for the rebuilding
of the City were accepted by the King, but were
never carried out in anything like their entirety.
All attempts to patch up the cathedral were
abandoned in 1673, and the ground was cleared
for the new foundations. The architect and
his master mason laid the first stone on June 21,
1675. The cathedral and the story of its building
is familiar to us all. The great architect, having
drawn the circle for the dome, called to a work
man to bring him a piece of stone to mark the
centre. The man brought a fragment of an old
tombstone on which was the single word " Resur-
gam." All present took it as a good omen. We
all know how the last stone of the lantern was
laid thirty-five years afterwards by the architect's
own son in the presence of his father. During
those thirty-five years the great freemason's
hands had been full, and in the City which rose
from the ashes of the fire of 1666 no less than
fifty-four churches were either built or restored

OLD FURNITURE 23
by him. In addition, we find that the rebuilding
or restoration of thirty-six halls of the City guilds,
as well as upwards of fifty notable buildings —
hospitals, colleges, palaces, cathedrals and
churches — in London and the provinces, is laid
to his credit.
St. Paul's Cathedral, Wren's City churches, and
the Monument, would in themselves make
London famous amongst the cities of the world.
The Monument was erected to commemorate the
rebuilding of the City. The inscription thereon
absurdly attributes the origin of the fire to the
Papists. Pope satirises it in his " Moral Essays " '•
London's Column pointing to the skies
Like a tall bully lifts the head and lies.
Chief amongst the churches for beauty is St.
Stephen's, Walbrook. Canova, the great sculptor,
after paying a visit to England for the purpose
of seeing the Elgin marbles, was asked if he
would like to return to the country. " Yes,"
he replied, " that I might again see St. Paul's
Cathedral, Somerset House, and St. Stephen's,
Walbrook." A dozen or more of Wren's churches have
been swept off the map of London, in many
cases with a wantonness amounting to sacrilege ;
but we can still rejoice in the possession of such
gems as St. Stephen's, Walbrook; St. Nicholas,

24 OLD FURNITURE
Cole Abbey ; and St. Mary Abchurch, with
its flat roof and cupola supported on eight
arches. St. Dunstan's in the East, near the
Custom House, still stands testifying to the fact
that Wren could restore a church without spoiling
it. St. Dunstan's, built in the latest style of
perpendicular Gothic, was left a mere shell after
the fire. Wren added the fine tower, and capped
it with the curious and graceful spire supported
on flying buttresses. It is said that the architect
stood on London Bridge with a telescope anxiously
watching the removal of the scaffolding from the
spire. It is scarcely credible however that such a
man should doubt his own powers of building.
This legend recalls the story of the building of
the Town Hall at Windsor in 1686. The spacious
chamber on the street level is used as a corn
exchange, and above is the great hall. The
anxious town councillors declared that the great
room above would collapse. Wren knew exactly
how much his four walls and great beams could
bear, but to appease the burghers he promised
to place four columns at the intersections of the
beams. He purposely built them about two
inches short, and to this day, after the lapse of
two hundred and twenty-five years, there is still
a two-inch space between the top of each column
and the ceihng it is supposed to support. On

OLD FURNITURE 25
the exterior of the building are two statues given
by Wren in 1707: one of Queen Anne and the
other of her Danish consort. Prince George.
Our good Christopher could flatter on occasion.
The inscription to Prince George in his Roman
costume reads, inter alia :
Heroi omni saeculo venerando.
Underneath the figure of Queen Anne is the
legend :
Arte tua sculptor non est imitabilis Anna
Annae vis similem sculpere sculpe Deam,
The local rhyming and free translation runs :
Artist, thy skill is vain ! Thou can'st not trace
The semblance of the matchless Anna's face !
Thou might'st as well to high Olympus fly
And carve the model of some Deity !
We admit this is a very free and extended
translation, but it passes current locally. To
say the least, it is high praise ; but Wren had
a staunch friend in Queen Anne, and every eye
makes its own beauty.
The exigencies of the time called for a great
architect, and he appeared in the person of
Christopher Wren : they called for a great
artist to adorn the master's buildings, and he
appeared in the guise of Grinling Gibbon.
The discovery of Gibbon in an obscure house
at Deptford goes to the credit of gossipy John

26 OLD FURNITURE
Evelyn, who on January i8, 1671, writes : " This
day, I first acquainted his Majesty (Charles II.)
with that incomparable young man Gibbon,
whom I had lately met with in an obscure place
by mere accident, in a field in our parish, near
Sayes Court. I found him shut in ; but looking
in at the window, I perceived him carving that
large cartoon or crucifix of Tintoretto, a copy
of which I had brought myself from Venice,
where the original painting remains. I asked if
I might enter ; he opened the door civilly to me,
and I saw him about such a work as for the
curiosity of handling, drawing and studious
exactness, I never had before seen in all my
travels. I questioned why he worked in such an
obscure and lonesome place ; it was that he
might apply himself to his profession without
interruption, and wondered not a httle how I
found him out. I asked him if he were unwilhng
to be known to some great man, for that I believed
it might turn to his profit, he answered, he was
yet but a beginner, but would not be sorry to
sell off that piece ; on demanding the price he
said ;^ioo. In good earnest, the very frame was
worth the money, there being nothing in nature
so tender and delicate as the flowers and festoons
about it, and yet the work was very strong ; in
the piece was more than one hundred figures

OLD FURNITURE 27
of men, &c. ... Of this young artist together
with my manner of finding him out, I acquainted
the King, and begged that he would give me
leave to bring him and his work to Whitehall,
for that I would venture my reputation with
his Majesty that he had never seen anything
approach it, and that he would be exceedingly
pleased, and employ him. The King said he
would himself go see him. This was the
first notice his Majesty ever had of Mr.
Gibbon." The King evidently did not " go see him,"
for under date March i we read : " I caused
Mr. Gibbon to bring to Whitehall his excellent
piece of carving, where being come, I advertised
his Majesty. . . . No sooner was he entered
and cast his eye on the work, but he was astonished
at the curiosity of it, and having considered it a
long time and discoursed with Mr. Gibbon
whom I brought to kiss his hand, he commanded
it should be immediately carried to the Queen's
side to show her. It was carried up into her bed
chamber, where she and the King looked on and
admired it again ; the King being called away,
left us with the Queen, believing she would have
bought it, it being a crucifix ; but when his
Majesty was gone, a French peddling woman,
one Madame de Boord, who used to bring

28 OLD FURNITURE
petticoats and fans and baubles, out of France to
the ladies, began to find fault with several things
in the work, which she understood no more than
an ass, or a monkey, so as in a kind of indignation,
I caused the person who brought it to carry it
back to the Chamber, finding the Queen so
much governed by an ignorant French woman,
and this incomparable artist had his labour only
for his pains, which not a little displeased me ;
he not long after sold it for ^^80, though well
worth £100, without the frame, to Sir George
Viner. His Majesty's Surveyor, Mr. Wren,
faithfully promised to employ him. I having also
bespoke his Majesty for his work at Windsor,
which my friend Mr. May, the architect there,
was going to alter and repair universally."
Grinling Gibbon was born in 1648, and so the
" incomparable young man " would have been
about twenty-three years of age when he sailed
into Royal favour. We do not know the where
abouts of the carved cartoon after Tintoret ;
but we shall find at the Victoria and Albert
Museum a carving by Gibbon, measuring 6 ft.
in height by 4 ft. 4 in. in width, of the " Stoning
of St. Stephen." It is executed in limewood
and lance-wood. Walpole, in his " Catalogue
of Painters," writes of the " Stoning of St.
Stephen," which was purchased and placed by

OLD FURNITURE 29
the Duke of Chandos at Canons,* as the carving
which had " struck so good a judge " as Evelyn.
It is palpably not identical with the Tintoret
subject which Evelyn describes as " being a
crucifix." Fig. 10 in Chapter III. is a remarkable
example of Gibbon's carving of fruits, flowers,
and foliage.
Readers who are familiar with the Belgian
churches will remember the wonderful carvings
at Brussels and Mecklin by Drevot and Laurens,
who were pupils of Gibbon. They out-Gibbon
Gibbon in their realism.
In Fig. 4, photographed for this book by the
South Kensington authorities, we give an illustra
tion of a carving in pinewood of a pendant of
* James Brydges, Duke of Chandos, who as Paymaster of the
Forces during the wars in the reign of Queen Anne amassed a
large fortune, built Canons, near Edgware, in 1715. The building
and furnishing is said to have cost between ^200,000 and ^^250,000.
It was in the classical or Palladian style of architecture, and was
adorned with costly pillars and statuary. The great salon was
painted by the Paolucci and the ceiling of the staircase by Thorn-
hill. Although the building was designed to stand for ages, under
the second Duke the estate became so encumbered that it was
put up to auction, and as no buyer could be found the house
was pulled down in 1747. The materials of " Princely Canons "
realised only ^11,000. The marble staircase and pillars were
bought by Lord Chesterfield for his house in Mayfair. The
witty Earl used to speak of the columns as " the Canonical pillars
of his house." The Grinling Gibbon carving of the " Stoning of
St. Stephen " was transferred to Bush Hill Park, near Enfield,
and finally acquired in 1898 by the Victoria and Albert Museum
at a cost of ^£300.

30 OLD FURNITURE
flowers attributed to Gibbon. It originally deco
rated the Church of St. Mary Somerset, Thames
Street, E.C, built 1695 — one of Wren's City
churches so wantonly destroyed. To see Gibbon's
wood carving at its best we must go to St. Paul's
Cathedral, Windsor Castle, and Hampton Court
Palace. At Windsor we shall also see carved
marble panels of trophies, emblems and realistic
fruits, flowers, and shell-fish on the pedestal
of the statue of Charles II. At Charing Cross
we have another example of his stone carving
on the pedestal of the statue of Charles the
Martyr. We have already referred to the Church of
St. Mary Abchurch in Abchurch Lane, between
King William Street and Cannon Street, City.
It was built in 1686, eleven years after the first
stone of St. Paul's was laid. It also serves for the
parish of St. Laurence Pountney. It lies in a
quiet backwater off the busy stream, and the
flagged courtyard is still surrounded by a few
contemporary houses. Externally it is not beau
tiful, but Wren and Gibbon expended loving
care on the really beautiful interior. The soft
light from the quaint circular and round-headed
windows casts a gentle radiance over the carved
festoons of fruit, palm-leaves and the " pelican
in her piety."

OLD FURNITURE 31
Just across, on the other side of Cannon Street,
is another backwater, Laurence Pountney Hill.
Two of the old Queen Anne houses remain.
No. I and No. 2, with beautiful old hooded
doorways dated 1703. The circular hoods are
supported by carved lion-headed brackets. The
jambs are ornamented with delicate interlaced
carving. No. 2 has been mutilated as to its
windows, and a modern excrescence has been
built on to the ground floor ; but No. i appears
to be much as it left the builders' hands in 1703,
and still possesses the old wide staircase with
twisted " barley-sugar " balusters and carved
rose newel pendants. These houses may or may
not have been designed by Wren. They seem to
bear the impress of his genius, and in any case
they give us a glimpse — and such glimpses are
all too rare — of the homes of the City fathers,
just as the little church across Cannon Street
brings us in touch with their religious life in
the early days of Queen Anne.
Fig. 5 represents an interesting series of
turned balusters taken from old houses of the
late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
They are executed in oak, lime, ash and pine-
wood — mostly the latter ; and many of the
details will be found repeated in the furniture
legs of the Queen Anne period. The photograph

32 OLD FURNITURE
was specially taken for this volume by the courtesy
of the Director and Secretary of the Victoria
and Albert Museum.
Fig. 6 represents a contemporary doorway of
a room formerly at No. 3 Clifford's Inn. It is of
oak, with applied carvings in cedar of acanthus-
leaf work, enclosing a cherub's head and a broken
pediment terminating in volutes. We shall find
members of the same cherub family on the
exterior of St. Mary Abchurch. Fig. 7 is the
overmantel of the same room with a marble
mantelpiece of somewhat later date. This room,
now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, was
erected in 1686 by John Penhallow, who resided
there till 171 6.
Fig. 8 is a beautiful doorway carved in yellow
pine, with Corinthian columns and pediment.
We shall find similar pediments in the tower of
Wren's church, St. Andrew's, Holborn. This
doorway with the carved mantelpiece (Fig. 9) came
from an old house in Carey Street, Lincoln's
Inn Fields. These belong to the early part of
the eighteenth century.
These are but a few isolated examples of beau
tiful settings to the furniture of the period of
the revival of classical architecture in England.
Such things are not for the modest collector,
who will content himself with the chairs, tables.

Fig, 22. STOOL (PERIOD OF WILLI.AM .AND MARY)
(The Property of Messrs. Mawer and Stephenson Ltd., 221 Fulham Road, S.W, |

Fig. 23. FINE STOOL (PERIOD QUEEN ANNE)

FINE CHAIRS (PERIOD WILLIAM AND MARY)

FlG. 27. FINE CHAIR
(PERIOD WILLIA.M AND MARY)

Fig. 28. SIMPLE CHAIR
(PERIOD WILLI.AM AND MARY)
(The property of F. W, Phillips, The Manor House,
Hitchin, Herts)

; . ,1 ,i

Fig. 29 FlG. 30
SIMPLE CHAIRS (QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)
(The Property of Mr. J. H. Springett, High Street, Rochester)

Fig. 31

Fig. 32
SIMPLE CHAIR WITH CABRIOLE LEGS
(QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig, 33 Fig. 34 Fig. 35
SIMPLE CHAIRS WITH CABRIOLE LEGS (QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)
(The Property of Mr. J. H. Springett, High Street, Rochester)

OLD FURNITURE 33
and bureaux of the period — articles, in the main,
of severe outline devoid of carving, and relying
for effect much upon the rich tones of the wood
employed, but withal eminently beautiful, inas
much as they were and are eminently useful.

II

CHAPTER III : MIRRORS,
STOOLS, AND SOME NOTES
ON A QUEEN ANNE BEDROOM
The mirror, at the present time, is so generally
an accepted necessary of life, and so indispensable
in many of its situations, that it may seem remark
able that not until the sixteenth century was it
in anything like general use in England. The
pleasure and interest of reflection must have
been felt from the time when " the reindeer
roared where Paris roars to-night." Still water
must have been the first mirror of the first man
and woman in which they discovered their
astonished faces, and where it is possible that,
like Narcissus, they fell in love with their own
reflections. Thus we find Eve saying in " Paradise
Lost " : I thither went
And with unexperienced thought, and laid me down
On the green bank ; to look into the clear
Smooth lake, that to me seem'd a second sky.
As I bent down to look, just opposite,
A shape within the wat'ry gleam appear'd,
Bending to look on me.
No doubt a reflecting surface was one of the
first things that human ingenuity concerned
itself about. Brass mirrors were used by the
34

OLD FURNITURE 35
Hebrews, and mirrors of bronze by the Egyp
tians, Greeks, and Romans ; surviving specimens
may be seen in the museums. Silver mirrors were
also used in very early times. Glass mirrors are
also of ancient origin. Sauzay, in his work on
" Glass-making," quotes from Aristotle as
follows : " If metals and stones are to be polished
to serve as mirrors, glass and crystal have to be
lined with a sheet of metal to give back the
image presented to them." And here we have
the foreshadowing of the mercury-backed sheet
of glass of modern times.
In England mirrors of polished metal were
well known in Anglo-Saxon times, and from the
twelfth to the fifteenth centuries the ladies
carried mirrors at their girdles or in their pockets.
Venice has always been the home of glass-work,
and it was there, in the early fourteenth century,
that the immediate prototypes of our modern
glass mirrors were made. For something like a
century and a half the Venetians had the mono
poly of the making of the best mirrors. Their
secrets were carefully guarded, and any workman
emigrating had his nearest relative imprisoned.
It is interesting to note in passing that in Jan
van Eyck's picture in the National Gallery,
London, painted in 1434, there is a framed
convex wall mirror which has an astonishingly

36 OLD FURNITURE
modern look. It is difficult to say whether or not
this is made of glass, but it shows, of course, that
mirrors were used for wall decoration at that
time. This picture, by the way, is very interesting,
as providing undeniable evidence as to the nature
of the Dutch furniture of the early fifteenth
century. As regards the early history of the mirror in
Britain, there is a glass mirror in Holyrood Palace
in the apartments used by Queen Mary the First
and said to have belonged to her. At Hampton
Court there are mirrors belonging to the period of
William III. and later, some of which have bevelled
edges and borders of blue glass in the form of
rosettes. Glass mirrors were made in England by
Italian workmen early in the seventeenth century,
but not extensively until about 1670, when the
Duke of Buckingham estabhshed works in Lam
beth, where mirrors were made. The edges were
bevelled in Venetian fashion. We find Evelyn
writing in his diary under date of September 19,
1676: " To Lambeth to that rare magazine of marble,
to take order for chimney pieces, &c., for Mr.
Godolphin's house. The owner of the workes
had built for himselfe a pretty dwelling house ;
this Dutchman had contracted with the Genoese
for all their marble. We also saw the Duke of

OLD FURNITURE 37
Buckingham's Glass Worke, where they made
high vases of metal as cleare, ponderous and
thick as chrystal ; also looking glasses far larger
and better than any that come from Venice."
As will be seen at Hampton Court, the glass
in each of the large mirrors of this time is in
two pieces, for the reason that, by the methods
then in use, it was not possible to make larger
sheets. This method of making mirrors in two
pieces is followed even in the present day in
modern copies of old mirrors. It was, no doubt,
a cause of regret to the old makers that they
could not turn out a large glass in one sheet,
and they would no doubt have been astonished to
think that succeeding ages would deliberately
copy their defect. A collector will not, probably,
come across a mirror earlier than William and
Mary, and he should have little difficulty in
finding genuine mirrors of the next reign — Queen
Anne — which are at once interesting and inex
pensive. Mr. Clouston thinks that " the wall
mirrors of the Queen Anne period may very well
rank with the best furniture of their time. They
are simple yet satisfying, and rich without extra
vagance." A mirror is not a mere looking-glass, although
in this connection it has always been greatly
appreciated. Mirrors bring a sense of space to a

38 OLD FURNITURE
small room, and make a larger room appear more
spacious. In the King's writing-closet at Hampton
Court there is a mirror over the chimney-piece
which provides a vista of all the rooms on the south
side of the state apartments. Great furniture-
designers from the time of Grinling Gibbon to
that of Chippendale have appreciated the oppor
tunities offered by mirrors for the purposes of
decoration. Fig. 10 is a mirror-frame of carved limewood
by Grinling Gibbon to be seen in the Victoria
and Albert Museum. It is a rich and wonderful
example of chisel play, but, like his work in
general, does not satisfy a taste which inclines
to less resplendent decoration. Such a mirror
is probably not within the reach of any collector,
great or small ; and it is even probable — at least
as regards the small collector — that if by a stroke
of fortune such a piece descended to him, he
would find that it would scarcely harmonise with
any ordinary scheme of decoration. Its presence
would be as embarrassing as the entertainment of
Royalty in a suburban home.
The ordinary types — and they are many — of
Queen Anne mirrors can with perfect propriety
find places in almost any room in any house of
taste, and on the walls of hall or staircase they
are at once interesting and decorative. Particu-

OLD FURNITURE 39
larly are they in harmony with the surroundings
of a " Queen Anne " bedroom. In this connec
tion, however, a word of warning is in place
regarding the old glass. This is very well on the
wall mirrors, but in the mirror for the toilet-
table it should be replaced by new glass. Nothing
lasts for ever, and it is rare that the old glasses
fully retain their reflecting powers. Old mirrors
are bad to shave by, and are, moreover, extremely
unpopular with ladies. The art of furnishing
consists of a tactful combination of whatever is
best in the old and the new.
Figs. II and 1 2 are simple mirrors of the Queen
Anne period. Fig. 11 is a wall glass with a pleasing
scroll outline, and Fig. 12 is a toilet-table glass
characteristic of the period, the gilt inner mould
ing or " embroidery "being an interesting feature.
We find similar decorative devices to the above
on many of the mirrors of this time, and such
examples should be purchasable at about two
guineas each.
Figs. 13 and 14 are more elaborate and expen
sive mirrors, the broken pediments in each case
suggesting the influence of Sir Christopher Wren.
Although the architectural inspiration, which
was absolute in the Gothic periods and strong
in the Elizabethan, was very much less marked
in the time of Queen Anne, still the classical

40 OLD FURNITURE
influence of Wren's Renaissance style is shown
in many ways, and particularly in the many
varieties of the broken pediment which are
favourite forms of decoration for the tops of
mirror frames. Fig. 13, in addition to the broken
pediment, is decorated on the frame with egg-
and-tongue mouldings, and on the base with a
bust of a cherub in high relief. Fig. 14 is sur
mounted by a boldly carved figure of an eagle
enclosed by the broken pediment. On either side
are carved festoons of fruit and flowers, possibly
suggested by the work of Grinling Gibbon.
These important mirrors, interesting and effec
tive as they are, require large rooms to set them
off. Simple mirrors, as in Figs. 11 and 12, present
no difficulties regarding their disposal. The
more elaborate ones, however, apart from their
expensiveness, should not be purchased unless
there is a suitable place in which to hang them.'*
This suggests a maxim which applies to the col
lection of any sort of furniture, viz. not to
purchase any piece until you have decided what
to do with it. Adherence to this rule may involve
the occasional loss of a bargain, but it avoids
confusion and possible domestic complications.
We knew an enthusiastic collector who resisted
the purchase of old examples with the greatest

OLD FURNITURE 41
difficulty. His wife, on the other hand, whilst
appreciating possibly as keenly as her husband
the attractions of the antique, was also fastidious
regarding the prompt settlement of tradesmen's
bills. The climax was reached one day when
the husband, instead of settling certain pressing
accounts, attended a sale and purchased an
enormous Dutch wardrobe which was found to
be at least eighteen inches too tall for any room
in the house.
Another form of decoration applied to mirror-
frames of the Queen Anne period was that known
as " Gesso " work, whereby a design was built
into relief with layers of size and plaster applied
with a brush. It gives scope for delicate line
work, and is often softer than carving. Figs. 15
and 16 are mirrors decorated with Gesso
ornament, to which, however, little justice can
be done in a photograph.
Fig. 17 is a fine mirror with Gesso ornamen
tation. It is of pinewood. In this the broken
pediment form has taken a somewhat fanciful
shape. In Fig. 18 the broken pediment appears in
a more strictly architectural form. This mirror,
which is of painted pine, was formerly in the
" Flask " Tavern, Ebury Square, Pimlico. Al
though its date would be about 1700, it is clearly

42 OLD FURNITURE
in its mouldings reminiscent of the Jacobean
period, which style no doubt continued in popu
larity amongst the poorer classes. This mirror
is an interesting instance of the merging of the
two styles.
Marquetry was also used on the mirror-frames
of this period, an example in a broad frame inlaid
with a floral pattern being shown in Fig. 19.
This mirror was sold for seventeen guineas.
Fig. 20 is an example of a toilet mirror of the
Queen Anne period, the front of which lets down
with a flap, after the manner of a bureau, reveal
ing a nest of drawers. This form of mirror is not
often met with, and an opportunity of acquiring
one at a reasonable price should not be neglected.
Fig. 21 is of similar construction mounted on a
stand, an architectural touch being given by the
pilasters on either side of the mirror. This pattern
is singularly simple and charming.
*****
Stools of the period under review are generally
difficult and somewhat expensive to acquire, but
these are not reasons for giving up hope. A type of
the William and Mary stool is shown in Fig. 22.
The scrolled feet and X-shaped stretcher are
characteristic. Stools were very popular articles
of furniture at this time. We find them in
numbers in contemporary prints, and they con-

OLD FURNITURE 43
tinned to be used as seats at meal-times, as no doubt
(providing the table were low enough) they were
more comfortable than the stiff-backed chairs
of the time. In the face of decided evidence of
their prevalence in the Queen Anne period,
their scarcity to-day is somewhat remarkable.
In the coloured frontispiece is shown a simple
stool of the time of the early Queen Anne period
covered with Petit-point needlework, with which
the ladies of that period delighted to occupy them
selves. This needlework — which, in addition to
being used as a covering for furniture, was also
framed to hang on the walls — is often patterned
with quaint trees, people, goats, dogs, and a
sprinkling of lovers and birds. A stool such as is
shown in the frontispiece makes an admirable seat
for a knee-hole writing-table.
Fig. 23 is a large stool of the Queen Anne
period with escallop-shell decoration, cabriole
legs, and an early form of the claw-and-ball feet.
It is covered with contemporary needle-work.
* # * # #
A Queen Anne bedroom conjures up the
possibility of composing a charming scheme of
interior decoration. First it is necessary to face
the inevitable and accept the position that a
modern bedstead is essential. This should be
made of walnut-wood, and the ends shaped after

44 OLD FURNITURE
the manner of the solid splats in the simple
chairs of the period. Such bedsteads are made
by several of the good modern furniture firms.
They are not, of course, literal reproductions of
the bedsteads of the period, which were of the
four-poster order, but they will be found to be
in good taste. Upon this bed should lay a repro
duction of the bed-covers of the period in a
pattern boldly coloured and Oriental in design.
The floor should be covered by antique Persian
rugs (or modern reproductions). A walnut toilet-
table should stand in the window {see Fig. 64).
Upon it should rest a toilet-glass {see Fig. 12),
and in front of it, if possible, a stool covered with
the needlework of the period {see Frontispiece).
This stool will, however, be difficult to obtain, and
its place could be taken by a simple chair of the
period {see Figs. 32 and 34). Two other simple
chairs should find places around the room, upon one
side of which should be placed a walnut tallboy
{see Fig. 56) surmounted by a piece of Chinese
blue-and-white. We cannot too strongly emphasise
the desirability of associating old Chinese blue-
and-white pottery with eighteenth-century fur
niture. The washstand of the period (too small
to be efficient) should be replaced by an unob
trusive wooden table painted white, the top of
which should be covered with tiles in a shade

OLD FURNITURE 45
which does not disagree with a reproduction of an
old " Spode " or " Mason's Ironstone " toilet set.
Toilet sets, as we understand the term to-day,
were unknown in the days of Queen Anne.
Common earthenware pitchers and basins, or at
best English and Dutch Delft, did duty until
the rise of the great Staffordshire factories late
in the eighteenth century. Original " Spode " or
" Mason " ware would not be of earlier dates
than 1770 and 1804 respectively, and so quite
out of the Queen Anne period. We merely
mention these two styles of so-called " Indian "
decorations as being most suitable for the pur
pose in hand. We might, indeed, happen upon
an eighteenth-century blue-and-white service ;
but all these early ewers and basins, like the
early washstands, are altogether too diminutive
for modern requirements. The reproductions,
whilst retaining the old decoration, are built in
more generous proportions.
For wall covering a plain white- or champagne-
coloured paper might be adopted, and for wall
decoration one or two old mirrors {see Figs. 11
and 15) and some reproductions of Dutch interiors
by the old masters, framed in broad black frames,
would be in harmony with the surroundings. A
difficulty in composing a Queen Anne bedroom
is to find a suitable hanging wardrobe. The

46 OLD FURNITURE
marquetry hanging-press or wardrobe of the
period, with its bombe-shaped lower section, is
somewhat heavy in appearance, except in a large
room, and is, moreover, expensive to acquire.
Failing a hanging cupboard in the wall, a simple
plain cupboard should be built and painted white.
Such a cupboard at least strikes no false note, and
is greatly to be preferred to a modern wardrobe
or one of another period.
In this connection a schedule of the cost to
the authors of furnishing a similar bedroom may
be of interest.

£,

S.

d.

Walnut tallboy

10

10

0

3 simple Queen Anne chairs .

9

0

0

I „ „ toilet-table

5

O

0

I „ „ toilet mirror

2

2

0

I „ „ wall mirror

2

2

0

X28 14 o
The cost of such details as carpets, curtains, bed-
covering, china, &c., is not included.
To this, therefore, must be added the various
modern reproductions, including the bedstead : the
total cost of the room would be about fifty pounds.
The result is, of course, a combination of the old
and the new — the best points of each being pre
served — and the effect will be found harmonious.

CHAPTER IV: CHAIRS
AND TABLES
In volume one we left the chair at the time of
King James II. when it was composed of tall and
straight lines, generally cane-backed and cane-
seated, with a carved stretcher fixed rather higher
than midway between the two front legs. Such
pieces would not, of course, have been found in the
homes of the poor. Historical books, for the most
part, concern themselves very much with the
affairs of courts and the practice of battles, but
very little with the habits and surroundings of the
bulk of the people. We know that the amount
of poverty and crime at the beginning of the
eighteenth century was enormous, and the social
condition of the people being such, it is unlikely
that their homes could have been either com
fortable or decently furnished. Very little of
the wealth of the country percolated through
the middle class to the poor ; but there is no
doubt that as regards the middle-class homes,
they had by the beginning of the eighteenth
century reached a very tolerable standard of
social comfort and convenience.
It is probable that a good deal of this standard
of comfort was attributable to Dutch influence.
47

48 OLD FURNITURE
The sense of home comfort seems to have been
developed in Holland in early times. In the
picture of John Arnolfini and his wife in the
National Gallery, London, painted by John
Van Eyck, who lived between 1390 and 1440,
there is a vivid and interesting glimpse of the
furniture of this period. This picture should be
studied by all interested in furniture. In the
bedroom shown in the picture we find, in addition
to the bed with its heavy red stuff hangings, a
coffer, probably for clothes ; a tall chair with a
Gothic traceried top and a red cushion ; a
smaller chair with a red cushion ; a carpet of
Persian pattern ; a brass chandelier ; and a
mirror reflecting the room and its two occupants.
The mirror is in a round wooden frame decorated
with small medallion panels, with paintings illus
trative of the Passion of our Lord. The room is
lighted by casement windows, and the whole
effect suggests a degree of comfort creditable
to the taste of the fifteenth century.
A very notable feature in the male costume of
the time of WiUiam and Mary was the enormous
periwig, which was considered a sign of social
importance. A man would not wear his hat (a
chafeau-hras), but in order that his wig might
not be disarranged would carry his hat under
his arm. It is rather strange that a hard-headed

Fig. 36, QUEEN ANNE CHAIR
WITH INLAID SPLAT'

Fig. 37
LATE QUEEN ANNE CHAIR

Fig, 38, FINE ARM CHAIR ((jUEliX A.NNE PERIOD)

Fig. 39. .ARM (JHAIR (QUEEN ANNE PERIOD) CO\'ERED
WITH "PETIT POINT" NEEDLEWORK

Fig. 40
FINE CHAIR (LATE QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig, 41.
FINE CHAIR (LATE QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. 42
CORNER OR ROUNDABOUT CHAIR (LATE QUEEN
.ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. 43. SETTEE (WILLIAM AND MARY PERIOD)
(The property of Messrs, Mawer and Stephenson Ltd., 221 Fulham Road, S.W,'

Fig 44. FINE SETTEE (LATE QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig, 45 FINE SETTEE (L.^TE QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

OLD FURNITURE 49
business man like William should have coun
tenanced such a fashion by wearing a great periwig
himself. It appears to have been a custom to
comb these wigs in the coffee-houses, for which
purpose each gallant carried an elegant comb.
The men's hats were adorned with feathers, and
they also wore full-skirted coats decorated with
lace and embroidery, stockings, breeches, buckled
shoes, and huge cuffs garnished with lace.
The ladies also wore a heavy head-gear, the
hair being brushed away from the forehead and
surmounted by ribbons and rows of lace, over
which was thrown a lace scarf which hung nearly
to the waist, giving the general impression of a
great mob-cap. " Stiff stays," writes Mr. Dillon,
" tightly laced over the stomacher and very long
in the waist, became fashionable ; and to so
great an extent was this pernicious fashion carried
that a lady's body from the shoulders to the hip
looked like the letter V." There was another
fashion among the ladies of building several
tiers of lace to a great height upon the hair.
These structures, in the prints of the period,
have the appearance of enormous combs. As
regards the dress of this period, " the general
tendency," Mr. Calthrop writes, " was to look
Dutch, stiff, prim, but very prosperous."
Costume and furniture have always had a
II D

5o OLD FURNITURE
close relationship, and we find Mr. Percy Mac
quoid writing in his " Age of Walnut " : " The
settles and chairs of the latter part of the seven
teenth century were evidently constructed with
a view of forming backgrounds to the prevailing
fashions in costume ; the strongest characteristic
at this time being an extremely high-backed
seat to suit the voluminous periwigs and tall
head-dresses of the women."
It will also be noticed that the arms of the
chairs were set back from the front of the seat
to allow room for the ample skirts of the
women. Figs. 24, 25, and 26 are three chairs of carved
walnut with seats covered with figured red velvet.
These chairs, from the Old Palace, Richmond,
although at first glance appearing of the same
pattern, a closer examination will show that
no two are quite alike. Two of them certainly have
similar backs, but a difference appears in the legs.
In shape there is little difference between these
chairs and those of the preceding reign except
that the stretcher is lower. The backs, however,
differ considerjtbly from the Stuart chairs, the
cane having disappeared and its place being taken
by pierced and elaborate carvings. Fig. 27 is
another and probably a later specimen of a fine
William and Mary chair. Although the back is

OLD FURNITURE 51
less elaborate, the legs have now assumed the
cabriole form and the feet are extremely realistic.
The stretcher in the front has, it will be noted,
disappeared. These chairs were, of course, made
for the wealthy classes, and were comparatively
few in number as the fashion was a brief one ;
but they show the prevailing ideas which in turn
expressed themselves on the simpler chairs. An
example of the latter is shown in Fig. 28, which
possibly, as purely a matter of taste, is as pleasing
as some of the more elaborate chairs of this
period. This example cost five pounds.
Figs. 29 and 31 are rush-seated chairs of the
Queen Anne period and are made of oak, probably
in a country place where the prevailing walnut
fashion had not reached. They are exceedingly
simple and pleasing in shape and were sold at
one pound each. The centre chair (Fig. 30) is
a child's chair of the same period — a type which,
in our experience, is not often met with. There is
no example in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
a fact we mention in case any reader would like
to offer such a specimen. Here the splat is slightly
different from those of its companions. The
present piece lacks a front rail to prevent the
child from falling.
Queen Anne chairs of simple character should
not be very difficult to obtain, nor should they

52 OLD FURNITURE
make extravagant incursions upon the purse.
To purchase a number of chairs of identical form
sufficient to compose a set is a far more expensive
method than to collect more or less odd chairs
singly or in pairs and to make a set up for oneself.
Each may not be exactly similar to the other,
but the family likeness is amply sufficient to
satisfy any reasonable taste. Indeed such little
differences as are expressed, say, in the splats
and the legs may be said to break the line of
uniformity and produce an effect which is per
manently pleasing and interesting. Such a set
of chairs would be admirable in a dining-
room ; and single chairs of this period and type
would be scarcely out of place in any room in
the house. Elaborately carved and marquetried
chairs of this time are expensive, but it is a
question whether the plain chairs are not as
pleasing. At present the taste for old furniture
runs to pieces which are highly carved and deco
rated, but this is often for the simple reason that
such pieces are more uncommon, and therefore
more expensive, than the plain ones. It is possible,
however, that in a succeeding age, when all old
furniture, both carved and plain, will be rare,
that the latter may be as highly favoured as
the former. In many of the plain old chairs
the fines are charming and the woods rich and

OLD FURNITURE 53
interesting, and possessing these, we need scarcely
envy those whose means enable them to prefer
the richer sorts.
We now approach a departure in the designs
of furniture which had a far-reaching and
lasting effect upon style in England. We
refer to the cabriole leg and the shaped foot,
which ultimately developed into the claw and
ball. The first movement appears to have
occurred when the straight lines of the Stuart
furniture were superseded by the curved lines
of the Dutch style ; and occasionally we find
the cabriole leg on a William and Mary chair, as
in Fig. 27.
The cabriole leg has been traced back to China
and Egypt, but was introduced into England
through Holland and France. It may be called
the leading characteristic of the domestic wood
work of the Queen Anne period. It made its
appearance on chairs, tables, sofas, and chests —
in fact, upon every form of furniture which is
lifted from the ground. The word is adopted from
the French cabriole, a goat-leap, although it must
be admitted that this is scarcely a literal descrip
tion of the form the carving takes. At first the
shaping was of the simplest description and
showed but the faintest resemblance to the
leaping leg of an animal, but later forms took a

54 OLD FURNITURE
more reahstic turn. The term cabriole has
become generic, and is now applied to almost
any furniture leg built with a knee.
Fig. 32 is a simple type of Queen Anne chair
with cabriole legs, carved with an escallop-shell,
a form of decoration which finds its way upon
very many forms of furniture of this time, and is
as popular as the crown and cherub decoration
of the departed Stuarts.
The claw-and-ball foot, which, like the cabriole
leg, is traceable to the East, we find on the more
elaborate chairs of the Queen Anne period, and
is generally accepted to represent the three-toed
claw of the Chinese dragon holding the mystic
Buddhistic jewel. The development of the claw
and ball is traceable through the feet of the
furniture of this period, and commenced by
the base of the chair legs being slightly shaped
into a foot, which will be remarked in Figs.
29 and 31. Such form is generally known as the
club foot.
Then the toe assumed the shape of an animal's
foot, out of which a claw was evolved, and, having
to clutch something to make a base, a ball was
added, and we have the familiar claw-and-ball
foot which has remained a favourite decoration
to the present time. The good examples are full
of spirit and significance, entirely different from

OLD FURNITURE 55
the machine-made inanimate examples of modern
furniture. Figs. 33, 34, 35 are simple examples of Queen
Anne chairs. Those with arms should be pur
chasable for about five guineas and the single
chairs for about three guineas. Fig. 36 is an
example of an inlaid chair * of this period, the tall
graceful back being particularly pleasing. The
earlier chairs of this period (Figs. 33 and 35)
were provided with strengthening rails between
the legs, but later the knee was made stronger
and the cross rails dispensed with (Fig. 34), which
had the effect of lightening the appearance of
the chair but not of increasing its durability.
The disappearance of these leg rails marks the
later Queen Anne chairs, so that it is a fair guide
as to date of production. Thus disappears the last
link with the good old times when the floors were
so dirty that rests were provided for the feet.
Fig. 37, in addition to its cabriole legs and
embryo claw-and-ball feet, is especially interesting
as foreshadowing the familiar ladder-backed chairs
of the Chippendale school. In this chair the rail
connecting the back legs has been retained.
In this period the " knee " was either plain
or ornamented with an escallop-shell ; it rarely
* The splat of the original is nicely inlaid, but it is impossible
to adequately reproduce this in a photograph.

56 OLD FURNITURE
had any other form of decoration: but it
developed many forms under the influence of
Chippendale and his school. It is well to
remember, however, that in England the cabriole
leg in its original and simpler form belongs to
the reign of Queen Anne.
An essential and highly important develop
ment is at this period particularly noticeable in
the chair, which is now adapted to the human
frame instead of, as heretofore, the human frame
having to adapt itself to the chair. It is probable
that the greater pliability of walnut over oak
made this departure feasible, but one has only
to sit in the tall straight-backed Stuart chair
and the shaped chairs of the Queen Anne reign
to see in which direction the advantage in comfort
lies. It will be found that in the latter the top
of the back is curved so as to fit the nape of the
sitter's neck, and that the splat is shaped to suit
itself to the back and shoulders. Examples of this
shaping are shown in the chairs. Figs. 32 and 36,
which also have the simple cabriole legs.
Figs. 38 and 39 are arm-chairs of this period.
Fig. 38 has a central vase-shaped panel with a
volute and leaves on either side. The arms have
flattened elbow-rests. Fig. 39 has curiously
twisted arms. It has suffered in the splat very
much from the worms. In this chair it will be

OLD FURNITURE 57
noticed the side rail connecting the legs is missing.
The seat is stuffed and covered with canvas,
which is decorated with needlework (" petit
point ") in coloured wools and silks.
These are arm-chairs for respectable people,
but there were also broad-seated arm-chairs at
this time known as " drunkards' chairs." The
width of the seat in front was nearly three feet,
which gave ample room for a man to comfortably
collapse. Figs. 40 and 41 are two fine chairs of the late
Queen Anne period, showing finely developed
cabriole legs and claw-and-ball feet. In both
specimens the connecting leg-rails have dis
appeared and the back feet are shaped. Fig. 40 is
covered with gilt and embossed leather over a
stuffed back and seat. In Fig. 41 the back has
almost lost its Queen Anne character and is
merging into what we know as the Chippendale
style. The seat of this chair is covered with silk.
The Huguenot refugee silk-workers had settled
in Spitalfields, and in the reigns of William and
Mary and Anne large quantities of silks and
velvets were produced, which were frequently
used to cover the chairs of the bedroom furniture
of the time. Stuffed and upholstered arm-chairs
were also favoured at this period, which was
distinctly one for the appreciation of comfort.

58 OLD FURNITURE
Fig. 42 is a corner or roundabout chair of
this time. It is partly veneered. This type of
chair was largely made in mahogany during the
Chippendale period.
The double chair, or settee, remains to be
noticed. This, by a process of refinement and
elimination, had no doubt been evolved from the
old-time settle. It was also called a love-seat, and
was constructed in such form as to allow for the
pose of social gallantry, simpering, and the plying
of the snuff-box and fan, inseparable from the
manners of the period. These double seats were
usually found in the drawing-rooms of the rich,
and simple ones are not as a rule met with.
Fig. 43 is a settee of the type of William and
Mary ; the tied stretchers beneath and the
inverted bowl turnery on the legs are charac
teristic features. Fig. 44 is a fine late Queen
Anne specimen with a marquetried back, claw-
and-ball feet, and an insistent decoration of the
escallop-shell. Fig. 45 is another fine settee of
the same period with a full back and claw-and-
ball feet. Both these specimens have beautifully
shaped arms and feet, and the back feet being
also slightly shaped at the base, suggest the latter
part of the period.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century,
tapestries, as forms of wall decoration, had been

OLD FURNITURE 59
replaced either by wainscoting or, more gene
rally, by wall-papers. Needlework was a popular
occupation amongst the women, who made
hangings for their bedsteads and windows and
covers for their chairs, stools, and couches. Mary,
the Queen of William HI., set an example as an
industrious needlewoman. It was at this time
that the gay chintzes and printed cottons, of
which so many admirable and inexpensive repro
ductions can be purchased at the present day,
came into vogue. Like so many of the decorative
ideas of the time, they were introduced into
England by the Dutch, who in their turn borrowed
them from the East. They were extremely
Oriental in design, depicting trees, birds and
flowers, all more or less related to nature. This
was, of course, the period when everything
Oriental was the fashion,* when Chinese porce
lain and red and black lacquer were desired by
many and acquired by some ; and the gay
Oriental chintzes contributed fittingly to the
scheme of decoration, as well as affording a
protection for the cherished needlework coverings
of the furniture. The modern reproductions are
no less indispensable in any house in which the
* Addison wrote that " an old lady of fourscore shall be so
busy in cleaning an Indian mandarin as her great-granddaughter
is in dressing her baby."

6o OLD FURNITURE
old furniture of this period has a place. Some
firms print them by hand from the old blocks,
and from such firms they should be purchased.
Chintzes appear to have been first produced in
England by a foreign settlement in Richmond,
Surrey, early in the eighteenth century. The
English workmen afterwards greatly simplified
the designs, and in Queen Anne's time they were
largely the fashion.
The Queen Anne home of the middle class
would not have startled a visitor from the present
century who had elected to inspect it by means
of Mr. Wells's Time Machine. Its exterior was
square, unpretentious and a trifle heavy, and
the interior comfortable and efficiently furnished.
In fact, it is at this period that we find the first
tangible approach to our own idea of a home.
The bathroom was still a luxury even in the
great houses, but in most other respects the
standard of comfort approached the modern idea.
tP "ff TT ^ ^
The first tables made of walnut-wood seem to
have followed very much the designs of the
Jacobean oaken tables, and have the square
sturdy look which we associate with oak furniture.
One of the first changes to be noticed is in the
appearance on the legs of an inverted bowl decora
tion as in Fig. 46. Then we find a change in th^

OLD FURNITURE 6i
stretchers or bars connecting the legs ; these,
instead of being straight rails between the four
corners, now assume the X or tied-stretcher
pattern as shown in Fig. 47. This table is inlaid
with cedar and boxwood, and is valued at twelve
guineas. Fig. 48 is a Museum piece of the same
period, the marquetry work on which is very
fine — the top being most elaborately inlaid.
The inlaid work of this period reached great
perfection, blossoms and birds, as well as geo
metrical designs, being worked out in various
woods with great taste and dexterity. It will be
noticed that there is a strong family likeness
between the two tables, although the latter
is a much finer one.* Chinese pottery was
(as has been pointed out) the rage at this time,
and the flat space in the centre of the tied
stretcher was very likely intended to hold a
Chinese bowl.
William and Mary tables have turned legs,
which were so popular on the furniture of the
preceding period but which were soon to disappear
in favour of the cabriole leg. In fact, the tables
* Fine tables of this type are very expensive. One such
was sold at Christie's in June 1911 for fifty-eight guineas. It
was thus described : " A William and Mary walnut-wood table,
with one drawer, the top inlaid with a chariot, flowers and
birds, in marqueterie of various woods, on turned legs with
X-shaped stretcher — 38 in. wide."

62 OLD FURNITURE
in a few years underwent a great transformation,
as will be seen in the next example. Fig. 49.
The Queen Anne period was a drinking,
gambling, duelling, dice-throwing age. In fact,
it is said that loaded dice could be purchased at
the toy shops in Fleet Street. The spirit of
speculation was about. The nation had accumu
lated wealth a trifle too quickly, and trustee
securities, as we now understand them, had small
attraction for any one. Every one wanted to
grow rich at once. The wildest schemes were
launched. These culminated in 1720 in the
South Sea Bubble. Companies, as is well known,
were formed with the most extraordinary objects,
such as " for the invention of melting down
sawdust and chips and casting them into clean
deal boards without cracks or flaws " ; " for the
importing of a number of large jackasses from
Spain " ; and " for an undertaking which shall in
due time be revealed." All classes were affected ;
and the Prince of Wales became governor of a
copper company which had an unfortunate end.
The gambling spirit was continued in private,
and to this fact we probably owe the existence
of the many interesting card-tables of the late
Queen Anne period. These were, of course, only
found in the houses of the richer classes, and are
often beautiful pieces of furniture.

OLD FURNITURE 63
Table legs developed similarly to chair legs.
The ubiquitous cabriole, which has already been
dealt with at length, was applied generally to
tables, with, later, the escallop-shell decora
tion and the claw-and-ball foot. The fine
example. Fig. 49, possesses all these decorations,
together with a pendant under the shell.
This specimen was purchased by the Victoria
and Albert Museum in 1904 for the sum of
twelve pounds, which figure has, of course,
little relation to its present value. These tables
are generally built with a flap and covered with
cloth except at the four corners, where round
or square places are left to take candlesticks or
glasses ; cups are also shaped in the tables to
hold money, and they are sometimes provided
with secret drawers. We have read extraordinary
stories of great sums being discovered in these
drawers — the proceeds of a night when " the old
home was gambled away " ; but personally we
have not chanced on such a find.
Tables with two flaps were also used as break
fast- and small dining-tables. They were generally
oval, but sometimes round, and occasionally
square. These types were repeated later in
mahogany with added decorative details, and
later still Sheraton adopted the folding-table,
converting it to his own style.

64 OLD FURNITURE
Tables in great variety were made in this
period, but the heavy type of table of the previous
century went out with the banqueting-hall and
has never returned. The gate-leg table, which
originated in the oaken period, is dealt with in
Volume I. ; and no doubt in many parts of the
country it continued to be made in oak, but it does
not appear ever to have become popular in walnut,
which, after all, was never a wood in general
use in country districts. Fashion has a strong
controlling influence over furniture, as it has over
so many other matters of taste. The table with
cabriole legs came into fashion, and immediately
cabriole legs in some form or other became ie
rigueur. The slender-legged gate-leg table did
not offer sufficient opportunity to the wood-
carver, and was also rather unsuitable for card-
playing. Its perfect plainness, moreover, was not
to the taste of an age which inclined towards
richness and colour in its household surroundings.

CHAPTER V:
CHESTS OF DRAWERS,
TALLBOYS, CABINETS AND
CHINA CABINETS
In Volume I., dealing with the oak period, we
traced the evolution of the chest of drawers from
the simple chest or coffer, first by the addition
of an under-drawer to the coffer ; then, the main
body of the chest being subdivided into convenient
drawers (with the consequent disappearance of
the lid), we had the primitive form^ of the chest
of drawers, the term " chest " still clinging —
apparently for all time — to the structure.
, The earlier chests of drawers, dating from
about the middle of the seventeenth century,
were comparatively small, usually with raised
panels or mouldings ; occasionally we find them
with decorations of simple carved scroll-work
and gullloche banding. The prolongation of the
stiles to form feet, as in the simple chest, had
disappeared in favour of bracketed corners or
ball feet, as in Figs. 50 and 51.
Fig. 50 represents an interesting chest of
drawers, simple in outline but elaborately deco
rated. The top is inlaid en -parterre with four
II 6^ E

66 OLD FURNITURE
corner scroll designs and a centre design of birds,
flowers, and fruit, in ebony and laburnum wood
on a ground of holly. A delicately cut laurel-leaf
band of inlay (shaded with hot sand) frames the
top, sides, and drawer fronts. It belongs approxi
mately to about 1680. The dimensions are fairly
typical for the period, being 36 in. high, 39 in.
wide, and 23 in. deep.
Fig. 5 1 is of rather unusual form, having three
large drawers in the upper portion and one long
drawer under, which is capped by a bold mould
ing. The oblong panel decorations consist of
marquetry designs of conventional flowers in
ebony, holly, rose, and laburnum woods. This
also belongs to the year 1680 ; 41 in. high, 40 in.
wide, and 23 in. deep. It has a value of about
eighteen guineas.
Marquetry began to come into favour in this
country about 1675-1680. We quote Mr. Pollen,
who says : " At first the chief motives in design
appear to have been acanthus leaves, figures,
and arabesques, under Italian and French in
fluence : a little later, designs of flowers and
birds, treated in a more realistic fashion, were
introduced by the Dutch. Finally, about 1700,
these two styles passed into an English style of
very delicate leaf-work of conventional form,
often intricately mingled with scrolls and strap-

OLD FURNITURE 67
work ; and geometrical designs were used."
Mr. Macquoid remarks that " investigation proves
that, compared with the English manufacture,
Dutch marquetrie is always duller in colour and
more disconnected in design."
Late in the seventeenth and early in the
eighteenth centuries we find the chests of drawers
raised on twisted or turned legs, which are fixed
to a shallow plinth or joined near the ground by
shaped stretchers. For the first-named type we
refer readers to Fig. 52, a specimen at the Victoria
and Albert Museum. It is built of pinewood
overlaid with lignum vitae, sycamore and walnut,
in small roundish pieces cut across the grain.
The top is further decorated with sycamore
bands arranged in two concentric circles in the
centre, surrounded by intersecting segments.
In the corners are quadrants. Each side has a
large circle of similar materials. The structure is
3 ft. 8 in. high and 3 ft. 4 in. wide. It cost the
museum ^^lo in 1898.
Fig. 53, another dwarf chest of drawers of the
same period, also at the museum, is of oak and
pine veneered with various woods. This is an
excellent example illustrating the amount of
labour expended by the craftsmen of the day on
the early examples of veneering. On the face of
the top drawer alone there are no less than

68 OLD FURNITURE
twenty large and thirty-three small pieces of
veneer, exclusive of the bordering. The feet are
very unusual, having a curiously booted appear
ance, with the soles clearly indicated. This
and the previous example bear the brass drop
handles and fretted escutcheons of the period.
Great variety is displayed in these brass fitments.
The handles more often are of elongated pear
shape, but occasionally resemble a flattened flower-
bud. The ring handles appeared somewhat
later. As types of the chests of drawers on legs we
give two illustrations. Fig. 54, from a photograph
supplied by Messrs. Hampton and Sons Ltd.,
Pall Mall, represents a fine specimen of veneered
work of the William and Mary period. The
figuring in the walnut veneer is very good and
finely matched. The stand is tall, with but one
long shallow drawer. The turned legs are par
ticularly graceful in outline. It will be noticed
that the inverted cup detail is repeated in the
china cabinet (Fig. 69), amongst the illustrations
of lacquered furniture.
Fig- 55 possesses twisted legs, a survival of
Stuart period proper. Strictly speaking, we are
still in the Stuart period during the reigns of
William and Mary and Anne — the two queens
being wholly and William half Stuart. With the

OLD FURNITURE 69
abdication of James II. there was a change in the
temper of the people and a comparatively abrupt
change in the furniture. In the chest under dis
cussion the upper portion is severely plain, whilst
the lower half or stand is of particularly graceful
outline. We see how the stand is gradually being
brought into requisition, not only as a stand, but
to hold extra drawers — quite small drawers at
first. The lifting of the central arch and conse
quent shallowing of the corresponding small
drawer give a pleasing diversity of line. This
structure is scarcely a " tallboy," being rather
a chest of drawers on a stand ; and the stand,
more than anything (as in the previous illustra
tion), points to the reign of William and Mary.
This piece is in the possession of Mr. F. W.
Phillips, of the Manor House, Hitchin. The
owner values it at ten guineas.
Something more nearly approaching the
genuine *' tallboy " is shown in the coloured
frontispiece. Here we have the stand growing
deeper and containing five small drawers. The
angular-kneed cabriole legs denote the period —
about 1710, the middle of Queen Anne's reign.
The veneer is of richly figured walnut banded
with herring-bone inlay. It is furnished with
brass handles and engraved escutcheons.
We begin to see how increasing wealth in

70 OLD FURNITURE
clothes called for more commodious furniture.
This piece has six drawers in the upper carcase
in addition to the five small ones in the stand :
altogether a very considerable storage capacity
as compared with the dumpy chests of drawers
of earlier make.
By easy stages we arrive at the tallboy pure
and simple, sometimes called " double chest " or
" chest on chest." The term " tall " is obvious,
but " boy " is not so clear.
The tallboy was purely the outcome of a
demand for something more commodious than
the early form. It was made in two sections,
mainly for convenience in moving, and partly,
by breaking up the lines, to lighten the appear
ance of what would otherwise be a somewhat
ungainly structure. There is scarcely room for
much variation in form, and the tallboys of
the Queen Anne and early Georgian period are
very much of one family. Fig. 56 is of walnut-
wood bordered with a herring-bone banding of
yew-wood. A lightness is given to the upper
portion by the corners being canted and fluted.
The oval ring plates are a pleasing feature. This
double chest of nine drawers stands 69 in. high.
A well-preserved specimen of this calibre would
have a value of from ten to fifteen guineas.
Fig. 57 is a less pretentious tallboy chest of

OLD FURNITURE 71
six drawers, valued at ten guineas, in the posses
sion of Mr. J. H. Springett, of High Street,
Rochester. Like the majority of these old
veneered walnut chests, the drawer fronts and
sides of the main structure are veneered on pine,
whilst the bodies of the drawers are of oak. The
fretted escutcheons and cusped handles (unfor
tunately not quite uniform) are exceptionally
good. There is interesting documentary evidence
connected with this old piece of furniture. Pasted
on the back of the bottom drawer is the maker's
label, yellow with age. At the top of the label
are engraved designs of an elaborate cabinet and
four coffins ; underneath is printed the following
legend :
" John Knowles Cabinet Maker and Sworn
Appraiser, at the Cabinet and four Coffins in
Tooley Street Southwark maketh and selleth all
sorts of Cabinets and joiners goods. Viz Cabinets
scruetores, desk and book cases, bewrowes, chests
of draws and all sorts of tables as wallnut tree
mehogny, wainscot and Japan'd. All sorts of
corner Cubbords looking glasses and sconces and
all other joiner's goods made and sold both whole
sale and retail at reasonable rates. Likewise
funerals decently furnished."
We have not been able to unearth any other
record of John Knowles, His name does npt

72 OLD FURNITURE
appear in the first edition of the London
Directory, a very small volume published in
173 1, nor in any subsequent edition up to I77I'
The style of printing and archaic spelling, how
ever, would point to a date fairly early in the
eighteenth century, probably during the reign
of George I. The mention of " mehogny "
practically precludes an earlier date than
1715-20. In the earlier days — away back in the thir
teenth and fourteenth centuries — the wardrobe
was a special room, fitted with closets set apart
for the storage of clothes. All through Tudor
times the coffer was in use, and was all-sufficient
to hold the clothes and household linen. We find
in Jacobean times the coffer growing into the
chest of drawers, and in addition tall hanging-
cupboards were coming into use. But it is not
till the reign of Queen Anne — the walnut period
— that we find the prototype of the present-day
wardrobe, with its roomy drawers, hanging-
cupboards, and numerous shelves.
The inspiration of this eminently useful article
came from Holland. It is made usually of oak
and pine veneered with walnut and, as often as
not, inlaid with marquetry. The upper storey
consists of small drawers and shelves enclosed
by two doors and surmounted by a curved

Fig. 46
T.^BLE (PERIOD WILLIAM AND MARY)
(The property of Mr, F. W. Phillips, The Manor
House, Hitchin)

Fig. 47
TABLE (PERIOD WILLIAM AND MARY) II

Fig, 48. TABLE (WILLIAM AND MARY PERIOD)

Fig. 49. TABLE (LATE QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. 50, CHEST OF DRAWERS (WILLIAM AND MARY PERIOD)

Fig. 52.
CHE.ST OF DRAWERS ON TWISTED LEGS (WILLIAM AND
MARY PERIOD)

Fig. 53. DWARF CHEST OF DRAWERS ON FEET (WILLIAM AND
MARY PERIOD)

Fig, s4.

FINE CHEST ON STAND (WILLI.\M AND MARY PERIOD)

Fig. 55.
SIMPLE CHEST ON STAND (WILLIAM AND
MARY PERIOD)

Fig. 56. TALLBOY (QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. 57. TALLBOY (QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. s8, WARDROBE IN MARQUETRY
(The Property of ilr. F. W. Phillips, The Manor House, Hitchin, Hens

Fig. 59-

CHINA CABINET IN MARQUETRY

Fig. 6o. simple BUREAU
(WILLIAM AND MARY PERIOD)

F'IG. 62. BUREAU (QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

OLD FURNITURE 73
cornice, the lower portion being a chest of three
or four long drawers.
Even the admittedly English-made specimens
are so extremely Dutch in appearance that it
is probable the majority were designed and
made by the Dutchmen who came over in the
train of William III. We give an example in
Fig. 58 of an inlaid hanging-press or wardrobe,
showing decidedly Dutch influence in the
lower portion, particularly noticeable in the
protruding knees set at an angle of forty-five
degrees. The marquetry designs of vases and
flowers are also of Dutch type. It is of average
size, being 91 in. high, (>(> in. wide, and 22 in.
deep. As with the other furniture of the
walnut period, the early wardrobes were ex
tremely solid and dignified in appearance. The
modern maker has made improvements as to
interior fittings, but on general principles the
old pieces leave little or nothing to be desired.
The old-time craftsman was conscientious in
his work. We do not find the doors flying open
unasked ; the drawers have no nasty habits of
refusing to open or close. The Queen Anne or
early Georgian wardrobe, which is sound to-day,
bids fair to outlive our great-grandchildren, and
should be cheap at its average selling-price — say,
twenty to thirty pounds.

74 OLD FURNITURE
The China cabinet came in with the craze for
Oriental porcelain. We shall have more to say
upon this subject in the chapter on lacquer.
Fulham stoneware, Bristol and Lambeth " Delft,"
and other early English " Clome " had no claim
on cabinet space. The more pretentious pieces,
when not in actual use, adorned the court cup
board and sideboard cheek by jowl with the
family silver or pewter. In the main, all pottery
was for use rather than ornament until the blue-
and-white and famille verte arrived from China,
and we shall scarcely find a glazed china cabinet
earlier than the Orange accession. Many of the
William and Anne bureaux were surmounted
by cabinets, the doors glazed with panes of
glass set in designs consisting of small squares or
oblongs with larger sexagonals or octagonals.
This form was used either as a bookcase or a china
cabinet. Unglazed corner cupboards, often bow-
fronted and lacquered, made to hang in the
angle of the wall, were for storage, rather than
display, of china. Another variety of corner
cupboard made to stand on the floor has a glazed
upper story. These belong to the varieties of
furniture used by the middle classes, whilst the
cabinet of the china collector would be an
imposing structure of more elegant design sur
mounted on legs joined by shaped stretchers.

OLD FURNITURE 75
We give an example in the chapter on
lacquer. Fig. 59 is an example of a china cabinet in
marquetry work, with scrolled cornice, two
glazed doors, two cupboards, bracketed base,
and shaped under-framing. This piece has a
value of about ^^30.
The walnut period is rich in cabinets, which
were used for the storage of papers and valuables
— structures quite distinct from the writing-desks
of the period. Some types will be found in the
illustrations to the chapter on lacquered furni
ture. It must be borne in mind that the lacquering
was often but an afterthought decoration. Scrape
away the pseudo-Chinese decoration and we
shall probably find the beautiful old walnut
veneer.

CHAPTER VI: SECRETAIRES,
BUREAUX, AND WRITING-
TABLES One would naturally suppose that the writing-
desk is as old as the art of writing. So far as this
country is concerned the writing-desk of a sort
was known in very early times. In the art library
of the Victoria and Albert Museum are illumi
nated MSS. of about 1440-1450 showing scribes
working at sloping desks of simple construction.
Coming to Elizabethan and early Jacobean times,
we find desks of small dimensions mounted on
table-stands, but it is fairly certain that the
ordinary tables of the house were more often
used for writing purposes. The composite
article — secretaire, escritoire, or bureau (inter
changeable terms) — for writing and storage of
writing materials is the product of the end of
the seventeenth century. The connection between
the writer or secretary {secretus, early Latin ;
secretarius, late Latin) and his desk, the secretaire,
is obvious. Escritoire is but another form of the
word ; sometimes scrutoire or scruetoire in
corrupt English. Bureau in the French was
originally a russet cloth which covered the desk
76

OLD FURNITURE -j'j
(from the Latin burrus, red), but came to mean
the desk itself, and also the office in which the
business was transacted.
We look back upon the Elizabethan times as
the Renaissance period of English literature, but
even then the lettered were in the minority.
By the end of the seventeenth century literature
had spread to the middle classes, and we find the
Press pouring out countless ponderous volumes
on every imaginable subject. It is the age of the
diarists, conspicuous amongst whom were Samuel
Pepys and John Evelyn, whose gossipy daily
journals bring us so intimately in touch with the
political and social life of the times. It is the age
of the pamphleteers and essayists whose effusions
led up to the semi-satirical periodicals of the
early eighteenth century — chief amongst them
being the Spectator, started by Joseph Addison
and Richard Steele in 1710.
|, Thisjvast^outpouring of literature called for
more commodious writing-desks, and the escri
toire or bureau is the natural result. Like the
other furniture of the period, the desks were
solid and dignified. In the main they were severe
in outline, but generally reflected the prevailing
architecture of the period, which was derived
from the Italian Renaissance. We find the desks
often surmounted by finely moulded, boldly carved

78 OLD FURNITURE
cornices and broken pediments. As the Dutch
infiuence grew we find the lower portions,
containing commodious long drawers, with
rounded or hombe fronts.
The principal wood used was walnut, some
times solid and sometimes veneered on oak and
pine. We also find the same schemes in marquetry
work, as in the chests of drawers, cabinets, and
clock-cases showing Continental influences.
Fig. 60 represents a William and Mary period
bureau of simple outline surmounted by a
panelled cupboard with bookshelves. The raised
panels are of the late Jacobean type. It is built
of solid walnut, oak, and limewood. Behind the
visible stationery cases are concealed a number
of secret recesses ; the two pillars flanking the
small central cupboard are the fronts of two
narrow upright sliding receptacles ; on removing
these, springs are released which secure inner
secret drawers. This bureau, valued at sixteen
guineas, is in the possession of Mr. J. H. Springett,
of Rochester.
Fig. 61, dating from early i8th century, is
a bureau with four serpentine drawers below
decorated with sprigs of flowers. It stands on
depressed ball feet much like " China oranges."
The knees set at an angle denote the Dutch
influence, if it were not actually made in Holland.

OLD FURNITURE 79
The piece, standing 43 in. high and 40 in. wide,
is valued at eighteen guineas.
Fig. 62, a walnut-wood small bureau with
sloping lid and knee-hole recess, belongs to
Queen Anne's reign. It is the property of
Messrs. Mawer Ltd., 221 FuHiam Road, S.W.
Beneath the lid are numerous useful small drawers
and stationery cases. It bears the charming original
brass drop handles in form of flattened flower-
buds. In general outline it is of the pattern
adopted by modern makers of small bureaux.
Fig. 63 represents a charming type of Queen
Anne period pedestal writing-table with knee-
hole recess. It is a beautiful example of figured
walnut veneered on oak ; all the drawers are oak-
lined. It was recently purchased in London for
ten pounds. The knee-hole writing-table — of
which the present is an example — ^is a type of
Queen Anne furniture of the greatest utility.
It has many drawers as well as a cupboard under
neath, and, for its size, may be said to represent
the maximum of usefulness. Whilst seated at it
you may be said to have the whole of its resources
to your hand, which can scarcely be said of the
bureau, as when the writing-flap falls it is difficult
to get to the drawers beneath. Th.e Queen
Anne knee-hole table is becoming rarer, and the
writers would certainly recommend its purchase

8o OLD FURNITURE
should opportunity arise. Its pleasing lines and
frequently beautiful arrangement of veneers make
it a desirable addition to almost any room. Its
dimensions are slender, usually measuring at the
top about 30 by 21 ins.
Fig. 64 represents a still simpler form of Queen
Anne writing-table on solid walnut cabriole legs.
The drawer fronts and top are veneered and inlaid
with simple bands. This specimen has a value of
about ^5. The photograph was supplied by
Mr. Springett, of Rochester. This form of table
and the one previously illustrated are sometimes
described as dressing-tables. They were probably
used for both purposes, and they certainly lend
themselves to either use.
One of the most useful forms of the escritoire,
or bureau, is of the type given in Figs. 65 and 66,
the property of Mr. C. H. Baker, of St. Mary
Street, Bridgwater, Somerset. This type is made
in two sections, sometimes with bracketed feet
and sometimes with ball feet. The bureau under
consideration is of an average size, being 5 ft.
3 in. high, 3 ft. 7 in. wide, and 19 in. deep. It is
of rectangular form, and the falling front, which
serves as a writing-slab, is supported by jointed
steel rods. The opened front discloses an assem
blage of drawers and pigeon-holes. The pigeon
holes at the top pull out in four sections, and

OLD FURNITURE 8i
behind are hidden numerous small drawers.
Other secret drawers are so ingeniously contrived
that they can only be discovered on pulling out
the visible drawers and the dividing pieces on
which the drawers run. The middle member of
the cornice details forms the front of a shallow
drawer running the whole length and depth of
the bureau top. This bureau, which contains in
all about thirty drawers and recesses, is built of red
deal overlaid with thick veneers of walnut and fine
knotted pollard oak of dark hue, with cross-banded
edges of walnut in various shades. The visible
drawers are of oak throughout, whilst the hidden
ones are oak-bodied with red deal fronts to match
the fining of the main structure — thus inge
niously disguising their presence.
We have seen specimens of the same type
entirely veneered with walnut and others inlaid
with marquetry. These bureaux, dating from
about 1690 well into Queen Anne's reign, have
selling values of from ^25 to ^35.
There must be an added sentimental pleasure
in sitting at an escritoire which was possibly the
treasured possession of a pamphleteer or diarist
of the last years of the rebeUion : an assthetic
joy in rummaging amongst the secret drawers
which contained the journals in cypher of the
wire-pullers of the new monarchy.
II F

CHAPTER VII : CLOCKS
AND CLOCK-CASES
A LEARNED dissertation on clocks and the theory
of time would be out of place in a volume of
this description, and anything we have to say
concerning the clocks of the " walnut period "
will, of necessity, be of a popular nature. In
England the chamber clocks, as distinguished
from the costly and elaborate timepieces which
adorned public buildings, appear to have been
introduced about the year 1600.* The type is
fairly familiar, and is known as the " lantern,"
" bird-cage," or " bedpost." Amongst dealers
such clocks are usually styled " lantern " or
" Cromwell." They usually stood on a wall-
bracket, but sometimes were suspended from a
nail. The clocks are built of brass surmounted by
a bell, sometimes used for striking the hours and
sometimes only for an alarm. The clocks were
often housed in hooded oak cases, which protected
them from the dust. These original cases are
sometimes met with and are interesting in them-
* Strictly speaking, De Vyck's clock, invented about 1370
is the earliest known type of the domestic clock. Made for the
wealthy few in days when the generality of people did not look
upon clocks as necessities, they only exist to-day as ra^e museum
specimens.
82

OLD FURNITURE 83
selves, but the brass clocks are more ornamental
when minus the cases. These clocks were made
to run for thirty hours, the motive power being
a heavy weight with a cord or chain. At first
the vertical verge movement was used, but about
1658 the pendulum was introduced. The alter
nate bobbing in and out of the short pendulum
through slits in either side of the clock accounts
for the term " bob " pendulum. It has been
noticed that the doors of these early clocks were
often constructed from old sundial plates, the
engraved figures of the sundial still showing on
the insides. Doubtless the sundial makers, finding
their trade falling off, used the materials in hand
for the new-fangled clocks. The dial-plate of
the early lantern clock is circular, with a band
of metal (sometimes silvered) for the numerals,
which at first were rather short. About 1640 the
hour-bands were made wider and the numerals
longer. After about 1660 we find the circular
dial growing larger in relation to the body of the
clock and protruding slightly on either side.
During the latter years of Queen Anne's reign
the dial-plates often protruded as much as two
or three inches on either side. This did not
improve the general appearance. Clocks of this
pattern are known as the " sheep's head." With
such slight variations the lantern clock was made

84 OLD FURNITURE
from Elizabeth's to George III.'s reigns. The
late ones, probably made by provincial clock-
makers, have square dials with arched tops.
The tops of the square cases of the lantern
clocks are often surrounded by fretted galleries.
As a rule the four fretted pieces are all of one
pattern, but generally the front one only is
engraved. A favourite form of fret is that in
which the crossed dolphins appear ; this pattern
came in between 1660 and 1670. These lantern
clocks with ornamental galleries are furnished with
bells as wide as the clock-case suspended from
two intersecting arched bands stretching from
corner to corner. They are finished off by the
addition of a turned pinnacle at each corner and
a fifth one on the apex of the bell. Such clocks
were apparently not intended to be covered by
an outer wooden case. They would not be
greatly harmed by dust, as they contain no
delicate mechanism.
These old-world lantern clocks were practi
cally indestructible, and until a few years ago
they could be found in plenty in the old farm
houses and would fetch but a pound or two at
auction. Of recent years, with the growth of the
collecting habit, the dealers have found a ready
market, and to-day a well-made lantern clock
in original condition has an appreciable value of

OLD FURNITURE 85
from five to six pounds. They have but a single
hand, like the old clock on Westminster Abbey,
and consequently to tell the exact time of day
is a matter of guess-work, as only the quarters are
marked. To tell the time within a quarter of an
hour would have been sufficient for the original
owners, who had no trains to catch. The usual
process to-day is to substitute a modern eight-
day " fuzee " movement for the old thirty-hour
" verge." Thus, by eliminating the chain and
weight the clock is adapted for a place on the
mantelshelf. From a decorative point of view
it is difficult to conceive anything more charming
as a finish to a " walnut period " room.
Fig. 6'] is a " birdcage " clock at the Victoria
and Albert Museum. The dial, which is very
nicely engraved with a flower design, is signed
" Andrew Prime Londini Fecit." It has dolphin-
pattern frets on three sides. The side frets are
engraved to match the front one. This clock cost
the museum £4 \s. in 1892. Andrew Prime was
admitted to the Clockmakers' Company in 1647,
and we shall be within the mark in assuming that
the clock was made some time between that
date and 1680. The dolphin decoration would,
indeed, point to a date not earlier than 1660,
and, furthermore, the length of the pendulum
would suggest not earlier than 1675.

86 OLD FURNITURE
In Fig. 68 we give an illustration of a small
lantern clock by Anthony Marsh, of London,
with its original hooded oak case.
Fig. 69 is the same clock shown without the
hood. This subject was kindly lent for illustra
tion by Mr. Whittaker, of 46 Wilton Road,
London, S.W., one of the comparatively few
remaining clockmakers following the old-time
traditions. A talk with Mr. Whittaker in his
workshop takes us back to the old days of indi
vidual work at the lathe and bench, when each
clockmaker was an artist with ideas of his own — ¦
a clockmaker in every sense of the word, making
his own parts by hand instead of, as in these
days, buying them by the gross from the factory.
Anthony Marsh, the maker of the clock illus
trated, was a member of the Clockmakers' Com
pany in 1724, and worked " at ye dial opposite
Bank of England." Marsh is a well-known name
amongst the clockmaking fraternity, no less than
fifteen of the name following the trade between
1 69 1 and 1842.
Contemporary with the lantern clocks of the
middle period (about 1660) we find the " bracket "
or " pedestal " clocks enclosed by wooden cases,
as distinguished from the brass-cased chamber
clocks. The earher patterns had flat tops with
brass handles for carrying. Sometimes they were

OLD FURNITURE 87
surmounted by perforated metal domes, resem-
bhng inverted baskets, to which the handles were
fixed. As time went on the tops of the clock-
cases were made more dome-shaped and the
baskets and handles were elaborately chased. The
cases, often of exquisite workmanship, were
generally constructed of oak or ebony, and as
timepieces these clocks, by skilled makers, were
far superior to the generality of lantern clocks
of the country-side. We associate these bracket-
clocks with such names as Tompion, Graham, and
Quare. Thomas Tompion, " the father of English
watchmaking," was born at Northill, in Bedford
shire, in 1638, and died in London in 171 3. He
was the leading watchmaker at the Court of
Charles II. George Graham, Tompion's favourite
pupil, was born in Cumberland in 1673, and died
in London in 1751. He was known as " Honest
George Graham," and was probably the most
accompHshed British horologist of his own or
any age. He was admitted a freeman of the
Clockmakers' Company on completion of his
apprenticeship in 1695, when he entered the
service of Tompion. A lifelong friendship was
only severed by the death of Tompion in 171 3.
Graham was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
in 1720, and made a member of the Society's

88 OLD FURNITURE
council in 1732. Even to-day Graham's " dead-
beat escapement " is used in most pendulum
clocks constructed for really accurate time
keeping. The site of Graham's shop in Fleet
Street is now occupied by the offices of The
Sporting Life. Tompion and Graham lie in
one grave in the nave of Westminster Abbey,
near the grave of David Livingstone. Daniel
Quare, a contemporary maker of first rank, was
born in 1648 and died in 1734. He was Clock-
maker to William III. There is a fine example of
a tall clock by Quare at Hampton Court Palace.
Quare was the inventor of the repeating watch.
Fig. 70 is a bracket clock in marquetry case
made by John Martin, of London, in the
seventeenth century. It is fitted with " rack
striking work " invented by Edward Barlow
(born 1636, died 1716). It will be noticed that
the corners of the dial-plate are ornamented
with the winged cherubs' heads which we find
so often in the scheme of decoration of Sir
Christopher Wren's churches. This clock, lent
by Lieut.-Col. G. B. C. Lyons, may be seen at
the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The " bracket " clocks were the favourite
household timepieces before the introduction
of the long-cased or grandfather clocks, which
came in some time between 1660 and 1670. The

OLD FURNITURE 89
earliest long-cased clocks were furnished with
the " bob " pendulum. The long or " royal "
pendulum was introduced about 1676. The
" bob " pendulum clock-cases were very narrow
— just wide enough to comfortably accommodate
the chain and weights, the primal idea of the
case being merely to hide the chains and weights.
The wide swing of the long pendulum neces
sitated more room in the case, and examples are
found with added wings, showing that long
pendulums have been added to the old move
ments. As with the lantern clocks, the early long clocks
had thirty-hour movements ; but the great
makers, such as Tompion, Graham, and Quare,
constructed clocks to run for eight days, a month,
three months, and even a year. The introduc
tion of the eight-day movement appears to have
been coincident with the long pendulum.
The cases of the grandfather clocks in the main
harmonised with the other furniture of the period.
The majority of them were built of oak, and
those of country make were generally plain.
Many were veneered with walnut, and others
(more rarely) with ebony. With the advent of
Wilham III. came the taste for marquetry work,
and the long-cased clocks received their due
share of this form of ornamentation. The fronts

90 OLD FURNITURE
were often pierced with an oval or circular hole
filled with greenish bull's-eye glass, through
which the swinging pendulum bob could be seen.
About 1710 the taste for marquetry began to
wane. The lacquering craze was at its height.
Clock-cases were sent out to China to receive
treatment at the hands of the Chinese lacquerers.
It was a lengthy and expensive process : it
probably would take a year or so with the slow
travelling and slow drying of the various coats of
lacquer. We show, in the chapter on lacquered
furniture, how the growing demand was met by
the English and Dutch lacquerers, who adopted
less expensive and more expeditious, if less satis
factory, methods.
It is in the nature of things that the old long-
cased clocks were gently treated, and consequently
genuine old specimens are still fairly plentiful.
Old thirty-hour clocks in plain oak cases with
painted dials may still be bought for four or five
pounds apiece, whilst reliable eight-day clocks
of fair make will fetch anything from five to ten
pounds. We cannot expect to get a Tompion or
Graham clock for anything like these prices.
We had the opportunity four years ago of buying
a magnificent Graham clock in a mahogany case
of fine proportions for ^^20. It was the chance of
a lifetime, and the chance was missed.

OLD FURNITURE 91
The three illustrations we give (Figs. 71, 72,
and 73) represent fine examples of marquetry-
decorated clocks at the Victoria and Albert
Museum. The simple naturalesque style of mar
quetry, showing direct Dutch influence, is shown in
Fig. 71. The carnations are exceedingly lifelike.
The dial-plate of this clock, which is still in good
going order, bears the inscription " Mansell
Bennett at Charing Cross." It was probably
made about 1690. Figs. 72 and 73 represent the
more typically English style of delicate geomet
rical marquetry work, dating from about 1700.
In both of these clocks the fretted bands of wood
beneath the cornices, as well as the nature of
the marquetry, would point to a later period
than that of the Mansell Bennett clock. They
belong to the Queen Anne period. Fig. 72 was
made by Henry Poisson, who worked in London
from 1695 to 1720. Fig. 73, unfortunately a
clock-case only, has the original green bull's-eye
glass in the door.
A word of warning may be in place in regard
to grandfather clocks with carved oak cases. Such
things purporting to be " 200 years old " are
often advertised for sale, but are scarcely likely
to be genuine. Speaking for ourselves, we have
never seen one which bore the impress of genuine
ness. We must bear in mind that at the date of

92 OLD FURNITURE
the introduction of the long case — say 1660-1670
— the practice of carving furniture was rapidly
on the wane, and by the end of the century had
practically ceased. In this connection we quote
that great authority on old clocks, Mr. F. J.
Britten, who says : " Dark oak cases carved in high
relief do not seem to have been the fashion of any
particular period, but the result rather of occa
sional efforts by enthusiastic artists in wood, and
then in most instances they appear to have been
made to enclose existing clocks in substitution of
inferior or worn-out coverings."
In regard to the wonderful time-keeping
qualities of old grandfather clocks, Mr. H. H.
Cunyngham, in his useful little book " Time and
Clocks," expresses the opinion that the secret
lies in the length of the pendulum. " This,"
he writes, " renders it possible to have but a
small arc of oscillation, and therefore the motion
is kept very nearly harmonious. For practical
purposes nothing will even now beat these old
clocks, of which one should be in every house.
At present the tendency is to abolish them and
substitute American clocks with very short
pendulums, which never can keep good time.
They are made of stamped metal, and when
they get out of order no one thinks of having
them mended. They are thrown into the ashpit

OLD FURNITURE 93
and a new one bought. In reality this is not
economy." Mr. Cunyngham's remarks point the moral as
to the economy of the long clock. But we should
say, more strictly speaking, that German and
Austrian wall and bracket clocks have to a large
extent taken the place of the old English long-
cased clocks. The shortness of the pendulum is
not of necessity the weak point. The bracket
clocks of the best English makers since the
seventeenth century, with short pendulums,
have been noted for their reliability as timekeepers.
Efficiency from a badly constructed clock, be
it American, German or English, can scarcely be
expected. As we have already suggested, fine clocks by
the great masters are now beyond the means of
the modest collector ; but serviceable and deco
rative grandfather clocks of the late seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries are still obtainable
at moderate prices. In many cases the dials show
great taste in the art of engraving. We must
bear in mind that the majority of these clocks —
particularly those with the painted dials and
plain oak cases — were the joint productions of
the country clockmaker and the country joiner,
and numbers of them have the very smallest
pretentions to correctness of design. We find.

94 OLD FURNITURE
clock-cases which have the appearance of being
" all plinth " ; others are too long or too short
or too wide in the body ; others are overweighted
in the head ; and, again, others are too shallow
and have an unhappy appearance of being flat
tened out against the wall. The old oak clock-
case of perfect proportions is comparatively rare.
The collector must studiously avoid any clock-
case which is " obviously out of drawing," and
in the main his eye will guide him in the selection.
We are indebted to Mr. Stuart Parker, an
experienced amateur collector of clocks, for a
carefully thought-out opinion as to the ideal
dimensions of a clock-case.
Supposing a full-sized clock-case 7 ft. 6 in.
high : the three main sections should measure
as follows :
The plinth : 2 ft. high and I ft. 10 in. wide.
The body : 3 ft. high and i ft. 4I in. wide.
The head : 2 ft. 6 in. high and i ft. 10 in. wide.
The width is taken at the middle of each of
the three sections. The base of the plinth and
the cornices of the head section should each
measure 2 ft. i in. in width.

CHAPTER VIII : LACQUERED
FURNITURE
English lacquered furniture " in the Oriental
taste " belongs to the last quarter of the seven
teenth and the first half of the eighteenth cen
turies. It is not surprising that when the rage
for everything Chinese and Japanese — at the
time indiscriminately called " Indian " — was
prevalent, a school of Anglo-Oriental craftsmen
should have sprung up. The taste was at its
height about 1710 and continued for many
years. The art of lacquering is said by the Japanese
themselves to have been practised in Japan as
early as the third century, when the Empress
Jingo conquered Corea. In the ninth century
the Kioto artists inlaid their lacquer with mother-
of-pearL In the fifteenth century landscape
decorations were used, and by the end of the
seventeenth century the art had reached its
zenith. The material used in Japan is resin-lac,
an exudation from the lacquer-tree {Rhus verni-
cifera). Without going into the details of the
art, it is well to bear in mind that the brilliant
surface of Japanese lacquer is not obtained by
varnishing, but by the actual pohshing of the
95

96 OLD FURNITURE
lacquer itself. It is treated as a sohd body, built
up stage by stage and polished at every stage.
For an exposition of the art one cannot do better
than read Mr. Marcus B. Huish's chapter on
lacquer in " Japan and Its Art."
It was probably not till late Tudor times
that any specimens of Japanese or Chinese lacquer
found their way to this country, and then prin
cipally in the shape of small cups, bowls and
trays. " Indian Cabinets " are mentioned occa
sionally in inventories at the end of Elizabeth's
reign, and in the household accounts of Charles II.
there is an item of ;^ioo for " two Jappan Cabi
nets." The English and Portuguese traded with Japan
in Elizabeth's reign, but were expelled in 1637.
The Dutch were more tenacious, and from the
commencement of their trading operations with
Japan, in 1600, managed, at intervals, to keep
in touch with their new market. Even the Dutch
were regarded unfavourably by the Japanese
authorities, and traded under considerable dis-
abihties. The majority of the lacquered ware
which came to England filtered through Holland.
It was brought to Europe round the Cape in
the armed Dutch merchantmen which, at the
same time, were bringing home the beautiful
old Imari vases and dishes with kinrande (brocade)

Fig, 63. WRITING TABLE (QUEEN .ANNE PERIOD)

11:4

Fig. 64
WRITING OR DRESSING T.ABLE (QUEEN ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. 65

Fig. 66

ESCRITOIRE (QUEEN .ANNE PERIOD)

Fig. 67. "BIRDCAGE" CLOCK
(SECOND HALF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)

LANTERN CLOCK IN HOODED CASE
(FIRST HALF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY)

Fig. 69
LANTERN CLOCK WITHOUT CASE
(FIRST H.\LF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY)

Fig, 70. BRACKET CLOCK
(SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)

If

j//-«^S|

Fig. 73 Fig. 72 Fig, 71
P.\RQUETRY CLOCKS AND CLOCK C^SES

OLD FURNITURE 97
decorations, which served later on as the models
for the early Crown Derby " Old Japan " wares
and the simple Kakiyemon specimens copied at
Chelsea, Bow, and Dresden. One of these old
ships, the Middleburg, trading from the China
Seas, homeward bound and laden with bullion
and curios, went down in Soldanha Bay, off the
South African coast, on October 18, 1714. In
August 1907 the divers salvaged some of the
cargo. Needless to say, the " Jappan Cabinets "
had long since perished, but the little Chinese
blue-and-white cups and saucers came to the
surface none the worse for nearly two hundred
years' immersion in salt water.
We are fortunate in still possessing at Hampton
Court Palace a goodly number of Kakiyemon
hexagonal covered jars and bottle-shaped vases,
and tall cylindrical Chinese blue-and-white vases
of the Khang Hi reign, placed there by William
and Mary ; but the scarcity of contemporary
English furniture there is deplorable. The real
beauty of old Oriental porcelain is never so
apparent as when displayed on the old " Jappan
Cabinets " or the sombre furniture of the Orange-
Nassau dynasty.
It was fashionable to decry the craze for things
Chinese, and early eighteenth-century literature
teems with gibes at the china maniacs of the
II G

98 OLD FURNITURE
day. We have referred in the first chapter of the
volume to Macaulay's small opinion of the merits
of old Chinese porcelain. The Spectator for
February 12, 17 12, contains a letter from an
imaginary Jack Anvil who had made a fortune,
married a lady of quality, and grown into Sir
John Enville. He tells how my Lady Mary
Enville " next set herself to reform every room
in my house, having glazed all my chimney
pieces with looking glasses, and planted every
corner with such heaps of China, that I am
obliged to move about my own house with the
greatest caution and circumspection for fear of
hurting some of our brittle furniture."
Daniel Defoe, in his " Tour of Great Britain,"
says : " The Queen (Mary) brought in the
custom or humour, as I may call it, of furnishing
houses with China ware which increased to a
strange degree afterwards, piling their China
upon the tops of Cabinets, scrutores and every
Chymney Piece to the top of the ceilings and
even setting up shelves for their China ware
where they wanted such places, till it became a
grivance in the expence of it and even injurious
to their Families and Estates."
At Hampton Court to-day we can see the
chimney-pieces in the corners of the smaller
closets with the tiers of diminishing shelves

OLD FURNITURE 99
reaching almost to the ceilings, and displayed
thereon are the " flymy little bits of Blue " which
Mr. Henley laughs at in his Villanelle. Perhaps
some day our National Museum will overflow and
refurnish Hampton Court Palace, which to-day
in its furnishing, apart from the pictures and
tapestries, is but a shadow of its old self.
Although germane to the matter, the foregoing
is somewhat in the nature of a digression from
the subject of the " japanned " furniture, which
took such a hold of the popular fancy that the
making of such things was practised as a hobby
by the amateurs of the period. " A Treatise on
Japanning and Varnishing " was issued by John
Stalker in 1688, and, just as " painting and the
use of the backboard " were essentials in the
curriculum of the early Victorian seminary, so
were the young ladies of the reign of Wilham III.
taught the gentle art of " Japanning." In the
Verney Memoirs we find Edmund Verney, son
of Sir John Verney, the Squire of East Claydon,
writing to his little daughter Molly (aged about
eight years) in 1682 or 1683, at Mrs. Priest's
school at Great Chelsey : "I find you have a
desire to learn to Jappan, as you call it, and I
approve of it, and so I shall of anything that is
Good and Virtuous. Therefore learn in God's
name all Good Things, and I will wilhngly be

loo OLD FURNITURE
at the Charge so farr as I am able — tho' They
come from Japan and from never so farr and
Look of an Indian Hue and Odour, for I admire
all accomplishments that will render you con
siderable and Lovely in the sight of God and
Man. . . . To learn this art costs a Guiney
entrance and some 40's more to buy materials
to work upon."
John Stalker's treatise is probably the earliest
printed work in connection with furniture-
making. We never hear of any individual name
connected with the manufacture of furniture
during the oak period, although there had been
a guild of cofferers. The names of the makers
of the superb Charles chairs are lost in obhvion,
and we have to wait till the eighteenth century
before any artist-craftsman or designer gives his
name to a style.
Stalker's treatise is contained in a foHo volume
of eighty-four pages of letterpress and twenty-
four pages of copper-plate engravings. The
title-page reads : " A Treatise of Japanning and
Varnishing, Being a compleat discovery of those
Arts. With the best way of making all sorts of
Varnish for Japan, Woods, Prints, Plate or Pic
tures. The method of Guilding, Burnishing and
Lackering with the art of Guilding, Separateing
and Refining metals, and the most curios ways

OLD FURNITURE loi
of painting on Glass or otherwise. Also rules
for counterfeiting Tortoise Shell, and Marble
and for staining or Dying Wood, Ivory etc.
Together with above an hundred distinct pat
terns of Japan Work, for Tables, Stands, Frames,
Cabinets, Boxes &c. Curiously engraven on
24 large Copper Plates. By John Stalker Sep
tember the 7th 1 688. Licenced R. Midgley and
entered according to order. Oxford Printed
for and sold by the Author, Uving at the Golden
Ball in St. James Market London in the year
MDCLXXXVIII." This comprehensive work is " Dedicated to
the RIHGT Honourable The Countess of Darby
a lady no less eminent for her quality. Beauty
and Vertue, then for her incomparable Skill and
Experience in the Arts that those Experiments
belong to, as well as in several others."
In a page and a half of the preface the author
takes us through the history of painting from
early Grecian times, particularly pointing out
that the art of portrait-painting alone can keep
our memories green. He goes on to say : " Well
then as painting has made an honourable provi
sion for our bodies so Japanning has taught us
a method, no way inferior to it, for the splendour
and preservation of our Furniture and Houses.
These Buildings, like our bodies, continually

102 OLD FURNITURE
tending to ruin and dissolution are still in want
of fresh supplies and reparations. On the one
hand they are assaulted with unexpected mis
chances, on the other with the injuries of time
and weather ; but the art of Japanning has
made them almost impregnable against both ;
no damp air, no mouldring worm, or corroding
time, can possibly deface it ; and, which is more
wonderful, although its ingredients the Gums,
which are in their own nature inflamable yet
this most vigorously resists the fire, and is itself
found to be incombustible. True, genuine Japan,
like the Salamander, lives in the flames, and
stands unalterable, when the wood which was
imprison'd in it, is utterly consumed. . . .
What can be more surprising then to have our
chambers overlaid with varnish more glassy and
reflecting than polisht Marble f No Amorous
Nymph need entertain a Dialogue with her
Glass, or Narcissus retire to a Fountain, to
survey his charming countenance, when the house
is one entire speculum. To this we subjoin the
Golden Draught, with which Japan is so ex-
quisitively adorned, than which nothing can be
more beautiful, more rich or majestick."
In John Stalker's opinion Europe, both Ancient
and Modern, must in the adornments of cities
give pride of place to Japan, for " surely this

OLD FURNITURE 103
Province was Nature's Darling and the Favourite
of the Gods, for Jupiter has vouchsaft it a visit
as formally to Danae in a Golden shower."
In an epistle to " the Reader and Practitioner "
he severely censures inferior artificers who " with
out modesty or blush impose upon the gentry such
Stuff and Trash, for Japan work, that whether it
is a greater scandal to the name or artifice, I
cannot determine. Might we advise such foolish
pretenders, their time would be better imployed
in drawing Whistles and Puppets for the Toy
shops to please Children, than contriving orna
ments for a room of State."
He cautions the reader against the common
error of mistaking Bantam work for real Japan.
" This must be alledged for the Bantam work
that it is very pretty," &c. &c., but the Japan is
" more grave and majestick . . . the Japan artist
works most of all in Gold and other metals, and
Bantam for the generality in colours with a
small sprinkling of Gold here and there, like the
patches on a Ladle's countenance."
He professes, in the " Cutts or Patterns," to
have exactly imitated the towers, steeples, figures
and rocks of Japan according to designs of such
found on imported specimens. " Perhaps we
have helped them a little in their proportions
where they were lame or defective, and made

I04 OLD FURNITURE
them more pleasant, yet altogether as Antick.
Had we industriously contrived the prospective,
or shadowed them otherwise than they are : we
should have wandered from the Design, which
is only to imitate the true genuine Indian work,
and perhaps in a great measure might puzzle and
confound the unexperienced Practitioner."
It may interest readers to know the market
prices of some of the materials used in 1688.
Seed-lac, 14J. to 18/. per lb. ; gum sandrack,
IS. to IJ. 2d. per lb. ; gum animse, p. to $s.
per lb. ; Venice turpentine, is. 6d. to is. Sd.
per lb. ; white rosin, ^d. to 6d. per lb. ; shell-
lac, IJ. 6d. to 2J-. per lb. ; gum arable, is. per lb. ;
gum copall, IS. to is. 6d. per lb. ; gum elemni,
4^. to ^d. per oz. ; benjamin or benzoine, 4^.
to 8d. per oz. ; dragon's blood, Sd. to is. per oz.
"Brass dust," Stalker says, cannot be made in
England, though it has often been tried. The
best, we learn, comes from Germany ! He goes
on to describe various metal-dusts, such as
" Silver dust," " Green Gold," " Dirty Gold,"
" Powder tinn," and " Copper." Of the makers
of " speckles " of divers sorts — gold, silver,
copper — " I shall only mention two, viz a Gold
beater, at the hand and hammer in Long Acre ;
and another of the same trade over against
Mercers Chappel inCheapside."

OLD FURNITURE 105
The twenty-four pages of " Cutts " include
designs for " Powder Boxes," " Looking glass
frames," " For Drauers for Cabbinets to be
placed according to your fancy," and " For a
Standish for Pen Inke and paper which may
also serve for a comb box." The drawings include
" An Embassy," " A Pagod Worshipp in ye
Indies," and another sketch in which the central
figure would appear to be a hybrid Red Indian
before whom several devotees are grovelling.
We have quoted John Stalker at some length
as giving interesting sidelights on an industry
occupying the attentions of a numerous class in
his own day. For the actual carrying out of the
methods employed we must refer the reader to the
book itself — a book which is invaluable to any one
who has a piece of Old English lac in want of
repair. There is an old-world charm about the
work of the Stalker and contemporary schools, but
in point of real beauty it is as far removed from
the Japanese lacquer as the " Oriental " porce
lain of the eighteenth-century European fac
tories is from its Chinese or Japanese prototype.
The complaint has often been made of the lack
of perspective in the Oriental decorations. This
may be said, to use a hackneyed phrase, to be
the defect of its qualities. We have by this time
come to see things to a certain extent through

io6 OLD FURNITURE
Japanese eyes, and have learnt to love the
defect. The artist of Old Japan — be he painter, potter,
metal-worker, or lacquerer — was an artist to his
finger-tips, and his work was full of a symbolism
utterly incomprehensible to the Western mind.
Those in Japan who know will tell you that a
master lacquerer of the seventeenth century
would spend many years on the decoration of a
simple small box. In the initial stage — the pre
paration of the background — it has been calcu
lated that 530 hours are required in the aggregate
for drying the various layers ; but the young
ladies at Mrs. Priest's school at Great Chelsey
in the seventeenth century expect by the aid of
Stalker's instructions to learn the art in twelve
lessons ! Honest John Stalker thinks he can
improve upon his Japanese models, with the
result that, whilst we may have a little less of
the " defect," we have scarcely any of the
" qualities." It is ever thus when West attempts
to copy East.
We may mention in passing that the French
furniture-makers of the eighteenth century
utiHsed, in the production of some of their finest
commodes, drawer-fronts and panels of genuine
Japanese lacquer which must have been manufac
tured specially for the French market, exhibiting.

OLD FURNITURE 107
as they do, shapes quite foreign to anything
in use in Japan. It is highly probable that
these serpentine and bow-shaped drawer-fronts
were sent out to Japan to receive their decora
tion. In the " Jones Bequest " at the Victoria
and Albert Museum we can see superb examples
of such belonging to the period of Louis XV.
It is said that Madame Pompadour expended
110,000 livres on Japanese lacquer. Marie
Antoinette's collection in the Louvre is con
siderable ; but it is quite certain that the finest
examples of the art never left Japan. Mr. Huish,
to whose book we have above referred, gives
some interesting statistics pointing to the
scarcity of fine old lacquer in this country during
the early days of trade with the East. In one
year during the eighteenth century eleven
ships sailed, and, whilst carrying 16,580 pieces
of porcelain, they brought only twelve pieces
of lac.
To-day Old English lacquered furniture is
much sought after, and prices are advancing
rapidly. The coloured varieties include red,
blue, green, violet, and occasionally buff.
The red in particular is highly prized. Black
lac, which was made in great quantities in every
shape of furniture, is still comparatively plen
tiful. An early eighteenth-century grandfather's

io8 OLD FURNITURE
clock, which might fetch anything from five to
ten pounds if the case were of plain oak, would
have a selling value of from ten to twenty pounds
if lacquered.
Evidence points to the fact that in the majority
of cases the lacquer was an afterthought. The
furniture of the day was turned out, in the
ordinary course of trade, quite innocent of
lacquer, and afterwards treated by professional
japanners — sometimes maltreated by amateurs.
Not long since, in our own day, there was a
similar craze for covering furniture with enamel
paints. Fig. 74 is an interesting china cabinet in black
lacquer of William and Mary period, 7 ft. 5 in. high
and 5 ft. wide, priced at ;^30. A first-class modern
mahogany or walnut-wood cabinet of the size
could scarcely be made for the money, whilst
the old lac, apart from its intrinsic charm, has
an additional sentimental value as marking a
phase in the history of furniture — a phase in
decoration. In this cabinet we have also a
development in form. It is palpably the product
of a period when the rage for collecting porcelain
was prevalent, and in the same connection it is
no less useful to-day. The modern designer
scarcely invents anything more appropriate. It
is interesting to note this cabinet as an example

OLD FURNITURE 109
of the afterthought in decoration. The owners,
Messrs. Story and Triggs Ltd., of Queen Vic
toria Street, London — ^have discovered that the
lacquer is superimposed on walnut veneer ! It
tells its own tale.
Fig. 75 is an early example of red lacquer,
a cabinet with boldly arched cornice ; the
repetition of the arch at either end gives a fine
architectural finish to the top. The upper part
encloses shelves, and there are four drawers in
the base. The decoration consists of various
Chinese views of ladies in a garden, a temple
with a man and children, trees, rocks and lakes.
It was probably made about 1690 ; 75 in. high,
31 in. wide, and 23 in. deep.
Fig. 76 is somewhat later — about 1710 — with
typical Queen Anne period cabriole legs and
claw-and-ball feet. The doors, which enclose
five drawers, are decorated with figures, buildings,
birds and flowers, and are furnished with finely
chased ormolu lock-plates and hinges. It is of
black lacquer with red and gold reliefs, and
measures 6"] in. by 39 in. by 19 in. Valued at
about ^45.
Fig. "T] is still later — about 1730 — a cabinet
surmounted on plain cabriole legs. On the front
is a view of a lake with Oriental figures, cocks,
and vegetation. Inside the doors are studies of

no OLD FURNITURE
the lotus-flower in vases. The hinges and lock-
plates are fine examples of English metal-work
in the Chinese taste. This piece is valued at
^35. It is 56 in. high and 36 in. wide.
For comparison we give an example. Fig. 78,
of a piece of lacquered furniture made in
China about 1740. This dressing-table was
evidently made for England and copied, as to
shape, from an English table. It is inlaid with
mother-of-pearl designs of landscape, birds,
and flowers. The interior is fitted with mirror,
writing-desk, and numerous boxes. It is built of
camphor-wood, and still exhales a delicate
fragrance. During the English " japanning " period every
imaginable shape of furniture received this
Oriental treatment. Besides the various forms
of cabinet we find lacquered mirror-frames,
dressing-tables, corner cupboards, hanging cup
boards, chests and chests of drawers, chairs, work-
boxes, writing-desks, coffee-tables, card-tables,
pole-screens, trays, barometer-cases, and even
bellows-cases. We give an example of a simple mirror in red
lacquered frame with arched top (Fig. 79). It
measures 39 in. by 19 in. This and the three
preceding examples are the property of Mr. F. W.
Phillips, of The Manor House, Hitchin.

OLD FURNITURE in
Fig. 80 is a barometer in lacquered case of
about 1700.
Fig. 81, at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
is of Dutch make of the early eighteenth cen
tury — a dressing-glass suspended between two
uprights, which are supported on a cabinet
with sloping front. Inside the cabinet is a
compartment with a hinged door, flanked on
either side- by an open compartment, one
long and two short drawers. The lower part
has seventeen compartments fitted with boxes,
brushes, and various toilet requisites. The
lacquer is raised and gilt on a red ground,
showing groups of figures in Chinese costumes,
buildings, landscapes and floral designs with
birds. Fig. 82 is a somewhat similar glass but of
English make. The woods composing it are
poplar, pine and oak, and it is decorated with
blue and gold lacquer, the effect of which is the
reverse of pleasing.
We have said that the European lacquer will
not bear close comparison with the Old Japanese.
The methods of the Chinese were simpler, and
the English " japanner " (it is, of course, a mis
leading term) was more successful in his attempts
to copy the Chinese cabinets. His best examples,
if indeed they fell far short in technique, did in

112 OLD FURNITURE
method to a large extent approximate to the
work of the Celestial.
English lacquer as a mere investment is worth
buying at reasonable prices, and in choosing
pieces the collector will do well to look, as much
as possible, for the real Oriental feehng.

Fig. 74. LACQUERED CHIN.V CABINET

Fig,

7S. LACQUERED CABINET WITH DR.AWERS

Fig, 76, LACQUERED CABINET

Fig. 77. L.ACQUERED CABINET

Fig. 78. LACQUERED DRESSING-TABLE

Fig. 79
L.ACQUERED MIRROR

Fig, 8o
BAROMETER IN
LACQUERED CASE

Fig. Si
LACQUERED TOILET MIRROR

Fig. 82
LACQUERED TOILET .MIRROR

INDEX

Architectural inspiration less
marked, 39
Ashton on Queen Anne period, 1 3
Balustbrs, examples of, 31
Baths at Hampton Court, 5
in early times, 5
Bedroom, Queen Anne, 43-46
Bedsteads at Court, 7
modern Queen Anne, 43-44
Buckingham's, Duke of, glass
works, 37
Bureaux, Queen Anne period, 79
William and Mary period, 78
with secret drawers, 80-81
Cabriolb legs, S3
Chairs (see Chapter IV.)
claw-and-ball decoration, S4
double, 58
drunkards', 57
fine, 57
ladder-backed, 55
period of James II., 47
Queen Anne, 51-57
shaped, 56
William and Mary, 50-51
with cabriole legs, 53-54
with rigid lines, 8, 50
Chests of drawers (see Chapter
V.) history of, 65
the tallboy, 70-71
veneered, 67-68
with cabriole legs, 69
with marquetry, 66
with tumed legs, 67-69
China cabinets first introduced,
13
varieties of, 74-75
Chinese porcelain, Defoe on, 98
Evelyn on, 4
first introduced into Eng
land, 3
II I

Chinese porcelain, Macaulay on, 4
popularity of, 13
Spectator on, 59, 98
Chintzes, 59-60
Coffee-houses, ir, i3
Claw and ball, 54
Clocks (see Chapter VII.)
" Bob " pendulum, 83
bracket of pedestal, 86-89
Cromwell or lantern, 82-86
Cunyngham on, 92-93
Daniel Quare, 88
George Graham, 87
grandfather, 89-94
in lacquer, 90
in marquetry, 88, 91
" sheep's head," 83
Thomas Tompion, 87
Clouston on Queen Anne mirrors,
37
Cunyngham on clocks, 92-93
Defob, Daniel, on Chinese porce
lain, 98
Doorways, carved, 32
Dutch influence, i, 20, 47, 96
Dwelling-room, CUfford's Inn, 7
EscALLOP-SHBLL decoration, 54
Evelyn on Sir Christopher Wren,
21
Evelyn's Diary, 4, 36
'• Gesso " work, 41
Gibbon, Grinling, and Charles
II., 26-27
examples at Hampton
Court, 6
his life and work, 25-30
mirror frame, 38
Graham, George (clock-maker),
87
Hampton Court Palace {see
Chapter I.), 97, 98-99
13 H

114

INDEX

Homes of the poor, 1 1 , 47
Houses of the wealthy, lo
Huguenot silk- workers, 57
Huish, M. B., on '' Japan and
its Art," 96, 107
Inlay, 14
Japanning or varnishing by
John Stalker, 99-105
LAcguER (see Chapter Vlll.)
cabinets, 109
China cabinet, 108
clock, 108
dressing-glasses, in
dressing-table, no
French, 106-107
history of, 95-97
Japanese, 106
mirror, no
Law, Ernest, on Queen Anne
period, 2, 3, 8
Macaulay, on Verrio, 9
views on collecting porce
lain, 4
Macquoid, Percy, " Age of Wal
nut," 50
on marquetry, 67
Mahogany introduced, 8, 72
Marquetry defined, 16
Macquoid on, 67
Pollen on, 66
used on clock, 88
mirror frames, 42
tables, 6i
wardrobes, 73
Marsh, Anthony (clock-maker),
86
Martin, John (clock -maker), 88
McCarthy, Justin, on Queen
Anne period, 1 1
Mirrors {see Chapter III.)
by Grinling Gibbon, 38
Clouston on, 37
early examples, 35
'' Gesso " work, 41
in Hampton Court, 36-37
in Holyrood Palace, 36

Mirrors, in marquetry, 42
in Van Eyck's picture in
National Gallery, 35
influence of Wren, 40
mentioned in Evelyn's
Diary, 36
mentioned in " Paradise
Lost," 34
notes on purchasing, 40
simple, 38-39
toilet, 42
Needlework, '' petit point,"
57
popular with women, 59
Queen Mary's, 3
Pollen, J. H., on marquetry,
66
on Queen Anne period, 10
Quare, Daniel (clock-maker), 88
Queen Anne period, a gambling
age, 62
Anne's influence, 10
Ashton quoted, 12
bedroom, 43-46
chairs and tables, &c. (see
Chapters IV.)
definition, 8-9
houses of middle class, 60
Justin McCarthy on, 1 r
old city houses, 31
ordinary types of mirrors,
38, 39
simple furniture, 9, 10
Thackeray on, 12
writing-table, 79
Queen Mary, her needlework, 3
Settee, 58
Stalker, John, on japanning and
varnishing, 99-105
Stools, William and Mary, 42
Queen Anne, 43
Tables (see Chapter IV.)
card, 62-63
gate-leg, 64

INDEX

115

Tables, inverted bowl decora
tion, 60
William and Mary, 61
with cabriole legs, 63
with claw and ball feet, 63
with escallop-shell decora
tion, 63
with flaps, 63
with marquetry work, 61
with tied stretchers, 61
Tallboys, 70-71
Tea-drinking, 12
Thackeray on Queen Anne
period, 12
Toilet sets, 45
Tompion, Thomas (clock-
maker), 87
Van Eyck, picture by, 48
Veneering, 14-15

Verney Memoirs, 99
Verrio, his work at Hampton
' Court, 9
Wardrobe (or hanging cup
board) in early days, 72
in marquetry, 73
of Dutch origin, 72
William and Mary at Hampton
Court, I
costume, 48-49
Woodcraft, ancient, 16
Wren, Sir Christopher, 2-3
builds St. Paul's Cathedral,
22
Evelyn on, 21
his life and work, 20-2 5
Writing-desks, history of, 76-78
Queen Anne knee-hole, 79-
80

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