Tables and chairs were found in every room. About 1640, the "drop-leaf" or "hang-ear" tables came into use. They were usually made of solid walnut- or sacredaan wood.

The chairs had high curved, or leather, backs and low seats of leather, on top of which were placed loose cushions or pillows, which were often piled up so high on the seat that a child standing on tiptoe could not see over the pillow on the seat of the chair. Chairs were also covered with rich damask, serge and other woollen goods. In the old inventories mention is made of "Prussia leather table chairs," ebony carved chairs, red cloth covered sacredaan wood chairs with pillows of different shapes, and of high-backed carved walnut table chairs.

PLATE XLV. - Flemish Chair. CLUNY MUSEUM, PARIS.

Typical chairs are shown in Plates XXXIII and XXXIV from the Rijks Museum. In the first there is a caned armchair on the left, an upholstered armchair on the right, with turned legs and rails; and in the middle a chair in the Marot style, with a mirror-shaped back, cane panel, straight legs and crossed straining-rails. The example on the extreme left of Plate XXXIV is an armchair of carved oak, with scrolled arms and cane seat and back. It is similar to the one without arms from Cluny in Plate XLV. A cane chair without arms appears in the centre, and on the right an armchair with turned legs, carved top rail, and leather back and seat. The Flemish chair on Plate XLV is constantly seen in the rooms of the seventeenth century.

The chair on the left of Plate XXX in the Cluny Museum, called "Spanish of the Seventeenth Century," is a curious transitional piece. The high back and seat are covered with Spanish leather put on with large-headed nails. The pattern of the leather represents peacocks, flowers and human figures. The ornamentation of the top rail consists of a leaf and scrolls ending in sharp spikes at the corners, very much in the early Regency style. On the rail below the seat is carved a heart-shaped ornament. The front legs are cabriole, connected with stretchers and ending in hoof feet. The back legs, also connected by stretchers, are straight.

Other furniture included spinets and harpsichords, Friesland clocks, table watches and pocket watches, which, when not in use, were placed in little cases, as were the mirrors the ladies wore at their waists. Sand-or hour-glasses were to be found especially in the kitchens, and the table-bell, which had now supplanted the whistle as a call for the servants.

The woods used for furniture were oak, walnut, cedar, olive, nutwood, ebony (black, green and yellow); king-wood, from Brazil, a hard wood with black veins on a chocolate ground; beef-wood, from New Holland, of a pale red used for borders; palissandre, or violet wood, from Guiana, for inlays on fine furniture; and, above all, sacredaan, or Java mahogany, a very hard wood, sweet smelling and of a bright yellow or pale orange colour. This was a favourite wood for chests, as the odour served to protect furs and woollen stuffs from the attacks of moths, etc.

The Dutch kitchen towards the end of the century was fully equipped with all kinds of brushes, brooms, pots, pans and every utensil that was necessary to effect the cleanliness and produce the good cheer so necessary to every prosperous burgher. In 1680, a kitchen of a man of moderate means in New Amsterdam contained the following:

PLATE XLVI. - "Buire," by Mosyn, Auricular Style.

Silverware was an important item in the possessions of the merchant class as well as the nobility. In 1682, we find the following items in the inventory of a prosperous butcher:

No view of a Dutch interior of the seventeenth century would be complete if it neglected to take into consideration the family pets. These are very much in evidence in the pictures by Dutch masters. These consist of monkeys, parrots, peacocks, pheasants, cats and dogs.

The monkey is quite a privileged character. Sometimes he is perched on the top of a spinet and sometimes on a kas or a chimney-piece.

The masters of vessels that sailed the Eastern Seas, both English and Dutch, were commissioned by nobles and potentates to bring home rare animals. In 1609, for instance, the East India Company issued letters for reserving "all strange fowls and beasts to be found there," for the Council. In 1623, we find a note that to the governor of the Company a "Caccatoa" was sent from Batavia. The cockatoo is a familiar resident in Dutch homes. He and other kinds of parrots, domiciled in wicker and wire cages, are very much in evidence in the genre pictures of the age. The golden and silver pheasants were also privileged members of the household, and were allowed the freedom of the hall. Sometimes we see them perched on cornices, and sometimes strutting on the tiled floor. The monkey, which played so important a part in the "singerie" decoration of the late Louis Quatorze, Regence and Louis Quinze periods, was imported in considerable numbers. A gossipy journal - LeCourrier du temps, conducted by Fouquet de Croissy who undertook to tell the secret happenings in the court of every prince in Europe - records the following item of news from Amsterdam, under date of September 1, 1649:

"This week several ships have arrived here from the Indies. Among the other riches with which the good agent was charged, he has brought a dozen of the rarest and most beautiful monkeys that have ever been seen in these parts. Cardinal Mazarin has sent for them to put them in his wardrobe and antichambers to divert those who pay court to him and to judge the affection they have for his service by the civility and good treatment of the animals, the favourites of his Eminence, receive from them."