The parlour chairs (Fig. 253) are good examples of Chippendale furniture, and the chairs made in the so-called "Chinese style" (Fig. 254) are attributed to the elder Chippendale.

Sherraton And Heppelwhite

Sherraton And Heppelwhite are names of two other well-known cabinet-makers, who made excellent mahogany furniture in the last century, both of whom published works on the subject at the latter end of the century.

The names of Gillow, Lichfield, Lock, and Copeland are those of eminent English cabinet-makers and decorators of this period, the two former firms being still in existence in London.

In France, after the Revolution (1792), a more decided phase of the dry and heavy classicisms was apparent in the furniture design and decoration of the period (1801). This return to classic heaviness has been attributed to the influence of the academic painter David, but is more likely to have been a pandering to the national worship of Napoleon and the French Empire. It seemed to have been the universal desire to make everything echo or reflect in some measure the giory of the Emperor Napoleon I. The meanest thing had some symbol or allusion by the way of decoration that should remind everybody of the greatness of the new monarch and of the French Empire, and consequently the heavy and ponderous style of that period was known as the "Empire Style." The furniture of the Empire was usually made in mahogany, decorated with mountings in brass or bronze, of sphinxes, griffins, Roman emblems, and antique scrollery (Fig. 255).

Percier And Fontaine

Percier And Fontaine are names of French cabinetmakers and designers who worked in the Empire style, and who published a book of their designs.

In England the style was copied, and we find that endless imitations of the French fashion in tables, sofas, chairs, cabinets, and clocks were designed after the same antique ideals.

In this country, during the earlier half of the present century, the mediaeval Gothic style was partly revived in architecture and in furniture, mainly owing to the efforts of Augustus W. Pugin, the architect. He designed many pieces of furniture, and published a work consisting of Gothic designs in the year 1835. Notwithstanding the efforts of Pugin and some other eminent architects and "purists," no particular lasting impression was made in this direction.

If we except a few of the best cabinet-makers' shops, where in the present day some furniture of good design is made, the majority of such work is now made by machinery, or is often too much the work of the upholsterer, and is consequently less artistic and more mechanical both in design and construction.

Some of the most beautiful furniture of Japanese and Chinese manufacture is made in carved wood and lacquered in black or red. Cabinets with drawers and quaintly contrived cupboards and recesses (Fig. 256) are made by the Japanese, finished in lacquers, and inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl. The Chinese are especially skilled in carving red lac-work. Some vases of great dimensions and of exquisite workmanship in this material may be seen in the Kensington Museum.

Lac-Work

Lac-Work is also executed with great skilfulness by the natives of India. Bracelets, armlets, or golias, are made of lac in various colours, the golden decorations of which are made from tinfoil and varnished with a yellow varnish made of myrrh, copal, and sweet oil boiled together. Boxes, bed-posts, and other furniture, made in wood or papier-mÆ'ch*š, are lacquered and decorated with flat renderings of flowers and conventional shapes of animals and birds (Figs. 257, 258). All kinds of toys, weights and measures, cooking utensils, circular playing-cards, turnery, etc, are objects in small wares made in the choicest lac-work of India.

Fig. 252. Table of Marie Antoinette, inlaid with Sevres Plaques. (Jones Collection).

Fig. 253. Parlour Chairs, by Chippendale. (L).

Fig. 254. Chair in the Chinese Style, by Thomas Chippendale. (L).

Fig. 255. Stool and Chair, Caned and Gilt Mountings; Empire Style. (L).

Fig. 256. Cabinet of Red Chased Lacquer (Japanese) and Porcelain Dish. I (J).

Fig. 257. Lacquered Boxes; Sindh. (B).

Fig. 258. Lacquered Leg of Bedpost; Sindh. (B).