The Bower

The bower contained a bed, sometimes a bench or stool, and always a chest of some kind. The chest was the most important article in the house and hid all valued possessions.

Beginnings Of Gothic Style

Toward the latter part of the Middle Ages the chairs and chests were decorated to some extent. The Gothic style of architecture became the vogue, and the pointed or Gothic arch and Gothic carving were introduced into the construction of furniture. The English coronation chair, showing the arch and the quatrefoil, an ornamental foliation having fpur lobes or foils, was built at this period, and happily has not been destroyed in succeeding centuries.

Details Of Gothic Style

During the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, the Gothic style of architecture endured. The pointed arch, the trefoil, the quatrefoil, and simple tracery were used upon massive furniture, the Gothic treatment being confined mostly to decoration, the construction little affected by it. Toward the close of the fifteenth century the carving became heavy and more complicated, the lines of the furniture less beautiful, and animals and grotesque heads were combined with Gothic details.

Much Ornamental Carving Used

The plan of the home remained much the same, distinctly feudal in character. Chests became elaborately carved and inlaid. Beds were surrounded by carved and latticed walls. Rude tables took the place of the board and trestle, and the chairs were heavily laden with ornamentation. Only one distinctly new article of furniture seems to have appeared during these two centuries, and that was the cupboard, upon which a wealth of ornament and detail was heaped.

The Renaissance In Italy

Toward the end of the fifteenth century a great change took place in all handcraft. A new force born in Italy gradually spread throughout Europe and supplanted Gothic art. The Renaissance was a sudden spontaneous outburst of intellectual energy in the arts and inventions, knowledge and books, which had long lain neglected during the Middle Ages. The awakening began in Italy, and the whole country seemed all at once to be endowed with an instinct for the beautiful, and also with the capacity for producing it in every form. From Italy the reform wave spread rapidly to France and Spain, then to Germany and the Low Countries, and at last to England and the new world of America.

Furniture Designs Were Adapted To Use

One often hears the Renaissance spoken of as a thing of the past, but we are still in the onward movement although the first vigor is over. At the first no article of furniture was too commonplace to receive the attention of the greatest artists of the day. Designs were made with reference to their setting, and the furniture for the home became less heavy and clumsy, so that it no longer was suggestive of the cathedral or the abbey. The household appointments were for the first time in history made with a careful regard for the needs of the owner, his station in life, and his manner of living. The homes of the early Renaissance began to take on a harmony as a whole, as well as a wealth of exquisite detail, which had hitherto been absent, but which we of the present day are still striving to perfect.

Before many years had passed, homes began to look more comfortable. Chairs, benches, and tables were loosened from their stiff positions against the walls, and new furniture was invented and added, as occasion and need arose. Chairs became upholstered, tables gained more beautiful lines and exquisite carving, and cabinets and chests of drawers augmented the old cupboard, and dower coffers. Clocks, mirrors, and screens became universal. In the palaces all was luxurious beauty. Sunken panels in the woodwork were ornamented by carved rosettes in high relief, often gilded. The halls were hung with exquisite tapestries and massively framed pictures, and the horizontal beaming of the ceilings, in its complexity, has come down to the present time as a beautiful example of the period.