THE writer of a treatise upon English Furniture, who wishes to trace his subject from the very commencement of its history, is attended at once by a serious difficulty. Lack of actual material, owing to the limited durability of woodwork as compared with that of metal and stone, absolutely precludes all certainty as to the shape and adornment of Saxon, Danish, or Norman chairs, beds, and tables. Their non-existence may be regarded either as a blessing or a curse. The collector's loss is the speculative antiquary's opportunity. The former, from whose point of view this book is written, is not much concerned with what he can never hope to see or obtain. To the latter, then, let us leave the privilege of'embarking,' as a recent writer on the Saxon period has it, ' on the perilous sea of conjecture surrounding the small solid spots of knowledge which .. we possess.'

A brief study of the manner in which a Saxon house is represented in one of the most useful historical documents will show how difficult it is to draw exact inferences as to its contents. In the Bayeux so-called 'tapestry' Harold's house at Bosham is depicted. We cannot tell from such a picture what it really looked like, because the front is entirely open to display the feasting in progress within. The figures in the house are cut off at the waist by the floor of the upper story.

The only definite conclusion to be drawn as to other things besides dress and architecture, of which the latter is but symbolically recorded, concerns horns and drinking-cups. They are unmistakable, but in this particular picture of a feast, at any rate, there are no tables, chairs, or furniture of any kind. Mr. Baldwin Brown, however (Arts in Early England, i. p. 103), gathers from inventories and records that the equipment of a Saxon lord's house 'gave occasion for art in the figured wall-hanging, and in carved and gilded woodwork in furniture and utensil.' The plentiful remains of beautifully executed Saxon metal-work warrant such a conclusion, and a reference by the same writer to the chronicle of Ramsey Abbey (Rolls Series, 83) brings us a step nearer to our subject. It records that the church, originally built in 974, was soon adorned with a jewelled altar-front of silver, and an organ with pipes of copper. There is, in fact, no doubt that the pre-Norman house, monastery, and church must have been suitably furnished with a skill worthy of that which we can see actually displayed in the remains of metal-work. Many of the examples preserved show a technical skill of the highest order in all except figure-work. Seeing, then, that unfortunately no remains of Saxon furniture have come down to us, and that most representations of it, whether on textile fabrics or in manuscripts, are of so plain a description as to leave us no very definite ideas, the illustrations of this book will be confined to actual existing objects, leaving aside all exemplifications of what may have been.

There is in the British Museum a most precious relic which may give us a clue to realise the probable skill in wood-carving before the Norman period. It is the casket in whale's bone presented by Sir A. W. Franks. The cover represents a man defending his house with a bow - drawn, be it noticed, to the waist, and not as our later archers drew it - against opponents with swords and shields. The subject on the cover only takes up about one-third of the space. There is a round disc in the centre to which a handle was probably once attached. The front shows one Weland Smith mounting a young prince's skull as a drinking-cup; with Egil his brother ; and the adoration of the Magi. A twisted rope pattern runs round the border between straight lines raised upon a field which has been cut away. There is a place for a lock. On the back is represented the taking of Jerusalem, the central shape being an arch with pillars broken or interrupted by horizontal pieces in three stories. On the sides is an episode from the Teutonic legend of Egil the archer, a prototype of William Tell. There are Runic inscriptions in the Northumbrian dialect.

It is said that this object is of the eighth century, and was formerly preserved in Auvergne. The missing portions are in the Bargello at Florence. The material, whale's bone, is dullish white in colour, like coarse ivory, and with a decided grain. It is easy to imagine that the Saxon oak chest was carved with a front similar in execution to this, naive and flat, but so well incised and definite as to have a peculiar attractiveness. The doorway of the house on the cover, which is represented in elevation (whereas the house itself is fantastically given in ground plan), is of very similar proportion and general appearance to the round arches and pillars on the chests and chimney-pieces and other furniture of the Elizabethan period. A twisted cable ornament runs up the pillars, suggesting the 'guilloche' which we shall find so common in the period of the Renaissance.