THE appearance of walnut wood as used in a cane-backed chair of the Charles II. period is very different from its aspect when employed as a veneer for the flat fronts of cabinets of that king's and succeeding reigns. The smoother and more highly polished surface shows off the very decided markings of the wood as they cannot be seen on the smaller rounded and pierced shapes of a chair. Differences of application such as this help to make that very real difficulty which is experienced in determining the actual species of which a piece of furniture is constructed.

It may be remarked here that there appears to be no strict rule to be deduced from the practice of cabinetmakers in the eighteenth century as to the material of which their carcases and bases for veneering should consist. Ordinary oak is, of course, a very usual wood, easily worked, but often enough we find other kinds used. The drawers of a walnut-veneered tall-boy, for instance, may have their sides, backs, and bottoms made of oak, while the front, which is always the thickest part, may be of pine. It is perhaps just possible that in some cases this was done on principle. The front of a drawer being thicker, and having a handle, is the heaviest part. When it is pulled out, it has a natural tendency to fall downwards from the extra weight of the front end. This tendency would be considerably reduced by having a light wood instead of a heavy oak front. Such a consideration would not, however, apply in the case of many early chests of drawers belonging to the oak period. We often notice on the outer surface of the sides of the drawers a bold groove running through the centre longitudinally. This corresponds, when the object is in its original state, to a jutting longitudinal piece on the inner surface of the side of the carcase.

No doubt, when the chest of drawers thus fitted was first made, it was a very effectual method for causing the drawers to slide in and out smoothly. In the course of time, through warping and decay, these sliding arrangements have got out of order, and in the majority of cases I think it will be found that the jutting piece has been taken away, the groove filled up with a strip of new oak, and the drawer made to run again comparatively smoothly by means of guiders fastened upon the shelf in the carcase upon which each drawer rests. With the eighteenth century cabinetmakers, whose work - owing partly to the use of mahogany - was so much more exactly fitted than is the case with the furniture of the oak period, the use of the groove and jutting piece would have been an unnecessary expense. Their drawers when pulled out sag downwards very little if the particular piece of furniture is really well made. In a late Sheraton work-table in my possession there are slight guiders above the top edges of the drawer, extending only half way towards the back. It may be that these were so made for the very purpose of keeping the drawer straight when it was much pulled out; but the cabinetmaker has relied more upon a good fit than upon such slight regulators as these.

It is much more likely, therefore, that the material of the carcase and everything to be veneered was dictated to eighteenth century makers by the simple consideration of what seasoned and suitable woods they happened to have in stock.

That earnest inquirer Evelyn has a long letter to Dr. Wilkins, 'President of our Society at Gressham Coll.,' dated from Sayes Court, 17th February 1660, upon the subject of the wood which was so popular for furniture in the latter half of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. The grain of walnut and other woods he attributes to 'the descent as well as the ascent of moysture; for what else becomes of that water which is frequently found in the cavities where many branches spread themselves at the topps of greate trees, especialy pollards, unlesse (according to its natural appetite) it sinke into the very body of the stem through the pores? For example: in the wallnut, you shall find, when 'tis old that the wood is rarely' (i.e. curiously) 'figured and marbled, as it were, and therefore much more esteemed by joyners, etc, than the young, which is whiter and without any grains.' Evelyn pursues his theory to some length, and whatever it may be worth he was certainly right as to the joiners' preference for a strongly marked grain.

Burr walnut is frequently found employed for veneers, and later on in the eighteenth century bureaux and tea-caddies in this material are not uncommon.