If a vast mass of old oak furniture could be gathered together, the repetition of ornamental details and general shapes, which helps to bind the productions of any age with the link of an all-pervading style, would be more conspicuous than a perplexing variety of motives. On the other hand, I think it would be safe to say that very few Elizabethan or Jacobean or seventeenth century chairs will be found exactly alike. Pairs of chairs are not common, and sets practically unknown till the cane-backed period. The suite of 'six, and two arm-chairs' in which auctioneers delight is a phenomenon of the mahogany era. A set of solid-backed oak chairs would perhaps turn out to have been made out of superior discarded church pews. Finally, when comparing the stiffness and want of concession to human anatomy, which is characteristic of chairs of the oak period, with the superiority of the eighteenth century product in this respect, we must remember that there was no lack of cushions and even fixed upholstery in the seventeenth century to mitigate the defect.