This section is from the book "Early English Furniture & Woodwork", by Herbert Cescinsky, Ernest. R. Gribble. Also available from Amazon: Early English Furniture & Woodwork.
If it be a truism that the greater one's knowledge the more self-apparent is one's ignorance, I can only say that the real profundity of mine on the subject of early oak woodwork was never so apparent to me until after our collaboration had commenced. Ernest Gribble's name figures on this book as co-author with my own, but I must acknowledge that he has supplied the bulk of the facts and the greater number of the photographs. In the early chapters I have merely written from his notes, which have exploded many of my pet theories. Some of these, however, have survived his criticism or persisted in spite of it.
I cannot close this preface without a grateful acknowledgment to many of the owners of the examples illustrated here, who have, with unfailing courtesy and patience, assisted me in every way, by affording facilities for photographing their possessions, and by giving me information as to their history and origin.
I have been indebted to so many for the necessary photographs which the book has required that particular mention is almost invidious in itself. I feel, however, that distinct praise is due to those gentlemen who have taken photographs in churches, as every photographer will appreciate the enormous difficulty attendant upon work of this character.
The Rev. Frederick Sumner has very kindly furnished the following: Figs. 99, 107, 108, 109, 112, 113, 117, 147, 148, 152, 169, 170, 171, 172, 174, 175. The Rev. F. R. P. Sumner : Figs. 3, 4, 5, 132, 133, 134, 135, 146, 154, 155, 156. Mr. C. J. Abbott : Figs.
33, 55. 66, 97, 98, 104, 105. 157, 158, 181, 182, 184, 263, 264, 265, 295, and Messrs. F. Frith : Figs. 93, 94, 95, 96, 106, 138. 139, 159, 176, 177.
I would like to point out here, that the collecting of the necessary photographs for this book has occupied a space of over twelve years. The names here given are of the owners of the pieces at the times when the photographs were taken. Many of the examples may have changed hands since; this has been the case, to my knowledge, with several, but as I have not - and could not without an enormous amount of trouble, have followed the history of each piece and noted its change of ownership, I have, therefore, noted the name of the owners at the time when the photographs were taken. This course was inevitable. To obviate a needless repetition of " In the possession of," or " The property of," I have merely put the name of the owner under each example illustrated.
I cannot resist here a strong word of praise of our national collection of furniture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and at the same time to express my admiration of the way in which this has been reinforced and improved during recent years. So much painstaking knowledge and diligent research has been shown, so many new pieces of remarkable merit have been acquired, and in circumstances of the utmost difficulty (as the buying methods of the Board of Education place their curators at serious disadvantage when pitted against the dealer or the private collector), that I have been amazed to find out, on recent visits, how good and representative the collection of furniture at the Museum really is, at the present day. After travelling hundreds of miles, to inspect collections of early oak in remote country districts, only to find that one is confronted with the handiwork of this or that well-known " reproducer," it is refreshing, to say the least, to visit the Museum, where every courtesy and assistance is afforded to the student, and where every piece can be examined under ideal conditions.
In conclusion, if the reader experiences only a part of the pleasure and profitable knowledge from the perusal and study of this book which I have gained in its writing, I shall be more than satisfied.
H. C
1922
" There is no way of making an aged art young again; it must be born anew and grow up from infancy as a new thing, working out its own salvation from effort to effort in all fear and trembling."
Samuel Butler, Erewhon.
SCOTLAND | ENGLAND | FRANCE | SAVOY | SWITZERLAND | GERMAN EMPIRE | |||
House of Lancaster | Dukes | 1308 The Helvetian Republic began with the (legendary) re-volt of William Tell against Gess-ler, Governor for the Emperor Al bert I. The (anions joined the League in the following order: | AUSTRIA | BOHEMIA | HUNGARY | |||
1400 Robert, Count Palatine of Luxemburg | ||||||||
1406 Interregnum | 1400 Henry IV 1413 Henry V 1415 Battle of Agincourt | |||||||
1410 Sigismund (King of Bohemia, 1419) (King of Hungary, 1392) | ||||||||
1424 James I 1437 James II | 1422 Henry VI 1453 Wars of the es House of York | 1422 Charles VII 1428 Siege of Or-leans Joan of Vi | 1451 Louis | 1308 Uri 1308 Switz | House of Austria 1438 Albert II (King of Bohemia and Hungary in 1437) | 1440 Wladislaus | ||
1308 Unterwalden | ||||||||
1460 James III | 1461 Edward IV | 1401 Louis XI | 1465 Amadeus IX | 1332 Lucerne | 1440 Frederick IV (He transformed Austria into an Arch-Duchy in 1452) | 1458 George Podiebrad | 1458 Matthias Corvinus | |
1477 | The Plague | 1465 War of the | 1472 Philibert I | 1351 Zurich | ||||
1479 | Public Good | Line of Jagellon | ||||||
1 183 Edward V 1483 Richard III | 1483 Charles VIII | 1482 Charles I | 1352 Zug | 1471 Wladislaus 1490 son of Casimir I of Poland | ||||
1489 Charles II | 1352 Glaris | |||||||
1488 James IV | The " Golden Age" of English Woodwork | 1495 Expedition to Italy | 1353 Berne 1481 Fribourg | |||||
The "Sweating Sickness " | 1496 Philip Lackland | 1481 Soleure | ||||||
House of Tudor | 1498 Louis XII (called the " Father of his People ") | 1497 Philibert II (The Fair) | Allied Cantons 1491 Grisons | 1493 Maximilian I | ||||
1485 Henry VII | 1491 Valais |
1506 The " Sweating Sickness " again breaks out | 1504 Charles III | 1501 Basle 1501 Schaffhausen | ||||
1513 James V | 1509 Henry VIII | 1515 Francis I | 1513 Appenzel | 1517 Reformation of Luther | 1516 Louis, killed at Mohatz | |
1515 Hampton Court commenced | Allied Cantons | 1529 The English " Sweating Sickness " attacks Northern Germany. 1100 people die in Hamburg in 22 days | ||||
1517 " Sweating Sickness " again in 1528, known then as the "Great Mor-tality" | 1502 St. Gall 1503 Bienne 152(3 Geneva 1526 Neufchatel | 1519 Charles V, Emperor of Austria and King of Spain | ||||
1529 Fall of Wolsey | The House of Austria divides into the Spanish and German Branches | |||||
1536 Suppression of Monasteries began | Subjects On the German side | 1526 Ferdinand, Emperor in 1556 | ||||
1542 Mary (Beheaded 1587) | 1543 Henry VIII commences to debase the coinage | Baden Turgow Rheinthal | 1556 Ferdinand I, who by marriage with the heiress of Bohemia and Hungary united those Kingdoms to the House of Austria | |||
1547 Edward VI | 1547 Henry II | Sargans | ||||
1551 Last visita-tion of the " Sweating Sickness " | 1559 Francis II Civil war by the Guise faction | 1553 Emanuel Philibert (Iron Hand) | On the French side Moratz | |||
1553 Mary I | 1560 Charles IX | Granson | ||||
1567 James VI (Succeeded to the throne of England in 1603as James I Scotland and Eng land united as Great Britain in 1607) | 1558 Elizabeth 1588 Armada destroyed 1600 East India Company's Charter | 1572 Massacre of St. Bartholomew 1574 Henry III 1575 The League 1589 Henry IV of Navarre (called " the Great ") | 1580 Charles Emanuel I (the Great) | Orbe On the Italian side Lugano Locarno Bellinzona | 1564 Maximilian II 1576 Rodolph II |
TUSCANY | NAPLES AND SICILY | PORTUGAL | CASTILLE | ARRAGON | NAVARRE | GREEK EMPIRE | RUSSIA | POPES OF ROME |
House of Anjou | 1406 John II | French Emperors | (1395 Russia invaded by Tamerlane the Tartar) | 1404 Innocent VII | ||||
1410 Interregnum | 1406 Gregory XII | |||||||
1414 Jane or Janella II | 1412 Ferdinand I | 1409 Alexander V | ||||||
1416 Alfonso V | 1410 John XXIII | |||||||
House of Arragon | 1425 Blanche and John II, King of Arragon | 1424 John II Paleologus | 1425 Vasily or Basil III | 1417 Martin V 1431 Eugenius IV | ||||
1435 Alfonso, King of Arragon and Sicily | 1433 Edward | 1454 Henry IV | 1448 Constantine Paleologus, the last of the Greek Emperors | 1447 Nicholas V 1455 Calixtus III | ||||
1458 Ferdinand the Bastard in Naples | 1438 Alfonso V (the African) | 1458 John II | 1462 IvanBasil-owitz or JohnIII | 1458 Pius II | ||||
John, King of Arragon and Sicily | 1474 Isabella m. 1479 Ferdinand II Kingdom of Spain | 1479 Eleanor 1479 Francis Phoebus of Foix | Empire of the Turks Ottoman Line | (In 1474 he delivered Russia from the Tartars) | 1464 Paul II 1471 Sixtus IV 1484 Innocent VIII | |||
1494 Alfonso II | 1481 John II | 1483 Cathar and John of Albret, who was stripped of Upper Navarre by Ferdinand of Castille | ||||||
1495 Ferdinand II | 1495 Emanuel (the Fortunate) | 1492 Discovery of America | 1453 Mahomet II captures Constantinople | 1492 Alexander VI | ||||
1496 Frederick III expelled by the French | 1481 Bajazet II |
SPAIN | ||||||||
ouse of Medicis | 1504 Ferdinand, King of Arra-gon and Sicily, seized the crown of Naples, and Sicily and Naples remained subject to the Kingdom of Spain till 1707 | 1521 John III | House of Austria 1504 Jane and Philip of Aus-tria succeed Isa-bella in Castille Ferdinand reigns in Arra-gon until his death in 1516 | 1516 Henry II of Albret | 1512 Selim I | 1505 Vasily or Basil IV (Maximilian grants him title of Emperor) | 1503 Pius III 1503 Julius II 1513 Leo X 1522 Adrian VI 1523 Clement | |
31 Alexander created Duke by the Em-peror Charles V | Bourbon 1555 Joan of Albret and Anthony of Bourbon | 1520 Solyman I The Magnificent | Czars of Muscovy | VI 1534 Paul III 1550 Julius III | ||||
rand Dukes | 1557 Sebastian | 1516 Charles V Emperor of Germany in 1519 Cortez in Mexico Pizarro in Peru | 1533 Ivan Basil-owitz or John IV (Conquered Kazan and assumed title of Czar in 1545) | 1555 Marcellus II | ||||
69 Cosmo I | 1572 Henry III In 1589 he succeeded to the throne of France under the title of Henry- IV (afterwards called " the Great ") and from thence Lower Navarre joins the French Monarchy | 1566 Selim II defeated at Le-panto | 1555 Paul IV 1559 Pius IV 1566 Pius V | |||||
74 Francis | 1578 Henry the Cardinal | 1556 Philip II conquered Portugal but lost | HOLLAND | 1574 Amurath III | 1584 Fedor I | 1.72 Gregory XIII | ||
ST Ferdinand I | 1580 Philip II of Spain took possession of Portugal and it remained subject to the Spanish Crown until 1640 | 1581 William of Orange | 1585 Sixtus V 1590 Urban VII 1590 Gregory XIV 1591 Innocent IX | |||||
1584 Maurice B. | 1592 Clement VIII | |||||||
1598 Philip III | 1595 Mahomet III | L598 Basil Codu-now |
(The dates given are not those of the accession of Kings)
William I, 1066, to Stephen, 1154. Norman or Romanesque. The circular-headed arch.
Henry II, 1154 to 1189. Transitional, Norman to Pointed or Lancet.
Richard I, 1189, to Henry III, 1272. Early English, Lanceolated. Geometrical tracery begins to appear.
Edward I, 1272 to 1307. Transition from early pointed to geometrical pointed. Tracery entirely geometrical. No free forms in decoration of windows.
Edward II, 1307 to 1327. Geometrical pointed. (Early English.)
Free forms appear in tracery and especially in decoration of mouldings.
Edward III, 1327 to 1377. Flowing or Curvilinear. (Decorated.) Culminating in the Flamboyant.
Richard II, 1377 to 1399. Transition from Free Decorated to Rectilinear or Perpendicular.
Henry IV, 1399, to Henry VIII, 1546. Perpendicular or Rectilinear. Introduction of the Linen-fold panel.
1546 onwards. Introduction of the Italian Classical, superimposed on the Gothic, afterwards developing into the Tudor styles.
 
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