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Early English Furniture and Woodwork | by Herbert Cescinsky, Ernest. R. Gribble



In the attempt to write a history of English furniture and woodwork showing its development in an orderly progression, one is confronted by an initial difficulty; where to begin. Of woodwork prior to the fourteenth century we know very little, and of furniture practically nothing. Even if isolated specimens, for illustration, were available, - which is not the case, - they would be useless for our present purpose. I have pointed out, in other books on the subject, that an account of the evolution of furniture types, - especially when an attempt is made to date examples, - must be a chronicle of the fashions which prevailed at various periods...

TitleEarly English Furniture & Woodwork
AuthorHerbert Cescinsky, Ernest. R. Gribble
PublisherGeorge Routledge And Sons Limited
Year1922
Copyright1922, George Routledge And Sons Limited
AmazonEarly English Furniture & Woodwork
-Preface
IN the attempt to write a history of English furniture and woodwork showing its development in an orderly progression, one is confronted by an initial difficulty; where to begin. Of woodwork prior to ...
-Preface. Part 2
We have, however, a meagre groundwork with which to commence, in ecclesiastical furniture of the movable type, and especially in such woodwork as pulpits or choir stalls. We can say in the case of fix...
-Preface. Part 3
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...
-Chapter I. Introductory
To present a history of English furniture and woodwork from the earliest times of which we have available records, to the end of the seventeenth century, which is the scope and purpose of this book, s...
-Introductory. Part 2
As a compensation for the smallness of windows, the early fireplaces were huge, with a staging of bars and irons on a stone dais for the burning of logs and billets. The science of down-draughts had s...
-Introductory. Part 3
Of the two factors referred to above, the homogeneity of a trade is the most important. The leisured classes could not originate; they could only patronise existing industries, and promote their devel...
-Chapter II. The Dissolution Of Monasteries
Two acts of oppression and greed on the part of Henry VIII stand out in history as remarkable, not only for the autocratic power on the part of the King which they exhibit, but also for the far-reachi...
-The Dissolution Of Monasteries. Continued
In these religious houses of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries neither time, nor expense, were of moment in the production of their works of art, whether for the grandest cathedrals, or tiny chur...
-Chapter III. The Early Woodworker: His Life, Tools And Methods
Endeavour to present the life and conditions of the woodworker from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries, his tools, methods, trade guilds and the like, is the scope and purpose of the present c...
-The Early Woodworker: His Life, Tools And Methods. Part 2
Next in order come the woodworkers attached to the Church, who appear to have been lay-brothers as a general rule, and to have been free from the power of the King's master craftsmen. The monasteries ...
-The Early Woodworker: His Life, Tools And Methods. Part 3
To estimate the real value of this depreciation in wages, though accompanied by a currency increase in rate, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, it is necessary to formulate a subsistence ...
-The Early Woodworker: His Life, Tools And Methods. Part 4
The original Poor Law relief was Inaugurated, not only to relieve those who were unemployed, but also those who were engaged in work, but could not live on the wages which they earned.1 During the nin...
-The Early Woodworker: His Life, Tools And Methods. Part 5
In die no'i'e. Amen. I Thomas Vyell of Ixworth the yeld', the xj day of the moneth of October, ye yeer of oure lord m'cccclxxij of very sad and hoole mynd and good avysemente, make myn testament in th...
-Chapter IV. The Plan Of The Early Tudor House
The last fifteen years of the fifteenth century witnessed the rise of the House of Tudor from the battlefield of Bosworth, when the arms of the Seventh Henry and the policy of the first Earl of Derby,...
-The Plan Of The Early Tudor House. Part 2
At a later stage we find the general plan alters from the open quadrangle to that of the H or E form. This development, however, does not materially affect our subject, whereas with the dwarfing o...
-The Plan Of The Early Tudor House. Part 3
The very decorative detail of the story-overhang, with the first floor timbers tenoned into a wall-plate, supported on the projecting joist ends, was carried to extreme limits, as the carpenters gaine...
-The Plan Of The Early Tudor House. Part 4
Not far from Ford's Hospital, in the shadow of St. Michael's Parish Church, - now known as Coventry Cathedral, - is the fine old house shown in Fig. 37. It is probably some half-century earlier in dat...
-Chapter V. The Development Of The English Timber Roof
The timber roof, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, is such a triumph of the English carpenter, demonstrating equally his skill and inventive ability, that some little space must be devot...
-The Development Of The English Timber Roof. Part 2
Unsatisfactory as a flat roof is, in collecting rain and snow, as it can only be pitched to allow of a slight fall to the gutters, the points of stability to be considered are only threefold. 1. L...
-The Development Of The English Timber Roof. Part 3
The later type of pitched-roof commences, at its apex, with a longitudinal beam known as the ridge-purlin, or ridge, from which sloping battens are carried down to the tops of the outer walls, where t...
-The Development Of The English Timber Roof. Part 4
A compound roof is one where the span is too wide to be bridged by tie-beams at wall plate level. The hammer-beams, in a roof of this kind, carry vertical posts tenoned into principal rafters at their...
-The Development Of The English Timber Roof. Part 5
With the above stipulation, therefore, we can commence with the low-pitched roof of the tie-beam or firred-beam description, and illustrate, in an orderly progression, examples from this simple type t...
-The Development Of The English Timber Roof. Part 6
Section through the Roof. The dotted lines show the finish of the original scissors-bracing. The parts shaded show the additions made by Mr. Walter H. Godfrey when the hall was re-erected. Erected in ...
-The Development Of The English Timber Roof. Part 7
Fig. 69 has a moulded collar-beam, with large arch-braces fixed to the tenons of the hammer-beams, in the pendentive manner. The pendentive ornaments have been cut away to make room for the later floo...
-The Development Of The English Timber Roof. Part 8
Fig. 76 is a roof of similar type to the preceding, with a resemblance strong enough to suggest a common origin for both. In no instance, however, is one church roof a facsimile of another. Here the o...
-The Development Of The English Timber Roof. Part 9
Sir Frank Baines has kindly furnished two photographs of the Eltham Palace roof, taken while the work of restoration was in progress. In the latter, the steel reinforcements to each truss may be notic...
-The Development Of The English Timber Roof. Part 10
Its stability depends solely on the permanence of its joints., and the safeguarding against decay, especially in the hammer-beams and the wall-posts. The huge cornice and the hammer-beams are, in real...
-The Development Of The English Timber Roof. Part 11
This Exeter roof is remarkable, as much for its details of similarity to that of Westminster Hall, as for its many points of variation. The latter has now to be considered to bring this chapter to its...
-Chapter VI. Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration
IT is only during recent years that some degree of accurate knowledge has been acquired, regarding the original states of much of the furniture and woodwork which has persisted to the present day, as ...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 2
It is difficult, if not impossible, to visualise the church of the fifteenth century, as it was at that period, without an accurate knowledge of the social life of the English people before the access...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 3
Of pigment mediums, both oil and tempera, - yolk of egg or size, - appear to have been used indifferently, according to whether a luminous or a non-reflective finish was desired. Colours darken, after...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 4
Pictorial representations of figures were usually coloured proper, that is with the natural hue, especially of flesh, but the heraldic system of alternation and counter-change was adhered to where ...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 5
A considered judgment must conclude that this retable is of English workmanship and painting, one of the few, if not the only remaining example of a school of religious painters of the late fourteenth...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 6
Dowsing, the Commissioner of Parliament appointed to East Anglia, did his work of destruction very effectually, with the result that the wonderful screens of Ranworth, Southwold, Bramfield and elsewhe...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 7
From Cathedral to lowly parish church the same system applies. As the fourteenth grows into the fifteenth and again into the sixteenth centuries, we get progressive skill in construction with methods ...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 8
The chancel screen at Chudleigh, Figs. 107 and 108, introduces the arched type of the West. It is formed of five bays, the arched moulded heads of stout section, tongued between head and post. The tra...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 9
At Ranworth, a small Norfolk village at the head of Ranworth Broad, the screen is probably the finest in East Anglia. It is of the late fifteenth century, of delicate proportions, and extends across t...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 10
The decoration of the chancel screen is much richer than in those of the aisles, which, though still of great beauty, are less ornate, and comparatively quiet in tone. The whole of the wainscotting, F...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 11
Of the saints pictured on the panels, such as are still recognisable are given on page 162. 1 The significance of this will be noted later in this chapter. Fig. 169 Bovey Tracey, Devon, Pulpit - ...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 12
Among the less pretentious examples is the parclose screen at Pilton, Fig. 137, again with the same resemblance in the circular-headed tracery to Fig. 136. This is the arch-headed type of the West, in...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 13
The vast expanse of a Cathedral carries off superabundant ornament in stone or wood by overpowering it by sheer height and size. It becomes mere lacework in comparison, and one does not expect lace to...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 14
Decoration in colours and gold must have been a necessary part of a font cover such as this. Constructed of wood, visible as such to the eye at a moment's glance, it appears to be impossibly fragile. ...
-Gothic Woodwork And Colour Decoration. Part 15
Pulpits of the fifteenth century, of which comparatively few examples exist, were generally polygonal on plan, and constructed of two curbs, an upper and a lower, formed of several sections, tenoned o...
-Chapter VII. Timber Houses, Porches And Doors
IF the house built of framed oak-, with spaces between the timbers filled with brick nogging or plaster, had not been peculiar to England up to almost the end of the seventeenth century, the inclusi...
-Timber Houses, Porches And Doors. Part 2. Suffolk Church Porches
Fig. 193 Little Clacton - Early fifteenth century Fig. 194. Offton-Cum-Little-Bricett - Mid-fifteenth century. Fig. 195. Raydon St. Mary. - Mid-fifteenth century. Fig. 196. Great Blaken...
-Timber Houses, Porches And Doors. Part 3
Fig. 180 is from Lavenham, old houses at the corner of Lady and Water Streets, here shown partially restored. On the ground floor, at the nearest corner in the illustration, will be noticed the framin...
-Timber Houses, Porches And Doors. Part 4
Mention has already been made, at various stages, of the Great Hall which is such an integral part of the early English house, but, so far, no example has been illustrated showing this apartment in a ...
-Timber Houses, Porches And Doors. Part 5
In very rare instances the joists of the floor above were covered on the under face with close boarding, as in Fig. 205, to form a ceiling. The small ribs have a value beyond: that of mere decoration,...
-Timber Houses, Porches And Doors. Part 6
The door of Brent Eleigh, Fig. 213, is of the vertical boarded kind, iron nailed to a strong cross-battened framework behind, and with moulded ribs and tracery applied. Chelsworth south door, Fig. 214...
-Chapter VIII. The English Staircase
IT cannot be insisted upon too frequently, that only a fashion is responsible for a development of type, and production in quantity is necessary for the inauguration of a fashion. Furniture becomes st...
-The English Staircase. Part 2
Tall newel finials were the usual finish to these early-seventeenth-century staircases. At Charlton, Fig. 244, they have been replaced, with a considerable loss of dignity, by small carved pinnacles. ...
-The English Staircase. Part 3
Forde Abbey, Fig. 250, has the heavy staircase of its period, with broad handrail intersecting with the cappings of large newels, heavy strings, and massive carved and pierced balustrade panels. Numbe...
-Chapter IX. Wood Panellings And Mantels
The wainscotting of the walls of rooms, in secular houses, with wood, appears to be an innovation of the later years of the fifteenth century. It is difficult to date any woodwork other than by its de...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 2
Crude wall paintings, usually executed in flat oil colour, must also have been usual, especially in the eastern counties of England. With subsequent panelling, whitewashing or modern paper-hanging, it...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 3
There is another point in connection with panellings which must not be forgotten, as it had, no doubt, a great effect in retarding their evolution. The oak timber of the fifteenth century was rarely s...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 4
The term linenfold should not be used to describe these early vertically-moulded panels, even when the ends of the alternate rib-and-hollow are cut into decorative shapes. Thus Figs. 262 and 263 are...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 5
The subject of the introduction of the Italian Renaissance into England is a complicated one. That the first notable expression of this manner was the tomb of Henry VII in the Chapel of which bears hi...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 6
Much of this has been added to at quite recent date, but enough of the original work remains to show its typically French character. There is the same kind of frieze as at Rouen, but here broken up by...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 7
We shall see, in the next example, another instance of the same commemoration of an advantageous purchase. Henry divorced Catherine in 1533, three years before the dissolution of the great monasterie...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 8
This fragment evidently formed a part of the panelling over a mantel, but it is doubtful if the rest of the room was on a similarly elaborate scale. The carving is of fine quality, well designed, unde...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 9
Fig. 307. Oak Overdoor From Rotherwas, Hereford. - Carved with the arms of Bodenham quartering Baskerville. Late sixteenth century. - C.J. Charles, Esq. Fig. 308. Tissington Hall, Derbyshire. P...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 10
Fig. 323. The Oak-Panelled Room, Fig. 320. The Mantel. Fig. 324. The Oak-Panelled Room, Fig. 320. Details Of The Overmantel. Fig. 325. The Oak-Panelled Room, Fig. 320. Detail Of Panelling A...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 11
As illustrating this richness of ornamentation in the Midlands at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and, at the same time the use of an earlier style, the three overmantels from Lyme Park, Fig...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 12
Fig. 338. Oak-Panelled Room From Sherard House. - Showing paint and wall-paper partially removed. c, 1630. Fig. 339. Oak Panelling And Mantel From Sherard House, Eltham, Kent. - Arthur H. Verna...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 13
Fig. 345. Rotherwas, Co. Hereford. - The walnut panelling in the Banquet Hall. Early seventeenth century. - C. J. Charles, Esq. We may begin with a house on the Old Quay at Yarmouth, known for man...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 14
Fig. 350. Rotherwas, Co. Hereford. - Another view of the Julius Caesar Room. - Early seventeenth century. C.J. Charles, Esq. Fig. 351. Billesley Manor, Warwickshire. - Panelling and mantel in t...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 15
Fig. 358. Billesley Manor. Steel Box Lock. - 14 ins. long by 9 3/8 ins. extreme height. - Early seventeenth century. H.Burton Tate, Esq. A very charming expression of this strap-work style, also o...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 16
Fig. 364. Oak-Panelled Room. - A typical example of the 1640 period. Hampshire type. If the details of this Bishopsgate house are in the London manner of their period, it must not be imagined that...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 17
The Renaissance in England appears to develop on coarser and cruder lines in the counties of the Western Midlands, beginning as far south as Gloucestershire and terminating with Lancashire. Cumberland...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 18
Ornate as this Rotherwas woodwork is, in the Banquet Hall, it is still characteristically English in conception and execution. The oak mantel is decorated in polychrome, and above the shelf are four c...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 19
In recent years the house fell on evil days, one half being reserved to the owner of that time, the other (walled off) being let to a farmer. It was left in this state until the present proprietor res...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 20
The somewhat later, and more elaborate, versions of this East Anglian manner are shown in the two mantels, Figs. 368 and 369. Both are at Holywells, Mr. J. D. Cobbold's house at Ipswich. The first has...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 21
There are no details in this woodwork, apparently, which on the evidence of other panellings of the seventeenth century, would justify a date as late as 1670-80. It is of either Norfolk or Suffolk ori...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 22
We have illustrated the type of woodwork which was made for the chambers of a plain Cornish gentleman in Clifford's Inn between 1686 and 1688. Attention may be turned, for a brief space, to examine th...
-Wood Panellings And Mantels. Part 23
From Whitley Beaumont, about six miles from Huddersfield, came the fine room shown in Fig. 380. Here we encroach on the classical manner of the first years of the eighteenth century. The wood is oak t...
-Chapter X. Bedsteads And Their Development
The last will and testament of William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, builder of Windsor Castle and part of Winchester Cathedral, founder of New College at Oxford, high prelate and the wises...
-Bedsteads And Their Development. Continued
Fig. 391 shows one of these bedsteads erected, but the tester and cornice are missing, and the panelling which acts here as a head-board is not original and is also later in date. The rails of these b...
-Chapter I. The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard
The chest or coffer was a most important article of furniture, especially during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, both in houses and monastic establishments. Some idea has already been given o...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 2
Boxford Church has one of these iron-bound chests, Fig. 5, of a crude form, made from deal. The front and back are carried over the ends and spiked to them. The wood, generally, is about 1 1/2 inches ...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 3
Fig. 9 from the Victoria and Albert Museum, has the appearance of being earlier than the fifteenth century, which is the date given ly the Department of Woodwork. This chest has the thirteenth cen...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 4
Fig. 3. Poplar Chest. Groton Church, Suffolk. - 4 ft. 6 ins. long by 2 ft. 5 ins. total height by 1 ft. 9 1/2 ins. back to front. Late fourteenth century. Fig. 4. Poplar Chest. Chelsworth Churc...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 5
Fig. 14 is more in the English character, cruder in modelling and not so vigorously cut as Fig. 13. Among a jumble of motives are shown the Nativity and the visit of the Wise Men of the East, with the...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 6
Fig. 17. Outdoor Panel. - Late fifteenth century. Fig. 18. Oak Panel. - 17 1/2 ins. high by 13 ins. wide. Late fifteenth century. II. - D Fig. 19. Oak Muniment Or Vestment Chest. - Lady Cha...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 7
Fig. 23. Oak Corporation Chest. - Early sixteenth century. Christchurch Museum, Ipswich. Fig. 24. Carved Walnut Chest (French). - 4 ft. 3 3/4 ins. wide by 1 ft. 9 ins. deep by 3 ft. 4 1/2 ins. ...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 8
Examples of chests of the thirteenth century are not plentiful, for obvious reasons, but those at Stoke d'Abernon in Surrey, Saltwood in Kent, York Cathedral and Felping, Midhurst, South Bersted, Chic...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 9
Fig. 34. Oak Chest. - 3 ft. 6 1/4 ins. wide by I ft. 5 1/2 ins. nigh by 1 ft. 6 ins. deep. - Late fifteenth century. Victoria and Albert Museum Actually, up to the close of the fifteenth century, ...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 10
1 It has been suggested, with some plausibility, that the decoration of these inlaid chests was copied from one of the buildings on old London Bridge. Fig. 36. Oak Standing Cupboard. - 5 ft. 2 ins...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 11
Fig. 48. Oak Chest Inlaid With Marqueterie And Parqueterie Of Various Woods. - 4 ft. I ins. wide by 2 ft. 2 1/2 ins. high by 1 ft. 9 1/2 ins. deep. - Late sixteenth century. A. W. Frost, Esq. Ther...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 12
Fig. 58. Kelsale, Suffolk. - The East Anglian arcaded type of 1620. Fig. 59. Detail Of The Pulpit, Fig. 58. - East Anglian Pulpits Of The Early Seventeenth Century Fig. 60. The Canopy Of Th...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 13
In its treatment of the Renaissance, Kent is much more individual than with the Gothic. At Biddenden, Figs. 71 and 72, is a pulpit which shows the characteristically Kentish treatment of the strap-and...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 14
Of somewhat later date, but in very similar style to this two-tier sideboard, or buffet, is the charming oak box or desk illustrated here in Figs. 86 and 87. The carving of the sloping-hinged front, i...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 15
Plain shaft-turning begins to appear in revived form shortly alter 1605, but examples of this date are somewhat rare in tables, still more so in other furniture. Fig. 93 is an arcaded chest, with a li...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 16
The Welsh type of court-cupboard is almost a dresser in form, usually in three stages. The name tridarn has been coined to describe these three-deckers. The balusters of these Welsh cupboards, - w...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 17
One fine type, and probably of south-western origin, is the court cupboard shown in Fig. 107. The carving is in very low relief, in some instances, as in the styles between the upper doors, almost of ...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 18
The next example, Fig. 113, is of the Midland type, and is probably now, in a room in a house at Henley-in-Arden, not far from its original county of origin. Here are the East Anglian arcaded and pila...
-The Development Of The Chest And Standing Cupboard. Part 19
Many examples of these chests and cupboards, exhibiting the same details, could be illustrated here, did not space-considerations preclude more than a representative selection. Fig. 117 has the inner-...
-Chapter II. The Progression Of English Oak Tables
At the outset of each of the preceding chapters the plan has been adopted of commencing with a definition of the terms which it is proposed to use, with the idea of demonstrating what is included and ...
-The Progression Of English Oak Tables. Part 2
The tables in the old refectory of the Bablake Schools at Coventry, Fig. 126, are also of this trestle type, and have their forms to match. They vary in length from the one in the foreground, to the s...
-The Progression Of English Oak Tables. Part 3
Fig. 129 is also from the middle of the sixteenth century, and is important in possessing one of the original stools, but the draw-top is later in date. This method of extending the top is a seventeen...
-The Progression Of English Oak Tables. Part 4
The moulding of the under-framing of these bulb-leg tables appears to be typical both of Devonshire and the last years of the sixteenth century. Fig. 133, the present altar table in Pilton Church, N. ...
-The Progression Of English Oak Tables. Part 5
This tapered bulb is one of the few details in leg-turning which appear to have been confined, exclusively, to Norfolk and Suffolk. The Earl Stonham table is an early example of the form, the legs her...
-The Progression Of English Oak Tables. Part 6
Fig. 150. Oak Shuffleboard Table. - The playing end. 23 ft. 7 ins. long by 3 ft. 1 1/2 ins. wide by 3 ft. 1 1/2 ins. high. - Date about 1620. Astley Hall, Chorley, Lanes. To consider the column fo...
-The Progression Of English Oak Tables. Part 7
Fig. 164. Oak Cupboard Table. - Date about 1630-40. Messrs. Gregory and Co. Rare as this St. Mary's Hall table is, as much on account of its design as of its well-preserved state, the column-leg i...
-The Progression Of English Oak Tables. Part 8
The date of this table, - that is the actual period at which it was made, as distinct from the inception of the fashion which it exhibits in the turning of the legs and the carving of the frieze, - is...
-The Progression Of English Oak Tables. Part 9
Fig. 174. Oak Table With Hinged Tops And Double Gate. - Date about 1670. - Messrs. Gregory and Co. Fig. 175. Oak Corner Table With Hinged Top. - Date about 1650. - Messrs. Gregory and Co. F...
-Chapter III. The Development Of The English Oak Chair
It has already been stated at the outset of this book, that chairs, with their kindred pieces, settees, stools, forms or benches, occupy a place apart from other furniture, for the various reasons giv...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 2
Fig. 184. Detail Of The Pews, Fig. 183. Two views of the benches in Wetherden Church, Suffolk, are given in Figs. 188 and 189. The ends are of the buttress type, capped with grotesque figures of a...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 3
We do not usually associate colour-decoration on wood with the beginning of the fourteenth century; hardly with its close. There is the possibility, of course, that this colour was a later application...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 4
The massive cills at the foot of the present chair, at front and back (see Figs. 204 and 205), exhibit signs of having been cut. They were probably carried through, bridging the space between, and bra...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 5
Chairs of the last years of the fifteenth century are exceedingly rare pieces, as they did not replace stools, and become general articles of household furniture, until more than a century later. Fig....
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 6
The early stools, from the mid-fifteenth to the early sixteenth century, are usually of the one type, with solid ends, held together with deep framing-pieces halved into the trestles, and with tops pe...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 7
The very charming little stool, Fig. 222, similar both in design and county of origin to the chair from Barking Church, may be described as the 1600 type. The inverted thumb-moulded frieze, carved wit...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 8
Two versions of the Midland type of arm-chair of James I period are illustrated in Figs. 224 and 225. The backs are of one panel, framed up, the top rails with low cresting cut from the solid. The leg...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 9
To illustrate the chairs of this period in a regular order of progression as regards their dates, and at the same time to arrange them in groups showing development of type and similarity in detail, i...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 10
Fig. 237, of somewhat earlier date and of Lancashire origin, originally came from Hessop Hall, Derbyshire, the former seat of the Earl of Newburgh, whose earldom could hardly have been created at the ...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 11
Of the two chairs illustrated here, one is considerably less in seat height than the other, and this is intentional. The two may be an original pair, in which case, Fig. 242 is the chair of the lady, ...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 12
Fig. 254 shows the Commonwealth simplicity carried into the early Restoration years, the vase-shaped balusters suggesting this date. The top is constructed of six boards, fixed to the heavy runners. I...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 13
Fig. 267. Fig. 268. Oak Chairs. - Lancashire Type. - Height, 3 ft. 4 ins.; width, 1 ft. 7 ins.; Capt. The Hon. Richard Legh. depth, 1 ft. 3 ins. About 1670. Fig. 269. Oak Chair. - Date abou...
-The Development Of The English Oak Chair. Part 14
These oak stools have been variously described as joint-stools, and even, lugubriously, as coffin-stools. They were, really, the guest-seats at table, and in many cases they were exactly proportio...
-Chapter IV. Walnut Chairs From 1660 To 1700
The practice of lathe-turning columns or balusters is of ancient origin, in England, as we have seen in earlier chapters. It has also been pointed out that turning was little used in Gothic woodwork, ...
-Walnut Chairs From 1660 To 1700. Part 2
There is every reason to believe that flat cushions, usually covered with velvet, were made for these chairs originally, as the proper finish to the seat. Fig. 301 is the aristocratic type of the sam...
-Walnut Chairs From 1660 To 1700. Part 3
Fig. 304. Victoria and Albert Museum. Fig. 305. Bond's Hospital, Coventry. - Walnut Arm-Chairs. - Date about 1670-80. 216 c. 1080-5. Fig. 307. Walnut Chair. - Capt. The Hon. Richard Legh. I...
-Walnut Chairs From 1660 To 1700. Part 4
Fig. 319. Walnut Settee. - Showing the square-sectioned or thermed type of bun feet. - C. 1695. C. H. F. Kinderman, Esq. Fig. 320. Walnut Chair. - The aristocratic type of 1685-89. - Frank ...
-Walnut Chairs From 1660 To 1700. Part 5
The true James II chair, graceful in proportion, but with the weaknesses of construction which have been pointed out before, is shown in Fig. 320. The front legs have the strong Flemish double-curve, ...
-Walnut Chairs From 1660 To 1700. Part 6
Considering the bigoted character of the last of the Stuarts, his short and unsettled reign before he fled, for safety, to the Court of St. Germains, it is not surprising that artistic craftsmanship i...
-Walnut Chairs From 1660 To 1700. Part 7
As a general rule, however, both the domestic life and ideas of this time were crude and coarse, as we can gather from such literature as Wycherley's plays, for example, which fully represented the fa...
-Walnut Chairs From 1660 To 1700. Part 8
'While the prevalence of a fashion may account for the strong similarity in the design of many of the tall chairs, there are details of almost identical character which suggest that the area of produc...
-Chapter V. English Marqueterie
Before proceeding with the subject matter of this chapter, it will be necessary to define the terms which it is proposed to use. It appears to be a general idea that inlay and marqueterie are intercha...
-English Marqueterie. Part 2
Another operation may be explained here, although it is not generally used during the period from 1685 to 1700, that of shading or sand-burning (see Fig. 354). The pieces to be shaded are held with a...
-English Marqueterie. Part 3
Fig. 357. Chest Of Drawers. - Veneered with oyster pieces of olive wood and lignum vitae and inlaid with boxwood lines. 3 ft. 3 1/2 ins. high by 3 ft. 2 ins. wide by 1 ft. 11 ins. deep. - Date abou...
-English Marqueterie. Part 4
Fig. 365. Cabinet On Stand. - Veneered with walnut and inlaid with marqueterie. Height, 4 ft. 10 3/4 ins.; width, 3 ft. 4 ins.; depth, 1 ft. 6 ins. - Date about 1690. J. Dupuis Cobbold, Esq. Fi...
-English Marqueterie. Part 5
This early marqueterie falls into sharp divisions. Fashions appear to have been short-lived, whether regulated by English patrons or by the craftsmen themselves. This stained and white ivory inlay cea...
-English Marqueterie. Part 6
The earlier form of smaller cabinet with cushion-moulded frieze still persisted even into the first years of the eighteenth century, but in the marqueterie pieces there is a marked change in the use o...
-English Marqueterie. Part 7
As a variation from the more usual spiral-turning, tables and cabinets began to be made, after about 1680, with legs in the form of an S or a double-C. These legs were usually inlaid on the outer edge...
-Chapter VI. Domestic Clocks
The late seventeenth and eighteenth-century long-case and bracket clocks are such integral features of the English furniture of their period, and their acquirement offers such a fascinating and profit...
-Types Of Long-Case Clock Dials
Fashions in long-case clock dials do not appear to have obtained until about 1670. Fig. 389 is a Fromanteel dial of about 1660-5, and is, perhaps, the very earliest type which was made. The clock, bei...
-Types Of Long-Case Clock Dials. Part 2
The second point to be explained is the maintaining-power device before alluded to. It must be obvious that as the motive power of a clock, of the kind we are considering, consists in the fall of a we...
-Types Of Long-Case Clock Dials. Part 3
Fig. 409. An Example Of A Square-Dial Clock In A Veneered Walnut Case Of Good Proportions And With Its Correct Base. 1700 Type. Fig. 411. Fig. 410. Fig. 412. Joseph Knibb, Londini, Feci...
-Types Of Long-Case Clock Dials. Part 4
The pendulum should be of seconds' length, at least, - if the clock has a seconds dial, the minimum pendulum-length can be taken for granted, - and the weights should be of the original brass-cased ki...
-Types Of Long-Case Clock Dials. Part 5
Fig. 428. Case Veneered With All-Over Marqueterie. - Twisted columns to hood. Fig. 429. Miniature Clock With Skeleton Dial. - Case veneered with all-over marqueterie. Fig. 430. Case Ven...
-Types Of Long-Case Clock Dials. Part 6
In the next example, Fig. 418, we have the square-dial type of 1710, the hour ring broad, the seconds dial circle slightly cutting into its inside edge, the winding-holes ringed, - to prevent scratchi...
-Types Of Long-Case Clock Dials. Part 7
Fig. 443. Higgs And Evans, Royal Exchange. - 8-day Clock in red lacquer case. - An example made for the Spanish market. - 8 ft. 2 ins. high. - Dial 16 1/2 ins by 12 ins. Fig. 444. Mahogany Case...
-Types Of Long-Case Clock Dials. Part 8
Fig. 449. Aynsworth Thwaites, Clerkenwell. - 8-day, Long Pendulum Clock. Case veneered with Thuja wood. Fig. 450. Aynsworth Thwaites, Clerkenwell. - The companion to Fig. 449. - Offices of H.M....
-Types Of Long-Case Clock Dials. Part 9
Fig. 463. E. Speakman, London. - Domed brass basket. , 690. Fig. 464. John Martin, London. - Case inlaid with marqueterie. 1690-1700. - D. A. F. Wetherfield, Esq. Fig. 465. Fig. 466. ...
-Exceptional Clocks
From about 1775 to nearly 1800 long-case clocks of exceptional form were sparingly made, but these, although very interesting to the clock student, are quite sporadic, illustrating or exemplifying no ...
-Bracket Clocks
With the younger brother of the long-case clock, the spring-driven or bracket clock (usually known as a table clock in the eighteenth century) we have to return nearly to our starting-point. The e...
-Brass "Bird-Cage" Or Lantern Clocks
The lantern clock is the direct progenitor of the so-called bracket clock, and illustrates the misleading character of the latter name, as the unconverted lantern cannot go other than on a b...
-Brass "Bird-Cage" Or Lantern Clocks. Continued
It is almost impossible to state values of these lantern clocks, as not only do prices tend to appreciate, but so much depends upon quality, original state, size (miniature lantern clocks up to 9 ins....
-Chapter VII. English Lacquer Work
The history of English lacquer is merely a continuation, or rather a divergence, from the main stem of the Oriental work itself, and to illustrate the progress of the latter fully, in text and photogr...
-English Lacquer Work. Part 2
There are several conditions which render the Eastern lacquer not only superior, but also impossible of imitation by any methods of the West. The lac itself is an exudation of a native tree (Tsi),1 Rh...
-English Lacquer Work. Part 3
Of these square Oriental cabinets, those from Japan as well as China were also mounted on English or French stands, and, in the absence of a knowledge which allows of the work of the one country being...
-English Lacquer Work. Part 4
Fig. 510. Twelve-Fold Chinese Screen (One Half). - Incised, polychrome and sanded ornament on a semi-transparent ground of brown lacquer. - Dated, on reverse, 1671. J. Herrmann, Esq. Fig. 511. ...
-English Lacquer Work. Part 5
The cabinet shown in Figs. 520 and 521 dates from the reign of George I, the carved stand being a free adaptation from French sources. The ground is a red lacquer, with ornament raised in gold, well d...
-English Lacquer Work. Part 6
It is during the early Chippendale era, which may be said to commence about 1750, that this taste for Chinese forms and decoration extended to the bedroom. At this period the Chinese furniture at Badm...
-English Lacquer Work. Part 7
The value of original lacquer work depends upon the colour of the ground, its quality, and the perfection of the drawing and execution of the ornament. Apart from the polychromatic incised lacquer, th...
-The Scourging; the Bearing of the Cross; the Crucifixion; the Resurrection; and the Ascension
A Suggested Reconstruction Of The 14th Century Retable, Or Predella, On The Opposite Page (Reproduced by direct colour photography from the original, by the permission of the Dean of Norwich Cat...






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