The style of furniture in the Jacobean period differed but little from the Elizabethan, though it showed less originality and became more formal.

"Designs grew flatter and the treatment of floral ornament more stiff and conventional. Another feature of the decoration was that ornaments were frequently applied and not cut out of the solid. The most prominent details of the ornament was strap-work and half balusters or drops; jewels and bosses were also common. Geometrical arrangements of panelling such as a lozenge-shaped panel within a square or rectangle surrounded by four L-shaped panels frequently occur." 1

1 Pollen.

This style lasted until the end of the century.

Carved figures were gradually supplanted by turned supports and uprights; and the surfaces were panelled with geometrical designs and decorated with applied ornaments of real or imitation ebony.

Plate XXL represents a Court cupboard of this character - a style that was long in vogue in England's colonies. Pieces of this type are occasionally found in the old homes of New England.

Sir Henry Wotton, ambassador to Venice in 1604, sent home some specimens of Italian wood-carving and published Elements of Architecture; Sir Walter Raleigh sent for a Flemish workman to carve his fine oak chimney-piece at his house in Youghal, Ireland; and in the reign of James I., Inigo Jones, "the English Vitruvius," returned from Italy as a follower of Palladio. The Great Fire of London (1666) brought Sir Christopher Wren's talents into special prominence.

The Tudor Style died hard, however, and some of the old motives of carving lingered long; but the new styles had taken root.

Pear-wood, owing to the evenness of the grain and the beautiful color, has always been a favorite with English carvers and cabinet-makers, especially for jewel-boxes and small caskets. Grinling Gibbons worked much in this wood, and at this period produced his beautiful garlands of fruits and flowers for overmantels and frames that are still the admiration and despair of carvers.

Exotic woods began to be imported into the Low Countries and England by the traders with the East and the New World; and so, in addition to oak, walnut, cedar, olive and nutwood, there were, among other novelties, king-wood from Brazil, a hard wood with black veins on a chocolate ground; pale red beef-wood from New Holland, much used for borders; palissandre, or violet wood, from New Guinea, used for inlays on fine furniture and for such fine pieces as commodes, etc.; and sacredaan, or Java mahogany, yellow, or pale orange in color, very hard and very fragrant.

A favorite ornament for table-legs, posts of bedsteads and supports of cupboards and cabinets was the swelling bulb. This was sometimes carved with a leaf or floral device and sometimes stained black. Mouldings and panels were much used, and the spindle ornament, cut in half, stained black and applied to the surface. Lozenges and ovals were also stained black and applied in this style. Turned furniture was fast supplanting carved articles and the Age of Oak was fast disappearing. Lacquer varnish was much used in England, and there was quite a rage for "painted and japanned" furniture.

Plate XIV - Armoire lie de France. Middle of Sixteenth Century

Another favorite embellishment of broad surfaces was to inlay them with woods of different colors in various designs. The latter taste rapidly advanced during this century with the constantly increasing importation of the beautiful exotic woods from the East and West Indies. Until the Sixteenth Century, marquetry seems to have consisted entirely of ivory and ebony; but now strange woods were employed. In the famous pamphlet, L'Isle des Hermaphrodites, directed against Henri III. and his Court, the author says: "As for the furniture, we should like to have it all of gold, silver, and marquetry, and the pieces, especially the canopies of the beds, if possible, of cedar, rose, and other odoriferous woods, unless you would rather have them of ebony or ivory."

The Italians of the Decadence had a passion for ebony and colored woods, and theatrical and complicated decorations. Furniture completely changed its physiognomy; the decorative panels with all their ornaments are renounced for plain surfaces on which marquetry can be displayed to advantage. Forsaken by fashion, walnut drops out of use; profiles are multiplied; the fine cuirs that were cut in solid bosses sprawl about in an enervated, weakened fashion; the straight, firm, and springing Classic column now becomes twisted and distorted; and the stale and banal decoration has neither sinews nor youth. The sculptor yields his place to the marquetry worker and the carpenter (menuisier) becomes a cabinet-maker (ebeniste).

Chair-Table, Seventeenth Century

At this period Italy carried to perfection the peculiar inlay of rare and polished marbles, agates, pebbles and lapis-lazuli called pietra dura and the style was imitated in other countries; so that during the Decadence the old marquetry of wood gave place to incrustrations of mother-of-pearl, shell, precious stones, colored marbles, painted glass, and the furniture was made even more sumptuous by the additions of key-plates, handles, feet and other trimmings, or mounts, of silver or gilded bronze (or-moulu). A new kind of marquetry made its appearance in the Seventeenth Century, and seems to have originated in the Low Countries. It consisted of large designs of flowers, particularly the tulip, birds and foliage represented in various woods very brightly dyed. Bits of ivory or mother-of-pearl were added to give brightness to the eyes of the birds and the petals of the flowers. This kind of marquetry was very popular in England when William and Mary reigned, when Dutch taste dominated the fashions in everything; and was probably inspired by the East.

On Plates XXII. and XXIII. a very interesting cabinet of this style is exhibited, open and closed. This piece belongs to the Metropolitan Museum and is attributed to the reign of Queen Anne. The decoration is in the "Chinese" style.