As we pass in review the successive changes that have taken place in the applied arts of most countries - and in the applied arts I, of course, include the art of furnishing - it will generally be found that under normal conditions the development of old styles, and the formation of new, have been gradual and evolutional, the characteristics of the older styles growing weaker and those of the new-comers stronger by degrees, until the former have been completely absorbed in, or supplemented by, the latter. This phase of the question is one of the first to present itself to the student of decorative art, and is forcibly illustrated by the work of all ages. There sometimes occur changes which, when they are first encountered, appear to constitute striking exceptions to the general rule; but further investigation will lead to the discovery that they are not really exceptions, but simply represent other offshoots from the parent stem. So it is with style in furniture.

In the progress we have already made in our study, we have arrived, as regards period, at the latter part of the seventeenth century. (The heading of this chapter seems to indicate a later date, and an explanation of that will be afforded as we proceed.)

By analysing and comparing all that was best and most characteristic in the creations of the Elizabethan and Stuart epochs, we have now, I think, gained a complete and just conception of the work of the days which led up to the period we are now about to consider.

Armed then, as he is, with this knowledge, and acting in accordance with accepted principles, the student will prepare to commence his study of the next style on the list with the determination to note, in the first place, how far it resembled the preceding ones with which he is already familiar; and he will endeavour to trace the progress of its growth out of them. He will then be met by the discovery that it did not resemble them in any essential particular, and that, as a matter of fact, it did not grow out of them at all. No, we are now face to face with a period marked by a great and revolutionary change; a period when Stuart forms, instead of furnishing inspiration for fresh ones on their own lines, had to contend against powerful rivalry, notwithstanding the fact that the dynasty under which they had come into existence had not yet succumbed to a stronger one - to one more acceptable to the country at large.

"Queen-Anne." I.Plate 22

Reference In Text

The change that came about was not overwhelmingly sudden, but it was none the less sure. When we peep into the English homes of the last decade of the seventeenth century, we find that pieces of furniture, strange in form - strange at least at that time to this country - and entirely different from the sturdy old types that had "ruled the roost" for considerably over half a century, commence to put in an appearance here and there. Yet all endeavours to trace their origin in the older English styles prove to be absolutely fruitless. It is for us, then, to make ourselves acquainted with the causes underlying this change; and to discover, if we can, the source whence these strange forms emanated. In doing so we shall see again most plainly that there is, after all, more than a little truth in the contention that the history of a people may oftentimes be clearly read in their home surroundings.

If we turn to our histories, should our memories for dates again be unreliable, and read the story of the reign of James the Second, we shall find that, in the year 1688, that king abandoned the throne of England for the quietude of Saint Germains, and that his place at the head of the state was taken by a certain determined little Dutch Stadtholder, whose claims to the succession were that he was a grandson of Charles the First, a son-in-law of James the Second - and was a man who never knew when he was beaten! Such was the type urgently wanted here at that time.

A brief reference to the bearing of this political change upon the style of our national furnishings will be useful. William, with his Dutch tastes and predilections, came with his consort and took possession; and he made it unmistakably clear at the outset that he intended to be absolute Dictator, notwithstanding the fact that his consort really had the stronger claim to the supreme control. That fact was presented to him, and he simply met it with the reply that he "was not going to be tied to the apron-strings of any woman"; and he had his way. With him, of course, came many of his fellow-countrymen - not to mention fellow-countrywomen - as members of his court; and it was only natural that they should desire that their domestic environment here should remind them, as far as was practicable, of the homes they had temporarily left behind them in their own beloved Holland. On this account, unquestionably, Dutch furniture was imported to this country by the ship-load, and with it came into our midst the inspiration for that style which many people fondly regard as having been a national growth, and proudly describe as "Queen-Anne," in spite of the fact that the sovereign whose name they borrow had as much to do with its inception and subsequent development as the proverbial "man in the moon." The style was founded in the reign of William and Mary, and retained its popularity throughout those of Anne and George the First, and nearly the whole of that of George the Second; nevertheless "Queen-Anne" it was dubbed, and "Queen-Anne" it remains.