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GLASS: ENGLISH
ENGLISH tableware of fine quality was first made in England by JEAN CARRt, who in 1570 established a glass-house in the Crutched Friars, London, for the purpose of producing glass resembling the Venetian. Imported Venetian glass was highly fashionable, more than fifty families in London being supported by the sale of such glass. After Carrel’s death in 1572 GIACOMO VERZELINI (152216o6), his chief assistant, acquired the glass-house and commercialized the manufacture of this fragile Anglo-Venetian soda-glass, which was clouded by microscopic air bubbles and discoloured in various hues. His success was such that by 1575 he was appointed glassmaker to Elizabeth I and granted a monopoly to make ‘Venetian glass’. About a dozen of his goblets, elaborately engraved by the diamond-point, are known to remain. Venetian traditions dominated fine glass-making for the next hundred years.
SIR JEROME BOWES acquired the monopoly from Verzelini in 1592, paying the Queen an annual rental of 20o marks (£133 6s 8d) for the privilege. In 1614 James I extended the monopoly to cover all branches of glass-making, and granted it to a group of financiers in return for a payment of ki,000 a year. By 1618 the monopoly was under the control of SIR ROBERT MANSELL, who reorganized the industry on a rational basis with more than four thousand workers under his authority. Charles I demanded ICI,5oo a year from Mansell and his associates, this being paid until the King’s death in 1649, when monopolies were ended.
Little improvement was made in the quality of AngloVenetian glass during the reign of Charles II, and within a decade of GEORGE RAVENSCROFT’S introduction of flint-glass in 1674 (see below) its manufacture had virtually ceased. Early flint-glass was, naturally, influenced by Venetian design and the new metal was blown thinly. By 1682 it was found that by doubling the gather of metal taken from the pot a far more substantial ware was produced without loss of translucency. New forms in tableware now appeared, ponderous and heavy, purely English in character.
Noble goblets, known as tall-boys, with sturdy baluster stems supporting thick-walled, heavy-based bowls of the round funnel or conical type, became fashionable. Other ware was made on similar massive lines. In 1695, when twenty-seven flint-glass houses were operating in England, it was recorded that ‘the makers of Flint Glasses have long since beaten out all foreigners by making a better glass and underselling them’.
Glass collectors must possess a background knowledge of the improvements made in flint-glass manufacture between then and 182o. Each influenced the quality of fine metal, making it possible for specimens to be grouped chronologically, due consideration also being given to form.
Early flint-glass varied considerably in weight and clarity; formulae were not standardized, ingredients were impure, and furnace heat was irregular and could not be raised to a temperature adequate for efficient fusing of the materials. Flint-glass made in these circumstances was highly brittle and its fabric unable to withstand without fracture the stresses caused by sudden changes of atmospheric temperature or slight surface shocks, even though it had been annealed in an oven above the furnace. Improvements in this toughening process were made in about 1740 and again in about 1780. It was found in about 1745 that double annealing produced a stronger and more brilliant glass.
The introduction of the Perrott furnace in about 1734 provided a vastly increased and more uniform temperature than had previously been deemed possible. The capacity of melting pots until now had been little more than that of a large bucket: now they might contain as much as 1,5oo lb.
of glass. The quality of the glass was itself improved by these means, and by 1740 glass from such furnaces lacked the dark tinge usually associated with early glass and displayed greater clarity and brilliance. The manipulative capabilities were improved, enabling more pieces to be made per pound weight of molten glass. As the 18th century progressed the clarity of fine flint-glass was somewhat enhanced.
So prosperous became the glass trade that in 1745, and again in 1777, excise taxes were levied upon glass. Illegal glassmakers working old-style furnaces and not operating a tunnel leer (see Annealing), perforce continued making dark, heavy flint-glass in forms similar to those fashionable early in the century.
Manufacturers of the new metal did not rely upon pure form for ornament, and it rapidly became a field for applied decoration. Toughness resulting from the introduction of the tunnel leer in c. 1740 permitted shallow cutting to be commercialized: the improved leer of 1780 made possible such annealing of the glass that deep-relief cutting could then be carried out on a commercial scale.
Until about 1802 flint-glass was melted in pots ’set in a furnace and directly heated’, adversely affecting clarity. The new furnace evolved at this time reduced fuel consumption by two-thirds, provided such intense heat that the materials fused in half the time, and produced the more crystalline glass associated with early 19th century-deep-relief cutting.
GLOSSARY
Ale-glass: long, narrow flute for serving strong ale, a highly alcoholic drink; from 1740 might be engraved with the hop and barley motif.
Anglo-Venetian Glass: tableware in fine soda-glass made in London from 1570 until about 1680.
Annealing: toughening flint-glass by raising it to a high temperature and then cooling it gradually. (a) Annealing oven: an oven known as the tower, built above the melting mber and operated on waste heat from below; (b) anneal- chamber
ing tunnel, or leer: a tunnel five or six yards in length through which newly-made glass passes slowly to cool, toughen, and acquire increased brilliance.
Arabesques: engraved scrollwork of flowers and foliage on hollow-ware.
Beilby, William (1740-1818): a celebrated enameller of flint-glass who worked in Newcastle-upon-Tyne from about 1760 to 1776, signing his best work by name and with a lifelike butterfly.
Bowls, drinking-glass: (a) thick-walled type until the 174os. The stem may be drawn from the base of the bowl, drawn into a short neck to which the stem is attached, or the bowl may be attached to the top moulding of the stem, traces of the weld being visible; (b) from 1740, light, thin-walled; (c) from 1790, thick-walled with cutting in deep relief.
Bowl forms: (a) bell, 1715-80: a deep, waisted bowl with incurved profile and wide mouth derived from the funnel bowl. The base, until 1740, might be a solid mass of glass and welded to the stem; (b) bucket, 1730-70: with sides almost vertical and horizontal base. Some late i8thcentury bucket bowls are lipped. The waisted bucket and incurved bucket are also found; (c) double-ogee, 1700-20: expansive shallow examples of thick section; from 1750, smaller and with thin walls. Ogee and waisted ogee are also found; (d) round funnel, characteristic of the 17th century, when rarely with a collar at stem and bowl junction. Until 16go the bowl was long in proportion to the stem; as the bowl lost depth it became wider at the rim: less massive from 1710; (e) straight-funnel or conical; a straight-sided bowl shaped like the frustum of an inverted cone; (f ) thistle, from 1715: in several profiles in which the lower part is a solid or hollow sphere of glass; (g) trumpet: a waisted bowl of incurving profile merging into a drawn stem.
Champagne glasses: (a) 1678-1715: tall flute with short stem or button; (b) 1715 to mid-’ 730s: tazza-shaped bowl, often ogee in form, usually on moulded pedestal stem;
(C) 1730-45: drawn flute; (d) 1745-1830: long-stemmed flute; (e) from 1830: the hemispherical bowl or coupe. Cordial glasses: during the 17th century cordials were taken from miniature wine-glasses measuring four inches to six inches in height. A distinct type of glass, its bowl shorter, squarer, and of smaller rim diameter than a wine-glass bowl, became fashionable from about 1720; (a) 1720-40: straight stem of normal length and diameter; (b) from 1735: the stem was lengthened, of extra thick diameter, and might be centrally knopped; (c) from 1740: the bowl was less capacious; (d) 1740-70: the flute cordial, often termed a ratafia glass.
Cords: slight striae discernible to the fingers on the surface of the glass.
Cresting, also termed bridge-fluting, C. 1748-1800: an extension of faceting from the stem to bridge the junction of bowl and stem; (a) until about 1760 merely bridging the junction; (b) 176o–8o extending over the Low] base in simple designs; (c) from 178o might extend half-way up the bowl.
Cutting: depressions ground into the surface of glass by revolving wheels. Three fundamental types of cutting -hollow-, mitre-, and panel-cutting - are capable of producing some fifty variants of design; (a) pre-174.0: edge-cutting and scalloping; almost-flat cutting in geometric patterns; giant diamonds and triangles in low relief; shallow slices; (b) 1740-1805: similar types of cutting with the addition of the sprig motif, fluting, stem faceting, incised zig-zag, sliced motifs, and, from 1750, large diamonds double cut; (c) 1790-1830, more especially from 1805: cutting in deep
relief (see below).
Cutting in Deep Relief: some of the more frequent types are: (a) chequered diamond: the flat surface of a diamond in relief cut with four small diamonds; (b) cross-cut diamonds or hob-nail cutting: large relief diamonds each with a flat point incised with a simple cross; (c) herring-bone fringe, or blazes: a row of upright or slanting lines cut in an alternation of crest and trough; (d) printies: circular concavities ground into the surface ofhollow-ware; (e) prismatic. or step-cutting, 1800-20 and 1830-40: deep, horizontal prisms adapted to curved surfaces; (f) splits: formally arranged upright grooves; (g) strawberry diamonds from c. 1805: the flattened point of each large relief diamond cut with numerous very fine relief diamonds.
Cyst: a round protuberance in the base of a wine-glass bowl.
Decanters: (a) 1677-1700: with loop handle and mouth expanded into an almost hemispherical funnel with spout lip and loose stopper; (b) 1677-176o and after 1804: shaftand-globe, near replica of the long-neck wine-bottle. With a high kick to 1740; (c) 1705-30: straight-sided mallet shape; (d) 1725-50: quatrefoil body; (e) 1740-1800: shouldered decanter in two forms: narrow-shouldered with outward sloping sides, or broad shoulders narrowing towards the base: more slender of body after 1750; (f) 1755-8o and 1810-20: labelled with engraved, enamelled or gilded inscriptions on the body; (g) 1765-8o; tapered body; (h) 1755-1800: barrel-shaped body with shoulder and base of equal diameter, cut with vertical lines to represent staves and incised rings to suggest hoops: sometimes termed Indian club or oviform; (i) 1775-1830: Prussian type, often mistermed barrel: a broad-shouldered type, sides having a greater inward slope than formerly, the lower portion encircled with narrow flutes extending half-way up the body. Diamond-cut in relief from about 1790; (j) 1790— I830s: cylindrical body, cut in deep relief.
Decanter stoppers: rarely ground until 1745• Afterwards ground as a routine process.
Dram glasses: known also as nips, joeys, ginettes, and gin-glasses; (a) 17th century: small tumbler with four tiny feet; (b) 1675-1750- cup-shaped bowl with short, heavy knop or moulded baluster; (c) 16go-1710: straight-sided bowl of thick section on flattened spherical knop; (d) 171050: short, plain stem on foot attached directly to bowl; (e) 1720-1850′- short, drawn-stemmed, trumpet-bowled: some early examples have folded feet.
Enamelling: white, 1720-1800; coloured, 176o-18201
(a) advertised as `white japanned flint-glass’ in late 172os: a thinly applied wash enamel in white; (b) from c. 1750, a dense, full enamel thickly applied (see Beilby, William).
Engraving: (a) diamond-point: patterns hand inscribed, using the point of a diamond or graver. Armorial work during 172os; arabesques and scroll patterns 1725-40; spontaneous efforts of amateurs throughout 18th century; early Victorian revival with sporting and coaching scenes;
(b) wheel-engraving: patterns cut into the glass surface by pressing it against the edge of a thin, rapidly revolving wheel. Early wheel engraving was left matt; from 1740 it might be partially polished, the tendency to polish increasing as the 18th century progressed. Wheel-engraved rim borders popular from late 1730s to the end of the century: at first simple designs of intertwined scrollwork and leaf arabesques; from 1740 wider borders of flowers and foliage, daisies predominating and, from 1750, individual motifs sometimes extending the full length of the border.
Feet: (a) folded, to about 1730: the rim was folded underneath while hot, forming a selvage, giving extra strength to a part most likely to become chipped in use. Pre-16go the fold was very narrow: (b) domed, to about 1800: with hemispherical, sloping, or square instep, often surface-moulded from about 1705. Expansive with folded rim until 1750, then smaller and plain-edged, except on sweetmeat and allied glasses. Domed and terraced: the foot tooled in concentric circles rising one above the other; (c) plain, conical foot tapering up towards stem junction, to about 1780: rare in 17th century and infrequent until about 1740. Early examples almost flat beneath; by 1735 concave beneath, resting upon extreme rim. From 1750 instep height gradually decreased, until by 178o had become almost flat beneath with punty mark ground away; (d) solid square, 1770 to end of period: might be stepped, terrace-domed, or domed.
Finger-bowls from c. 1760: known variously as wash-hand glasses, finger-cups, finger-glasses until 1840. Not to be confused with wine-glass coolers.
Fire-polishing: reheating of finished ware at furnace mouth to obliterate marks left by tools and produce a smooth, even surface.
Firing-glasses, also known as hammering glasses. Used for thumping the table as form of acclamation. Stumpy glass with drawn bowl on thick stem and heavy, flat foot.
Flint-glass, now termed lead crystal: developed by George Ravenscroft (1618-81), who was granted a seven-year patent in May, 1674, to make a glass in which the silica was derived from calcined flints. In 1675 he first used lead oxide as a flux in place of vegetable potash. This produced a glass denser, heavier, softer, and with greater refractive brilliance than anything previously made. Hollow-ware, if flicked with thumb and finger, emits a resonant tone. After improvements to the process had been made during the 168os, world glass trade became an English monopoly for more than a century and a half.
Flowered glasses: I 740-80s: trade name for tableware engraved with naturalistic flowers on the bowl; (a) 174o, a single flower ornamented one side of the bowl; (b) from early 175os reverse side of bowl might also be engraved with a bird, butterfly, moth, bee, or other insect.
Flute: a drinking glass with a tall, deep conical bowl. Also a vertical groove cut into a stem or bowl.
Gadrooning: moulded convex flutes forming a decorative border; a ribbing impressed on a second thin layer of applied glass.
Gilding: traces are visible on existing Elizabethan AngloVenetian drinking glasses; fashionable as rim decoration 1715-90, the finest bowl ornament in this medium 1760—go; (a) early 18th-century gilding fixed beneath a film of flint-glass by a process akin to enamelling; (b) 1715-6o: japanned gilding, burnished; (c) 1755-65: honey gilding: the rich brilliance of the gold was destroyed and could not be burnished; (d) 176o-182o: amber-varnish gilding, burnished; (e) 178o onward: mercury gilding; (f) from 185o: liquid gold of sparkling brilliance.
Goblet: a drinking glass with the bowl large in relation to stem height and holding a gill or more of liquor.
Jacobite glasses: propaganda glasses bearing emblems and mottoes of a cryptic character associated with the Jacobite cause. Most common is the six-petalled Jacobite rose with one or two buds: the rose represents the House of Stuart, the small bud the Old Pretender, the large bud on the right being added later, either in honour of Prince Charles Edward’s arrival in Scotland or after James’s proposal to ‘abdicate’ in favour of his son. Other Jacobite emblems include a stricken and burgeoning oak, oak leaf, bee, butterfly, jay, Jacob’s ladder foliage, carnation, daffodil, fritillary, triple ostrich, plumes and thistle.
Kick: the pyramidal dent found in the bases of many pre-1760 decanters, bowls, and bottles.
Knop: A protuberance, other than a baluster, either solid or hollow, breaking the line of a drinking glass or other stem. (a) acorn: a tooled motif in the form of an acorn, sometimes inverted; used also as a lid finial; (b) angular: a rounded-edge flattened knop, placed horizontally; (c) annulated : a flattened knop sandwiched between two, four, or six thinner flattened knops, each pair progressively less in size; (d) ball: a large spherical motif often found immediately above a shouldred stem; (e) bladed: a thin, sharp-edged flattened knop placed horizontally; (f) bullet: a small, spherical knop, sometimes termed the olive button; (g) collar: see merese; (h) cushion: a large spherical knop flattened top and bottom; (i) cylinder: a knop in the form of a cylinder, often containing a tear; (j) drop: resembling in shape the frustum of an inverted cone, and usually placed half an inch to an inch above the foot; (k) merese: a sharp-edged, flattened glass button connecting bowl and stem, or between foot and stem of a stemmed vessel; (1) multiple. knops of a single shape repeated in a stem; (m) mushrooms usually associated with incurved and funnel bowls; (n) quatrefoil: a short knop pressed into four wings by vertical depressions, the metal being drawn out with pincers. The wings may be upright or twisted; (o) swelling: a slight stem protuberance containing an air tear.
Metal: the substance of glass either molten or hard in the form of finished ware.
Pressed glass: shaped mechanically by means of a press, plunger, and metal moulds.
Prunt: a glass seal with plain or tooled surface, applied to the stem or bowl of a drinking glass.
Panty or pontil: a long iron rod attached to one end of blown glass during the finishing processes after removal from the blowpipe.
Panty mark or pontil mark: a scar left on blown glass when the panty is broken off. Generally found on the base of a glass. Ground and polished into a smooth depression, usually from about 175o, and invariably so on fine glass from about 1780.
Purled ornament: all-over diaper moulding with small round or oval compartments.
Reticulated: a moulded pattern in diamond-like formation; also called expanded diamond.
Rib or diamond-moulding: straight or twisted lines forming diamonds or other patterns impressed upon the surface of a bowl.
Rigaree marks: applied bands of glass tooled in parallel vertical lines to form tiny contiguous ribs; produced by the edge of a small metal wheel.
Romer, 1675-1825: a drinking vessel usually of pale green glass, consisting of a bowl more or less spherical with a slice taken off the top. The bowl opened into a hollow cylindrical stem studded with prunts and supported by a
hollow, conical foot.
Rummer, 1760-1850- short-stemmed drinking glass with capacious thinly blown ovoid bowl and small foot. From 1790 a series of thicker section and on heavy feet for holding hot toddy.
Scalloping: a rim outline formed by a series of semicircles with edges ground sharply until about 1750. Castellated rims date from about 1770.
Sealed glasses: early flint-glass tableware to which were applied small glass discs impressed with the maker’s mark: raven’s head, George Ravenscroft, September 1675-1681; the King’s arms, Henry Holden, glassmaker to the King from 1683; lion and coronet, Duke of Buckingham.
Seeds: minute air bubbles in the metal, indication that the glass-house could not raise furnace temperature high enough to eliminate all air bubbles trapped among the raw materials.
Stems
AIR-TWIST, 174o-65: (a) single-twist air spirals in a drawn stem formed by the extension of air bubbles: multiple spirals throughout the period, from 1745 two or four corkscrews; not until about 1750 were threads of uniform thickness and spaced regularly; (b) single-twist in a three-piece glass: 1740-65 the shank cut from long lengths made by extension of air bubbles; from 1750 spirals made by a mould process, filaments finely drawn and coiled with precision in some thirty variations; (c) compound-twist in three-piece glass: 176o-65 in a dozen variations.
BALUSTER, 1685-176o: stem consisting of a pure baluster form which might be inverted: also a baluster associated with various knopped motifs; (a) 1685-1725-. heavy inverted baluster with solid bowl-base and interior bowl depth almost invariably less than stem length; (b) 1700-25: simple knop such as angular, annulated, cushioned or drop knop, with or without a baluster; from 1710 acorn, cylinder, or mushroom knops; from 1715 true baluster alone or with various knops and a pair of balusters placed head to head between a pair of knops; (c) 1725-65: light balusters, true or inverted, supporting bowls with thin bases; illustrated on trade cards of the 176os. Between 1725 and 1740 the stem and collar baluster in which a merese separated bowl from stem.
COLOUR-TWIST, 1755-75: Spirals of glass, opaque or transparent, singly or in combination: commonly in blue, green or ruby, less frequently in red, yellow, sapphire, black, and greyish blue.
COMPOUND-TWIST, 1760-1800: a pair of air or enamel spiral formations, one within the other: a central spiral or (in enamel) a closely knotted central cable with another formation spiralling around it. In straight stems only.
DRAWN, from 1682: a plain knopped or baluster stem drawn directly from a gathering of metal at the base of the bowl; (a) to 1725 in large, heavy forms; (b) 1720-45 with waisted thick-based bowl; (c) from 1735 the standard pattern was a straw shank drawn from a trumpet-shaped bowl; by 177o had degenerated into a thin-stemmed tavern glass.
FACET-CUT, C. 1748-1800: almost invariably drawn stems; (a) elongated diamond facets, two or three times longer than width with angles Of 120 degrees and 6o degrees: found throughout the period; (b) 1755-8o, elongated hexagonal facets; (c) 176o-8o, shouldered and centrally knopped stems; (d) 1760-75, scale facets; (e) 1770-1800, facets cut deeper than formerly; (f) 1790-1800, stems shorter than formerly.
HOLLOW, early 176os to late 178os: stem in the form of a hollow cylinder, sometimes, though rarely, knopped.
INCISED, 1678-17811 ` alternating ridges and grooves spiralling around the stem surface; (a) 1678-1720, incised balusters; (b) 1740–60, closely spaced medium to coarse spirals with almost imperceptible reduction of stem diameter at centre; (c) 166o-1780, finer, more uniform, incisions on stem of unvarying diameter.
KNOPPED, 1700-55: stem composed of four to six knops, none sufficiently large to dominate its fellows; (a) to 1740 heavy knops, well-modelled until 1735; (b) from 1740 light knops.
MERCURY-TWIST, 1745-65: air-twists of exceptionally large diameter spiralling down the centre of a stem in close coils, or a pair of corkscrew threads.
MIXED-TWIST, 1750-70: a combination of air-twist and opaque-white twist in a single stem.
MOULDED PEDESTAL, 1705-85: known also as Silesian and shouldered stem; on good quality ware until about 1730;
(a) 1705-20, four-sided moulded stem, never collared at the base; by 1710 the shoulders were being shaped in the form of four arches; (b) 1720-40, sides moulded with deep, vertical reeds; (c) 1727-35, six-sided pedestal; (d) 1730-5o, eight-sided pedestal lacking precision and definition; (e) 1750-8o, thin, coarse-ribbed versions of the earlier types; (f) 176585, well-designed pedestal stem with four or six sides enriched with cutting.
OPAQUE-TWIST, mid-17402 to end of 18th century. Spirals of dense-textured white enamel, varying from fine hairs to broad solid tapes; single or compound in more than a hundred variations; (a) straight stem with single twist;
(b) with shoulder or central knop and single twist, usually multiple spiral; (c) straight stem with compound-twist -the most common type - from 176o; (d) with knops in various positions, shoulder, central, base, or any two or all three, with compound-twist, from 1760.
RIB-TWIST, see Incised.
SILESIAN, see Moulded Pedestal.
SINGLE-TWIST, late 1740s to early 1800: one formation of air, enamel, or coloured threads spiralling around a clear glass centre, or a pair of reciprocal spirals.
STRAIGHT, PLAIN, 1725 to 19th century: on three-piece glasses; after 1748 tended to be thinner than formerly.
VERTICAL FLUTE-CUTTING, mid-17806-1800: (a) to 1790, stem fluted above and below a central diamond-cut knop; (b) 1790-1800, long, straight flutes from foot to bowl, either notched on alternate angles, horizontally grooved, or sliced.
WORMED, see Air-twist.
WRYTHEN, see Incised.
Step: a flattened glass button connecting the stem of a rummer with its foot.
Stones: red and black specks within the fabric of early flint-glass, the result of imperfect fusion between oxide of lead and silica.
Straw shank: see Stems, drawn.
Striae: apparent undulating markings within the metal, perfectly vitrified and transparent, show the metal to be of uneven composition because insufficiently molten before working.
Stuck shank: a stem made from a separate gather of metal welded to the base of the bowl.
Tears: bubbles of air enclosed within the metal for decorative purposes: first appeared in stems; from 1715 to about 176o clusters of spherical or comma-shaped tears appeared in bowl-base, knop and finial.
Thread circuit: a thin trail of applied glass encircling a bowl rim or decorating the neck of a vessel.
Three-piece glasses: bowl, stem, and foot made separately and welded together.
Tint: a residual colour tinge inherent in the ingredients from which the metal is composed.
Toasting glass: a flute Of fine metal with tall stem drawn to a diameter of one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch.
Toastmaster’s glass: a thick bowl designed to magnify its capacity, on a tall stem. Short, deceptive glasses, known as sham drams, were used by tavern-keepers, 1775-1850-
Toddy-lifter: a pipette with bulbous or decanter-shaped body for lifting hot toddy from bowl to drinking glass,
C- 1800-40.
Trailed ornament: looped threads of glass applied to the surface of a bowl or foot.
Trailing, pinched: applied bands of glass pinched into wavy formation.
Two-piece glasses: stem drawn in a piece from the bowl and a foot added.
Venetian glass: thinly blown soda-glass, worked at a low temperature, cooling quickly, and requiring great speed of manipulation. Lacks the brilliance and toughness of flint-glass.
Vermicular collar: a wavy trail of glass encircling a stem or decanter neck.
Writhing: surface twisting or swirled ribbing or fluting on bowl or stem.
Wine-glass coolers, 1750s- I 86os: resemble finger-bowls but with one or two lips in the rim.

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Chests of Drawers and Tallboys   sdj9my4vbz
The time-honoured chest, long distinguishedfor its frame
construction and carving in the oak period, became the more useful chest of drawers after the Restoration. Already in 1661 Pepys bought ‘a fair chest of drawers’ in London. The chest itself did not disappear quickly; it persisted well into the next century, made in the traditional oak, then walnut and, later, mahogany, or japanned, when that form of decoration was popular. But long before 166o its future development was indicated when the bottom drawer was added to it, to form the mule chest. The chest of drawers developed along three lines: the familiar solid type, from the chest; the chest on stand; and the chest on chest, or tallboy.
The solid type was still being made in oak in Charles 11’s reign, but it was gradually replaced by walnut and incorporated all the refinements and techniques due to the new wood. Larger chests of drawers stood up to three and a half feet high, usually with five drawers, three long ones at the bottom and two smaller ones at the top. But many fine smaller ones were also made. They were admirably suited for veneers (applied to the top and sides of good pieces, as well as to drawer fronts, with cross-banding and herringbone patterns), marquetry and japan. Besides walnut, or used with it, other woods, particularly yew, fruit woods and burr elm, made good veneers. To overcome the straight-line effect of the drawers, various mouldings, at first on the frame and then on the drawer edges, were applied to give decorative effect. The tops also had larger ovolo mouldings jutting out over the edges, and similar mouldings at the bottom of the carcase, above the feet. The development of the feet showed a constant search for good design. At first they were of the turned ball or bun type, but as this did not harmonize with the general appearance of the chest, they gave way to the square bracket feet, flanked by small curved pieces. These details appear in a smaller chest of drawers of the William and Mary period, which has, besides bracket feet, the top and bottom mouldings, half-round mouldings on the carcase and cross-banding on the drawers. It is also an excellent example of oyster veneers.
The use of stands for mounting chests of drawers was common after the Restoration, and lasted until the early 18th century. The chest of drawers developed on the same lines as the solid type, and the stand bore very close relationship to contemporary side tables (see Tables). At first the stand was low in appearance, on thick turned legs linked by a succession of arches, but by the 16gos it was higher, with twist-turned and later baluster-shaped legs joined together by curling stretchers. Drawers were added to the stand, usually a shallower central one and a deeper one at each side. The apron piece, an important decorative feature, took the form of smooth-flowing curves, which balanced the severer lines of the upper work. In the William and Mary period two other characteristics were the inverted cup legs and the pronounced swell frieze below the cornice. The drawers in the stand tended to shorten the legs once more, and they took cabriole form by Anne’s reign. From about 1710 there was a natural transition to the tallboy, in which the stand was replaced by another chest of drawers. Tallboys reached monumental proportions, and came in for a great deal of architectural treatment. The frieze lost its swell outline and became concave. By about 1730 the drawers throughout are cross-banded and have ovolo mouldings. The corners of the upper section have been canted to take partly fluted and partly reeded pilasters, and the feet have gone from the plain bracket to ogee form, resembling cabrioles. The tallboy had a long vogue in the 18th century as a cabinet-maker’s show-piece, until the awkward height of its top drawers led to its gradual disuse in England. It persisted longer in America, where some very fine examples were produced.
Clock Cases
The long clock case (or grandfather clock) was another new piece of furniture which appeared at the time of the Restoration. Two major factors in its development were Robert Hooke’s invention of the anchor escapement (which made the long pendulum possible) about 167o, and the outstanding work of great English clockmakers like Thomas Tompion and Joseph Knibb. From its beginning the case took on the familiar design of a hood for the dial and movement, a long, narrow body for the pendulum, and a pedestal base. The body became wider as the clock dial increased in size but retained its slender waist appearance until mahogany was extensively used. Naturally, the size of the cases (up to seven feet in even the earliest examples) and their prominent position in the house brought out all the case-maker’s skill, and the large space available was ideal for the best decorative work in veneers, marquetry and japan. At first – about 1660 – the cornice of the hood was surmounted by a classical pediment which was followed after 1670 by a carved and pierced cresting. The glass face of the dial was usually flanked by two columns, which were either twist-turned or plain-turned with tiny capitals and bases. Oak was the usual carcase wood, veneered with ebony and walnut and often finely decorated with the various kinds of fashionable marquetry. The door on the body was edged with half-round moulding in rectangular lines. Many of these features can be seen in a late William and Mary clock case with a movement made by Samuel Stokes of London about 1699. It is veneered with seaweed marquetry, and there is a narrow fret-carved frieze below the cornice. By 1700 the hood had begun to change its appearance. A flat dome was added to the top, which was sometimes ornamented with brass or gilt wood finials at the corners and centre. From about 1715 the clock dial was arched, and the cornice above it took the same curving shape, as did the moulding over the door in the body. The clock case, in other words, underwent the same treatment of arched curves as cabinets and mirrors. English japanners had a partiality for clock cases, and hundreds were exported during this period; but walnut enjoyed a considerable vogue for cases, and retained its popularity until after 1750.
Mirrors    part in interior
Mirrors began to play an important p
decoration in late Stuart times, and an indication of their growing use is that while in 166o they were still being imported (particularly Venetian glasses), by 17oo English-made glasses were being sent abroad. Between those two dates progress was largely explained by the establishment of the Duke of Buckingham’s famous glass works at Vauxhall in 1665 and the emergence, some twenty years later, of the specialist looking-glass makers. Mirror plate was expensive for some time to come, but wealthy people used it in many ways, for wall mirrors, toilet mirrors, tall ornamental glasses and on cabinet doors. Until about 16go wall mirrors were square in shape and the glass, with bevelled edges, was enclosed in frames up to six inches in width, topped by a semicircular crest in the Italian manner. They were naturally picked out for fine (especially oyster) veneers and marquetry work. By 1700 taller mirrors were becoming fashionable (of large Vauxhall plates, or smaller mirrors joined together with a moulding to cover the join) and the influence of Wren and Gibbons was shown in architectural features like pediments and pilasters, or in intricately carved lime-wood frames. Colourful decoration was emphasized and took several forms, bright gilding, marquetry, japan, gesso and even silver. These forms continued into Anne’s reign, but there was also a return to simpler styles. Three main trends can be distinguished among the many varieties. One attractive type of wall mirror had a narrow frame, the glass itself surrounded by a thin gilt gesso moulding, and wide flat crest and base, both carved in graceful flowing curves, veneered with walnut and holding two circular inset pieces with the shell motif. Another kind had an inch-wide frame all the way round following the top of the scalloped glass in simple arched curves. It was this design which was often found on cabinet doors, the mouldings surrounding the mirror plate taking the same curves as the top of the cabinet. A third kind was the pier glass, tall and narrow in shape, usually made in pairs to stand between windows, in elaborately carved and gilded frames, often with another mirror in the arching crest, and with pilasters at the sides. John Gumley, who opened his glass works at Lambeth in 1705, specialized in these. Towards the end of the walnut period gilded mirrors were common, and came under architectural
influence.
The early 18th century also saw the introduction of the `chimney glass’, a wide mirror above a chimney-piece, consisting of three plates, two smaller ones flanking a larger one, and all topped by flowing curves, framed in walnut or following the other decorative fashions. Another development, the toilet mirror, had the same curved top and was mounted on two uprights resting on a miniature chest of drawers. Some of these, in walnut or japan, were beautifully made and were designed for the slender dressing-tables of the period.
Tables
The walnut period inherited the gate-leg tables introduced during the preceding oak period, and these continued in use for dining, with modifications due to the new timber. Gate-leg tables retained their popularity for a long time, and in larger houses several were used together, when required. Their legs gradually took on cabriole form. But a new feature from 166o was the variety of small tables, many of them multi-purpose, the more formal side and occasional tables, and others used for specific requirements like writing, tea-drinking, dressing and card-playing. At first solid walnut was usual, but later table tops (and drawer fronts, wherever these were found) were decorated with veneer or marquetry, with cross-banded or herring-bone borders and ovolomoulded edges.
The side table, with oyster veneers, single drawer, twist-turned legs and wide flat stretcher was very characteristic of the later part of Charles Ws reign. The legs ended on ball or bun feet, immediately above which the stretcher terminated in small square platforms. The stretcher was noted for its curves and central shelf. Twist-turning persisted on tables for some time after it had passed out of fashion on chairs. But by the William and Mary period varieties of baluster turning, or the more elaborate scroll form, were coming into use. By 16go the stretcher has become more slender and has a pronounced X-shape. The finial on the shelf is matched by similar finials, inverted, on the apron piece, which has become an important part of late 17th-century work. Tables fitted with drawers and a knee-hole could be used as dressing or writing tables. The marked change in design by the early 18th century is well illustrated by the Queen Anne card table. The slender cabriole legs and ball-and-claw feet did not require stretchers and gave the table a shapely line. The tops of these card tables unfolded and were supported by swinging out one of the legs; or else in some cases the whole top was pivoted sideways and opened to rest on the frame. The surface was covered with cloth or veneered. To protect it the corners were rounded to hold candlesticks (later small movable trays, hinged to the top, were used for this) and small circular depressions were made for money or counters. The wide ovolo mouldings found at the edges of the earlier table tops were now replaced by flatter, vertical mouldings. Decoration was usually limited to a carved shell or leaf on the outside of the knee and a scroll on the inside, and to a curve on the frieze. These tables emphasized the beautiful figure of walnut. Despite subsequent changes, this simple design was never entirely lost, for small tables were made in walnut, even when mahogany was becoming fashionable. But, by contrast, from about 1725 pier tables (standing between mirrors and windows) and console tables (permanently standing against the wall with bracket-shape legs) had a florid magnificence, in the Kent tradition. Made of gilded softwoods, or with the addition of gesso, they relied for effect on masks, scrolls, foliage and classical designs, and heavy marble tops.
Small tripod tables also appeared after 166o for use as candle-stands, in the form of a tray held by a turned pillar standing on jutting-out feet. As can be expected, the upright at first was often twist-turned, and the feet had scroll shapes. From about 1685 the feet began to show sharper angles where the various curves met. By the Queen Anne period the feet were beginning to show cabriole form and the balland-claw ending. This type of table was to have a long vogue, as candle-stands were in great demand when large plate mirrors came into use and as much light as possible was called for to add brilliance to large rooms.

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FURNITURE: WALNUT
THERE is some doubt about the exact date when the walnut tree was introduced into England, but it is certain that it was being used for furniture in the Tudor period, especially for beds. One of Henry VIII’s great beds had a headpiece of walnut, and in 1587 we read of ‘a bedsteed of wallnuttrye in Ladies chamber’. But as the chief wood of fashionable furniture the great period of walnut can be considered to cover the best part of the century beginning at 166o. Two main kinds of walnut were used, the European (Juglans regia) and the North American ( Juglans nigra, the black or Virginia walnut). The former had many good qualities for furniture. Its attractive colouring, with beautiful figure and uniform texture, made it very suitable as a veneer, on a carcase of yellow deal. When properly seasoned (a process which might take seven to ten years) it was a solid and compact wood, hard enough to carve into delicate shapes, and, unlike oak, comparatively free from shrinkage or swelling. The burr and curl woods were particularly beautiful, the former being cut from the burrs or abnormal excrescences which grew at the base of the trunk and produced a finely mottled grain, and the latter from just below a fork in the tree. The timber’s one great defect was that it was liable to worm, especially in the sap wood. In this respect the Virginia walnut was much better, as the well-seasoned timber was largely immune from worm.
The Juglaru regia grew throughout most of Europe and was the chief kind used until about 1720. The English variety was considered to be somewhat coarse and featureless for high-quality work, though at times it produced some good varieties of figure. Italian walnut was rated very highly, for the timber which grew in the mountainous regions had a  close-grained texture with dark streaks, ideal for decorative work. French walnut was also greatly esteemed; it was straight-grained with a lighter, quiet grey colour. The Grenoble area produced timber which became a hall-mark of distinction in furniture. Spanish walnut was similar to the French, but it was liable to have more faults. The superiority of these foreign timbers over the English led to considerable imports of walnut into England, especially from France. Some of the black variety was grown in England in the 17th century, but there is little doubt that the shortage of English walnut and the cost of imported walnut had much to do with the great use of veneers. After the Spanish Succession War, during which the severe winter of 17og had killed off many trees, the French Government prohibited the export of walnut in 1720, with the result that from that date, though supplies continued to come in from Holland and Spain, much more of the North American variety was imported. Virginia walnut was darker and of a more uniform colour than European (it is the only walnut with traces of purple), and its strength and excellent working qualities explain the bolder designs in the solid after the Queen Anne period. But after the first quarter of the 18th century walnut was beginning to feel the effects of competition from mahogany, and was entering on its last phase as the fashionable timber. In 1803 Sheraton wrote in his Cabinet Dictionary that ‘the black Virginia was much in use for cabinet work about forty or fifty years since in England, but is now quite laid aside since the introduction of mahogany’.
CHIEF PERIODS AND STYLES
In the walnut period the styles take their names from the reigning monarchs — Charles II (1660-85, and including the short reign of James 11, 1685-8); William and Mary (16891702) ; Anne (1702-14) ; and the early Georgian (George I, 1714-27, and George II, 1727-60). The furniture of the whole period reflected the growing standards of wealth and comfort; many new pieces were produced to satisfy social needs, and adapted to conform with improving standards of design. Two factors which helped to make the knowledge and use of good furniture widespread were the increased skill of the craftsmen and the development of London as the chief furniture-making centre of the country. This was the period when the joiner was being replaced by the cabinetmaker as the supreme furniture craftsman. It will be noted that Evelyn, in the passage quoted above, was already referring to cabinet-makers as early as 1664, and he frequently used this term in his various works. The English craftsmen had to learn many new techniques at first from foreigners, but on the whole it can be said that they assimilated them and interpreted them with good Sense and balance; and by the end of the 17th century they were not only supplying the home market but had also built up a flourishing export trade in furniture to all parts of the world. London’s size was meanwhile making it a focal point for the whole kingdom. By 1700 the capital had half a million inhabitants; the next largest towns had no more than
30,000. Though there were other notable furniture centres –Lancaster, for instance – there was no doubt about London’s leadership in styles. The social convention of the seasonal migration of the landed gentry to London helped to spread furniture fashions throughout the country, as Defoe noted early in the 18th century, and for the first time it was possible to distinguish town and country pieces.
The reign of Charles II was marked by an exuberance and flamboyancy which was reflected in such things as costume and plays, as well as in furniture. The reaction to the Puritanism of Cromwell’s regime and the return of Charles and the aristocracy from exile abroad opened the country to a flood of Continental fashions – French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch and Flemish. Increased trade and colonization brought riches to the upper and middle classes. The Great Fire of 1666 both led to a greater output of furniture and brought it under the influence of architects like Sir Christopher Wren and of craftsmen like GRINLING GIBBONS. New ideas, or new twists to older ideas, were apparent in the use of glass, cane, turning, veneering, marquetry, gesso and japan. The reign of William and Mary saw, in general, a sobering down in furniture styles, due to William and his Dutch background, and the work of his great craftsman DANIEL MAROT, a Huguenot refugee, who in his furniture for his royal patron interpreted Louis XIV fashions in a quieter Dutch idiom. But there was no decrease in output. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis in 1685 sent many Huguenot refugees to England, and one result was the flourishing Spitalfields silk industry and improvements in upholstery. There were developments in such things as writing furniture (in which increased letter-writing, due to improved postal services, was a major factor), card and tea tables, bookcases, chests of drawers and cabinets, the last-named due to the upper-class fashion for collecting ‘rarities’ or curiosities of all kinds. It was in the Queen Anne period that walnut furniture reached its best phase. With its emphasis on graceful curves, and a return to veneers to bring out the beauty of figure, compared with the previous Dutch fashion of marquetry, this reign is distinguished by its simple elegance, shown in such details as the hooped-back chair, the cabriole leg, the bracket foot and a general stress on good design. The earlier Georgian period produced a heavier and more florid style, partly perhaps as a reaction to simpler fashions, but mainly due to the Palladianism Of WILLIAM KENT, the architect (1684– 1748), who affected much elaborate gilt ornament with classical motifs, carried out in softwoods or gesso.
OTHER TIMBERS
Though walnut put the seal on fashionable furniture, many other timbers were important during the same period. The great popularity of veneers, inlay and marquetry led to a demand for a wide range of coloured woods. Among the native timbers used for these purposes, lighter shades, white or yellow, could be obtained from apple, holly, dogwood, boxwood, maple, laburnum, sycamore and plane, and darker colouring from olive, pear and yew. Elm and mulberry were also prized for their burr veneers. Timbers imported from the East, South America and the West Indies included ebony (black), fustic (yellow, turning to a dead brown), and kingwood, lignum vitae, partridge wood, rosewood and snakewood (all giving various shades of brown and red). For carcase work, and as a ground for veneers, yellow deal was almost always used. But for clock cases wainscot oak was used. Great quantities of deal were imported from Baltic countries in the late 17th century. Oak and ash were used for drawer linings.
DECORATION
Gesso: gesso work came into fashion in England just before 1700 and was a popular form of decoration until about 1740. It was a mixture of whiting and parchment size which was applied coat after coat and allowed to dry. When there was sufficient, a pattern was formed in relief by the background being cut away. The former was burnished and the latter left mat. Furniture was given a brilliant and highly ornate effect when gold leaf was used, but there was also much cheap colouring which tended to fade. Gesso lent itself to the Kent style of decoration, and it had the same appearance as the work on the carved and gilt table .
Japan work: japanned or lacquered furniture enjoyed a considerable vogue in the walnut period. As early as 1661 Pepys recorded seeing ‘two very fine chests covered with gold and Indian varnish’. Lacquer work was originally imported from the East, and was known variously as Indian, Chinese or Japanese, but the best kind was made in Japan, and was called ‘fine’ or `right’ Japan, to distinguish it from substitutes. Most of the genuine Japanese work was brought to England by the Dutch, but the English East India Company handled Chinese and Indian varieties, which had a ready sale in the home market and went under the general name of ‘Indian’ goods (and were sold in ‘Indian’ shops).
So great was the demand for these goods that some English merchants exported patterns and models of all kinds of furniture to be copied and lacquered by native workmen, who could thus manufacture English-style furniture. The completed goods were reimported and sold at home. But meanwhile an English japan industry had sprung up. In
1688 STALKER and PARKER published their Treatise of japanning and Varnishing, and in 1693 a company was formed with the title of ‘The Patentees for Lacquering after the Manner of Japan’. Naturally, the home producers of japan disliked the practice of sending goods abroad to be lacquered, and so did other cabinet-makers, who looked upon it as unfair competition. In 1701 the London cabinet-makers, joiners and japanners petitioned Parliament to put a stop to it, and an Act was passed imposing heavier duties on all imported lacquer. Thus from that date nearly all japan work was home made. It was very popular until about 1740, and much of it was exported. The colours used were bright ones, often scarlet, yellow, etc, and carried out Eastern designs, but English work lacked the high quality of the true Oriental variety. In fact, inferior work was merely varnished. It was usually applied on a background of deal for carcases, or of beech for chairs. Good-class work often had a smooth-grained, veneered surface as a basis. Normally, designs were raised on the surface, but a rare form of lacquer work, known as Bantam work, used incised designs. Cabinets, chairs, bureaux, screens, clock cases and mirrors were among the more usual pieces for japanning. There was a revival of this fashion in the later 18th century.
Mouldings: mouldings, the contours given to projecting members, were an important part of the decorative treatment of walnut furniture. On tall pieces – cabinets, tallboys, clock cases, etc – the profiles of the straight cornices, which were popular until the Queen Anne period, were built up in architectural style, usually in layers of cross-grained wood. One characteristic feature of the later 17th century was the convex (torus or swell) frieze. This was not universal, how-frieze was used a
ever, for the concave (cavetto)    Mouldings
time,    same
at , and superseded it early in the next century. the
also accentuated the arched curves and the varieties of broken pediments when these came into fashion. Towards the end of the walnut period dentil mouldings (tooth-like cubes) were often found on straight-line cornices or angular pediments.
Another moulding of convex profile, the ovolo (or lip), was applied to the top edges of chests of drawers, stands and tables, and on the upper sections of bureaux. Chests of drawers and bureaux also had plinth mouldings, above ball, bun or bracket feet. The general development of drawer furniture produced several kinds of smaller mouldings (sometimes called reeds) around the drawer fronts, to offset the otherwise flat surface. These were normally cross-banded veneers of walnut glued to a back of deal, and applied at first to the carcase, and later to the drawer edge. From 1660 to about 1700 the most usual kind was a half-round moulding on the rails between the drawers, but just before the end of the century two smaller half-round mouldings, or sometimes three reeds together, were applied to the rails, and this vogue lasted until about the end of Anne’s reign. From 1710 a distinct change in method was beginning; the mouldings were now applied to the edge of the drawer, in ovolo section, and projected sufficiently (about a quarter of an inch) to hide the join between opening and drawer when the latter was shut .From about 1730 cock-beading, a half-round bead projecting outwards from the edge of the drawer, was introduced, and became the chief drawer moulding for mahogany furniture. Mouldings also edged the doors on clock cases and surrounded mirrors or panels on cabinet doors. On the latter broader types of moulding were common, in astragal section, semicircular with the addition of a fillet at each side.
Turning: until about 1700 turning was one of the outstanding features of the legs on chairs, tables and stands, and of the uprights on chairs. It was carried out on the foot-operated pole lathe which rotated the wood while the turner’s chisel cut the required shape. Twist turning, which came to England from the Continent shortly after the Restoration, and replaced the earlier bobbin turning, resulted from a mechanical device which moved the chisel continuously to produce the oblique curves. For this walnut was a much better medium than the more brittle oak. At first the Flemish ’single rope’ style was used, but this was followed by the English double rope or ‘barley sugar’ twist, finished by hand and sometimes pierced. The design was working itself out on chairs by 1685, but it persisted on tables for some time longer. Another form, baluster turning, was produced by the turner holding the chisel himself and varying the pressure to get a number of diverse shapes. This type is connected with William and Mary furniture. There was an almost bewildering variety of such designs, but among the more popular can be distinguished the Portuguese swell, a bulb-like shape, followed by the mushroom, and, later still, by the inverted cup. Some legs were squared off by hand to octagonal and other patterns.
Veneers, Marquetry and Parquetry: veneering was the chief decorative feature of walnut furniture. It originated on the Continent, and gave opportunity for flat decoration, which showed to the full the beauties of the grain. Veneers were thin layers of wood cut by hand-saw, perhaps one-eighth of an inch thick, and glued to a carefully-prepared surface, which was nearly always of imported yellow deal, a variety of pine or fir which was better able to take glue than oak. Not only did the veneers preserve and strengthen the wood underneath, but they were found to be the only practical way to use the rare woods like walnut burrs, which would twist if worked in the solid. The chief patterns were the ‘curl’ or ‘crotch’, a plume effect taken from the junction of a side branch with the main trunk, the ‘oyster’, cut from branches to show the rings and the ‘burr’, an intricate figuring from abnormal growths at the base of the trunk. Successive veneers from the same piece of wood, showing duplicated patterns, were often quartered, or glued in sections of four, on suitable surfaces. Besides walnut, yew, elm and mulberry made high-quality veneers, and laburnum and olive produced excellent oyster figures.
Marquetry was an advanced form of veneering which first came into prominence in English furniture from Holland about 1675. With infinite patience and skill veneers of various coloured woods were cut into delicate patterns and fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle. For this process walnut could be changed in colour by dyeing, scorching with hot sand, staining, bleaching and fading, but, naturally, many other timbers of suitable colour, both native and foreign, were used (as indicated under ‘Other Timbers’ above). At first English marquetry followed the Flemish mode and concentrated on bird, flower and foliage designs, sometimes with the aid of other materials than wood, such as bone and ivory. The colours tended to tone down to quieter dark or golden shades about 169o. By 17o0 arabesques were popular, together with the most intricate form of all, the seaweed or endive marquetry, which was shown to great effect on clock cases, cabinets and table tops. Early in the 18th century the marquetry phase was running out, and there was a return to the plainer veneering. Parquetry was a form of marquetry which emphasized geometrical patterns, with the same skilful use of contrasting colours.
Veneered surfaces had two characteristic decorations, cross-banding, or cross-grain, veneered strips bordering other veneers, and herring-bone banding, two smaller rows of tiny strips of veneer applied diagonally, often in contrasting colours. Each could be used singly, or together, on drawer fronts, table tops, bureau flaps and similar fields. The popularity of veneering introduced distinct changes in the construction of furniture as well as in its appearance. The panelling technique of oak was unable to provide the flat, smooth surfaces necessary for taking veneers. For angles on carcases and drawers the old method of dovetailing (the through or common dovetail), though the strongest form, had the great disadvantage of showing the end grain on both sides of the angle, and this was unsatisfactory for holding veneers. Shortly before 1700 it was replaced by the lap or stopped dovetail, which had the end grain on the side only, leaving the front quite clear for veneering.
Bureaux, Cabinets, Bookcases, etc
The bureau was one of the pieces of furniture which met the demands of the new habit of letter-writing in the Restoration period. Early bureaux were mounted on stands and were nearly always of narrow width, with one or two rows of drawers under the sloping writing fall. The stands were gradually discarded and bureaux became wider and more solid. Most were now three feet six inches wide, though narrower ones (for standing between the windows of a room) continued to be made. The legs of the early stands followed contemporary side-table developments, while the more solid bureau followed the chest of drawers (see separate sections below). The Queen Anne bureau has bracket feet, slides for the flap, and ovolo lip moulding round the drawers, which also have cross-banding and herringbone inlay.
Another piece was the writing cabinet, which developed in two main stages. The first stage was the scrutoire, a boxlike structure consisting of an upper part of drawers and pigeon-holes, enclosed by a let-down front which made a large writing surface, and a lower part formed by either a chest of drawers or a stand with legs and stretchers. The disadvantage of having to clear away all papers before the front could be closed led to the second stage, the bureau writing cabinet or the bureau-bookcase as it is now termed. This had a shallow cupboard enclosed by two doors for the upper part and a bureau for the lower. The space in the bureau top for papers made this a more convenient piece than the scrutoire; it was also more elegant. In the Queen Anne bureau-bookcase the cornice balances the arched mouldings, which contain quartered veneers on the doors. The bureau drawer fronts have burr veneers and reeded mouldings. The opened flap displays the neat arrangement of the bureau top. The bureau-bookcase became fashionable in William III’s reign and was either veneered with walnut
orjapanned. Meanwhile, the cabinet was assuming the forms which had long been known on the Continent, and from the
increasing skill required in making it was producing the first English cabinet-makers. It developed from the chest, acquired a number of drawers (many of them `secret’), cupboards and pigeon-holes, and was mounted on tall stands or chest of drawers. At first the tops were straight, with rather heavy cornices, and two doors enclosed the front. Later the frieze was developed; the swell variety became more common, and a shorter stand was used. One type of cabinet that was mounted on a chest of drawers was copied from Chinese cabinets, and had engraved hinges and lock-plate, and finely figured walnut veneers to vie with japanned pieces. Other cabinets were excellent show pieces for decorating with marquetry and parquetry, applied to the many small drawers as well as to the doors inside and out.
There was, however, from 1600 onwards considerable diversity of decoration and design in these pieces, as the cabinet could be used for various purposes. With glazed front and shelves, it was used as a bookcase or display cabinet. It now seems clear contrary to former belief, that cabinets were not used to display china but held small curios like medals and miniatures. Other cabinet fronts had mirror-plates instead of clear glazing, or no glass at all, relying upon panels of finely figured walnut for effect; mirrors and panels were often enclosed in mouldings which had a graceful curving form at the top. These shapely curves were a predominant feature in the late 17th century and in Anne’s reign, and were applied to the tops of cabinets in various ways — double, and occasionally, triple arches and broken circular pediments. They showed the application of architectural principles to these larger pieces of furniture. But there was still a strong liking for the simple straight cornice.
It is not always certain now for what purpose some cabinets were intended. Many which resemble bureaux-bookcases, with the bureau replaced by a chest of drawers, have survived. They have been used for storing clothes in the bedroom or as a cupboard in the parlour.
For larger bookcases, such as those which Pepys bought from SIMPSON the joiner in 1666, the doors were glazed in rectangular panes like windows. The growing popularity of glass fronts made glazing bars important. At first they were usually semicircular, veneered with cross-grained walnut, or astragal, a half-round moulding worked on the edge. In the 18th century another form of astragal, with a small fillet at the top of the curve, came into use. These astragals, often larger in shape, framed the mirrors or veneers on doors which did not have clear glazing.
Chairs, Day-beds, Stools and Settees
Chairs were distinguished for their elaborate carving and turning. Twist turning was at first often applied to the back and front legs and uprights, and carving was the treatment for the top rail between the uprights and for the wide stretcher set half-way up between the front legs. Another novelty, canework, was found on the seat and back, framed in a carved panel, rectangular or oval in shape, separated from the uprights and seat. After the middle of the century carving improved considerably. At first it was heavy looking, emphasizing scrolls, foliage and crowns; later it became much lighter and pierced, and top rail and stretchers curved upwards, often ending in a crown supported by amorini. From about 1675 S-shaped scroll designs (the ‘Flemish’ scroll) were popular for front legs, and on arm-chairs this shape was continued in the arms which curved downwards in the centre and formed deep scrolls over the supports. By the end of Charles’s reign twist turning was being replaced by baluster turning. Canework was also becoming finer in texture, and many specialist craftsmen were making large numbers of cane chairs for export as well as for home use. The back legs were splayed for steadiness.
There was also a fashion for some chain to be entirely upholstered with over-stuffing, carried out in fine materials, damask, velvet, embroidery or Mortlake tapestry.
The lightness of cane helped to popularize a pre-Restoration piece, the day-bed, or couch. This had a chair-back (sometimes one at each end) and a long seat carried on six or more legs joined by richly carved stretchers. It was used in the living-room (which no longer had a bed in it), and had to be easily movable. Some day-beds were ornately japanned.
William and Mary chairs saw distinct changes in design. The flamboyancy of the previous period tended to give way to a simpler style, though there was still much rich carving. Backs had a tall and narrow appearance, due to the fashion in women’s hair styles, and took on a pronounced backward tilt. Chair legs either kept the scroll form or were decoratively turned in one of the many baluster or geometrical shapes. Prominent among these were the Portuguese bulb, mushroom, inverted cup and square. Feet were ball or bun shape, or else carved in the Spanish foot design. Another novelty was the introduction of curved stretchers under the chair, going diagonally from squares just above the feet, and either crossing directly, tied in the centre with a finial, or fixed into a central platform. Front stretchers in the older form still persisted, but the fashion now was to set them back from the front legs and fit them to the side stretchers. The upright aspect of the backs, very characteristic of this time, was accentuated by the arching of the cresting rail above the back uprights. Usually seats were upholstered, with a tasselled fringe, but backs were treated in various ways –pierced carving, canework (in thinner panels), or upholstery.
All these changes were nothing to the revolution in chair design in the early 18th century. Straight lines gave way to curves, turned legs and stretchers to cabriole legs without stretchers, and overstuffing to the drop-in seat. The back uprights took a graceful hoop form, and the centre of the back was occupied by a single solid splat, often veneered, showing a variety of smooth curves. For the first time the chair back was shaped for the sitter, giving the aptly-named `bended’ back. The cabriole leg came from France about 1700. Taking its shape from an animal’s leg, it had various endings, a hoof, a pad or club, or the celebrated ball-andclaw foot which came in about 172o. These legs, worked from the solid by hand, were strong enough to hold the chair without stretchers. The general emphasis on curves was continued in the frame of the seat. Carved decoration was usually limited to the knees of the cabriole legs, cresting rail and seat rail, in the form of shell or acanthus designs, or, later, a mask on the rail. A new treatment of chair arms was to set them back in a curve from the front of the chair, to allow room for the wide-hooped dresses of the time.
Another pleasant type of chair which had made its appearance by about 1700 was the upholstered wing variety. The wings at the shoulders curved down to well-padded arms which scrolled outwards. The legs often had cabriole shape, but the size and weight of the chair required stretchers, of the simple turned kind.
Towards the end of the walnut period some of the simple grace of the Queen Anne chairs was lost. In the early Georgian era they tended to become heavier and more squat in appearance, and carving was more ornate. The splat was not left plain, but was carved and later pierced with strap-work designs.
From 166o stools closely followed the prevailing chair designs. They had an importance which today may be easily overlooked. In general, their form was that of chairs without backs, except that all four legs were the same shape. They were often richly upholstered. A later development was the settee, which sprang from the fusion of two arm-chairs, with double backs, outer arms and five legs. In their earlier forms – later 17th century – they were often two cane chairs together.

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ANY systematic charting of the history of Victorian furniture – at least after 1850 – must take constant account of the overlapping of styles, though necessarily giving prior attention to those pioneer, and indeed often rebel, designers upon whose inspiration the entire development ultimately depends. Collectors have the choice of furniture at every level of taste, though for obvious reasons it is usually only the more ‘advanced’ pieces, in so far as they survive, which can provide the additional interest of exact dating and documentation.
In the absence of an accepted body of doctrine on Victorian furniture, the opinions expressed in the survey which follows are necessarily personal and tentative. Moreover, they are unavoidably based as much on an examination of contemporary documents as of actual surviving furniture. The survey concentrates on cabinet-makers’ furniture, and excludes upholstered furniture and those sidelines, such as metal furniture, wicker, cane and bent-wood furniture and garden furniture, which require separate study.
Early Victorian Furniture:
The first fifteen years of Victoria’s reign mark the lowest ebb ever reached in the whole history of English furniture design. Indeed, the most severe strictures so often applied indiscriminately to Victorian taste as a whole are entirely justified if only directed against the products of this initial period. It would, however, be absurd to suggest that a sudden deterioration set in as soon as the new reign had begun; the most that can be said is that a debasement which was already evident as early as the late 1820S gained steady impetus during the 183os and 1840s. The Great Exhibition Of 1851 is always taken to mark the culmination of this debasement. In a sense this is true; although it is only right to remember that by stimulating competitive ostentation among manufacturers it tended to exaggerate the most vulgar elements in Early Victorian design, while the fact that, for the first time, the various illustrated catalogues of the exhibition provide a permanent record of its horrors, unfairly weighs the evidence against the Early Victorians. Had a similar exhibition been held in 1837 instead of 1851, it would hardly have demonstrated a higher average standard.
Two characteristics stand out in the general confusion: an emphasis on rich and elaborate carving, preferably with a narrative or anecdotal interest, and a delight in the numerous new substitute materials which technical progress was making available. Lacking any accepted architectural framework, the shape and outline of such items as cabinets and sideboards was frequently entirely subordinated to an overall covering of carving, often worked not by hand carving but by new methods such as the burning techniques of the Burnwood Carving Company’s ‘Xylopyrography’ and Harrison’s Wood Carving Company (Pimlico), or the machine stamping of Jordan’s Patent Wood Carving, or even produced from materials such as gutta-percha, Jackson’s `carton-pierre’, Bielefeld’s ‘Patent Siliceous Fibre’, White and Parlby’s ‘furniture composition’, or Leake’s sculptured leather.
Elaborate carving became so established as the hall-mark of fine furniture during this period that the furniture section of Wornum’s Report on the Great Exhibition is actually headed ‘Carving and Modelling’, and the only artists known to have been commissioned during the years 1837-51 to design furniture from outside the trade (with the exception of Pugin, to be mentioned below) were not architects as one would expect, but sculptors, such as Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841), John Thomas (1813-62) and Baron Maro-chetti (1805-67). Inevitably the most popular examples of English furniture at the Great Exhibition were the elaborately carved cradle presented to Queen Victoria by W. G. Rogers (1792-1875) — known as the ‘Victorian Grinling Gibbons’; the monstrous ‘Kenilworth’ buffet (now at Warwick Castle), the chef-d’oeuvre of the Warwick school of wood carvers which flourished throughout the 19th century; and Arthur J. Jones’s ludicrous patriotic carved furniture in Irish bog-oak.
The only one of the new materials which may be said to have produced something new and attractive was papier-mache, enriched after 1842 with Jennens’s and Bettridge’s patent jewelled effects. This plastic material, though suitable for trays, caskets and the like, is, however, basically unsuitable for load-bearing furniture, and has no real place in the development of Victorian furniture. Owing to the natural attraction of the smaller items for collectors, it has, nevertheless, received disproportionate attention, and has helped to spread the myth that Early Victorian furniture is lighter and less clumsy than mid-Victorian. In a few cases, of which the settle is a good example, the techniques for decorating papier-mAch6 (e.g. lacquer painting and encrustation with shell and mother-of-pearl) were applied to a normal wooden framework, thus producing a legitimate piece of furniture; but such examples are rare.
Mid-Victorian Furniture: x851-67
The furniture of the period 1851 to 1867 differed very markedly from that of the preceding period. In particular the wild eclecticism and confusion of styles was rapidly replaced after 1851 by a surprising uniformity, and a single consistent style soon imposed itself on the great bulk of fashionable productions. Victorians themselves gave no name to this style, but usually described examples of it with generalized phrases such ac ‘following the purest taste of the Italian Renaissance’. Twentieth-century writers have hitherto ignored its existence, although a careful analysis of, for example, the copious records which have survived from the vast Modern Furniture Court of the 1862 Exhibition makes
its existence perfectly clear.
Its main characteristics were the use of solid wood, usually walnut or mahogany, rather than veneers or inlay, a repudiation of baroque or rococo curves in favour of more severe outlines, and a continuing emphasis on carving. The latter, however, was now no longer allowed to sprawl over the whole surface with a profusion of unrelated motifs, as in the 184os, but was concentrated into carefully disposed and deeply cut masks, swags and trophies (usually of ‘appropriate’ objects, such as dead game birds on sideboards), and almost invariably incorporated human figures in the form of caryatids or brackets. Indeed, this emphasis on human figures became something of an obsession with designers during this period, so that no fashionable sideboard or cabinet was considered complete without them — as large as possible and preferably free-standing. Equally indispensable was an enormous mirror, backing, and usually dwarfing, the whole piece — a direct consequence of the technical developments in mirror making first displayed in the industrial section of the 1851 Exhibition.
It cannot be doubted that the best examples in this manner — however unacceptable to present-day taste — show a sense of style and consistency that had been completely lost in the i 840s, and certainly justify the enthusiasm with which all writers in the 186os refer to the great improvement in the stylistic purity of English furniture since the nadir of 1851. The improvement must be mainly attributed to the influx of French designers imported from Paris by all the leading firms after the 1851 Exhibition had so clearly exposed the general superiority of French design. Some, such as Eug6ne Prignot and Alfred Lormier, who acted as chief designers to Jackson and Graham throughout the 1850s and 186os, were brought over permanently, while in other cases designs were commissioned from artists in Paris, such as Ernest Vandale and Hugues Protat. In either case, the manufacturers always emphasized that ‘the piece has been entirely executed by English workers’.
Gothic Revival
The first conscious reformers of Victorian furniture design
—    A. W. N. Pugin (1812-52) and William Burges (182′7-81)
—    cannot be said to have had a direct or decisive influence on the general trend of trade design. Nevertheless, the developments of the late 186os cannot be explained without a reference to their role. Though they both worked within the orbit of the Gothic Revival, their actual designs differed very radically.
The influence of Pugin on English furniture design has usually been overrated. His general influence as a propagandist, his key position in the mid-century transition from a sentimental to a scientific medievalism and the significance of his teachings on church furnishings have tended to obscure the fact that his own domestic furniture had little influence and that his following among furniture designers was always small. He himself designed a good deal of furniture in an extremely plain and unromantic Gothic style for the numerous houses which he erected in the 1840s, but as this was never published, it had no effect on the trade.
By contrast, the much more ornate and monumental furniture which he designed for the Houses of Parliament, and in particular the elaborate display piece which lie designed for J. G. Grace for the Medieval Court of the 1851 Exhibition, and which was purchased by the Museum of Ornamental Art in 1852 were much publicized and copied. Consequently the trade furniture of the 1850s which was claimed by its manufacturers to be ‘in the purest Gothic taste, after recognized authorities’, and dismissed by its detractors as ‘Puginesque’, tended to repeat all those faults of over-elaboration with architectural conceits in the way of finials, crockets and the like, which Pugin himself had so trenchantly attacked in his Contrasts and which his own domestic work so skilfully avoided. In fact, this type of architectural Gothic furniture was far too closely associat -,d in the public mind with Pugin’s catholicism to have any
wide vogue.
Morris Furniture
Several pieces exhibited by William Morris and his associates in 1862 have survived, and all are solidly constructed, supposedly Gothic, carcases, used as surfaces for painting. They belong by rights to the history of painting rather than of furniture. However, the Morris firm also produced several other types of non-Gothic furniture each of which had an influence on the general trend of furniture design. So many misconceptions are current about Morris furniture that it is necessary to examine these in some detail.
Morris himself (despite frequent statements to the contrary) never designed any furniture, nor do his writings indicate much interest in it. All the furniture produced by the firm was the work of his various collaborators. Four different types were manufactured in these early years. Firstly, Philip Webb (1831-1915), the architect, designed a number of large tables depending for their effect entirely on the use of unstained oak and on the interest of their unconcealed joinery construction, thus marking a conscious revolt against the debasement of mid-Victorian cabinet making. Though they were exaggeratedly massive and monumental, their proportions and their simple chamfered decoration reveal the hand of a sensitive architect. Their importance lies not in any immediate influence on the trade but in their delayed influence on the Arts and Crafts furniture designers of the 18gos, and they can be legitimately regarded as the original prototypes of the whole Cotswold school of joinery.
Secondly, Ford Madox Brown designed a set of cheap bedroom furniture, produced by the Morris firm in large quantities, usually in a green-stained version, of which a few examples have survived. These appealed particularly to those mid-Victorians who felt that the introduction of examples of good plain design into servants’ bedrooms could not but help raise the taste, and even the morals, of the lower classes. Their success led to plagiarism by many firms in the
1880S.
Thirdly, the firm produced and sold right up to the 1920S a set of cheap rush-bottomed chairs and settle in turned ebonized wood, including seven alternative shapes, which quickly became immensely popular with middle-class families anxious to escape from the general philistinism of contemporary decoration. These also were copied with minor modifications by numerous other firms. This set was not originally designed by the firm, but was adapted from a traditional-type country chair seen by William Morris in Sussex.
Fourthly, the firm produced with equal success a drawing-room easy chair with an adjustable bar at the back, which became so popular that in the United States the type is still known as a ‘Morris chair’. Though often spoken of as designed by Morris himself, it was in fact copied directly from a chair seen in 1866 by Warington Taylor, the young manager of the firm, at the workshop of a Herstmonceux furniture maker named Ephraim Coleman.
Later in the century the firm evolved several entirely different types of furniture, which are referred to below in connexion with the Arts and Crafts movement.
Bruce J. Talbert and C. L. Eastlake
Although neither the architectural Gothic of Pugin nor the painted-plank Gothic of William Burgos and the Morris firm had much direct influence on trade design, they were nevertheless responsible for providing the point of departure for the development of what ultimately became the most widespread and original of all Victorian styles — a development that was so rapid that in the decade 1868 to 1878 it transformed the whole course of Victorian furniture design. Two stages — or rather two overlapping strands — can be traced in it: the first associated with Bruce J. Talbert (1838-81) and C. L. Eastlake (1836-1906), the second with T. E. Collcutt (1840-1924)- Once again the usual Victorian confusion about labels has served to obscure the significance of these changes and the originality of the furniture which developed from them, for contemporary writers gave the style no name and referred to its products as simply Gothic, Early English, Old English or even Jacobean.
The first stage dates from 1867, when Talbert, a prolific and neglected designer, won a silver medal for Holland and Sons at the Paris Exhibition with a so-called ‘Gothic dressoir’ and several smaller cabinets. The influence of this success was consolidated by the publication in the same year of Talbert’s Gothic Forms, applied to Furniture, Metalwork, etc. for Interior Purposes, and in 1868 of Eastlake’s Hints on Household Taste, a book which exerted an enormous influence in sophisticated middle-class circles – especially in America, where it gave rise to a so-called ‘Eastlake style’.
Although Talbert’s Paris Exhibition pieces were still in a heavy semi-Gothic style, not so far removed from the `Puginesque’, the more unpretentious examples in both his book and in Eastlake’s, which were of course, those which had most influence on trade production, marked a definite step away from the Gothic of both Pugin and Burges towards a style more practical and three-dimensional. Its main characteristics were a rigid avoidance of curves or florid carving, a concentration on straight lines and an elaboration of surface colour and texture (but always in the lowest possible relief) by the use of a great variety of different techniques and materials, including the insertion of painted and stained panels, tiles, stamped leather, embroidery, enamels and chased metal. Talbert produced large quantities of this furniture, not only for Hollands, but also for Gillow, and for Marsh, Jones and Cribb of Leeds. However, only two authenticated examples of his work have so far been traced (both are now in the Victoria & Albert Museum). They are both in this modified Gothic style, and demonstrate the particular flavour of rich sobriety which characterized his work. Other examples must certainly survive, along with pieces by Eastlake himself (he designed for Heaton, Butler and Bayne), and those designers who closely followed this style in the 1870s, such as E. J. Tarver (working for Morant Boyd) and Owen Davis, the eclectic assistant of Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt and author of Art and Life (1885).
Despite the acclaim with which Talbert’s book was received and the designs in it copied, he himself quickly abandoned the style, and already in the early 18705 turned towards a dull and unoriginal rehash of Jacobean motifs, with a tedious elaboration of carved strap-work and a generally baronial air. This change can be clearly traced in the designs which he exhibited at the Royal Academy over these years, and in his second book of designs, Examples of Ancient and Modern Furniture, published in 1876. Its influence was slight, for it merely provided additional models for the large firms of traditionalist decorators, such as Gillow and Trollope, who had in any case always found in late Elizabethan and early 17th-century oak carving a ready-made source of inspiration for their more pretentious schemes.
T. E. Collcutt
The second stage in these developments, though it stemmed directly from the first and rapidly followed on its heels, was due neither to Talbert nor Eastlake, but to Thomas Edward Collcutt. Though remembered as the architect of the Imperial Institute, his role as a furniture designer has been entirely forgotten. It opens in 1871, when Collcutt exhibited at the South Kensington International Exhibition a cabinet designed for Collinson and Lock, which was bought by the Commissioners of the Great Exhibition and finally found its way into the South Kensington Museum. The publication in 1872 of a large catalogue of designs by Collinson and Lock (mostly the work of Collcutt, although ,J. Moyr Smith, the author of Ornamental Interiors (1887) later claimed some credit for them) gave the style a wide currency in the trade, so that already by the time of the Paris Exhibition of 1878 firms such as Cooper and Holt, and Bell and Roper of London, and Henry Ogden of Manchester were copying it precisely. By 188o its influence appears in the catalogues of mass-production firms such as Hewetson and Milner, Smee, and Lucraft.
In Collcutt’s hands the style, though following Talbert in the emphasis on straight lines and the use of coved cornices and painted panels, was elaborated in a far more fanciful and light-hearted spirit, which marked a further stage in the evolution away from the medieval. A simultaneous emphasis on both verticals and horizontals, and a proliferation of shelves and divisions, diversifies the facade and provides variety by giving space for the display of knick-knacks. As always, the rapid spread of the style was accompanied by an equally rapid debasement, so that by the early 1880s it was responsible for a mass of elaborate but gimcrack cabinets, what-nots, corner-cupboards (a particular favourite) and the like, with spindly supports, a profusion of small pigeonholes, often divided off by little railings of turned balusters or embroidered curtains, and panels painted with floral sprays or willowy female figures, usually on a gold ground. A persistent cliche which became almost a trade-mark for the style was a double panel in which an inner oblong or hexagon is joined to an outer frame by ties at the four cardinal points.
At its best, the style must be regarded as the Victorian era’s most individual contribution in the whole field of furniture design. Quantities of its cheaper manifestations have survived, particularly in country rectories. Over-mantels, usually backed with numerous small mirrors, have tended to survive as being fixtures, and examples of a drawing-room version of the style, decorated in black and gold, can also be found. Authentic pieces from the Collinson and Lock 1872 catalogue are, however, very difficult to come by.
The surprisingly rapid spread of Talbert’s original style, and Collcutt’s later version of it, can only be explained if account is taken of the way in which Eastlake and the many publicists who followed him supported their influence with arguments which seemed to provide would-be connoisseurs and purchasers with certain easily remembered maxims for judging furniture, and which buttressed their own uncertain taste with apparently authoritative criteria. These all derived ultimately from the teachings of Pugin, Owen Jones and Ruskin on ‘honesty in design’. The most telling was the proposition that because wood has a straight grain it should always be used in the plank and never debased by being carved or curved into twisted shapes more appropriate to plastic or ductile materials. This argument was strengthened by simultaneous appeal to economic and nationalist considerations, for the carving or curving of wood obviously involves the cutting-to-waste of good timber, while ‘wanton curves’ and ‘meaningless scrolls’ could be condemned as symbolizing the decadent extravagances which had so recently brought the French Second Empire to the ground.
During this period a parallel movement in favour of straight lines, a lighter and more varied colouring and texture and a shunning of the deep carving of the 186os can be traced even in the luxury productions of firms such as Jackson and Graham, and Wright and Mansfield. At its best it produced some very handsome pieces, such as the cabinet by Wright and Mansfield, which won the highest awards at the Paris Exhibition of 1867 and was purchased for the South Kensington Museum for C800. Judging from contemporary descriptions, the elaborate inlaid furniture produced by Jackson and Graham in the early 187os for Alfred Morrison’s palace at 16, Carlton House Terrace, to the designs of Owen Jones (1809-74), must have reflected the same trend. The 187os also saw the production of furniture designed by Norman Shaw for Lascelles and Co. Unfortunately, in the absence of surviving photographs or specimens, the wildly conflicting opinions of contemporary critics provide no clear picture of its style.Anglo-Japanese Style
Owing to the absence of furniture in the European sense in the traditional Japanese home, the revolutionary influence on Victorian design of the displays of Japanese craftsmanship at the International Exhibitions of 1862 (London) and 1867 (Paris), following the opening-up ofJapan by the West, had rather less effect in the field of furniture design than in those, for example, of wallpapers, textiles or book illustration. Nevertheless, the impact of the new culture - providing, as it did, a heaven-sent stimulus to jaded designers in search of some authentic historical style that had not already been copied ad nauseam - was sufficient to inspire a vogue for so-called ‘Anglo-japanese’ furniture in the i87os and Mos.
The first enthusiast was E. W. Godwin (1833-86), the architect and stage designer and associate of Whistler and Ellen Terry. He is said to have decorated his own house in the Japanese manner as early as 1862, and was certainly designing furniture showing a strong Japanese influence by the late 186os. An illustrated catalogue issued by William Watt in 1877 contained many examples of his work and did much to familiarize the general public and the trade with his particular style.
Inevitably the trade version of Godwin’s style, worked out in the i88os by hack designers, produced some deplorable furniture, in which the Japanese inspiration was limited to such obvious tricks as imitation bamboo legs, and asymmetrical fretwork panels, However, a few of the better professional designers managed to design some quite pleasing pieces by grafting certain Japanese motifs on to the Talbert-Collcutt style. The most successful of these was H. W. Batley, who designed some very elaborate furniture for James Shoolbred and for Henry Ogden of Manchester. It is possible, also, that some of the ‘Anglo-Japanese’ furniture produced by the short-lived ‘Art Furnishers’ Alliance’, founded in 1880 by Christopher Dresser (1834-1904), the indefatigable but eccentric designer and publicist (he was for a time Art Editor of the Furniture Gazette in the 188os), may have been of interest, for Dresser had a real understanding of Japan, which he visited officially in 1876; but the only two surviving examples are too unimportant to justify an
opinion.
This Anglo-Japanese vogue was accompanied in the 188os by a revival of interest in other exotic styles, such as the Indian, Persian and Moorish, as a result of which such features as ‘Anglo-Arab lounges’ and ‘H indoo smoke-rooms’ became popular, particularly in clubs and hotels. However, this fashion was largely met by the importation and adaptation of genuine Oriental examples (Egyptian mushrabiya panels, Chinese embroidered screens, Indian mother-of-pearl and ivory tables and the like) by firms such as Liberty’s, rather than by Western manufacturers, and no serious English designers seem to have been influenced by it.
The Arts and Crafts Movement
Late Victorian furniture design — indeed, the Late Victorian decorative arts generally — was dominated by the birth of what has come to be known generically as the ‘Arts and Crafts movement’ (i.e. the Century Guild, 1882; the Art Workers’ Guild, 1883; the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, 1888; the Guild of Handicraft, 1888; the Home Arts and Industries Association, 1889; the Wood Handicraft Society, 1892; and many others). In fact, during the last dozen years or so of the Victorian era no furniture of interest was designed outside its orbit.

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FURNITURE: SMALL PIECES
A FAIRLY wide interpretation has been given here to the term ’small furniture’. It includes, in general, those smaller pieces which were not dealt with in the chapters on furniture in the previous volumes of this series, or which were there given only a passing mention. It has also been assumed that readers will be familiar with the main developments of English furniture styles, to which smaller furniture, as well as the larger, conformed; with the warning that ‘country’ furniture might continue to be made in a style which had passed out of fashion, perhaps some considerable time previously, in London and the chief provincial towns.
The collection of small pieces of furniture can be a most fascinating pastime, not only for obvious financial reasons but also because they are a constant delight to the eye, and –a point of special weight in these days when living room is not so spacious as in times gone by — because they can be frequently used as their original makers and owners intended.
The study of the evolution of smaller articles of furniture can also be a study of social history; for they portray, as Horace Walpole wrote of the furniture in Hogarth’s pictures, `the history of the manners of the age’. One can see how they came into use as the rooms of houses began to take on their separate character and as new conventions established themselves in society. Note, for example, how, at the end of the 17th century, the two new fashions of tea-drinking and displaying china produced a whole range of small pieces among which can be included, on the one hand, tea-boards, kettle-stands and caddies, and, on the other, china-stands, brackets and shelves. With the coming of home manufacture of mirror glass, the development of special processes of decoration such as Tunbridge ware and straw-work and the introduction of new materials like Clay’s papier-mach, many new articles came into production or new forms and modes of decoration were given to older ones. The great diversity of small pieces in Georgian dining-rooms tells its own story of the importance placed by the upper classes in those days on eating and drinking.
With regard to the furniture which is described hereunder, one might be tempted to write, as did Sheraton in his Cabinet Dictionary, that ‘the reader will find some terms which he will probably judge too simple in their nature to justify their insertion’. One feels, however, that this apology is unnecessary; the simplest articles are often the most useful, and their names, though no doubt very familiar, do not give what is, after all, the intention of this section, viz. their history and development. It might be added, in conclusion, that Sheraton’s own period delighted in small furniture which combined, to a greater degree than at any other time, usefulness with extreme delicacy of appearance.
GLOSSARY
Basin-stand:see Washing-stand. Beer-wagon: see Coaster.
Book-rest: a stand used in Georgian libraries to support large books, consisting of a square or rectangular framework with cross bars, the upper bar being supported by a strut which was adjusted on a grooved base. This kind of stand was sometimes fitted into the top of a table.
Book-shelf: see Shelves.
Box and Casket: boxes were among the most attractive of the smaller pieces of furniture, and were used from medieval times for a multitude of purposes – personal effects, toilet and writing materials, valuables, documents, etc. Tudor and early Stuart boxes were usually square in shape and made of oak, carved, inlaid or painted, and occasionally stood upon stands, few of which have survived. In the later 7th century walnut was commonly used (sometimes decorated with marquetry or parquetry), but other materials included parchment, tortoise-shell and stump-work, the latter particularly on the boxes kept by ladies for their cosmetics, etc. The interiors were often ingeniously fitted with compartments and drawers. In the 18th century some beautiful mahogany and satinwood boxes were made, until they were gradually replaced by small work-tables, though boxes on stands, conforming to the prevailing decorative fashions, were to be found. Among other examples were Tunbridge ware (q.v.) boxes, and travelling boxes fitted with spaces for writing, working and toilet requisites. About 1800 work and toilet boxes covered with tooled leather were in vogue.
Bracket: the detachable wall-bracket, as distinct from the fixed architectural feature, appeared towards the end of the 17th century, and seems to have been used at first for displaying china. Its prominent position in the room singled it out for special decorative treatment in carving or gilding. In the early Georgian period the bracket was often used to support a bust or vase, and as a result it tended to become larger in size and more heavily ornamented; but with the return of the fashion for displaying china about 1750 and the growing use of the bracket for supporting lights, it became altogether more delicate in appearance, and was adapted to the various styles of the Chippendale and Adam periods. The wall-bracket supporting a clock was a popular form of decoration in the later 18th century.
Brazier: a portable metal container used from Tudor times for burning coal or charcoal; with handle and feet, or sometimes mounted on a stand.
Butler’s Tray: a tray mounted on legs or on a folding stand, in use throughout the 18th century. The X-shaped folding stand was in general use from about 1750, the tray normally being rectangular and fitted with a gallery. Oval trays were sometimes made in the later part of the century.
Candle-box: a cylindrical or square box, of metal or wood, widely used in the Georgian period for storing candles.
Candle-stand: a portable stand (known also as a lamp-stand, gu6ridon and torch6re) fora candlestick, candelabrum or lamp. After 166o the fashion arose of having two candle-stands flanking a side table with a mirror on the wall above; the stands usually took the form of a baluster or twist-turned shaft, with a circular or octagonal top and a tripod base. At the end of the century more elaborate kinds, copying French stands, became fashionable, with vase-shaped tops and scrolled feet, all carved and gilded. Other examples were of simple design, but had rich decoration in gesso or marquetry. In the early Georgian period, when gilt stands followed architectural forms, the vase-shaped tops and baluster shafts were larger, and the feet curved outwards, replacing the scrolled French style. About 1750 stands became lighter and more delicate, many of them being enriched with rococo decoration. There was a distinct change in design in the later 18th century: the traditional tripod continued, often in mahogany, with turned shaft and a bowl or vase top in the classical taste; but a new type, which was originated by Adam, consisted of three uprights, mounted on feet or a plinth, supporting usually a candelabrum, or with a flat top. Smaller examples of the latter type were made to stand on tables. A much smaller version of candle-stand was also popular after 1750 — with a circular base and top, and sometimes an adjustable shaft.
Canterbury: (I) a small music-stand with partitions for music-books, usually mounted on castors, and sometimes with small drawers, much used in the early x9th century; and (2) a plate and cutlery stand particularly designed for supper parties in the later 18th century, with divisions for cutlery and a semicircular end, on four turned legs. The name ‘Canterbury’ arose, wrote Sheraton, ‘because the bishop of that See first gave orders for these pieces’.
Cat: a stand used after about 1750 to warm plates in front of the fire; it had three arms and three feet of turned wood
(or three legs of cabriole form). The turning was well ringed to provide sockets for plates of various sizes. CeUaret: the name given generally after 1750 to a case on legs or stand for wine bottles; prior to that date, from the end of the 17th century, the same kind of case was called a cellar. In the early 18th century cellarets, lined with lead and containing compartments for bottles, stood under side-tables, and they were still made later in the century when sideboards, which had drawers fitted up to hold bottles, came into general use. Sheraton classified the cellaret with the wine cistern (q.v.) and sarcophagus, and distinguished them from the bottle-case, which was for square bottles only.
Cheval-glass: a larger type of toilet mirror in a frame with four legs; also known as a horse dressing-glass; dating from the end of the 18th century. The rectangular mirror either pivoted on screws set in the uprights or moved up and down by means of a weight within the frame (’the same as a sash-window’ — Sheraton). Turned uprights and stretchers were often found on these pieces about 1800.
Cheveret: see Secretaire.
Chiffonier: a piece of furniture which has given rise to a certain amount of confusion. The French chiffonier was a tall chest of drawers, but the chiffoniers, a quite different piece, was a small set of drawers on legs. It was the latter which seems to have been copied in England in the later 18th century. Another form of chiffonier was popular in the Regency period — a low cupboard with shelves for books. As this was similar to contemporary commodes, it can be taken that the English version of the chiffoniers was the only true small piece of furniture.
China-stand: an ornamental stand for displaying china or flowers, introduced at the end of the 17th century and at first taking the form of a low pedestal on carved and scrolled feet, or of a vase on a plinth. In the early 18th century the form was sometimes that of a stool with cabriole legs, in mahogany. More fanciful designs, in the rococo taste, were evident after 1750, as in the ‘Stands for China Jarrs’ presented in Chippendale’s Director. In the Adam period some attractive stands for flower-bowls resembled the contemporary candle-stands with three uprights. Little four-legged stands with shelves were also made at this time for flower-pots.
Coaster: a receptacle which came into use before 1750 for moving wine, beer and food on the dining-table; also variously known as a slider, decanter stand and beer-wagon. For ease of movement, the coaster was normally fitted either with small wheels or with a baize-covered base, and the materials used in good examples included mahogany, papiermhch6 and silver. Beer-wagons were sometimes made with special places for the jug and drinking vessels.
Croft: a small filing cabinet of the late 18th century (named after its inventor) specially designed to be moved about easily in the library; it had many small drawers and a writing-top.
Cutlery Stand: see Canterbury (2).
Daventry: a small chest of drawers with a sloping top for writing; said to be named after a client of the firm of Gillow who claimed to have invented it.
Decanter Stand: see Coaster.
Desk: a term of varied meaning, but taken here to refer to two portable pieces. (I) The commonest meaning was that of a box (originating in medieval times) with a sloping top for reading and writing. Early examples in oak in the Tudor and Stuart periods had carving and inlay, and sometimes the owner’s initials and date. When bureaux came into use at the end of the 17th century these small desks were too useful to discard, and were fitted with drawers and pigeon-holes; many were veneered with walnut, or japanned, and some were mounted on stands. In the Georgian period they became less decorative, and were usually of plain mahogany; few were made after 1800. (2) In the later 18th century ‘desk’ was the current term for what would now be called a music-stand (which was also used for reading) ; it generally took the form of a tripod base supporting a shaft and a sloping, adjustable top.
Dumb-waiter: a dining-room stand, an English invention of the early 18th century, with normally three circular trays, increasing in size towards the bottom, on a shaft with tripod base. This established design gave way to more elaborate versions at the end of the century; four-legged supports and rectangular trays were found; and quite different kinds were square or circular tables with special compartments for bottles, plates, etc.
Fire-screen: an adjustable screen made from the end of the 17th century to give protection from the intense heat of large open fires. Two main kinds were used. (1) Pole screen: with the screen on an upright supported on a tripod base; known as a `screen-stick’ in the late 17th century; and in very general use in the 18th. The screen, often of needlework, was at first rectangular, but oval and shield shapes were fashionable in the late 18th century. In the Regency period the tripod was replaced by a solid base, and the screen was a banner hung from a bar on the upright. (2) Horse or cheval screen – two uprights, each on two legs, enclosing a panel. Elaborate carving and gilding of the crests was often found until the end of the 18th century, when lighter and simpler screens were in vogue. Needlework was the popular material for the panel.
Flower-stand: see China-stand. Gu6ridon: see Candle-stand.
Horse-glass and Horse-screen: see Cheval-glass and Fire-screen.
Kettle-stand (also Urn- and Teapot-stand): a special stand which was introduced with tea-drinking in the later 17th century, of two main kinds. (z) A small table, tripod or four-legged, with a gallery or raised edge round the top. Slender four-legged tables were common in the later part of the 18th century, nearly always with a slide for the teapot. (2) A box-like arrangement set on four legs; the box was usually lined with metal, and had an opening in one side for the kettle spout, as well as a slide for the teapot. Another version of the box type had a three-sided enclosure with a metal-lined drawer. The two main types of stand persisted until the end of the 18th century, when they were superseded by occasional tables.
Knife-case: a container for knives (and other cutlery) introduced in the 17th century for use in dining-rooms. Two distinct varieties appeared. (I) Until the later 18th century the usual shape was a box with a sloping top and convex front; the interior had divisions for the cutlery. Walnut, shagreen (untanned leather with a roughened surface) and later mahogany, sometimes inlaid, were the main materials. (2) This was succeeded by the graceful vase-shaped case the top of which was raised and lowered on a central stem around which the knife partitions were arranged; this type was designed to stand on a pedestal or at each end of the sideboard. Straight-sided cases were favoured in the early 19th century.
Lantern: a container fora candle or candles; portable, fixed to the wall or hung from the ceiling; especially useful for lighting the draughty parts of the house. Early lanterns (c. 1500-1700) were made of wood, iron, latten (a yellow alloy of copper and zinc) and brass, the most common filling being horn (whence the Shakespearean `lant-horn’). After 1700, when glass became more plentiful, lanterns were increasingly fashionable, particularly as they prevented candle-grease from falling about, and their frames, of metal, walnut and mahogany, followed the main decorative modes. In addition to these more elaborate kinds, simpler lanterns of glass shades, in a variety of forms, were in wide use in the 18th century.
Library Steps: found in libraries of large houses after about the middle of the 18th century, and of two main kinds: the fixed pair of steps, some with hand-rails; and the folding steps, sometimes ingeniously fitted into other pieces of furniture, such as chairs, stools and tables.
Linen-press: a frame with a wooden spiral screw for pressing linen between two boards, dating from the 17th century.
Lobby Chest: defined by Sheraton as ‘a kind of half chest of drawers, adapted for the use of a small study, lobby, etc’.
Mirror-stand: an adjustable mirror mounted on a shaft and tripod base, resembling a pole-screen; popular at the end of the 18th century.
Music-stand: see Canterbury (I) and Desk (2).
Night-table: a pot cupboard which replaced the close-stool after 1750; sometimes also fitted as a washing-stand (q.v.). Among the features commonly found on these pieces may be noted a drawer under the cupboard, a tambour front and a tray top. Some night-tables were given a triangular shape to fit into a corner.
Papier-rnitch6: moulded paper pulp used for many small articles and particularly suitable for japanning and polishing; the original process came to England via France from the East as early as the 17th century. Considerable stimulus was given to this kind of work in 1772, when Henry Clay of Birmingham, and later London, patented a similar material and began manufacturing various pieces among which trays, boxes, tea-caddies and coasters were prominent.
Pipe-rack: a stand for clay pipes. Of the various wooden kinds in use in the 18th century one can distinguish the stand of candlestick form with a tiny circular tray on the stem, pierced with holes for holding the pipes; and the wall rack, either an open frame with notched sides so that the pipes could lie across or a board with shelves from which the pipes hung down (cf. spoon-rack), In addition to these, metal pipe-kilns were widely used from the 17th century —iron frames on which the pipes rested, deriving their name from the fact that they could be baked in an oven to clean the pipes.
Pipe-tray: a long and narrow wooden tray with partitions for churchwardens, in use throughout the Georgian period.
Plate-pail: a mahogany container with handle for carrying plates from kitchen to dining-room (often a long journey) in large houses in the 18th century; of various shapes, generally circular with one section left open for ease of access.
Pole-screen: see Fire-screen.
Sconce: a general name for a wall-light consisting of a back-plate and either a tray or branched candle-holders. Metal seems to have been the chief material from later medieval times until the end of the 17th century when looking-glass became fashionable for back-plates (and when `girandole’ was another name for these pieces). The use of looking-glass meant that sconces tended to follow the same decorative trends as contemporary mirrors, but metal back-plates continued to be made, and for a period after 1725 there was a preference for carved and gilt wood and gesso-work, often without looking-glass. About 1750 sconces provided some of the freest interpretation of the asymmetrical rococo mode, either with looking-glass in a scrolled frame, or in carved and gilt wood only; Chinese features were often blended with the rococo. In contrast, the sconces of the Adam period had delicate classical ornament in gilt wood or in composition built up round a wire frame. Cut-glass sconces were in vogue at the end of the century.
Secretaire (or Secretary): the name somewhat loosely applied to different kinds of writing furniture of which two small varieties call for mention here. At the end of the 17th century appeared the small bureau mounted on legs or stand, very similar to the contemporary desk on stand (q.v.) - This kind seems to have been designed for ladies’ use, and sometimes had a looking-glass at the top. In the late 18th century large numbers of light and graceful secretaires were made, one popular kind taking the form of a small table with tapering legs enclosing a drawer and supporting a little stand with drawers and shelf. The stand, which was used as a small book-shelf, was often provided with a handle so that it could be lifted off. This type of table was also known as a cheveret.
Shelves: taken here to refer to hanging or standing shelves without doors, for books, plate and china. Small oak shelves of the Tudor period were square in shape; while arcaded tops appeared in the early 17th century. Carving was the chief decoration, and this became more ornate after 166o. It is probable that many walnut shelves were made, but few of these seem to have survived. It was at this time that shelves were used for displaying china; a fashion which continued into the early 18th century, but was then replaced by that of keeping china in cabinets and cupboards. Open shelves, however, returned to favour in the Chippendale period, when they were often decorated in the Chinese taste, and had fretted sides and galleries. Simple, light shelves were generally in vogue in the later 18th century, for books or china; Sheraton emphasized that shelves should be light enough for ladies to move about and to contain their ‘books under present reading’.
Slider: see Coaster.
Spoon-rack: a stand for hanging spoons, dating from late Tudor times when metal spoons came into general use. The usual form, until the end of the 18th century, resembled a miniature dresser – a wooden board with small slotted shelves for spoons, and, attached to it at the bottom, a box for knives and forks.
Straw-work: a method of decorating furniture, particularly smaller pieces, with tiny strips of bleached and coloured straws to form landscapes, geometrical patterns, etc. This craft came to England from the Continent towards the end of the 17th century and was centred at Dunstable. There was a big increase in output during the Napoleonic Wars, when French prisoners, many of whom were craftsmen who had been conscripted into the French Navy, decorated articles in this way during their captivity in England. Among the chief pieces thus decorated were tea-caddies, desks and boxes.
Tea-caddy and Tea-chest: a small box for storing tea. `Tea-chest’ was the common name for this piece from the end of the 17th century, when tea-drinking was introduced, until the second half of the 18th century, when `caddy’, a corruption of `kati’, a Malay measure of weight of just over one pound, came into general use. The custom of locking up the family’s tea in a box continued long after tea had ceased to be an expensive luxury; caddies, therefore, were invariably provided with locks, and were either divided into small compartments or were fitted with canisters (q.v.) for the different kinds of tea. A great variety of materials was used in their construction, including woods of all kinds – carved, inlaid, veneered, painted or decorated with tortoise-shell, ivory, straw-work (q.v.), Tunbridge ware (q.v.), etc – metal (silver in the best examples) and papier-mA66 (q.v.). There was also considerable diversity in shape, from rectangular to square and octagonal; while vase and pear forms were introduced after 1750.
Tea-canister: the container for tea in the caddy (if the latter were not already divided into compartments); made Of glass, metal or earthenware; usually bottle-shaped until c. 175o, and vase-shaped later.
Teapot-stand: see Kettle-stand.
Toilet Mirror (or Dressing-glass): a small mirror designed to stand on a table or, in early examples, to hang on the wall. This kind of mirror was a luxury in the medieval and Tudor periods, and did not begin to come into wider use until the late 17th century. Post-Restoration mirrors were usually square in shape, and frequently had their frames decorated with stump-work; they stood by means of a strut or hung by a ring. By about 1700 oblong mirrors with arched tops, in narrower moulded frames, veneered or japanned, had begun to replace the square shape. In the 18th century several changes occurred. Shortly after 1700 appeared the mirror supported by screws in uprights mounted on a box stand; the box was often in the form of a flap or desk above a drawer which contained the many toilet requisites of the time; the mirror had a pronounced arched heading at first, and the front of the box was sometimes serpentine in form. The older type of strut support, without the box stand, continued to be made, however, and occasionally a stand with small trestle feet was found. By
1750 mahogany was in general use for toilet mirrors, though some in the Chinese style were gilt or japanned. Simpler designs were introduced in the neo-classical period; mirror frames, in mahogany or satinwood, were often of oval or shield shape, and the uprights were curved to correspond. The stand was also a simpler arrangement, as toilet articles were now placed in the table on which the mirror stood. At the very end of the century and later, a wide oblong mirror was fashionable, and was usually swung on turned uprights. Mahogany and rosewood, often decorated with stringing, were the chief woods for such mirrors at this time.
Torchilre: see Candle-stand.
Tray: for food, tea-things, plates, etc; also known as a voider (the medieval term for a tray which was still in use in late Georgian times). Tea-trays (or ‘tea-boards’) were introduced in the late 17th century, and most of them were japanned; none, however, seem to have survived. japanned trays were still popular in the middle of the 18th century, though by then ornamental mahogany trays with fretted borders were being made. Later, oval trays decorated with fine inlay were in vogue. About 1800 there was a considerable production of trays in japanned metal and papiermicM.
Tunbridge Ware: a special form of inlay which developed at Tunbridge Wells c. 1650, employing minute strips of wood, in a great variety of natural colours, to build up geometrical patterns and, later, floral decoration, landscape scenes, etc; used for boxes, trays, desks, tea-caddies,
etc.
Urn-stand: see Kettle-stand.
Washing-stand (or Basin-stand): specially adapted for bedroom use after 1750, and of two main kinds. (1) A tripod stand with three uprights, a circular top fitted with a basin, and a central triangular shelf with a drawer (or drawers) and receptacle for soap. A four-legged version of this type was also made. (2) A cupboard or chest of drawers on four legs with a basin sunk in the top, the latter covered by a lid or folding flaps.
What-not: a portable stand with four uprights enclosing shelves, in use after about 1800 for books, ornaments, etc.
Wine Cistern (or Cooler): a case for wine bottles, very similar to a cellaret (q.v.), but normally larger, without a lid and designed to contain ice or water for cooling the wine. Bowl shaped wooden cisterns on feet or stand were lined with lead and came into wide use after c. 1730; stone and metal (especially silver) cisterns were also found. At the end of the century the tub form, with hoops of brass, was general.
Work-table: the name usually applied to the special table made in the second half of the i8th century for ladies’ needlework, etc. In Sheraton’s time these tables were of several kinds; some, mounted on four tapered and reeded legs or on trestle feet, might include, in addition to a drawer, such fittings as a pouch for the work materials, an adjustable fire-screen and a writing-board or slide. Another type, the `French Work-table’, was a tray on trestle feet with a shelf or shelves below.
Writing-table: many varieties of small writing-tables can be found dating from the end of the 17th century, when they were first introduced. Early examples were made with turned baluster legs and folding tops, and were frequently used also as side- and card-tables. Gate-legs were usual, and some were fitted with a drawer. Decoration with marquetry was often found. In the early 18th century small knee-hole writing-tables were popular, with tiers of narrow drawers on each side of the central recess. Similar tables, it may be noted, were also used as dressing-tables, and it is not always possible to determine their exact purpose. After the introduction of mahogany, when the fashion arose for larger pedestal tables in libraries, many versions of the convenient lighter table continued to be made. It was at the end of the century that perhaps the most elegant kinds of these smaller tables were seen, frequently of satinwood. Some closely resembled contemporary secretaires and cheverets; others were fitted with an adjustable board for writing and with a screen.

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The scientific study of old oak furniture is of relatively recent growth. Indeed, it was not until the close of the i 9th century and, more especially, the early years of the loth that the subject showed clear signs of developing a literature of its own.
Even so, the debt to the early pioneers of oak-studies, and to the best modern authorities for their patient checking and counter-checking, is indisputable. Though the day is past when ‘old oak’ was the preserve of a handful of artists and collectors, it is largely due to their initiative that later generations have been enabled to build on the foundations thus laid down. If in what follows the emphasis is mainly on certain aspects of terminology, it may at least assist an average reader to recognize and to avoid some popular errors.
Among such solecisms one does not reckon the ‘Age of Oak’, though that, like other ‘labels’, means more (and less) than it says. That other woods were used in that Age is obvious: but the term is useful as covering furniture and woodwork through the Middle Ages onwards to the experimental period of Charles II and the rise of the ‘Age of Walnut’. Not that oak furniture ceased to be made at the end of the ►7th century; but whereas its milieu had been general, its later setting (before modern times) was mainly of the unmodish, and even the humble, home.
As will be seen, an oak collector’s vocabulary is a blend of words as used by carpenters, joiners, turners and architects, together with some recovered from documentary sources, and others truly or falsely traditional. The following brief glossary’s main concentration is on English usage, though one or two alien or post-oak terms are mentioned in passing.

GLOSSARY
Ambry (Aumbry, Almery; Fr. Armoire) - enclosed compartment or recess in a wall or in a piece of furniture, the original sense of the term having been usurped by CUPBOARD, which originally had a different connotation. `Cuppbordes, wyth ambries’ are mentioned in inventories of Henry VIII’s furniture. Today AUMBRY, etc, is principally used architecturally and ecclesiastically, as of the doored compartments or recesses for the Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, this usage perpetuating the original sense. The French form ARMOIRE is often applied to large PRESSES or
PRESS-CUPBOARDS.
Apron-work: prolongation downwards, beyond what is essential to construction, of the lower edge of a member, such as the shaped lower edge of the front of certain BOARDED CHESTS, or the lower frontal frame-work, below the drawers, of certain DRESSERS. In such cases an APRON is purely ornamental; in others, e.g. the seating Of CLOSE-CHAIRS, its purpose is that of concealment.
Ark: term frequently encountered in medieval inventories, seemingly meaning (a) a CHEST with a coped or gabled lid; (b) perhaps a structure resembling a RELIQUARY (Fr. CHASSE), as exemplified by the 16th-century ALMERY in Coity Church, Glamorganshire.
Arming Chest: CHEST for the housing of armours and weapons. ARMING CHESTS might be fitted with compartments of varying size to accommodate breast-plate, etc (see Chest). (In navigation an ARMING BOX contains tallow for the `lead’.)
Barguefio (or Varguefio): Spanish cabinet with fall-front enclosing drawers and often mounted on a stand. Mixed materials are found.
Barley-sugar: see Twist-turning.
Bedstead: so far as practical collecting is concerned main basic types are the BOX- (or enclosed) BEDSTEAD, WAINSCOT- (including bedsteads panelled at head and foot), POST- (with two or four posts supporting the TESTER), STUMP- (or low type), and the TRUCKLE- or TRUNDLE- (With wooden wheels at base of uprights). These are not hard-and-fast definitions; one type may well overlap another (e.g. Box and WAINSCOT). Parts Of BEDSTEADS have been re-used for other purposes of a decorative nature, such as OVER-MANTELS.
Bench: a long seat, backed or backless, fitted or movable (see Form, Settle, Table-bench).
Bible-box: popular term for a variety of BOX, generally of small size. That some such boxes were used to hold the family Bible, or average meagre domestic library, is probable, though they doubtless served other purposes. LACE-BOXES enter this category.
Book-case: BOOKCASES, either fitted or, in some cases, contained in other furniture, were known medievally, but the domestic BOOKCASE mainly derives from the period of
Charles II (1660-85).
Boys and Crowns: old term for a type of carved ornament on the CRESTING of late 17th- and quite early 18th-century CHAIRS, DAY-BEDS, etc (see under Restoration). The motif, a CROWN, usually, though not necessarily, arched, supported by two flying or sprawling naked Boys, derives ultimately from the flying pulli frequently found in RENAISSANCE design. In England, the idea was familiar long before it achieved (temp. Charles II) a vogue on chair-backs.
Buffet: term variously applied to open, dourless structures, of more than one tier (see also Court Cupboard, Livery Cupboard).
Carolean: term of convenience strictly applicable to pieces made in the reign of Charles I (1625-49), those made under Charles II (1660-85) usually being dissociated. Actually the CAROLEAN style is as much an extension of the JACOBEAN as the latter was of the later ELIZABETHAN.
Caryatid: upright carved in semblance of a human figure or, more frequently, a demi-figure on a terminal base. Strictly, CARYATID implies a female, ATLANTA or ATLAS FIGURE a male figure, though CARYATID is used for either. The term derives from the legend of the women of Carya, enslaved and immured for their betrayal of the Greeks to the Persians. ATLANTA refers to the myth Of ATLAS upholding the heavens.
Casson: an Italian term for CHEST, COFFER, or chest of coffer-like construction, including magnificent DOWER-CHESTS, many of them elaborately gessoed, painted, gilt, or otherwise enriched.
Chair: in its old sense CHAIR meant, as like as not, an -CHAIR, what is now called a SINGLE- or SIDE-CHAIR being
ARM
a BACK-STOOL (stool with a batik). To what extent the CHAIR originated from such box-forms as the CHEST is suggested by early surviving examples of box-like structure. Development from the WAINSCOT CHAIR to the open-framed variety with panelled back belongs in general to the 16th century. Folding or RACK-CHAIRS and X-CHAIRS (so called from their shape) have also a long history. Certain 16th-century chairs with narrow backs and widely, splayed arms are so-called
CAQUETEUSE or CAQUETOIRE. The so-called FARTHINGALE
CHAIR (a term freely applied to pieces mostly of the earlier 17th century) has its back-support raised clear of the seat. Upholstery (not unknown earlier) had arrived, seats and back-pads being covered in velvet or in ‘Turkey-work’. Leather was used, especially on CROMWELLIAN CHAIRS, some of which date from the Interregnum, though the type endured until relatively late in the 17th century. LEATHER or RUSSIA CHAIR are old terms for such items. About the middle of the 17th century are found what are often termed `MORTUARY’ CHAIRS, a term of doubtful origin for chairs with a small moustachioed and bearded head (supposedly allusive to King Charles I) in the centre of the shaped and scrolled back-rails. Similar chairs occur without the masks, and the type is a variation Of YORKSHIRE or DERBYSHIRE CHAIR, Of undefined geographical distribution.

CAME-CHAIRS achieved main popularity in the second half of the 17th century, their backs and seats being caned. Scrolling, curlicues, BOYS AND CROWNS, etc, were favoured as carved ornament. Backs lengthen, assuming the form of a narrow panel or centre (often caned or stuffed) flanked by uprights. Already had been reached the period Of BARLEY-SUGAR TURNING (see Twist).
CORNER-CHAIRS, some of triangular formation, and sundry related types, were already in being. A later variety has the seat disposed diagonally to the low, rounded back. ELBOW-
CHAIR and ROUNDABOUT-CHAIR are synonyms in use. An allied type is the CIRCULAR CHAIR (with circular seat), often Dutch, and known as BURGOMASTER or (again) ROUNDABOUT-CHAIR, such terms being jargon. THROWN-CHAIRS of various
shapes, with much turnery, have been often assigned to the 16th century, though many are certainly later. Though scarcely belonging to the Age of Oak, the WINDSOR CHAIR may have owed something to older types. The basic characteristic of WINDSOR is not the bow- or hoop-back, but the detail that back and under-framing are all mortised into the wooden seat, itself frequently saddle-shaped and ‘dished’, but sometimes circular, etc. The BOW-BACK type (late 18th century and later), preceded by the COMB- or FAN-BACK (early 18th century and later), was itself followed by other formations on more or less ‘Regency’ lines. Types are many with much overlapping; woods are mixed. SCOLE or
MENDLESHAM CHAIRS are East Anglian types on WINDSOR lines. YORKSHIRE and LANCASHIRE WINDSORS usually show
`frilly’ splats and developed turnery, but the type was not confined to the North of England. In America Windsors were made from the early 18th century, and included some fine types. LANCASHIRE CHAIR is also applied to an extensively made type Of BOBBIN-BACK, much favoured in the 18th and early i9th centuries, but, here again, as with
YORKSHIRE and DERBYSHIRE CHAIRS in general, the geo-
graphical location has been overstressed (see Close-chair and -stool; also Restoration).

bevelled   Pd e as when the sharp edges of a Chamfer:edge,
beam are bevelled off. A DUST CHAMFER (i.e. to throw off dust) is a smooth bevel at the lower edge of framework of a panel, the other edges being moulded, or part moulded and part of rectangular cut. Of STOP CHAMFER there is no better simple definition than Walter Rose’s in The Village Carpenter: where slope finishes and square begins’ [to arise].
Chest (see also Coffer) : one primitive form of CHEST is the DUG-OUT or TRUNK, its interior gouged in the solid. Some DUG-ouTs are of considerable antiquity; others may be of more recent date than their appearance suggests. In name and rounded lid the TRAVELLING TRUNK, as still known, recalls the ancient use of a tree-trunk. FRAMED CHESTS are also ancient, the earliest surviving medieval examples being formed of great planks so disposed as to present an almost or wholly flush surface at front and back. PANELLED CHESTS were being made in the 15th century, later becoming very popular. The earlier `flush’ construction was, however, to some extent perpetuated until a very late period in the BOARDED CHEST, made entirely of boards, including the ends which also form the uprights (cp. Wainscot). Unusually long examples are sometimes, but not necessarily correctly, called RAPIER CHESTS. The validity of the term is uncertain. Popularly called ‘NON(E)SUCH’ CHESTS, mainly of the latter part of the 16th century, are inlaid with formalized architectural designs, thought possibly to represent the Palace of Nonsuch, or Nonesuch, at Ewell, Surrey. Such architectural motifs are, however, exploitations of a Renaissance design favoured on the Continent, though a possible affinity exists between them and the crowded towns in GOTHIC art. MULE-CHEST (implying a hybrid) is collectors’ jargon of no validity
fora CHEST-with-DRAWERS.
Chest-of-drawers: this derives in name, and to a considerable extent in principle, from the CHEST, a link being the CHEST-WITH-DRAWERS, with a single range of drawers beneath the box. Such pieces were in being by the latter part of the 16th century, a gradual tendency to increase the drawer-space at the expense of the box resulting in the CHEST-OF-DRAWERS. At the same time various structures enclosing a quantity of drawers were also in being, on the Continent and in England, as with the ‘new cubborde of boxes’ made by Lawrence Abelle in 1595 for Stratford-upon-Avon or the `cubborde with drawing boxes’ of the Unton Inventory, 1596. ‘Nest of boxes’ is another old term (see also Barguefto, Writing-cabinet).
Child’s Furniture: mostly small-scale furniture for children’s usage, distinct from TOY FURNITURE. Some confusion exists between TABLES and the SQUARE JOINED STOOL (with unsplayed legs) which certainly existed as such. CHAIRS follow full-scale design, or are HIGH-CHAIR pattern, some of enclosed or WAINSCOT fashion, others elevated on tall legs. A framework on wheels to support a toddler has been given various names, e.g. BABY-CAGE or GO-CART.
Chip-carving: lightly cut (’chipped’) surface ornament, mostly of formal character and including WHORLS, ROUNDELS, etc. Such work, known medievally, persisted on items of much later date.
Close-chairs and Close- or Night-stools: were sometimes chair-shaped, sometimes rectangular or drum-shaped boxes (possibly covered and padded), and sometimes rectangular boxes on legs. A type Of JOINED STOOL with a box-top was so usable, though it does not follow that all sTooLs with this feature were for sanitary usage.
Cock’s Head: twin-plate hinge of curvilinear shape, the finials formed (more or less) as a cock’s head. Frequently found on woodwork of the late 16th and first half of the 17th century.
Coffer: term freely confused with CHEST. In strict definition a COFFER was a CHEST or BOX covered in leather or some other material and banded with metalwork, but it seems likely that the term was not always precisely used. It may not be wrong to class as COFFERS various stoutly built and/or heavily ironed STRONG-CHESTS and -BoxFs, even though they do not fulfil all the above requirements. TRUSSING COFFERS were furnished with lifting rings and shackles or other devices for transportation; but CHESTS and COFFERS not intended for transport might be chained to the wall for security.
Counter: HUTCH-like structure, sometimes approximating to a TABLE with an under-compartment. The name (surviving in SHOP-COUNTER, etc) derives from the top being employed for reckoning accounts with COUNTERS or JFTTONS disposed on a marked scale. When not so used the COUNTER was available for a variety of other purposes.
Cradle: child’s sleeping cot, most general form being a low-built, trough-like or box-like structure, with or without a hooded end, on rockers, but the CRADLE slung between uprights was also known in the Age of Oak (e.g. the so-called ‘Cradle of Henry V’, later than his time, in the London Museum).
Credence: side-table as used ecclesiastically for the Elements prior to Consecration, and for the Cruets, etc. therewith associated. Such tables were sometimes of Hutch-like formation, and the term CREDENCE has been loosely extended to cover other furniture of more or less similar construction.
Cresting: shaped and sometimes perforated ornament on the top of a structure, as in the CRESTING of a CHAIR.
Cromwellian: term of convenience applied to English furniture of austere character, actually or supposedly made about the time of the Commonwealth or Interregnum (1649-60), but also used loosely of related types.
Cupboard: originally CUP-BOARD, a species Of SIDEBOARD for the display and service of plate, etc, and having no essential connection with enclosed and doored structures. When equipped with such features, these might be noted (see Ambry). The modern sense of CUPBOARD, as an enclosed structure, is a long-standing usurpation, such items being mostly descended from the PRESS, PRESS-CUPBOARD, etc. LIVER-CUPBOARD (a much-abused term from Fr. Livrer, to deliver) was a doorless structure, as is clearly stated in the Hengrave Hall contracts, 1537-8• That it was distinguished from the COURT CUPBOARD is shown by such an entry as ‘ij court cubbordes, and one liver-ye cubborde’, in Unton Inventory, 1596 (’Liverie table’ is also listed). COURT cup-BOARD was likewise an open structure, or with a small enclosed compartment in the upper part. The tendency to compartment such furniture eventually resulted in enclosed pieces of similar outline being called COURT CUPBOARD, though PRESS CUPBOARD is preferable. Welsh varieties of the
PRESS CUPBOARD are the CWPWRDD DEUDDARN (two-tiered) and the CWPWRDD TRIDARN (three-tiered, the top stage often more or less open). DOLE-CUPBOARD strictly applies to hanging or other structures open-shelved, or doored and railed, used in the charitable dispensation of bread, etc, in churches and other institutions. The term is often wrongly applied to
FOOD-CUPBOARD, or, better, FOOD-HUTCH. SPICE-CUPBOARD is
a hanging ‘cupboard), usually ofsmall dimensions, internally fitted with shelves or compartments and drawers, and fronted with a door. Doubtless many were used to hold spices, herbs and medicaments, though they could have served various purposes. CORNER CUPBOARD is a triangular structure, doored or open, independent or fitted, and normally furnished with shelving.
Day-bed: known in England from the 16th century, though authentic examples are mostly of much later date. The original form approximated to a STUMP-BED with a sloped back at one end. In the period of Charles II, and later, DAY-BEDS were caned, their frames often being elaborately carved, quite likely en suite with CANE CHAIRS.
Desk: chiefly, a box with sloped top or lid, for reading or writing. Both standard and smaller DESKS were known medievally, but the average English domestic desk of the 16th and 17th centuries was standless. Such were sometimes
known by the useful term DESK-BOX. DESKS WITH STANDS were
being made, however, in the second half of the 17th century, if not earlier (see Writing-cabinet).
Deuddarn: see Cupboard.
Dowel: headless pin used in construction. Though, architecturally, DOWELS may be of other materials, wood is understood when speaking of furniture. TRENAIL (i.e. TREENAIL) is another term for a wooden DOWEL (see Nail).
Drawer: box in a framework from which it can be drawn. In some simple or traditional constructions DRAWERS merely rest on the framework, but a typical feature of the late 16th to 17th century was a groove on each side of a DRAWER, accommodating projecting RUNNERS on the framework. This gave way, in later furniture, to runner-strips at the base of the DRAWER itself, and the encasing of the interior framing with DUSTBOARDS.
Dresser: on which food was dressed; a species Of SIDEBOARD with or without a superimposed `back’; also for service of food, and/or storage of plates, dishes, etc. Some backless DRESSERS are closely allied to the SIDE-TABLE. DRESSERS are wontedly furnished with storage accommodation (such as AMBRIES, shelving, DRAWERS, etc, or combinations of such). WELSH DRESSER is used of local varieties of the tall-back DRESSER found virtually everywhere. NORTH WALES and SOUTH WALES types are differentiated.
Egg-and-Tongue (Egg-and-Dart): Repeat ornament of alternated ovolo and dart-like motifs; as much other ornament of classical origin, transmitted through RENAISSANCE channels.
Elizabethan: term of convenience, strictly applicable to furniture, etc, made in the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), though loosely used of pieces of later date displaying Elizabethan characteristics. The reign was long; just as EARLY ELIZABETHAN furniture shows influences from previous reigns, SO LATE ELIZABETHAN merges easily into JACOBEAN.
Fake or Forgery: furniture (or other objects) made or assembled in simulation of authentic antiquities, with deceptive intent. Fakes are of several kinds, of which a few may be listed: (a) the wholly modern fake, though quite possibly made of old wood; (b) the fake incorporating old and in themselves authentic parts; (c) the `carved-up’ fake, as, for instance, a plain chest (itself antique) with modern carving added; (d) the ‘married’ piece, of which all, or considerable portions, may be authentic, but which has been `made-up’ from more than one source. Difficult of classification are certain items which have been liberally restored (see Restoration), each case demanding judgement on its own merits. Though over-restoration is reprehensible, cases occur of pieces reconditioned with innocent intent. An ordinary repair to a genuine antique need not disqualify it. At the same time, a watchful eye should be kept for an old faking trick of inserting an obvious ‘repair’ for the sole purpose of making the rest of a spurious piece look older by contrast.
Fluting: grooving with long hollows (see Scoop and Reeding).
Form: long, backless seat, with any number of supports from two upwards. Of ancient lineage, the FORM is simply a long STOOL. `Longe stoole’ occurs in old inventories.
Glastonbury Chair is collectors’ jargon for a type of chair with X-supports and elbowed arms linking seat and top of back. The name derives from an example at Wells, supposedly associated with the last Abbot of Glastonbury. Examples of like construction have been made or embellished at various, including modern, periods.
Gothic: term comprehensively applied to furniture and woodwork made between the 12th and 13th centuries and the early part of the 16th, when RENAISSANCE features began to intrude. This approximation is very rough, and the question of the SUrvivial of GOTHIC in later work, or its various revivals, is not a subject dealt with here.
Guilloche: band of curvilinear ornament suggesting
entwined ribbons.
Hutch: enclosed structure, often raised on uprights, or an enclosed structure of more than one tier. The name derives from Fr. Huche, a kneading-trough or meal-tub, but the significance Of HUTCH was much wider. FOOD-HUTCH, often confused with DOLE-CUPBOARD, is a name given to a HUTCH with perforated panels.
Inlay: surface ornament formed by insetting separate pieces of differently coloured woods, or bone, ivory, shell, etc, in a recessed ground.
Jacobean: term of convenience usually applicable to furniture made in the reign of James I (1603-25), and perhaps, though unusually, to that ofJames II (1685-8). In general, loosely applied to furniture styles in direct descent from the ELIZABETHAN tradition. It is thus employed of certain types of furniture covering virtually the whole of the 17th century and even later, though from the time of Charles II it is generally restricted to pieces of unmodish or traditional character. JACOBEAN is not now favoured as a descriptive label by scholarly writers, except in cases of uncertain dating, preference being given to a more precise system involving such approximations as ‘circa 162o’ or ‘first quarter of the 17th century’, etc.
Jewel: ornament with raised devices distantly suggestive of gem-stones, often combined with systems of REEDING
(q.v.).
Joined: term used in describing furniture made by a joiner.
KnOP: swelling member on an upright, etc; a KNOB. Thus a KNOPPED post.
Linenfold: carved ornament suggested by folded linen, first found late in the 15th century, very popular in the first half of the 16th, and continuing in diminishing quantity for many years.
Attempts to distinguish ‘true’ (realistic) from ‘mock’ (formalized) LINENFOLD need not be taken too seriously. Some of the single-fold types (often cusped and foliated) have been differentiated as PARCHEMIN (Fr.), from a supposed resemblance to cut parchment. Apart from its obvious decorativeness, no satisfactory explanation of the origin of LINENFOLD has been adduced. An attractive suggestion is that it was inspired by the Veil of the Chalice, though it could have arisen in other ways.
Lock-plate (or Scutcheon): front-plate of a lock, or the plate protecting a key-hole.
Lunette Ornament: formal carving composed of a horizontal system of semicircles, variously filled and embellished, frequently disposed in a repeat-band.
Marquetry: Fr. Marqueterie from Marqueler, to spot, speckle, variegate. Ornamental VENEER of wood or other materials, the ornament cut in whole or repeat patterns instead (as with INLAY as such) of being built up with independent solid shapes in separately hollowed recesses.
Melon-Bulb: jargon and comparatively modern term for the swollen member on legs or posts of furniture. An exaggeration of the KNOP, it attained full development in the ELIZABETHAN period, thereafter dwindling away.
Nfisericord: in ecclesiastical woodwork, bracket on underside of hinged seat of a stall, to support an occupant when nominally standing during certain offices. From a `monastic’ usage of L. Misericordia (pity, compassion), in sense of ‘an indulgence or relaxation of the rule’ (O.E.D.). MISERERE is an incorrect alternative.
Moulding: shaped member, such as used to enclose panels; or the shaped edge of a lid, cornice, etc.
Muntin: upright (other than an outer-most upright) connecting the upper and lower stretchers of a framework.

An instance is the BEARER between the doors of the lower stage of a PRESS-CUPBOARD; but the number Of MUNTINS 0-    Stile). on the nature of the structure. (See also    )
Nail: a popular notion that iron NAILS are never found in antique furniture construction is fallacious. In fact, metal NAILS have been known for centuries, though the use of the wooden DOWEL (q.v.) must not be minimized by implication. Old hand-made NAILS are very different from the modern, mass-produced variety; but the manufacture of hand-made NAILS (and SCREWS) has been revived.
Panel: compartment usually rectangular, and sunk or raised from the surface of its framework. PANEL is the filling of such framework, whereas PANELLING refers to the framework and its filling (see Wainscot).
Parquetry (Fr. Parquetene, from Parqueter to inlay) : a form of decorative VENEER - e.g. ‘OYSTER-SHELL’ - or INLAY.
Patina (and Colour): of furniture and woodwork, PATINA is the undisturbed surface, heightened by centuries of polishing and usage. Contrary to popular belief, some old oak furniture shows clear signs of having been originally varnished; some was also polychromed. PATINATION and COLOUR pose problems to a faker. To some extent they can be simulated, but, when artificially produced, deteriorate (see Fake and Stripping).
Pin-hinge: method of hinging, as found on i3th-century CHESTS, the lid being pinned through the rear STILES and pendent side-rails of the lid.
Poppy- (Popey-) head: decorative finial of a bench- or desk-end, as in ecclesiastical woodwork. Plant and floral forms are numerous; human heads, figures, birds, beasts and other devices are found. Derivation of term is uncertain, one suggestion (rejected by some writers) being from Fr. Poup9e (baby doll), or from Poppet, Puppet.
Press: broadly, a tall, enclosed and doored structure comparable to the modern WARDROBE or HANGING CUP-BOARD. Not to be confused with LINEN-PRESS, in the sense of a framework with a screw-down smoother. (For PRESS-
CUPBOARD see under Cupboard.)
Reeding: similar to FLUTING but with the ornament in
relief.
Renaissance (Fr. for rebirth) - applied to the effects of the revival of learning and embracing the use (often very freely interpreted) of cLAssicAL as opposed to GOTHIC motifs. Originating in Italy in the 15th century, RENAISSANCE design spread throughout Europe, beginning to make itself felt in England in the early 16th century.
Restoration: (I) a proper renewal of a piece by a candid replacement of hopelessly damaged or missing parts; (2) RESTORED is sometimes used to indicate either that a piece has been OVER-RESTORED, or that the extent of its RESTORATION is dubious.
Restoration Furniture: term applied to certain elaborately carved and scrolled CHAIRS, etc, their backs surmounted by crowns or BOYS AND CROWNS. It was said that such pieces recorded the restoration of King Charles II (166o), but many so-called Restoration chairs are now known to date from late in his reign when not from a subsequent period. Such chairs may be of mixed woods, and other than oak.
Romayne Work: old term for Renaissance carving with heads in roundels, scrollwork, vases, etc, some few heads being portraits, but most purely formal. The taste was widespread in Europe, and traditional traces survived in Brittany until quite a late period. The vogue for ROMAYNE WORK in England was under Henry VIII (1509-47), thereafter dwindling.
Roundel: circular ornament enclosing sundry formal devices on medieval and later woodwork; also human heads as in ROMAYNE WORK (see also Whorl).
Scoop Pattern: popular term fora band or other dis-position of FLUTED ornament, gouged in the wood, the flute having a rounded top and, sometimes, base. A motif of RENAISSANCE origin, its use was widespread (see Fluting).
Scutcheon: shield on which are armorial bearings or other devices, and, by extension, sundry, shield-shaped ornaments and fitments (see Lock-plate).
Settle: long, backed seat with boxed base, or on legs, and at each end side-pieces or arms. Fixed or movable, the SETTLE represents a stage preceding the SErrEE, a derivative of the CHAIR. Some quite late SETTLES have one end scrolled like a sofa-head. Some, mostly country-made, SETTLES have a storage PRESS in the back, such being loosely known as
BACON-CUPBOARD.
Sideboard: literally a SIDE-BOARD (as a CUPBOARD was a CUP-BOARD) ; a SIDE-TABLE or other structure convenient for the display and service of plate, foodstuffs, etc, and possibly including storage facilities such as AMBRIES, DRAWERS, etc. A near relative of the DRESSER, and in some cases indistinguishable from such.
Stile: in construction an outermost upright, as a MUNTIN is an inner one.
Stool: small, backless seat. Apart from RACK- or FOLDING STOOLS, the main basic types are TRESTLE and LEGGED. TRESTLE, with two uprights out from the solid, on the same principle as the ends of a BOARDED CHEST, may be included among STOOLS OF WAINSCOT. STOOLS with legs may have three or four supports, and some quite common, and indeed modern, STOOLS of traditional form are of very ancient lineage.
JOINED STOOL (JOINT is a corruption) : is proper to STOOLS made by joinery. The term COFFIN STOOL invariably used by beginners is only correct when the use of JOINED STOOLS as a coffin-bier (as in some old churches) is known. It is incorrect for the domestic article. For CLOSE-STOOL see that section. An old term for a BOX-TOP STOOL was ‘STOOL WITH A LOCK’.

Strapwork: of carving, band of ornament more or less suggestive of plaited straps, often highly formalized; distinct
from GUILLOCRE.
Stretcher: a horizontal member connecting uprights.
Stripping: furniture the old surface of which has been removed and reduced to the wood is said to have been STRIPPED. Though STRIPPING can be properly used, it should never be lightly indulged, as for a supposedly aesthetic advantage (see Patina).
Table: primarily, board forming the top only of such furniture, and by later extension the whole structure. ‘TABLE TRETTEAU’ (table, trestles) in the famous Epitaphe of FrancoisVillon is thus a precise, as well as a poetic, statement. The TRESTLE TABLE is a very old form, an advantage being in its ease of clearance and storage, but TRESTLE-supports are often ponderous. The other main basic type Of TABLE is that supported by a developed framework with a leg at each corner and possibly others along the sides. Of about the early 16th century frame-TABLES constructionally ancestral to later types are in evidence, though authentic examples are all but unprocurable in the market. By the end of the same century TABLES with a developed underframing and fixed legs were usual. The term REFECTORY TABLE is popular jargon, better replaced by LONG TABLE or other suitable description. DINING- or PARLOUR-TABLE is used of less extensive items. DRAWING- or DRAW-TABLE had movable extensions of the top, pushed in below it and drawn when needed. Various kinds Of SIDE-TABLE include what is now called OCCASIONAL TABLE. Some small examples are known, correctly or otherwise, as GAMES- or GAMING TABLES. Certain table-constructions are now reclassified as COUNTER. BILLIARDS TABLES were known in the 16th and 17th century. As apart from the
DRAW-TABLE, the FOLDING, FALLING (or FLAP-) TABLE, its
top with one or more hinged sections, was in more or less general usage by the early 17th century. Various forms include Bow- and BAY-FRONT (also found minus flaps). Flaps were supported by a movable bracket or leg. A development of the principle resulted in the GATE- or GATE-LEG TABLE, with oval or circular top, the developed underframing of legs and stretchers including movable sections or GATES. GATE-TABLES made to fold completely flat are known, but the more usual construction involved a rigid centre-section.
In churches the post-Reformation COMMUNION TABLE, replacing the medieval altar, is essentially similar to the domestic LONG, PARLOUR or SIDE-TABLE previously mentioned, though some examples have special features.
Table-chair, -bench: correct term for the absurdly misnamed MONK’S CHAIR, or -BENCH. CHAIR-TABLE is also used. Convertible CHAIR, the back pivoted to form a table-top when dropped across the uprights. Though the type existed in pre-Reformation times, most surviving examples are so much later in date (say 17th century) as to obviate any monastic association in England.
Trail: undulating band of formalized leaf, berry or floral pattern. Thus VINE-TRAIL.
Trees: old adjectival form of TREE; wooden. Now used of an extensive array of articles, mainly small and of almost any period, such as bowls, Welsh love-spoons, stay-busks, etc, and not excluding furniture.
Tridarn: see Cupboard.
Tudor: the Tudor dynasty reigned from 1485-1603; TUDOR is loosely used of furniture emerging from the GOTHIC or not fully developed as characteristic ELIZABETHAN. The periods of Henry VIII (1509-47) and Elizabeth 05581603) are usually given their own names.
Tulip-ornament: formalized ornament of TULIP-like form, influenced by the TULIP-MANIA in Holland, when huge sums were paid for rare bulbs. On English furniture the vogue for TULIP-ORNAMENT was from about the middle and in the second half of the 17th century.
Twist-turning: form of turning derived from the twisted columns of Romanesque via RENAISSANCE architecture. In England its main vogue on furniture was in the mid[latter half of the 17th century. R. W. Symonds has differentiated the single-roped twist (Dutch-Flemish type) from the English double-roped or BARLEY-SUGAR TWIST.
Veneer: thin sheets of wood applied to surface for decorative effect or to improve appearance of furniture. Though VENEERING arrives in the second half of the 17th century, at the end of the oak period, it is sometimes found as a limited enhancement of pieces which would be classed as oak by collectors.
Wainscot: now mainly used Of WALL-PANELLING, but anciently of wider significance, its derivation from MLG. Wagenschot, perhaps meaning wagon-boarding, referring rather to the planking itself, and thence to a wall-lining as well as to other forms of woodwork. BEDSTEAD, CHAIR, STOOL, etc, are frequently listed as being ‘OF WAINSCOT’. Though this term in some cases implied that their construction involved a noticeable amount of panelled work, furniture stoutly built of slabs or planks of wood, was perhaps ‘OF WAINSCOT’, involving various forms of boarded furniture with ’slab-ends’. As a term, WAINSCOT may have been loosely as well as precisely used (cp. definition of COFFER).
Whorl: circular ornament on medieval (and later) furniture, the enclosed carving raying from the centre of the circle, or in certain other, including geometrical, dispositions. The general sense of the term seems to approximate WHIRL. WHORL is freely used, though in doubtful or obviously inapplicable cases ROUNDEL is employable.
Worm-hole: tunnel bored in woodwork by various types of beetle, collectively and popularly called ‘the WORM’. WORM-HOLES are not per se evidence of antiquity, though they have been artificially simulated. `WORM’ is, however, a condition demanding attention to destroy infection. New WORM-HOLES usually show a light-coloured interior, whereas old ones may be discoloured. A simple, though not final, test for possible activity is to tap the suspected piece and watch fora fall of wood-dust. If the mischief is superficial, furniture may be cured by repeated applications of one of the proprietary fluids sold for this purpose; but more heavily infested articles may need expert attention. In some furniture WORM may have been extinct for centuries. When WORM-HOLES are laterally exposed to any noticeable extent, it may be inferred (a) that the wood has been recut after infestation; or (b) that the surface was formerly painted or otherwise covered with some since-vanished substance which formed a side-wall to the channel. Exposed channels occur on some FAKES, but are not per se condemnatory, though, in many cases, suspicious.
Writing-cabinet: fall-front cabinets, enclosing a system of small drawers, became prominent in the latter part of the 16th century, especially in Italy and Spain (see Bargueho), some of them serving as WRITING-CABINETS. Such cabinets were sometimes furnished with stands, though others were standless, placed on top of a table or chest as needed. Certain of the latter were supplied with stands at a later period.
Such pieces are ancestral to the fall-front SCRLTToIRE, SECRETARY, ESCRITOIRE (from Fr. Secritaire) of later times, the slope-front variety being at least in part a development
of the WRITING-DESK.

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Chests of Drawers, Commodes and Tallboys
Until about 1750 chests of drawers were still straight. fronted, with, normally, four or five drawers, bracket or cabriole-shape feet, and ovolo or cock-bead moulding on the drawer edges. Not much change had been made in the Queen Anne design except that the front corners were usually canted and carved, as were the top edges. Classical pilaster designs were popular on the corners. From 1740 chests of drawers began to be designed with their shape serpentine after the French style. Such chests of drawers were called commodes (though these in France had perhaps special reference to drawing-room pieces). A commode made completely in the French taste had pronounced outward-curving front corners, short legs, curved bottom framing, rococo carving or fine gilt mounts on the sides and legs, and often doors on the front to enclose the drawers.
Adam’s work expressed itself principally in two ways. Where solid work persisted, the carving naturally became classical in treatment, emphasizing the corner pilasters, and making use of dentil and key patterns on the cornice moulding. On the other hand, fine inlay, in all the fashionable woods, was used eagerly by designers when drawing-room commodes were in great demand and their doors were ideal for showing first-rate work. Great patience was expended in devising ovals and circles to show figures or scenes from classical mythology, surrounded by inlaid designs. This set the taste for a lighter appearance in chests of drawers, in satinwood especially, or for painted decoration. Sheraton is connected with the bow-fronted chest of drawers, which was now used with the serpentine and straight-fronted types. He by no means emphasized the new style, however. He designed in all shapes, including a return to the simpler straight lines of early pieces. Two other innovations were the stringing (in wood) or brass on the drawer fronts and the use of an exceptionally deep frieze above the top drawer, which gave the chest of drawers a characteristic tallness. In the Regency period the decline of marquetry decoration gradually led to the replacement of the drawing-room commode by the chiffonier, a low cupboard with shelves. Bedroom chests of drawers, tall, and either bow- or straight-fronted, had turned feet, and a distinctive feature on many were the quarter columns, spiral-shaped or Needed, on the front corners. By this time tallboys were going out of fashion, after a long vogue; they followed closely the designs for chests of drawers, and in their final period a few bow-fronted ones were made. These pieces do not require any separate description, therefore, except to stress that their great size led to special care being taken over their proportions and decoration.
Clock Cases
Mahogany affected clock-case design somewhat later than other pieces of furniture, for japanning and walnut ver. e,-rs enjoyed a long vogue; indeed, figured walnut cases continued to be made until late in the 18th century. But by about 1760 mahogany was sufficiently in use to begin to give cases a heavier and broader appearance. At first veneering on an oak carcase was normal, followed by solid mahogany carcases for the best work, and carving. Hoods came in for elaborate treatment. As the arched dial was usual, the cornice was also strongly arched and moulded above it, and surmounted by a broken pediment, usually swan-neck, with finials as in the earlier fashion, or a simple plain pedestal in the centre. Naturally, full advantage was taken of the high case front to show the fine figure of the wood, and some very beautiful Cuban curls are found on outstandingly good work. In the mixture of styles of the Chippendale period detailed decoration was carried out in various ways; Chinese pagoda hoods and japanned cases, Gothic arches in the mouldings above the door, ornate rococo motifs; or fretwork in the frieze, across the top of the body below the hood, and around the bottom edge and sides of the base. The classicism of the latter part of the century emphasized the proportions of the case, used capitals at the sides of the hood (sometimes two at each side) and showed fluted pilasters worked in the canted front corners of the body, as on chests of drawers. The base was mounted on a solid plinth at first, but later acquired small bracket or cabriole-shape feet. Later work also included fine inlay such as satinwood inlays in classical designs on a background of mahogany. By Sheraton’s time the tall clock case was going out of fashion. His period produced some fine inlaid and veneered work in many woods, but such pieces were now comparatively rare.
Mirrors
Mirrors were no longer a novelty in the 18th century. Improved methods of production led to a greater output of glass and to larger plates. Very large mirrors were still expensive, but small wall and toilet mirrors in simple styles were cheap enough for tradesmen’s houses. In larger houses mirrors of all kinds adorned the best rooms, from smaller wall mirrors to pier and chimney glasses, often combined with wall-lights (sconces and girandoles), and their conspicuous position singled them out for highly decorative treatment, especially gilding. For this reason it cannot be said that mahogany played any decisive part in their development. In the Kent period pier glasses, already reaching a height of six or seven feet by the 1730s, were given brightly gilded frames and broken pediment tops, and this design affected wall mirrors in general. The pediments sometimes ended in a graceful acanthus leaf, and there was a prominent central motif in the form of a spread eagle, cartouche or shell. The gilding was carried out on softwoods. On the other hand, the simpler kind of Queen Anne mirror with carved flowing curves on crest and apron piece continued to be made. These had mahogany frames, sometimes partly gilt, and incorporated a dominating centrepiece in the prevailing fashion.
There was a distinct change after the mid-century, when mirrors provided perhaps the best examples of the almost fantastic limits to which the new styles could go. Several designers, including Lock, Copland and Johnson, paid particular attention to applying rococo and Chinese ornament to mirrors, and these trends were made fashionable by Chippendale, who employed the first two to produce designs for the `Director’. Mirror frames now avoided a symmetrical appearance and were carved and gilded in an intricate pattern of scrolls and foliage in the rococo mode, and to these were added numerous Chinese designs like exotic birds, pagodas, mandarins and bells, or even Gothic elements. Nowhere else were these styles so intimately united. This vogue did not last long, for Adam, and after him Hepplewhite, designed beautiful and delicately proportioned mirrors, oval or rectangular in shape, surrounded by much simpler scrollwork picked out with paterae, husks and honeysuckle and leading up to a vase or similar classical motif. Adam favoured gilt work, usually on carved pine, and he used the mirror frames to show fluting, the key pattern and Vitruvian scrolls.
Typical of the Sheraton and Regency periods was the circular gilt mirror, one to three feet in diameter. The gilt frame usually had a fillet on the inside edge and a reeded band on the outside; between the two was a pronounced hollow filled with small circular patterns of flowers or plain spheres. Above the frame was foliage, usually the acanthus leaf, supporting an eagle, one of the most popular designs for mirror crests during the, whole of this period, or a
winged creature.
Mahogany played a much more important part in the evolution of the toilet mirror. From early in the 18th century many dressing-tables were designed with collapsible mirrors which fitted into the tops of the tables, and the latter usually followed the design of chests of drawers, with a knee recess. But there was a great demand for the separate toilet glasses, the rectangular swing mirrors above minute drawers, made in mahogany. They preserved their simple, attractive shapes and avoided excessive decoration. In the Hepplewhite period the mahogany frames followed the design of the shield-back chair; later still, about 1800, they became flat rectangles. The tiny chests of drawers were often veneered and had serpentine or bow fronts. Sheraton devoted much skill to incorporating mirrors in dressing-tables. He also popularized cheval glasses, known for some time before. These tall glasses stood between two uprights ending in outward curving feet connected by a stretcher, and had decorative headpieces often painted, inlaid or fretted.
Tables and Sideboards
Small Tables: as mahogany came into general use and the heavy side-table of the Kent period went out of fashion, there was a return to the simpler style of small and occasional table which had been produced in Anne’s reign. By the time of Chippendale’s ‘Director’ the constantly changing needs of the upper classes were reflected in endless varieties of tea-, breakfast-, card-, writing-, and dressing-tables, as well as the more formal side- and pier-tables. One very characteristic piece of the mid-century was the Chinese tea-table. This had Chinese patterns on the frieze (usually in applied work), on tiny fretted galleries which ran round the edge of the top, and on the straight legs which were fretted or perhaps carved in the solid. Some of these tables had fretted stretchers which crossed diagonally between the legs.
Breakfast-tables, made for the convenience of fashionable people who rose late and had their first meal in their bedrooms, had the same kind of decoration but a different form; they usually included flaps and drawers and a shelf, which was enclosed on three sides by trellis-work in mahogany or brass wire. A restrained French taste showed itself in slender curved legs, sometimes with metal mounts, and curved friezes edged with gadrooning. The Adam period introduced two distinctly new trends. Besides rectangular shapes, others were appearing – oval, semicircular, kidney-shaped and serpentine – with tapering and fluted legs or, as on some contemporary chairs, slender cabriole legs ending on knurl or scroll toes. For the daintier kinds of tables,
satinwood and other exotic woods, inlays and gilding, and ll
the choicest figured mahogany were aused, and in some
of the best examples the tops were painted by Angelica Kauffman, Pergolesi and others. On the other hand, for the large rooms of the new town and country houses were produced many long side-tables in mahogany. In this table straight lines were emphasized. The legs are fluted, and taper to plinth feet. Carved decoration appears on the frieze in the classical moulding and the typical paterae over the legs and on the small central panel, where they are linked by husks. This kind of table represented the midway design between the dining- and side-table, and from it developed the sideboard, as is indicated below, as a separate piece of furniture.
This development of the sideboard seemed to re-direct the designers’ attention to small tables. Hepplewhite continued on Adam lines, but Sheraton designed a number of extraordinarily delicate tables, some, like his ladies’ worktables, with an ingenious arrangement of drawers and sliding tops, being specially made for carrying from room to room. Neatness was indeed Sheraton’s own word for this kind of work: ‘These tables should be finished neat, either in satinwood or mahogany’. He also popularized the Pembroke table (though it had been known for some time before), with two semi-circular flaps hinging on a rectangular centre. Usually the legs on his tables were unmistakable for their long, fragile-looking, tapering forms, but on some he showed a radical change in treatment which was to last through the Regency period. He used two solid end uprights, in the old trestle style, resting on short outward-curving legs; or else a lighter version, with a central stretcher joining the ends.
Another kind of table which was common in the early 19th century is the drum or capstan kind, with a deep frieze, for drawers (or sometimes this was left open for books) and a central support in tripod style, the legs having the pronounced curve typical of the period. Some of these tables had a solid three-sided pedestal base or monopodium mounted on claw feet. Rosewood or mahogany was usually the wood; some had light-coloured mahogany veneers and classical designs inlaid on the top and pedestal sides, in a contrasting colour.
Tripod Tables: the application of the tripod construction to tables in general, from about i800, indicates how popular this feature had become during the previous century. The small tripod tables developed from the candle-stands of the walnut period, but by Chippendale’s time they were being used for other purposes, as occasional and tea-tables. Mahogany led to a considerable increase in them as the tops could be made from one piece of wood, and, naturally, they became show-pieces for the various fashionable enrichments. The celebrated ‘pie-crust’ tables are named after the scalloped and slightly raised edge of the top, which is hinged so that it can stand against the wall when not in use. Other tripod tables had elaborate carving on the top as a border to the edges. On others, again, a small fretted gallery appeared, like those on contemporary Chinese tables. Feet might be hoofs, paws or dolphins (the latter copied from French tables). Later in the century the tops had often fine inlaid work when this fashion revived under Adam. About 18o0 the legs had tended to become very delicate in appearance, with definite concave or convex curves finishing on thin, pointed feet. Sheraton used these on screens as well as tables. But even in Hepplewhite’s work the three legs had sometimes been replaced by a solid base, and the extension of this practice, and the many varied leg forms, meant the loss of the original ‘pillar and claw’ principle.
Dining Tables: for the better part of two centuries it has been almost a convention to associate mahogany with good dining-room tables. One of the chief uses to which the early imports of San Domingo mahogany were put was to make the spacious tops of these tables. They had remarkable weight and strength and yet the mahogany legs were able to support them without stretchers. This gave clean lines to even the biggest tables and led to many developments in flaps and pivoted legs. In the second half of the 18th century large dining tables were made up of two smaller ones which were joined, when necessary, by flaps supported on gate legs. These legs at first either had cabriole form or were turned. The same construction continued in the Adam period, but very effective use was made of the size of the tables to give them figured veneers instead of solid mahogany, straight, tapering legs and a classical ornament. The side-table of this period in every way resembled the contemporary dining table, except that the latter had ten legs, four each for the two end-tables and an extra two for the flaps. The tops were of varied shapes – rectangular, semicircular, or D-shaped – but, naturally, the central flaps were rectangular. Cabinet-makers produced, and in some cases patented, many ingenious devices for extending tops. From about 1800 changes in design became marked. The circular table for dining – an enlarged version of the drum table referred to above – and long tables supported on two or three tripods or similar stands were Regency features. Sheraton also designed a `universal table’ with the old-fashioned draw-leaf top on four tapering legs. ‘This’, he wrote, should be made of particularly good and well-seasoned mahogany, as a great deal depends on its not being liable to cast’ – a reminder that dining tables had missed much of the changing fashions in new woods and applied
decoration.
Sideboards: the sideboard was a late 18th-century development and sprang from the table. It is said to have been originated by Adam, who introduced the custom of standing a classical pedestal mounting an urn at each end of a side-table. The obvious advantage of having this storage space so close to the table led to pedestals and tables becoming one unit, and later to the replacement of the pedestals by either smaller cupboards or drawers. The cupboards were used for many purposes; some were lined with metal to keep plates warm, or to hold water or wine-bottles. At first the urns which stood on the pedestals contained the cutlery, but this was transferred to a drawer when urns went out of use. Both Hepplewhite and Sheraton designed light and elegant sideboards. The former is credited with serpentine- and bow-fronted shapes and the latter paid special attention to the brass rail which often stood at the back of the table to hold plates. In the Regency period there was a return to the pedestal type of the early sideboards. Other versions discarded the side drawers or cupboards altogether and replaced them with two or four legs, often carved in animal forms. The deepening of the table frieze, and the elaboration of the brass gallery in classical designs on these pieces deprived them of the graceful symmetry of previous examples.

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GLASS PAPERWEIGHTS
THE glass paperweight is a 19th-century production, a masterpiece of technical skill that achieved its greatest triumph just over one hundred years ago. In the very teeth of the Industrial Revolution, this individual expression of an anonymous inventor reminds us that, in spite of the ever-conquering machine, there will be found always some medium in which an artist and craftsman can differentiate himself from those around him, and thereby produce some new challenge to the advancing army of robots.
Originating in Venice, but perfected at the St Louis glassworks in France, the glass paperweight very soon found many imitators, both in that country and elsewhere. But it is conceded generally that few can vie with the French productions, whether from St Louis or from its contemporaries at Baccarat and Clichy. Not only in the past have these attractive objects suffered the close attention of copyists, but today they are equally carefully imitated. It is a part of the game of collecting that the enthusiast should learn to distinguish between genuine and spurious until he, or she, is able to tell one from the other without doubt or hesitation.
It is true to say that owing to the complexity involved in their manufacture each paperweight is slightly different from any other of the same type; and although we do not know the names of the men who made them, each weight bears some personal touch that distinguishes it from the next.
GLOSSARY
America: the successful sale of French paperweights imported into the United States induced manufacturers there to imitate them with some success. Notably the factories of Deeming Jarves at Sandwich, Cape Cod, opened in 1825, and at East Cambridge and South Boston, in Massachusetts, opened in 1818 and in 1837. Not only were the French designs copied but original models were evolved.
Baccarat: this glassworks was one of the most eminent in France during the 19th century. All types of paperweights were made there, including encrusted (sulphide), millefiori, mushroom, flowers, fruit and butterfly. No dated weight from the Baccarat factory is known marked earlier than 1846, and as elsewhere, none later than 1849. The numerals are in red, blue or green in white canes set in a line, and there is often a letter ‘B’, similarly coloured, above and between the figures ‘8′ and ‘4′. The glassworks, which takes its name from the town in which it is situated, is still working.
Butterfly: a coloured butterfly occupies the centre of the paperweight. Sometimes the insect is poised over a flower, sometimes above a latticinio, or other filigree, ground.
Cameos: see Sulphides.
Cane: familiar name for the rods of coloured glass from which the patterns were formed in many types of paperweights (see Manufacture).
Clichy: Clichy, a suburb of Paris, was the home of a factory that made glass paperweights of most types. They were not dated but are found signed with an initial ‘C’. The presence of a rose in the pattern is an indication that a paperweight was made there, and the colours are often noticeably vivid.
Crown: familiar name for a paperweight composed of Coloured canes radiating in straight lines from the top.
Dates: dated paperweights from the Baccarat factory are known for the years 1846 to 1849. The St Louis weights start a year earlier, and also continue until 1849. The dates are often on millefiori weights, are not usually noticeable, and are never set centrally. Any paperweight in which the date is in the dead centre should be regarded with great suspicion.
England: French paperweights were copied widely in England, but it is doubtful whether any were made until quite a few years after the first appearance of the French ones. The glass-making centres of Stourbridge in Worcester and Bristol in Somerset both attempted to produce imitations of the imported article. The Whitefriars Glassworks in London and George Bacchus and Sons in Birmingham also made paperweights in the style of those from Baccarat and elsewhere.
The shapes of the English glass paperweights are usually different from the French ones, and the colour of the glass and of the canes embedded in it is seldom comparable.
The encrusted cameos (sulphides) made by Apsley Pellatt (1791-1863) are, however, a notable exception, and are difficult to distinguish in many cases from the French.
France: three glassworks in France were concerned in the production of glass paperweights. They were the Compagnie des Cristalleries de Baccarat and the Compagnie des Verreries el Cristalleries de St Louis, both situated in the Vosges to the south-east of Paris; and the Clichy glassworks, which stood in the suburb of Clichy in Paris itself.
All three manufactories produced similar work. But there is enough evidence from specimens presented by the manufacturers to the French museums on which to base identifications, in most cases, as to exactly which factory was responsible for certain noticeable differences.
Latticinio: familiar name for the filigree glass of Venetian origin, composed of crossing and interlacing strips of opaque and clear glass.
Manufacture: the processes involved in making glass paperweights call for great skill. The final correct placing of the pattern within the clear glass calls fora high degree of craftsmanship. This is even more apparent when it is realized that the operations are performed with the glass in a molten, or near molten, state. Only a general description of the complicated manufacturing processes is given here; details vary with the different types of paperweights, and no doubt each factory had its secrets.
The canes to make the pattern are formed by several methods. In one, lengths of coloured glass are heated until they adhere together and form a solid mass. Alternatively, a rod of a chosen colour is dipped repeatedly in molten glass of other colours until a pattern is completed. In both cases, while still hot, the newly-made vari-coloured rod is drawn out until the section of it is of the required diameter.
The necessary canes are selected and sufficient thin slices cut from them and polished. The pattern is arranged on a piece of thin glass, a mould is placed over this, and molten glass is poured in. The half-formed paperweight is picked up on a pontil, dipped into molten glass, and shaped to the form of the finished article. Fruit and other subjects are made of coloured glass, but the process followed for making the paperweight is similar.
Great care is needed to maintain the temperature of the components throughout the manufacture, or cracking will result. The final operation is annealing: a slow cooling. When it is cold the mark of the pontil is removed by grinding.
Millefiori: the first millefiori (Italian: thousand flowers) paperweights were made in Venice. St Louis made them in 1845. In the next year they were made at Baccarat, and before long they were produced at Clichy.
Mushroom: a paperweight in which the canes are bunched together and raised in a sheaf from the bottom. Usually surrounded by a ring of lacework at the foot.
Overlay: the coating of the exposed surfaces of a paperweight with one or more layers of white or coloured glass. This finish is then cut to leave windows (see Purities), through which the interior of the paperweight is visible. Very rarely, after the above process, the weight is further encased in clear glass. Such a paperweight is known as an enclosed
overlay.

pontil: an iron rod held by the workman, and to which the glass adheres in the making of an article. When the finished work is removed it leaves a scar where it was broken off the rod – the pontil mark.
Punties: concave shaping cut on the surfaces of a paperweight. Overlay paperweights are often cut with punties.
St Louis: the St Louis glass works was founded in the second half of the 18th century and became a close competitor of the Baccarat factory. The first dated paperweights were made at the St Louis works in 1845. They were of millefiori pattern. Paperweights are known with the letters `SL’; sometimes with the `S’ reversed.
Sulphides: the earliest glass paperweights to achieve notice were the type known as sulphides, or encrusted cameos. In a few words, they comprise a plaque, made of unglazed white china with modelling in relief, embedded in glass. The process resulted in the china plaque appearing a bright silver colour. They were made at all three of the French paperweight factories and in England, with success, by Apsley Pellatt.
Swirl: familiar name for a paperweight composed of coloured canes radiating spirally from the top.

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DELFT WARE
WHEN the name of a substance, such as nylon, or a product, such as Leica, is adopted immediately into the vocabulary of every civilized nation, it is convincing proof of both its novelty and its world-wide appeal. The use of the name of a small Dutch town, Delft, spelt in a variety of ways, to describe more or less any blue and white earthenware in a score of’ different languages, leaves us in no doubt of the absloute pre-eminence enjoyed by the wares produced in that town, over a period of some 150 years, It is the purpose of this chapter to give, briefly, the history of the evolution of those wares, to distinguish the various types, discuss their merits and give some guidance to collectors.
The technique of painting in high temperature colours on a tin-enamel surface came North over the Alps from Italy early in the 16th century. We know that a potter from Castel Durance, Guido di Savino, who took the name of Guido Andriesz, settled in Antwerp in 1508, and we may take that date as the beginning of the school of South-Netherlands maiolica, which flourished for a hundred years and more. Other Italians, from Brescia and Venice, soon followed, and important commissions, especially for coloured tile pavements, Lave survived. Soon the drug pots and dishes began to acquire local characteristics which made them, in spite of their colouring, unmistakably non-Italian. The strong blue, green, deep orange and yellow, with manganese outlines, were reminiscent of Urbino and Faenza, but were soon applied in characteristic groups of fruit, surrounded by circular bands of colouring. Two Italian motifs, which were to become Netherlandish specialities, were the strap-work, evolved from the cartouche, and the grotesques, derived via Urbino from Raphael’s decorations in the Vatican - decorations themselves copied from ancient Rome. Unlike its Italian prototype, this Netherlands maiolica seems to have been made only in ‘useful’ quoted wares.
By the third quarter of the century, Antwerp potters are known to have moved further North, just as Jaspar Andries (believed to be a son or grandson of Guido di Savino) moved to England in 1567 and began the long history of ‘English Delft’ some years before such wares were ever made at Delft itself. We have records of such Antwerp potters in Amsterdam (1584), Dordrecht, Middleburg, Rotterdam, Haarlem (1573), where they flourished, and eventually in Delft (1584).
It is extremely hard to classify these impressive early pieces, or to say with certainty that a particular piece was made in the North rather than in the South. The bold dishes, not unlike oiAr `blue-dash chargers’, were tin-enamelled on the front only, the back being covered with a transparent lead-glaze, showing the greyish yellow of the clay. There is no evidence, from excavation, that the wares decorated with ‘groteschi’ of Urbino type were ever made in the North. Certain plain blue and white drug pots, with a gadroon border, are held to be Dutch. A type of plate with birds and animals painted on a dark blue ground seems, on the evidence of the large quantity of fragments excavated, to be exclusively North Netherlandish, and was probably made at Rotterdam, as were the majority of the plates with stylized rosettes or chequered patterns. Pots and dishes in which the colours are exceptionally strong, and have been less well assimilated with the glaze, so that they seem almost to be in relief, are held, partly on the evidence of tiles, to be of North Netherlandish make, as are those which add dark blue grapes to the conventional clusters of apple and pomegranates.
Northern are also the plates with raised knobs on the border and bearing pious inscriptions such as Eert Godt altijt (Honour God always), a type which, starting as early as 1580, even crops up in blue and white in the late 18th century. The palette used in these is unpleasing: a very strong blue, a pure bright ochreous orange and a vivid opaque light green. It occurs in a number of plates with similar borders showing milkmaids (sometimes with a date) and coats-of-arms (generally imaginary), nearly all of which date from the first quarter of the 17th century. These, with the gadrooned albarelli and the blue-ground plates mentioned above, give us a fairly accurate picture of the North Netherlands maiolica, which we can amplify by the study of the tiles. The few more elaborately decorated pieces which have survived seem to be almost certainly of South Netherlands and Antwerp origin, to which city may also be ascribed any pieces showing a pure clear lemon yellow. It is worth commenting that an inscription in Dutch, or Flemish, cannot be considered as evidence one way or another.
Suffice it to say that by the close of the 16th century maiolica was being made in a great number of Dutch towns, with Haarlem perhaps achieving the greatest technical perfection and Rotterdam producing the greatest quantity, especially of tiles. Dishes were still covered with lead glaze on the back: a practice which was not wholly abandoned until near the middle of the next century. Very little of it was marked, and none of the marks may be ascribed with any certainty to a particular maker, any more than pieces can be attributed, except by conjecture, to a particular place of origin.
All these early wares, the incunabula of Dutch pottery, are of Italian inspiration, however much design and colouring may have undergone a local modification. They are vigorous and confident, unsophisticated and unpretentious, attractive in their own artistic right as well as in the problem of origin which each separate piece poses to collector, dealer and museum expert alike. Yet they remain essentially derivative, a late offshoot of a great tradition. Dutch maiolica, in the making of which the Northern potters were building up an invaluable tradition of knowledge and skill, still awaited the external impulse which was to give it a new direction, a life of its own, and was to help it develop, with all the vigour of a young and prosperous nation, into something specifically and uniquely Dutch, one of the great monuments of ceramic art which, in its turn, fertilized and influenced the whole field of ceramic activity in Europe.
This external impulse came, in 16o2, from the landing of the first large cargo of Chinese porcelain in Amsterdam. Chinese blue and white pieces had long been known and the material treated with awe as something well-nigh magical. This arrival in quantity, however, caused a revolution in taste. At first it was only the decoration which was imitated, and from about 1610 onwards we have a series of chargers with deep blue borders on which appear, in reserves, the conventional Wan-Li designs of Buddhist emblems, etc. For a while these were combined with centre decorations done in the old Netherlands palette of blue, bright green, ochre and reddish brown, and the Chinese frame might surround a Dutch landscape, fruit bowls or a Madonna and Child. But soon the blue and white monochrome swept all before it, and a dish of that type appears in the arms of the Haarlem potters (1635). An important further consequence of greater familiarity with Chinese originals was that it became customary to apply tin-enamel to the back of the dish as well as the front, in order more closely to imitate porcelain. The earliest surviving fragment thus glazed back and front is dated 1622.
From now on, for over a hundred years, the decoration of by far the greater part of Dutch earthenware was to be Chinese in character. That it was not slavishly imitative but developed a character of its own is largely for technical reasons. The softness of the glaze, into which the decoration seemed to melt, was one such factor. More important, and more of an obstacle to any too minute copying, was the fact that the decorators were painting on to a highly absorbent ground, on which their colour dried instantly, allowing no retouching and demanding a swift and confident brush-stroke. Some pieces were indeed made which, at first glance or behind the glass of a museum cabinet, are impossible to distinguish from Kang H’si originals. But soon the introduction of manganese outlines, the combination of Chinese with baroque motifs, the illustrating of scenes from Dutch life, all helped to create that intensely individual character which distinguishes Dutch Delft from the Chinese decoration which inspired it and from the innumerable imitations which were made, all over the rest of Europe, from the second half of the 17th century onwards.
`Dutch Delft’: it may seem doubly paradoxical to use the phrase, but one can avoid it no longer. The first of these Wan-Li dishes were probably made at Haarlem, whence the earliest recorded potters in Delft had come. Yet by 165o Delft had established a predominance it was never to lose. Potteries continued to produce good work in Haarlem, Friesland and elsewhere, while Rotterdam became the great manufactureroftiles. Yet qualitatively and quanti tively, Delft stood alone in its high repute for the production of luxurious wares of every shape and every degree of elaboration. This was in part due to its convenient geographical position, between the estuaries of the Rhine and the Meuse and the rest of Holland, and near to the North Sea. But no town in Holland lacks access to the country’s waterways.
The rise of Delft must be ascribed to the chance of a combination of propitious circumstances. The geographical position, the arrival of large quantities of blue and white ware from China, the rapidly increasing prosperity of the country, seeking a new outlet for capital, and the sudden decline of the important Delft brewing industry, suffering from the competition with English beer (by 1667 only 15 of over i 8o breweries were still working). This last was possibly decisive, as the buildings were thus made available for those who wished to set up a pottery. In fact many potteries took over the names of the breweries they replaced : the Three Bells, the Rose, the Peacock, the Greek A and many others which have become familiar to lovers of Delft. The new industry doubtless also profited by the rebuilding of much of the town after the explosion of the powder magazine in 1654• As the second half of the 17th century began, the industry at Delft was launched on the greatest period of its existence, in which it was to continue with unabated prosperity until well into the second quarter of the 18th century.
For convenience it will be best to discuss the wares produced at Delft according to types of colouring: blue and white, polychrome high temperature, and polychrome produced in the muffle kiln. This is, however, a division of convenience only. It should be remembered not only that blue and white remained the staple and most characteristic product right until the decline of the industry at the end of the 18th century, but also that it was in blue and white, after the abandoning of the North Netherlandish maiolica palette, that the first great triumphs of Delft earthenware were made.
Blue and white. In the second half of the 17th century, the wares made fall into two main classes. Earliest perhaps were the large dishes known, from the Chinese porcelain brought round the Cape, as KaaPsche Schotels. These show the traditional late Ming border round a central octagon or hexagon in which are drawn water fowl or deer of conventional Chinese pattern, or a bowl of peonies and other flowers standing on a low table on a terrace. One is immediately impressed by the great size of these dishes, most of which are at least eighteen inches across, by the remarkable thinness of the potting, which is in fact as thin as the porcelain it strives to imitate, and by the extreme delicacy with with which the elaborate fretted backgrounds are drawn. It was on these dishes that the outlining in black or dark manganese was first applied, the trek which became so distinctive a feature of Delft. Here also we notice the introduction of the kwaarl, the final coating of lead glaze, applied to the front only, giving a special brilliance to the finished article. Few of these pieces, which were mostly made between i 66o and 1700, are dated or marked.

Alongside these Oriental designs developed the wares whose decoration sought its inspiration nearer home, drawing especially on the vast wealth of engraving and etching produced as an offshoot of the great contemporary School of Dutch painting. Here we see the last vestiges, and the only undoubtedly Northern examples, of the Urbino grotesques so popular at Antwerp. In blue monochrome, they surround such pictures as the famous one of the young Prince of Orange and gradually fine down to a strip of decoration round some purely Dutch biblical scene. Work of this quality was primarily meant for display, as is shown by the large number of plaques which have survived from the early period. The etchings of Berchem were specially popular sources.
In spite of all that enthusiastic perusers of marks have conjectured, it seems most likely that these finer works were executed as special commissions by special artists, working as Hausmaler. We know from inventories that there was a fashion for ‘porcelain landscapes’ sometimes described as `in ebony frames’. To these must be added the small, but often illustrated, group of portraits of protestant divines. These portraits are clearly the work of gifted artists, not of copyists, and the small hole at the top of each rectangular plaque makes it clear that it was meant to hang.
Supreme among these independents is Frederick Frijtom, whom we can trace as an immigrant to Delft in 1658 where he remained until his death in 1702. A number of highly elaborate landscape plaques have survived, such as we find mentioned, as by him, in contemporary wills and inventories. They are of such quality as to expose the wishful thinking underlying the ascription to him of clumsier work. Even more remarkable are the plates, of which some two dozens have survived, showing simple landscape scenes of woodland and riverside within a broad border left severely unornamented. Such unpretentious little views have a close affinity with the innumerable landscape etchings being produced at the time by Waterloo and others. Yet these are original works of art. On the exceptionally brilliant white ground the scenes are drawn in a series of lines and dots, distance being conveyed by a more delicate, finer touch and an ever paler blue. They are unlike anything else ever made and belong to the supreme ceramic masterpieces of all times and countries.
It was in the last twenty years of the century that the industry began to be organized into larger groups and it is from then onwards that we find greater numbers of marked pieces. At one time it was believed that these marks were those of individual artists, but a closer examination has shown that the same mark occurs on pieces clearly by a number of different hands, or on pieces which, for stylistic reasons, must have been made long after a particular supposed author was dead. The marks are now taken to refer to the owners or lessees of the various potteries, the capitalists who were venturing into the rising industry. Some of these can be shown to have managed several different factories at different times.
In this first great period various marks are pre-eminent. Perhaps the earliest pieces are those marked SVE, in monogram. These date from the period 1675-86, when Samuel van Eenhoorn ran the ‘Greek A’ factory - the only one with which his name is connected and one which had a long, distinguished history under a number of famous directors. The figures on SVE pieces are almost always outlined in black or purplish trek, and are mostly decorated with Chinese scenes. The glaze is bluish, and the monochrome blue varied, in the same piece, from deep to pale, often with a strong mauve tinge. Samuel van Eenhoorn was followed, in the same factory, by Adrianus Kocx, whose monogram AK is found on many of the most ambitious pieces made between 16go and 17oo and who also produced, in a particular brilliant blue, some of the closest replicas of Kang H’si blue and white. A closer study of AK pieces shows very clearly how these factories worked. Normally such pieces were made in standard baroque shapes and decorated with a mixture of baroque and Chinese designs. Special commissions were clearly farmed out to special decorators, men whose skill was something very different from that of the average workman. Quite apart from the standard pottery production, gifted artists frequently tried their hand in the new medium, just as, in 171 1, Sir James Thornhill, Hogarth’s father-in-law, decorated and inscribed a splendid series of plates with the signs and emblems of the Zodiac.
On Kocx’s death in 1701, the factory was continued by his son Pieter Adriaensz Kocx, who died soon after. His widow continued the work, using his PAK monogram, far into the 18th century. We shall come across it again in discussing polychrome wares. It seems certain that the AK mark was widely copied by contemporaries (it is even found on Chinese porcelain) and probably that the factory continued to use it for some time after 1700.
The factory of Rochus Hoppesteyn, at the Moors’ Head, produced some of the most distinctive, and most highly prized, work of the late 17th century. It is akin to that marked SVE, but the glaze is bluer and more brilliant, the trek darker, the drawing firmer, and many pieces are made notable by a skilful use of gold and an unusually clear and brilliant carnelian red. His mark was RHS in monogram to which a Moors’ Head is sometimes added. Closely associated with these pieces, and possibly produced in the same factory, is a series of large vases and fine dishes, ornamented in blue with scenes from Italian engravings, surrounded by arabesque borders in a paler version of the Hoppesteyn colours – including a foxy red and an olive green. The palette is distinctive and once seen cannot be mistaken. Most (f this group are marked with the monogram IW. For many years this was believed to refer to the father of Rochus Hoppesteyn, but that attribution is no longer considered tenable. Ii is more likely to be the mark of an independent decorator.
Perhaps most prolific of these early decorators and factories, was that which marked its productions with LYE in monogram. This mark, very often accompanied by numbers and by individual potters’ monograms, occurs on innumerable pieces of blue and white made between 1700 and 1720. Most are of a bold and brilliant blue, with a highly shiny kwaart. The use of trek is rare and the decoration tends to be crowded. It is also found on an important group of black ground pieces. The mark is that of Lambertus van Eenhoorn. It has long been fashionable to divide this monogram between him and Louwi s Victoorsz. This theory, which still has its doughty champions, seems untenable. There is no clear stylistic break to suggest a dividing line; the monogram is clearly LVE or LVF, and Victoorsz never wrote, or could have written, his name with an F. The desperate suggestion that the F stands for fecit is irreconcilable either with what we know of factory practice, or the non-existence of any other instance of the word being used by a Delft potter.
Last, but among the very best of all, must be considered the wares made at the ‘Rose’ factory, almost all of which are of quite exceptional quality. Most famous, perhaps, is a series of blue and white plates of New Testament scenes, within a border of cloud-borne putti. But there are also dazzling imitations offamille verte, a unique bottle with near-Eastern decoration, and a magnificent polychrome set of five massive vases of Kang H’si design, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The factory mark was either the word `Roos’ or a capital R, often surrounded by groups of dots, and sometimes, though more rarely, a stylized drawing of a rose.
Blue and white continued as the main product of the Delft factories throughout the 18th century. Designs became more stereotyped, oriental being modified first with baroque motifs of lambrequins and the like, then with the more asymmetrical curls and graces of the Rococo. Artistically there was a decline in freshness and originality from about 1730, though much attractive earthenware continued to be made. In 1764, chiefly to protect themselves against ‘pirate competition, the leading makers deposited their marks at the Town Hall. For that period, therefore, we, have a reliable hand-list. The best makers in the second half of the
century were:
The White Star    Mark: a star
The Claw    a leg with claws
The Greek A    capital A with initials
The P,)rcelain axe    a hatchet
The Ewer    LPK
The three Bells    three bells
Plates, jugs and the like were produced decorated with scenes from various trades, or of the months, biblical scenes, shepherds and shepherdesses, coats-of-arms, beautiful interlaced ciphers, and loyal references to the House of Orange. In the sixties and seventies the repertoire became restricted and repetitive, and a few familiar designs, such as those of a large tree laden with fruit, of a ‘fan’ of peacocks’ feathers and of a goddess with a cornucopia were made indiscriminately by all the surviving factories. Special mention must be made of the large drug pots and tobacco jars, simple pieces with standardized decoration, but handsome and satisfying in both shape and design.
The Delft industry survived the twofold competition of the enormously increased import from China and the rise of the German hard-paste porcelain. Yet by 1770 it was harder hit by a new rival: English cream wares, which captured the European market by their lightness, cheapness and Louis Seize elegance. By 1790 only ten factories were still in production and early in the i 9th century only two were still making tin enamelled wares, and the prosperity not only of the industry, bilt of the town whose name it had spread all over the civilized world had come to an end.
Polychrome wares. The coloured wares made in Delft fall into two main groups. Those fired in high temperature colours and those fired in the muffle kiln.
(A) High temperature. From the late I 7th century onwards the Delft potters added to their original blue and manganese a dull coppery green, an iron red and, rarely, a clear yellow. The red was a novelty in European ceramics, and was introduced at Rouen at about the same time. The whole Delft high-temperature colour scheme was, however, distinctive and unlike anything else. Many coloured replicas of Ming-Ching transitional pieces were made, the most popular being the sets of vases intended for the chimney piece or the top of a Dutch cupboard. Of these the most famous were the reeded, octagonal vases, of great height, covered with a strewn decoration more reminiscent of oriental embroidery than of any Chinese ceramic prototype. This design, in which the rusty iron-red predominates, was known as `cachemire’, a name which suggests an Indian rather than a Chinese origin. With the exception of SVE, the same factories produced these coloured pieces as made the blue and white, LVE being once again the most prolific. The peculiar palette of Hoppesteyn and the monogramist 1W, has already been discussed. The Rose factory, as ever, produced an exceptional variety, pieces having little in common except their high quality.
The high temperature colours continued to be used far into the 18th century, among other things on the rococo scroll work, in relief, surrounding plates, barber’s bowls, plaques, etc, on which the main decoration was in blue or manganese.
(B) Muffle kiln colours- Quiteapart from the wares more closely in line with the main trends of European faience, which attempted more and more to compete with the minutiae and brilliant colouring of hard paste porcelain, Delft produced very early in 9
the 18th century a special
imitation of the Japanese porcelain made at Arita, and known throughout Europe as ‘Imari’ ware. In these most distinctive Delft wares the iron red and blue predominate, supplemented by touches of pure lemon yellow, transparent manganese and a translucent copper green. At first these were all fired in the high temperature kiln, but as soon as gold was added to produce the ‘brocaded Imari’, the muffle kiln was used increasingly, and the opaque colours of the
famine rose were imitated more and more. Plates, cruets, jugs and the usual sets of five or seven vases were the main objects produced. Many bear in red the PAK mark of Pieter Adriaensz Kocx’s widow. Others, including some of the most original and most brilliantly executed, bear the letters AR in monogram. Once again, a confident traditional attribution is found untenable, and the significance of the initials remains in doubt. In both these groups the paste is of a very brilliant and warm white, without a hint of blue in it, and the body itself is slightly pinkish.
It was after 176o that attempts were made to rival the jewel-like brilliance of German porcelain. Small boxes, pipe stands formed as sleighs, pickle trays, butter dishes, and the like were made, decorated with ‘Watteau’ scenes, or reminiscences of Herold or even – and it is almost the only time it is found on Delft – with a version of the ‘Kakiemon’ designs so ubiquitous in Eurpean porcelain of every kind.
(c) Coloured grounds. In addition to the two main types of polychrome wares described above, must be described the important and highly prized group of coloured grounds.
The most famous, and most prized, of these are the black grounds. These are of two kinds. The earlier type consists of a black enamel painted all over a dark red clay body, and subsequently decorated in olive green and yellow, sometimes with touches of brilliant opaque light blue, red and green. It seems that these were intended to imitate lacquer, a novel material enjoying an enormous vogue at the time, and that the olive green and yellow were meant to simulate gold. Such of these rarities as are marked mostly bear the LVE monogram.
The later type, closely associated with ‘Delft dor6′ bearing the PAK and AR marks, has the black ground painted over the white body, leaving reserves to be painted in colours, the whole being fired in the muffle kiln. There are also pieces treated in this way but decorated in the usual high tempera-
ture palette.
AFart from the black grounds, there are pieces with deep olive, chocolate, emerald green, yellow and turquoise grounds. Each colour seems to have been the speciality of one particular maker, though not all pieces are marked. Thus the turquoise and emerald green ground, with their ornamentation of brilliant opaque yellow, dark manganese lines and occasional touches of under-glaze blue, often bear the mark IHL in monogram. Chocolate grounds bear a CK in monogram, yellow grounds bear the ‘3 Astonne’, whereas the large and distinguished group of deep olive green pieces nearly all bear the mark LVD, the last two initials in monogram, as the evidence of the decoration. The olive and chocolate grounds would seem to date from the first quarter of the 18th century, the brighter grounds from the third quarter. Mention must also be made of the deep blue ground pieces with white ornament, generally in conscious though heavy-handed imitation of a well-known Nevers type. Most of these were made early in the 18th century at the Paeuw pottery. The blue was painted over the white ground, the white decoration added next, no reserves being left uncovered by the deep cobalt blue.

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FURNITURE : MAHOGANY
MAHOGANY was competing with walnut after the first quarter of the i8th century and had supplanted it for the highest quality work about 1750. From then on its many virtues made it the premier wood in cabinet-making. It had a beautiful patina which improved with age; a metallic strength which led to remarkable advances in carving and outlines; a fine figure which made it equally suitable for veneers; a range of colour from light-reddish to a rich dark shade; and a natural durability which was resistant to decay. It also seasoned readily, and the great size of the trees produced excellent timber for table tops, wardrobe doors and similar pieces. Altogether, for furniture of every kind, for work in the solid, for carving, inlay or veneer, it was an excellent medium for the great cabinet-makers of the Georgian era.
Two main varieties of mahogany were used. One kind (Swietenia mahogani) came from the West Indies, mainly San Domingo, Jamaica and Cuba. The San Domingo timber (usually known as ‘Spanish’, or sometimes as ‘Jamaican’) was prized more highly at first. It was a dense, hard wood, with little figure, and was used mainly in the solid. Then the Cuban mahogany became more popular, as it had two outstanding qualities; it was easier to work and had it fine figure for veneers. The other species (Swietenia macrophylla) came from Central America, particularly from Honduras (whence it obtained its other name of `bay-wood’). It was lighter and softer than the Cuban, and was often used as carcases to take Cuban veneers. There was considerable overlapping in the periods when these various kinds were most in use, but it can be said that San Domingo mahogany was popular until about 1750, when it was replaced by Cuban for best work, while Honduras was found in later 18th-century carcase construction.
Mahogany had been used for shipbuilding since the 16th century, and for inlay and panelling since the 17th. It was known at first as cedar or cedrala. Evelyn referred to its worm-resisting qualities in his Sylva under its French name of acajou from ‘the Western Indies’. The date when it came into use for furniture cannot be given exactly. The story of Dr Gibbons of Covent Garden, who is said to have had some mahogany made into furniture by his cabinet-maker Wollaston about 17oo, and to have thus popularized this wood, has now become a tradition. Its use was no doubt encouraged by the shortage of European walnut after the Spanish Succession War, though supplies of Virginia walnut were to be had. Probably mahogany advertised itself well enough. An Act of 1721 allowed timber from any British plantation in America to be duty free. Another Act in 1724 mentioned mahogany by name; it had a special rate imposed upon it instead of the declared value by the importer, but if it were from British possessions it was included in the terms of the 1721 Act and allowed in duty free.
From the 1720s, therefore, Jamaican mahogany had preferential treatment. This not only assured supplies from British sources but also encouraged timber dealers in the West Indies to send the popular Spanish wood to England via Jamaica and other colonies to avoid the duty. This practice went on throughout the century. In fact, the British Government connived at it, for it allowed, and later legalized, the entrepot trade with the Spanish settlements. There was thus no lack of mahogany, once trade had got under way, as there had been with European walnut. Mahogany was certainly competing strongly with walnut for fashionable furniture by the 1730s. In 1733 the poet James Bramston, in his Man of Taste, written to defend the modes of his day against those who complained of lost hospitality, asked: ‘Say thou that doss thy father’s table praise, Was there Mahogena in former days?’ By that time, also, British logwood cutters in Campeche Bay, Central America, were leaving that area to cut the more valuable mahogany in the Belize district of Honduras, thus provoking a long-drawn-out dispute with Spain. The ever-growing demand for mahogany can be judged in the rise of import values from £276 in 1722 to £77,744 in 1800. In the early 19th century import duties which had been imposed on mahogany during the French Wars began to affect trade figures, but Crosby’s Pocket Dictionary of 181 o still described cabinet-makers as ‘workers in mahogany and other fine woods’.
CHIEF PERIODS AND STYLES
The furniture styles of the 18th century take their names not from the reigning monarchs but from outstanding designers, both craftsmen and architects. In the case of the craftsmen like Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Sheraton this distinction must be recognized as doing less than justice to many contemporary cabinet-makers whose work equalled or even in some cases excelled theirs. Indeed, it is not certain that Sheraton had a workshop or produced furniture of his own. Their claim to fame rests on their famous design books, which interpreted prevailing styles with a high degree of skill, and thus their names serve as a very convenient label for particular phases of development. The whole period showed a ceaseless spirit of experiment and a constant demand for novelties from the upper classes, whose needs were supplied by a succession of great cabinet-makers and upholsterers; some of these cabinet-makers’ shops, like that Of GEORGE SEDDON (1727-18oz), were large-scale businesses. Their products displayed a technical excellence fully equal to the work of the best Continental craftsmen. Their patrons, with wealth from land, trade and industry, showed, in general, a high standard of taste. Much furniture was designed for the many new town and country houses, and this explains the importance of architects like Robert Adam,whose planning of a house covered every detail, inside and
out.
The earlier Georgian period, to the mid-forties, when
mahogany was beginning to come in, was dominated by the Palladian revival, largely inspired by Lord Burlington, and interpreted by WILLIAM KENT (1684-1748) and another contemporary architect, HENRY FLITCROFT. Kent was the first architect to include furniture in his schemes of work. He used mainly softwoods to take carving and gilding, but some of his pieces were in mahogany parcel (i.e. partly) gilt. His designs, somewhat modified, appeared in one of the earliest design books, The City and Country Workmen’s Treasury by BATTY and THOMAS LANGLEY (1739). But it is noteworthy that a prominent contemporary cabinet-maker, GILES GRENDEY, produced mahogany furniture in a simpler style, reminiscent of the Queen Anne period.
Palladianism went out of fashion in the mid-century, and was replaced by a diversity of styles, the rococo from France (then called the ‘modern’ taste), Chinese and Gothic. This was the period of THOMAS CHIPPENDALE (1718-79), whose Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director first appeared in 1754• No mention of mahogany appeared in the first edition, and only a passing reference (to six designs for hall chairs) in the third, in 1762. But much first-class furniture was made in this wood by Chippendale himself and the best contemporary craftsmen, such as JOHN BRADBURN, WILLIAM VILE and JOHN COBB (these two in partnership) and BENJAMIN GOODISON. Chippendale’s great service was to apply the rococo style of decoration to a wide range of furniture and generally to curb its more excessive forms. He is now known to have employed on the ‘Director’s’ plates two artists, MATTHIAS LOCK and HENRY COP-LAND, who were pioneers of the rococo in England. The taste for Chinese and Gothic furniture, the former largely inspired by the works of Sir William Chambers, and the latter by Horace Walpole, was cultivated by sections of the upper classes. While rococo relied for its effect on the use of flowing lines, Chinese work was seen in the popularity of geometrical fretwork patterns and Oriental figures and designs, and Gothic in the use of the pointed arch.
The neo-classical revival began in the sixties, inspired by ROBERT ADAM (1728-92). His furniture, beautifully designed and made, was decorated with delicate classical motifs, paterae, pendant husks, urns, fluting, etc. His liking for furniture of a more elegant appearance led to a revival of fine inlaid work, and much use of satin-wood and other timbers. But mahogany, used as a veneer by itself, or with other woods, or for carving the classical motifs, was well adapted to the new mode, shown in the work of Chippendale (who worked for Adam) and Cobb in their later periods, JOHN LINNELL, WILLIAM FRANCE and others. In 1788 appeared GEORGE HEPPLFWHITE’S Cabinetmakers’ and Upholsterers’ Guide, two years after the author’s death. The great merit of this work was to interpret the new classical styles very skilfully for all kinds of furniture. The explanations of the designs in the Guide constantly stress the suitability of mahogany both for small work like cellarets and knife-boxes, and for larger pieces like tables and bookcases.
THOMAS SHERATON (1751-18o6) produced the Cabinet Makers’ and Upholsterers’ Drawing Book between 1791 and 1794 and bridged the gap between the neo-classical and the Regency periods. Sheraton favoured light, delicate furniture, including painted work, and for his finest pieces he recommended satinwood. He also used other tropical woods, popular about 1800, for the best apartments of the house, such as the drawing-room and boudoir. His period is distinguished for the dainty, almost fragile, appearance of some of his furniture. This cannot be said of the final period, the Regency, ending about 183o. There was a renewal of classical forms inspired by the Directoire styles in France, but these were carried out in a strict and narrow fashion, a `chaste’ and literal interpretation of Greek, Roman and Egyptian examples. The designer THOMAS HOPE in his Household Furniture (1807) heralded this stress on an archaeo-logical approach. Furniture took on a heavier appearance. One result was to re-emphasize dark, lustrous or heavily-figured woods, especially to show brightly gilt mounts in the prevailing mode. This explains the popularity of rosewood after I Boo, but there was also a great demand for mahogany because of its suitable colour and grain.
OTHER TIMBERS
The popularity of satinwood from 177o has already been mentioned, paving the way for a lighter, more delicate, aspect of furniture design. This trend, emphasized by a revival of veneers and fine inlaid work, led the cabinetmakers to experiment with a wide range of exotic timbers, brought to them from all parts of the world, especially from tropical areas, by enterprising merchants. Satinwood itself, from both the East and West Indies, was yellowish in tone; so was fustic, from the West Indies, but this faded to a dead brown and was decried by Sheraton. Other woods, which showed rich shades of brown and red, varying from light to deep, included calamander, snakewood, coromandel and rosewood from India and Ceylon, thuya from Africa, ebony from the East, kingwood, partridge wood, purple wood and tulip wood from Central and South America, and amboyna from the West Indies. Camphor from the East Indies was also used for boxes and trunks, and red cedar from North and Central America for drawer linings, trays and boxes. Native woods were not neglected: holly, pear, maple and laburnum were used for inlays on first-rate pieces, and there was a demand for sycamore, which was stained a greenish-grey colour, and known as harewood, for veneers. Mahogany was used with these woods, which led to a closer study of its beautiful figure and fine range of colour, and made it appreciated more than ever. Figure and lustre were fashionable qualities after 1800, hence the importance of rosewood, large fresh supplies of which were now available from the opening-up of trade with South America (particularly Brazil), calamander, coromandel, snakewood, tulip wood and zebra wood: the last, as its name implies, having an effective dark stripe. Imported deal continued to be the favourite wood for carcase work during this period, but from 175o red deal from North America largely replaced the former yellow variety.

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