Sep
27
17th Century French Antiques
September 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment
France
Meanwhile across the Channel, the French were enjoying an even more
glittering period under Louis XIV. As in England and Holland, the
exotic imports of the East India companies stimulated both household
and sartorial fashions and gave the French, in particular, a taste for
richly embroidered silks. Louis XIV himself had a huge band of em-
broiderers working for his entourage at Versailles, and anybody who
was anybody spent vast sums of money on lace and embroidery for their
clothes. Some even sent materials to China to be embroidered with
oriental motifs.
The chain-stitch embroidery known as tambour work, another Chinese
import, was a favourite occupation with French needlewomen from the
end of the 17th century, and the habit spread to othercountries, especially
England, in the mid-18th century. On the whole, the best French
embroidery was done by professionals. Many of these were Huguenots
and after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1695 a great number
ol them fled to England, Germany, Switzerland and Holland where they
soon set up successful workshops. Ironically, a proportion of their
embroideries found their way back to fiance
Louis XIV’s minister. Colbert, himself a mercer’s son. worked haul
to establish France’s pre-eminence on all fronts, and especially in the
textile industry. As well as encouraging French lace and tapestry he
helped to promote linen manufacture at Cambrai, Valenciennes, St
Quentin and Lille. Most important of all - for it was probably the most
successful - the silk industry of Lyons became supreme in the late 17th
century. The colourful garlands of flowers woven on rich cream grounds
were as luxurious as any embroidered materials, and they soon became
fashionable for the best-dressed people all over Europe.
Chintz made its first appearance in Europe around the turn of the
century and was immediately popular because of the brilliance and
fastness of its colours. From 1640 the supply of chintz became an im-
portant branch of the East India Company’s trade and by 1680 demand
was enormous. Prohibition of chintz imports by France in 1686 and Eng-
land in 1700 caused trade to fall but chintz still reached both countries
in substantial quantities. Before 1650 chintz was used only as a furnish-
ing fabric but by the 1670s it is frequently mentioned as a costume fabric.
One of the major influences exerted by East India Company imports
of printed cottons and chintzes was, surprisingly enough, on the wool
embroidered bed hangings so essential to keep out winter draughts in
northern Europe and America. Again, these were mainly the province
of the domestic embroideress, who worked the bed-curtains and
valences the pelmet-like hangings round the roof of a four-poster bed
in coloured crewel wools on a linen or cotton ground. Her designs for
these crewel or Jacobean embroideries, worked in long and short, chain
and stem stitches with French knots and a variety of fillings, were
frequently taken from oriental originals.
The Tree of Life pattern was much favoured. In this, a swirling tree
laden with improbable fruit and flowers springs from a rocky base.
Among and beneath its branches hover birds of paradise and all kinds
of animals - lions, squirrels, stags, rabbits and insects - which were
usua ly taken not from oriental sources but from the needlework pattern
books which had been in current use for most of the century.
America
In the late 17th century, life in the American colonies was beginning to
grow less spartan than it had been in the days of the early settlers, and
with increasing comfort came an emphasis on domestic embroidery.
American wool hangings were at first confined to repeating motifs
worked in a single colour, but by the end of the 17th century these had
progressed to colourful crewel embroideries similar to those made in
north rn Europe.
Embroidery
Americans, as well as Europeans, used knotted pile Turkey work for
covering cushions, chairs and other furniture in the late 17th century.
Carpets and rugs of Turkey work had originally been imported to
Europe from the Near East by the East India companies, and they soon
became popular for their hardwearing properties and colourfulness.
They were made by pulling wool through canvas or coarse linen stretched
on a loom and then cutting it to form a pile. The technique lent itself to
formal geometric designs and heraldic motifs in bright colours and was
soon made on a commercial scale in Europe. Like many professional
crafts, it was also done by persevering ladies at home, and in America
Turkey work was more often done domestically than by professionals.
Japanese Swords
Japanese swords made from about 1600 are known as ’shinto’ (new
swords), and most of the blades still in existence are shinto. This class of
swords includes the Katana, with a blade length of 53-76 cm (21-30 in),
and the wakizashi with a blade length between 30-60 cm (12-24 in).
Various knives and daggers such as yoroi-ioshi, a short fighting knife
used to pierce armour, were smaller versions of the swords.
The two swords of a samurai were called daisho; the katana, allowed
only to samurai, could be replaced with the shorter wakizashi and a
dagger, tanto or yoroi-toshi. On rare occasions members of other classes
could carry the short sword and dagger. Also, free peasants (goshi)
might carry swords at their own risk. The sword and dirk were carried in
the waist sash. Although the long hilt on Japanese swords allows two-
handed use they were usually used single-handed with a slashing action
rather than a thrust, though the point was used with daggers and knives.
Samurai women were not allowed to handle a sword, but they were
trained in the use of other weapons such as the halberd. Samurai
dominance over other classes was often despotic: sword blades were
tested on criminals and even passers-by as well as on iron bars and hay
bales.
All the famous swordsmiths were of samurai rank. Smiths were
regarded as artists rather than artisans, and founded dynasties and rival
schools of swordmakers, some of which lasted for centuries. The
Japanese also invested the sword with a religious quality - it was the
’soul of the samurai’. Japanese ideas about swords reflect the mixture of
Shinto, the indigenous beliefs, and imported Buddhist ideas: swords
were thought to have magical qualities, and to be made of the Five
Elements, earth, fire, water, wood and metal. Smiths tended to lead
moderate, even ascetic lives; forging was complex and took weeks of
skilful work.
The iron and steel from which the blades were made was obtained
from local supplies of ferrous ores and a ferruginous sand, although
from the 17th century some imported steel was used. There were two
basic methods for making blades, one for blades made only of steel, the
other for blades made of a combination of iron and steel.
In the first method two pieces of steel of different grades were placed
on tbp of each other and welded to form a billet. An iron bar was then
welded to this to act as a handle. The billet was then folded on itself,
welded again and hammered out to its original length. The whole process
was then repeated at least fifteen times. A special fire was used made from
a type of pine charcoal and before each firing a mixture of clay and straw-
ash was used to coat the blade, care being taken not to touch the metal
with the hands. Occasionally three or four of these billets would be
welded together and the above process repeated five times, producing
more than four million layers. This method was called muku-gitai or
muku-tsukuri (’pure forging’ or ‘unalloyed make’).
There were several methods of making blades from iron and steel but
they all consisted of a soft iron core enclosed by a piece or pieces of hard
steel. The core metal (shintetsu) was subjected to the folding and welding
process followed by hammering out some dozen times. The outer metal
(uwagane) was made from pieces of steel, from which the slag had been
removed, which were forged into a bar, notched, and then folded, welded
and reforged some 15 times. A common method of combining the two
was to form the uwagane into a V-shaped bar into which the shintetsu
was inserted and welded and the whole then put through the blade-
making process again.
Many of the blades of this period exhibited a wood-grain effect called
mokume made by one of two methods, hada-gitai and masume-tsukuri.
Both methods began with the finished billet and in the former method
the bar was randomly dented and gouged and then flattened by hammer-
ing or grinding so that the various layers of the bar were revealed. The
second method involved hammering the bar on its edge until it became
the face so revealing the layers of metal which look like wood-graining.
Since the makume effect disappeared on tempering it is not visible on
the tempered edge.
When forging the hard edge on a sword blade, an almost religious
ritual was followed. The smith and his assistant wore special robes
indicating their social rank; the smithy was locked and Shinto rites were
performed to make it into a shrine with plaited straw hangings and paper
flags to prevent the entry of evil spirits.
[To produce a hard edge on a sword blade it was covered with wet clay
in which a line was drawn about 12 mm (£ in) from the edge. The clay
was removed between the line and edge and the remainder allowed to
harden, the blade was then placed in the furnace and watched for the
right colour change. The blade was then removed, the clay taken off
and the blade quenched. This process produced a hardened, decorative
cutting edge (yahibd) with a milky white colour where the exposed steel
had crystallized.
ktharacteristic designs were used when drawing the line of the yahiba.
These included a jagged line signifying a horse’s tooth, and a stepped
line indicating a road up the mountains. These patterns (hamon) may
be used to date and value a sword and place it in its tradition or school.
The blade was sharpened and polished over several weeks to produce
a mirror finish. The effect of the repeated folding and welding of the