english furniture of the cabriole period

7/30/2019 English Furniture of the Cabriole Period

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English Furnitureof the Cabriole Teriod^by H. ^Ipray Tipping


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First published 1922All Rights reserved

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY RICHARD CLAY & SONS. LIMITED,BUNGAY, aUFFOLK.


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ContentsChapter i


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IllustrationsPlate I Writing Desk on Stand: Walnut, c. 1710.

2 Small Writing Bureau with Legs : Walnut, c. 1 710-15.3 Scrutoire^ or Writing Bureau: Mahogany, c. 1740-50.4 Bureau-Dressing-Table : Mahogany, c. 1750.5 Mahogany Writing Cabinet, c. 1735.6 Double Chel of Drawers : Mahogany, c. 1 750.7 (i) Walnut Chair with High Curved Carved Back. c. 1695.

(2) Walnut Chair of Fully Developed Queen Anne Type.c. 1 714.

8 Walnut Settee of Small Size. c. 1710. 9 Large Walnut Settee, c. 1730. 10 Walnut Chair of Office, c. 1730.jj 1 1 (i) Child's Walnut Arm Chair, c. 1725.(2) Mahogany Writing Chair, c. 1745. 12 (i) Walnut Arm Chair, Uphollered. c. 1740.

(2) Mahogany Chair, Arm Supports springing from theCorners of the Frame, c. 1750.

5, 13 (i


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IllustrationsPlate 19

2021

22

Tea or China Table, c. 1725.Tea or China Table, c. 1750.(i) Galleried Table on Tripod Stand, c. 1745.(2) Cluster-Legged Drawing Table, c. 1750.Walnut Card-Table, c. 1 720.

23 Card-Table of Chippendale^ s '^French'" Type. c. 1750.24 (i) Candelabra Stand, c. 1755.

(2) Candle Screen.25 (i ^ 2) Mahogany Tripods and Candlesticks, c. 1725.26 (i


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Chapter i "The CabrioleALTHOUGH the furniture of our Elizabethanand Jacobean periods is very picturesque andsympathetic, it lacks the learnedness of

design and expertness of craftsmanship which hadalready been attained in Italy and France. Afterthe Restoration of 1660 England saw a rapiddevelopment of these qualities, and what in thedomains of architecture and decoration was beingeffected by Wren and Gibbons, was also reached,in their sphere, by our furniture makers. If theydid not quite emulate the palatial manner, theambitious gorgeousness, of some of their leadingContinental compeers, certainly, by the beginningof the eighteenth century, they had, as producers offine domestic gear, reached a very high standard ofexcellence. The reigns of Anne and of the first twoGeorges are thereby rendered of particular interest inour furniture annals, and this treatise is a short surveyof the leading types that then prevailed, the themebeing illustrated from the collection of Mr. PercivalGriffiths, who has gradually brought together amass of representative pieces dating from this half-century.


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English Furniture ofThe period is marked by a salient feature, and

may be described as the age of the cabriole. Thestraight leg held its own under William III, andbecame the vogue again under George III ; butduring the intervening reigns it fell out of fashion.It merely appears as a survival under Anne, and anoccasional revival under George II, thus emphasisingthe prevalence of the cabriole. The normal Restora-tion leg had been a straight twist strengthened byturned or twisted stretchers, an arrangement whichwe find in the majority of early Charles II tablesand cabinet stands, as well as in chairs and settees.Until then oak was the prevailing material of Englishfurniture, although already in the sixteenth centurywalnut was the customary wood in Italy and France.In England it was then a scarce tree little knownto commerce, and although the word quite oftenoccurs in Elizabethan inventories it probably refersas much to foreign-made furniture imported bytravelled Englishmen as to home-made pieces. Forinstance, Sir Thomas Smith was in Paris asambassador in the early days of the reign. A fewyears after his return an inventory was made of thecontents of his country house of Ankerwick, nearEton. Therein we read that the parlour had "agreat foulding table of Walnut Tre," and there are


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The Cabriole Periodtypical of the style of Francois P'' or his son andgrandsons, but such importations turned our atten-tion to their material, and the planting of walnuttrees became habitual. Thus there had grown upin this country an adequate supply of the wood fitfor felling when Charles II landed at Dover in 1660,bringing with him the Continental fashions, whichfavoured the use of the lighter and more easilycarved wood. Walnut then held the field until itwas superseded by mahogany at about the middleof the cabriole period, so that the early pieces arealmost exclusively of walnut, and the later ofmahogany.

The straight leg of the Restoration sharedpopularity with the scroll, especially of the doubleC form, which was much favoured in the latterpart of Charles IFs reign. But with William IIIcame a new form of straight leg, originating inFrance, but probably reaching us through Holland,where it will have been introduced by Daniel Marot.It was baluster shaped, sometimes turned, but moreoften square or octagonal, starting from a cap anddiminishing as it descended to meet the stretchersthat were inserted between the base of the leg andthe bulbous foot, and formed a flat serpentine or setof C scrolls with a turned or carved vase at the


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English Furniturein France early in Louis XIV's reign and was muchused, until the seventeenth century closed, by AndreCharles Boule and the other leading Court cabinet-makers. Meanwhile the cabriole was being evolved.Unlike the scroll which it was to supersede, a livingform was its immediate derivative. A French dancingterm meaning a goat-leap, it is noticeable that agoat's foot was at first generally used to terminatethe furniture leg which took the name and assumeda form that is a decorative adaptation of a quadruped'sfront leg from the knee downwards. Such a formconsorts badly with a stretcher, which breaks theclean inner curve and projects awkwardly and un-pleasantly from the fetlock. Fortunately, at themoment when design called for its abandonment,improved construction and workmanship rendered itunnecessary, so that, whereas it was usual at thebeginning of Queen Anne's reign, at its end itwas rare.


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Chapter 2 Drawer-fitted FurnitureTO show the difference between the outgoingstraight-legged and stretchered form and theincoming fashion of curved and stretcherless

leg, two writing-desks, of much the same formand date, are illustrated. That with straight legs[Plate I] is somewhat of a survival. The legsand stretcher are of William III type, but as thedesk flap informs us that it was made from a treewhich fell during the historic storm of 1703, andas it was then the habit to use wood well andnaturally seasoned, it cannot date much before 17 10,which brings us to a time not too early for thesecond desk to have been produced. The two aresimilar in measurement, in the arrangement of theflap and the fittings of the upper part, in the choiceof finely figured walnut for the veneer, and in thecharacter of the banding. But, besides the legs,there is another point of difference. The one is amovable desk set on a stand, the other [Plate II]is all of one piece. A box with a sloping lid towrite at when placed on a table was one of the very


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English Furniture ofthem had come many derivatives by the time thecabriole period began, and the multiplication ofsmall household effects led to the development andgeneral use of the drawer and the cupboard. Theinconvenience of the chest, of which the top mustbe cleared to reach the contents, became stronglyfelt when that top was more frequently set withutilities or ornaments. Modifications were in-troduced. Its top was fixed and the front hinged.It was raised on short legs as a credence or hutch.The idea of the Court Cupboard is of chestssuperimposed. Into all such variations one or moredrawers came to be fitted, and as their conveniencewas widely appreciated, not only did they occupythe entire body of chests very variant in form, butthey were customary adjuncts of many other formsof furniture. Thus, with the cabriole there co-existed a multiplication of the drawer threateningthe existence of the leg in every piece of furniturewhich was not intended to sit on or to sit at. Andeven in the latter, where a flap falling or pullingforward gave knee room in front of the main faciaof the piece, the drawers descended to the ground.Thus in the first two desks illustrated there are twodrawers only below the flap, and therefore the piecesterminate with legs. But in the third [Plate III],


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The Cabriole Periodand we get the chest of drawers with writingaccommodation above, known as the " scrutoireor bureau. Yet if the leg is gone the cabriolespirit is no less assertive. It controls the frame whichswells forward on both front and sides. It alsodictates the form of the footing, such as was adoptedduring the period even when the sides of a draweredpiece were straight, as in the last piece illustrated.

Although furniture by the middle of the eighteenthcentury had assumed many forms, it was not in theabundanceshall we say the plethora ?whichcharacterises our own day, when quantity is so muchmore popular than quality. There was, therefore, adesire to make each piece as compactly comprehensiveas possible. Hence what Chippendale in TheDirector calls a " Buroe-Dressing Table " such asis shown in Plate IV. It is an exquisitely finishedand contrived piece. The central cupboard pushesback to give added knee room. The top drawer,when pulled out, has a baize-covered top for writing,and the little drawer at the side holds ink bottles.But a shallow scoop at each end of this top giveshold for the fingers to push it back and disclose anelaborate array of boxes and divisions to hold all thetoilet requisites demanded by the most exigentGeorgian belle. If she wishes herself to embellish


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English Furniture ofprolonged processes of the hairdresser she reversesthe apparatus and raises it again as a reading-frame.

Although the spelling of early eighteenth-centurysociety folkespecially those of the fair sexwasstill apt to be free of the trammels of the grammarianand the lexicographer, the letter-writing habit had,as these pieces prove, reached the pitch of needingchests of drawers and even dressing-tables fitted withwriting facilities. Additional room for stowingletters, documents, account and other books couldbe given by placing a shallow cupboard on suchpart of the top as was not occupied by the flap,and the name of writing-cabinet was assigned to thecomposite piece. Both bureau and writing-cabinetoccur before the seventeenth century closes, butthey were not numerous until after walnut had beendisplaced by mahogany, which is the substance ofthe cabinet now illustrated [Plate V]. It is difficultto assign it an exact date. It is certainly of onedesign carried out at one time, but the lower half israther older in feeling than the upper half. Thelatter has the full architectural character which didnot prevail until George IFs reign, and which weconnect with William Kent's vogue as a designer.But the bureau is still on the model of those made


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The Cabriole Periodalmost identical, although it probably saw the lastdays of William Ill's reign. Note the serpentinesweep of the pigeon-holes with drawers below them,the central cupboard inspired by the earlier Italiantemple-fronted cabinets, the steps of geometric inlaywhich pull out as a drawer, the looking-glassed doorwhich opens on to a vistaed space with inlaid floor,the door, flanked by sections of a classic order,forming a block which pulls out on touching aspring and revealing nests of secret drawers. Allthis is also characteristic of the Belton piece, and thelooking-glassed doors of the upper half savour ofthe same earlier manner. But its other details andgeneral lines render it very improbable that it wasmade till after 1730. Despite the excellence ofdesign and workmanship which make it worthy ofhaving come from Thomas Chippendale's workshop,it is possible that these mixed qualities arise from itsbeing of provincial origin ; say Bristol, or some otherWest Country centre, for it was found fifteen or moreyears ago by its present possessor in a private parlourof a Monmouth hotel-keeper. Its excellent repairand untouched condition give it enhanced charmand interest.

The quiet little English "scrutoire" in its forwardswell and also in its key and handle-plates modestly


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English Furniture ofof which Chippendale gives many an EngHshedversion in his Director^ teUing us that

The ornamental Parts are intended for Brass-Work, which I would advise should be modelledin Wax, and then cast from these models.

In England such mounting never, in extent or inquality, reached the point that it did in France.But chased ormolu cornerings, footings, headingsand bandings, of good quality, were made and usedfor sumptuous pieces, while for fine householdfurniture the flat plate for scutcheon and handle, suchas we find on the writing-cabinet drawers, gave way,by the middle of the century, to a richer type madein the manner which Chippendale mentions. Suchappears on the double chest of drawers [Plate VI]ofwhich the Chinese fret of the cornice and chamferededges are associated with pagoda topped and frettedplates, while the shell and C-scrolled handles endwith the heads of much the same birds as were usedon the " Chinese " mirror frame and plaster work ofthe latter half of George IFs reign. The evolution ofthe double chest of drawers is rather like that of thedesk. Under William III we get chests of drawersraised on stands having only one tier of drawersabove the legs. Then the stand became a second


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The Cabriole Periodboy " did not become customary to the chamber tillmahogany prevailed, which it had done long beforethe piece illustrated was made, about 1750.

Although straight-sided, the footing has, in com-pressed form, both the lines and detail common tothe cabriole leg, while in chairs and settees the spiritof the cabriole not only dominates the leg, butinfluences the arms and back.


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Chapter 3 Seat Furniture

CHAIRS, stools and settees were the principalkinds of seat furniture that prevailed duringthis period. The bench was going out,

the sofa coming in. Meanwhile, the chair wasmultiplying and being adopted for universal use.At Hampton Court in 1699 it was not merely theState and principal bedchambers that were suppliedwith chairs, but even the " Foot Guard rooms " hadthem of the cane type, while in the Horse Guardsofficers' rooms there were " two dozen of Turkeywork chairs."

This was a great departure from the originalpurpose and etymology of the chair. It had beenof rarity and importancea seat of honour or ofoffice. Of its old meaning we have survivals in suchexpressions as the Speaker's chair and the professorialchair, while in its Greek form it is now applied notto the seat of a bishop, but to the church that con-tains it. In French, however, its retains its earlysense. Littre defines chaire as a raised seat fromwhich one speaks, teaches or commands.^ But he


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English Furnituretells how, in the sixteenth century, the people ofParis pronounced an R as if it were a Z, and out ofthis " vicious pronunciation " arose the word chaiseadopted to describe the single seat with back whichwas becoming more frequent and less heavy. Thelightest form could be moved easily and was thedelight of the talkative ladies, or caqueteuses^ whocould draw them together for a gossip, so that asixteenth-century writer, expatiating on the power ofspeech of Parisian women, tells how their seats arecalled caquetoires. Walnut was then in full use inFrance, but in England oak and insularity combinedto postpone the prevalence of the light chair untilthe Restoration, when the walnut frame and the caneseat greatly reduced the weight, although the heightof the back, the elaboration of the stretcher andthe wealth of carving were against mobility. Withthe stretcherless cabriole leg, the lowered back and therestraint of ornament which characterised the normalchair of Queen Anne's reign, additional handinesswas gained, and the ordered line of chairs along thewalls of a reception-room could be changed withouteffort for conversational and other social grouping." Set chairs and the Bohea Tea and leave us," saysPenelope to her maid in the " Lying Lovers," writtenby Steele in 1704.^ With the cabriole leg comes


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English Furniture ofthe curve in the back. The designer must haverejoiced at a combination which carries a gracefulw^aved Hne from foot to cresting. Did he inventit out of zeal for beauty, or was it imposed uponhim by a comfort-loving society that was growingfond of a stuffed back, and required that even a woodback should be so shaped as to afford the utmostsupport to the human frame by assimilating to itscontours ? Mons. Havart assigns the change inFrance to the closing period of the seventeenthcentury, and considers that the cabriole leg as wellas the curved back were a " condescension " to theconvenience of the sitter.^ Certainly the balusterleg does not consort with the curved back anythinglike so well as the cabriole, and the demand for theformer may be largely responsible for the vogue ofthe latter, and also for the flowing line that it reachedat its zenith, especially in England, where it attained

^ " Avec le dernier tiers du XVIP siecle lesformes s'assouplissent brusquement, et lesmeubles, par une condescendance jusqu' alorsignoree, se plient aux convenances de ceux quiles emploient ... les pieds de biche quisuccedent aux pieds de balustres, se d^robantpar une courbe gracieuse, laissant les talons se


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The Cabriole Periodits greatest popularity. Where and when it aroseis not known precisely. I am aware of no groundsbeyond conjecture for the theory that it came fromChina through the Dutch, and that the Europeanform arose in Holland and thence came to England.It must be borne in mind that in early Egyptian andClassic times seats were " supported upon repre-sentations of the legs of beasts of the chase." ^France under Louis XIV was supreme in arts andcrafts, and most departures originated in her work-shops. Thus the pied de biche^ the earliest formof the cabriole leg, arose there, according to Mons.Havart in the last third of the seventeenth century.It may therefore have been known to Daniel Marotbefore the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes drovehim, in 1685, from France to Holland. He becamearchitect to William of Orange, who, on gainingthe English throne in 1689, brought him overand entrusted him with much of the decoration andfurnishing of Hampton Court Palace. There wefind a set oipied de hiche chairs, and as the seats arecovered in petit pointy such as we know that QueenMary and her ladies industriously worked, the set mayhave been made for her temporary quarters, fittedup in the Tudor " water gallery," and occupied byher from 1690 to her death four years later. Here


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English Furniture ofwere set out her collections of Oriental and Delftware in the manner shown in various of Marot'sdesigns for room decorations. But neither in thesenor in any other designs by him, either of completelyfurnished rooms or of individual pieces of furniture,do I find any representation of a cabriole leg.Chairs and tables alike still show the supremacyof the baluster leg, with an occasional change toC scrolls. Clearly he was no ardent advocate of thecabriole form, and may have ignored it. Yet theattribution of the Hampton Court set to the lastyears of Queen Mary may well be correct. Sonumerous are the recognisable steps in the changefrom the late Charles II C-scrolled, heavily stretcheredand elaborately carved-backed chairs to the fullcabriole, stretcherless and simple-backed type of Annethat they must spread over a considerable numberof years. At first the leg starts out straight fromthe bottom of the seat frame, and only after an inchor two swells out into a curved knee. Such chairsare likely to be a few years earlier than those wherethe interval is eliminated as in the Hampton Courtset. There, however, we still find the front stretcherupright and carved in the Charles II manner, inconjunction with side stretchers of the flat serpentinetype. Before long the front stretcher is also of that

to Percival


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The Cabriole Perioddesign with the Hampton Court set, and the legsare similar except for the cabochon panel on eachside of the knee. The design probably remainedin use for a few years, the front stretcher alone beingmodified, so that 1695 is very probably the dateof its production. It will have taken all the yearsof Queen Anne's reign to effect the changes shownin the next example illustrated [Plate VII, 2].Stretchers have become unnecessary owing to newand improved construction. The lowering of theback has lessened the strain. The seat frame hasbecome a fairly deep visible rail, rebated to take theloose seat, and into the under side of the frame theknees of the leg, widening out in console manner,are firmly fixed and meet the fi*ont apron or drop ina manner that gives the utmost rigidity. Design aswell as construction has gone forward. There is aperfect balance and correlation of parts and of orna-ment. The hind legs are now consonant with thefront without being fully cabrioled. The seat railcompletes the curve of the leg, both in its generalform and the ample cavetto of its moulding. Thesame lines reappear in the back. The uprights,which already in the Hampton Court chairs brokefi-om the straight into a curve at one-third of theirheight, now break lower down and curve over at the


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English Furniture ofcentral splat that in its outline follows the curves ofthe uprights. There is no longer a cross-rail nearthe base of the back, but the splat rises from a plinthset on to the seat rail. The ornament is excellentin quality but restrained in quantity. Much of theeffect is gained by veneering all fairly broad surfaceswith the choicest figured walnut. Only the legs arewholly without such veneer, for it is on the flat frontof the uprights, as well as on the splat, cresting, seatrail and drop. On to it a certain amount of carvedornament, often worked out of a sheet of walnut notmore than a quarter-inch thick, is glued so securelyanddelicately that not only has it withstood two centuriesof wear, but the junction is so invisible that it needsa magnifying-glass to reveal the fact that the veneerand the carving are not out of the same piece. Inthe chair we are studyinga choice yet representativeexample of the fully evolved Queen Anne typethecarving on the knees of the front leg is nearly asshallow as that applied to the cresting and drop.But as the knee carving is always out of the solidblock of wood jfrom which the leg is shaped it isoften in much greater relief, and occurs even whenthe rest of the piece is devoid of carving, as in thesmall chair-backed settee [Plate VIII]. These backshave the same lines as the chair, both as to upright,


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The Cabriole Periodquality of the figured walnut veneer to give thedesired richness of effect, and there is no carvingexcept for the shell on the knees and the eagle headterminating the outward curves of the arms. Theclub feet show the most usual and widely adoptedmodification of the pied de biche^ whereas the chairhas the more elaborate ball and claw, inspired, as isgenerally thought, by the pearl-grasping dragon somuch represented on the then fashionable examplesof Chinese ceramics, lacquer and bronze. As thisball and claw appears in chairs that still retain thestretcher, and also in examples dating late in GeorgeIFs reign, its vogue extended throughout the cabrioleperiod, whereas the lion's paw and mask are motifsthat had a rather shorter period of popularity,occurring very sparsely before the accession ofGeorge II, soon after which the large settee illustrated[Plate IX] will have been produced. The trebleback, admitting of a 6 ft. length, is unusual, especiallyin walnut. The small settee is only 4 ft. long, andby widening the double 'back a length of 4 ft. 6 in.was easily obtainable, which was as long as it wascustomary to make this form of seat, distinctive ofthe cabriole period. Settees with stuffed backs,divided up into two and three chair backs, madeabout 1695, and having baluster legs, were till recently


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English Furniture ofwith the cabriole leg, the earliest approach to itbeing a double elbowless chair dated 1690, but offull Charles II carved, crested and cane-panelled type,at S. Martin's, Ludgate Hill.

Another peculiarity of Mr. Percival Griffiths'slarge settee is the mode of bringing the whole kneeand its side scrolls up on to the rail, which on thisaccount is unusually deep and finishes with a nulling,reversed on each side of a central flower. It wasquite normal for the knee to rise in a sort of centralcresting on to the rail, as in the small example, butin the larger the side scrolls are the same height asthe lion mask, and the top line of the leg cutsstraight across the rail. In the collection there is amahogany chair of very much the same form anddate as the walnut settee and having the lion maskand ring on the knee, but this is set in the usual wayunder the rail and has no cresting. The settee,though of walnut, belongs to the " lion " period,when mahogany was the favourite wood, and it wasexceptional to make such very fine pieces of walnut.It was therefore a piece of good fortune that enabledMr. Griffiths to obtain last year a second almostidentical settee when part of the Compton Verneyfurniture came under Messrs. Sotheby's hammer.The cresting of the back, of which the rising curve


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The Cabriole Perioddepression. A few more years and the back becomesstill squarer, while the solid splat is exchanged foropenwork scrolls and strappings.

Although the word chair came to be applied tothe light seat with a back, in universal use after theRestoration of 1660, it also retained its originalsignificance as a seat of honour or office. Thus a"Chair of State" appears more than once in the1699 Hampton Court Palace furnishing accounts.Big and rich chairs were also provided for the chieofficials of corporations, guilds, societies and masoniclodges. From a Northumbrian " mason," whosefather had been a local grand-master, came a chair,now in Mr. Percival Griffiths's collection, which is ofsimple cabriole type as regards its legs, but with aback rising to the height of 4 ft. 8 in., and havinga much-carved cresting whereof the centre shows amask backed by sun's rays and flanked with masonicemblems interspersed with flowers. A still moreelaborate chair of office is illustrated [Plate X].Here the total height is 6 ft. 9 in. A gilt eaglesits on the cresting, which takes the form of a far-stretching roll supported by an acanthus scrollpainted green and gold. A little simple inlay andthe lion heads that end the arms complete thedecoration of this otherwise plain chair, where much


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English Furniture ofvided by the splat. The seat is covered with un-dressed hairy cowskin that survived the decHne andfall of this lordly piece, w^hich was found thrownaside in a stable.

In contrast with this huge specimen is the littlechild's chair [Plate XI, i], which is only 23 in.high to the top of the back. Yet it is a well-proportioned elbow chair, enriched with acanthusscrolls. The rolls that end the spreading knees arerepeated for the feet, which thus have the " French "form of Chippendale's Director raised on a squaresub-base. Children's chairs became more frequentduring the second half of the eighteenth century,and were generally high in the leg, being intendedfor children sitting at meals with their elders. Suchwere rightly fitted with a front bar to prevent thelittle one falling out. But, except to keep it fromstraying off, there seems no reason for the strappingarrangement shown in this chair, with the seat only1 1 in. from the ground. The three holes seen inthe left arm enabled a cord to be knotted near theback, be passed through the one arm across the frontof the chair, and then be fixed to a knob on the otherarm. Tradition has it that it was made for and usedby Prince Frederick, George IPs elder son. But ashe was born in Hanover in 1707, and never came to


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The Cabriole Periodhardly be correct. The chair is likely to have beemade after 1721, the year when Frederick's youngebrother, the Duke of Cumberland, was born, and,it has royal origin, it may have been his.A popular form of writing-chair in the eighteentcentury was that with legs set angle-wise and a loback running round two sides. The one illustrate[Plate XI, 2] is an ornate specimen having the not verusual feature of a back leg fully cabrioled and enricheto match the other three. The uprights are spiralcrisply carved like all the ornament, of which thcabochon on the knee and the design of the splat arnoticeable features. The substance is mahogany, wita rich dark surface that has never been tampered withUp to the close of the seventeenth century th"elbow" chair was looked upon with a certai

amount of awe and reverence as being reserved fopersonages of importance. When Cosmo III oTuscany visited England in 1669, and dined with ichief nobility, he alone was provided with suchseat, although he might insist upon another beinbrought up for his hostess.^ We know the typ

^ "There was prepared (at Wilton) for hihighness, at the head of the table, an arm chairwhich he insisted upon the young lady's taking

Earl instantly drew forwar


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English Furniture ofprevalent under Charles II from the set of six latelyremoved from Glemham, which Sir Dudley Northhad made for the state apartment of his great housein the City of London. They are gilt; the frontlegs are C scrolled and heavily carved, as is also theelaborate stretcher that connects them. The back ishigh, square, stuffed and richly upholstered. It wasthe English form of the semi-ceremonial chair thatprevailed in France before the close of the reignof Louis XIII and continued with little variationthroughout the Steele of his long-lived son. Therethe legs were generally of the straight baluster formwith flat serpentine stretchers which reached Englandunder William III, although a C scroll, graduallydeveloping into the cabriole, was also used, and chairsof this type are thus described in the 1699 HamptonCourt accounts : J. d.For two Elbow Chair frames of

Wallnut Tree, carved fore-parts and cross frames . . 2100

sat, in the highest place; all the rest sittingupon stools."Magalotti, Travels of Cosmo theThirds London, 1821, p. 150. The samething occurred at Althorp, pp. 248-9.

^ That year's accounts have been photographed,


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The Cabriole PeriodFor 9 yds. ^ of Crimson rich

Genoa Velvet to cover themat 36^-. "^d. per yd. . .1768

For 12 yds. of Inch deep and8 yds. of Edging Crimsoningraine tufted & twisted Silkfringe w^^ Crape & Gimpt;wth 69 oz. \ at 2s, bd, forthe s^ chairs . . . 8139

For covering the s'^ chairs, find-ing dyed Lynnen & Cur"^ hairto Stuff them, w^^ two Cush-ions in the seats, & the Elbowsfilled with downe & fring'd . 500The inexpensiveness of the frames, despite their

" carved foreparts," compared with the sum lavishedon the covering is noticeable. Carved walnut chairswere certainly turned out very cheaply at this time.The same account has an item for six dozens ofcarved caned chairs at a total cost of ^^36. A yearearlier " 2 great Chaire frames of walnut tree finelycarved " ^ were provided for S. Paul's for the samesum of fifty shillings as the two for Hampton Court.For Chatsworth in 1702 a Mr. Roberts is paid 15^.


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English Furniture ofa piece for "14 Chair frames Carved and Japan'black," ^ whereas a bed which absorbed large quantities of velvets, galloons and fringes cost ^470Although this form of upholstery continued fochairs, tapestry, from Mortlake and other sourcesand needlework, largely a home product, were verfashionable. Mrs. Delany's letters show us hoQueen Mary's practice of working the coverings oher chairs became a habit with English ladies durinthe first half of the eighteenth century. No doubthere was also a trade in petit point and other needlework, for the considerable surviving quantity of whais a somewhat perishable product implies a very largoriginal output. Mr. Percival Griffiths has beenzealous collector, and has thus been able to replaclosses, so that many of his chairs and settees havneedlework coverings contemporary with, where nooriginal to, the piece of furniture they are now onSuch we find on several " elbow " chairs similar tthose above described, except that, dating fi-om aftethe advent of the Hanoverians, the back is no longehigh, and the legs are of the cabriole form in its latedevelopment. The one illustrated [Plate XII, i]interesting in having, like the writing-chair, all legalike, whereas the usual practice was to make th

^ Wheldon's account book, Chatswort


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The Cabriole Periodback legs only slightly curved and treated plainlywith club feet. In that respect and in the shape ofthe feet it differs from one illustrated by Mr. Mac-quoid/ and otherwise identical not only in design, butin the carved motifs of legs and arm supports. Onone of the set illustrated by Mr. Macquoid wasfound the label of Giles Grendey of Clerkenwell, who" Makes and Sells all Sorts of Cabinet Goods, Chairsand Glasses," so that Mr. Griffiths's chair probablycame from this workshop. Mark the constructionof the arm. It was customary at this period for thesupports to be fixed on to the side seat rails at apoint about one-third of the distance from front toback. They could thus rise straight without in-conveniencing the hoop-petticoated sitters of the fairsex. But in Grendey's chairs they rise from the toprail as a continuation of the leg, yet, by means of arapid rake back, admit of the dress flowing over thesides. Chippendale in his Director^ gives onlyone example of such construction, and that amonghis " French " chairs. There the support commenceswith a scrolled truss that greatly assists the rake back,and that we also find in a very highly finished carved-back chair in Mr. Griffiths's collection [Plate XII, 2].

^ [Macquoid, History of English Furniture^ Vol.


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English Furniture ofAcanthus leafage is the principal motif of the carving,appearing alike on the arm supports, on the uprightsand splat of the back, and on the knees of the frontlegs, where it springs from an inverted shell placedas a high cresting/ The back is of the square shapewhich superseded the Queen Anne hoop about 1730,but the splat, despite its perforations, retains much othe older outline. The legs, however, end in the" French " feet that Chippendale had adopted to theexclusion of the ball and claw when he first publishedhis book in 1754. That is early for the form of tharm supports which, even in France, was not muchin vogue before the Louis XVI style prevailed.

Stools were for long the only kind of lighportable seat, and with the bed and the coffer arapt to appear as the only furniture of chambersin mediaeval and even in Tudor inventories.

^ This arrangement had a queer look when Mr.Griffiths acquired the chair, for at one period itowner had a fancy for the loose seat and rebate typeand had veneered the rail with mahogany of verdifferent quality and colour from the rest of thchair. By this and from the nail-marks at the basof the arm supports his tampering was quite evidentand Mr. Griffiths has very properly given back to iits


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The Cabriole PeriodThey were still universal in the seventeenth century,and John Evelyn, speaking of the generationbefore his own, says that " nothing was moveablesave joynt stools." ^ Although the light chair wasdisplacing them even before the cabriole periodbegan, they still had their uses, and, especially inFrance, had an immense ceremonial importance.Inferiors mostly stood, while their superiors wereseated. But if you were only a little inferior, theprivilege of sitting on a tabouret might be accorded.It was a privilege eagerly sought after underLouis XIV, when duchesses had the droit dutabouret. If it was granted to anyone below thatrank there arose almost a crisis at Court, as when,under Louis XV, D'Argenson obtained it for hiswife when he was Garde des Sceaux? The customobtained recognition in England, where the wordtabouret was little used except when referring toFrench Court customs. It did, however, findoccasional colloquial acceptance, and, under dateOct. II, 1689, Lord Bristol makes this entry in hisaccounts :

Paid then to Noul Tirpane, afrench varnisher, in full for 10

^ [Evelyn, Misc, Writings^ p. 700, 1825 ed.]^ [Duclos, CEuvres^ Vol. V, p. 330.


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English Furniture ofchairs, a couch & two taboretts& all other accounts to this day 12 o o

Of their ceremonial use in this country we get manyexamples. When Duke Cosmo dined with Englishnoblemen he himself, as we have seen, sat in anarm-chair, but the rest of the company had stools.^The Hampton Court furnishing accounts underWilliam III show that with every Chair of Statewas provided no other chair, but at least half adozen high stools, four forms and a footstool.Many of these survive, and two sets of stools,probably dating from 1699, show the cabriole legin process of evolution. On the occasion of themarriage of Frederick, Prince of Wales, to a princessof Saxe-Gotha in 1736, there arose an acute tabouretdispute. Frederick wished his brothers and sisters,who were to dine with him, to sit on stools, whilehe and his bride had arm-chairs. But the Englishprincesses objected, and remained in the anti-chamberuntil the stools were replaced by chairs. Theywere then waited on by their own servants ; butafter dinner, when these were gone, they " wereforced to go without their coffee for fear that, beingpoured out by a servant of the Princess, they might


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English Furniture ofrectangular bars descend taperingly, connected onthe outward sides by foliated scrolls, and endingwith four little foliated " French " feet.

Settees remained the most fashionable form ofplural seating during the whole cabriole period. Wehave seen [Plates VIII and IX] two examples inwalnut with fiddle back and solid splat, but underGeorge II these were superseded by the squareback and the open splat in mahogany. There wasvery little modification in the leg, the ball and clawremaining in vogue till almost the end of the reign,although Chippendale, keen on novelties, ignoredit in his Director in 1754. The example given[Plate XV] dates from very little before that year,judging from the characteristics of the back. Thedesign of the splats and their embodiment with thetop are ingenious. Resting on a lyre-shaped lowersection, a large C scroll carries a smaller one aboveit, and the two join to form half the top, whichitself merges with the upright, and rolls over ina volute, giving the idea of leather as a materialand of Jacobean strapwork as a manner. For therest, leafage of the acanthus kind is the principalmotif, appearing alike on upright and arm, knee andapron. The singularity of the piece lies in thesingle central uprightan approach to the coming


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The Cabriole Periodbecome a serious rival before the period ended. Thebench was generally caned and cushioned underCharles II, and one end was occasionally raised toform a day-bed. Various forms of couches hadbecome fashionable. Thus Lady Wishfort, expectinga lover, says :

" I'll receive him in my little dressing-roomthere's a couchyes, yes, I'll give the firstimpression on a couch. I won't lie neither,but loll and lean upon one elbow, with onefoot a little dangling off, jogging in athoughtful way." ^

The word couch, in its meaning of a day-seat, cameearly into use, and even in the fifteenth century onemight " sit on a cowche that was covered with acloth of silke,"^ whereas sofa, even in the seventeenthcentury, is only mentioned by Eastern travellers todescribe a raised divan. But with the eighteenthcentury, sofa and couch begin to mean the same thing,and in 1702 the Chatsworth accounts show that ^7are paid " For 2 large Saffaws carved." ^ The one

^ [Congreve, The JFay of the World^ Act IV,Scene i, produced in 1700.]

^ \JSfew Rng. Dic.^ under Couch.]


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English Furnitureillustrated [Plate XVI] dates from considerably later,and marks the close of the cabriole period. Withits French feet, over the volute of which a leaf isdelicately spread, it is quite in the manner of Chip-pendale after he published the Director^ and its fineform and finish make it probable that he produced it.In the days when that was no special attraction itwas bought by a tenant farmer from Sudeley Manorfor fifty shillings, and was afterwards found by adealer in his farmhouse. It is an ample piece, 8 ft.long, and is now covered in old green velvet. Thecushion on it has this singularity, that whereas thecentre panel with its landscape and figure subject ishand-worked, and likewise three sides of the border,the fourth side, although of the same pattern as theothers, is woven. A remnant from a tapestry hangingor cover, it no doubt served as a model to theassiduous needleworker who welded it into her petitpoint production.


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Chapter 4 Tables and TripodsTHE mediaeval Englishman knew little of any-table except that on which his food was set.It is a word that finds scarcely any mention inearly inventories, since small ones, which afterwardscame to be used in endless variety, were as yetunknown. Thus the table formed no part of the

furniture of the chamber, while in the hall, which formany purposes was needed as an open space, remov-able ones of trestle form were customary, and weregenerally omitted from the inventories. In thesixteenth century heavy-framed oak tables made theirappearance. They held their own for a long while,the provincial joiner producing them on traditionallines up to the very end of the seventeenth century.But their size and weight made them immobile." The shovelboard and other long tables, both inhall and parlour, were as fixed as the freehold,"^wrote Evelyn in 1690 of his father's times. Yet itwas still the custom to bring in and remove tableswhen the company at a meal was large. DukeCosmo III stayed the night with Richard Neville at


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English Furniture ofBillingbear in Berkshire when on his way from Oxfordto London in 1669, and after breakfast "the tableswere removed."^ It should be noticed that the pluralnumber is used, and the chronicler of the Duke'stravels notes the English custom of serving dinneron tables of oval figure. They will have been not ofthe trestle, but of the gate-legged type, that had thenbecome frequent, and which, though still mostly ofoak, and heavy when of large size, were renderedportable by their flap form. As we know them theyare mostly small, and no doubt small ones alwayspredominated. But with the introduction of moreconvenient types, such as the leaf system, the big flaptable would be ousted from the dining-room and bebroken up, so that their scarcity now is no argumentagainst their original frequency, and examples at whichtwelve can sit are still found. Some such, datingfrom Charles IFs time, are of walnut with twistedlegs, and the prevalence of the type is shown byRoger North, when he was staying with the Beaufortsat Badminton in 1680, noting as peculiar that theduke's own table "was an oblong and not an oval."^The use of moderate-sized tables in quantity extended

^ [Magalotti, Travels ofCosmo the Third^ London,1821, p. 278.]


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The Cabriole Periodto the household, for the same visitor says ofthe dukethat, '^In his capital home" he had "nine originaltables covered every day."^ The gate table w^ithflaps was given cabriole legs after the eighteenthcentury opened. But such a form is not very con-vincing for large tables, either in appearance or forconvenience, and they may never have widely obtained.Certainly survivals are rare compared with cabrioletables of every other form then fashionable. ButMr. Griffiths has secured two excellent specimens inmahogany. The smaller one [Plate XVII] is round,just under 5 ft. across, and it has four legsof whichtwo swing out to support the flapswith lion maskknees and ball and claw feet. The larger table haslegs of similar design but six in number. The topis an oval 6 ft. 2 in. by 5 ft. 2 in., so that eight peoplecan sit round it comfortably. The habit of separatemoderate-sized tables may well be the reason of theslow adoption of any system of table capable of largeexpansion. In George Ill's time the fashion camein of two half-circles capable of being hooked orclipped together to make a circle, or set wide apartand the space between filled by sections on the gate-legged principle of a four-legged centre with a flapon each side. Any number of these could be linked


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English Furniture oftogether and a numerous company be seated at theone table. But though such tables were not usualuntil the latter part of the eighteenth century, thereare certain survivals of an earlier style showing thatthe idea was known and occasionally adopted. SirWilliam Jones, a successful lawyer, built RamsburyManor about 1680, and there we find two Charles IIwalnut half-circles^ that hook together, and probablyhad centre portions to make an extension. Of laterdate and in mahogany, no doubt of the cabriole periodbut with straight legs for the structural advantage, isthe Houghton table with its elaborate system ofdraw-out legs, flaps and central sections.^ At Holy-rood Palace there is a table with almost straight, butround, legs, terminating in ball-and-claw feet, thatforms sections with flaps clipping together and there-fore capable ofindefinite multiplication and extension.^Though excellent pieces of simple craftsmanship,these tables seem very plain when compared with therest of the get-up of the dining-rooms in which theywere placed. But then neither richness nor newfashion mattered much in this article of furniture, as

^ [Illustrated by Mr. Macquoid, Age of Walnut^Fig. 33.]

^ [Illustrated by Mr. Macquoid, Age ofMahogany^


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The Cabriole Periodin all representations thereof we find the cloth hang-ing low, so that not merely the top, but also theframing, is unseen. Quite different was the treatmentof the side-tables then in fashion, for on them wereprofusely lavished both fine material and elaboratedesign in accord with the sumptuous decoration ofthe rich man's dining-room. For great countrymagnates they were produced of enormous size withaudaciously carved and gilt frames supporting marbletops of rare quality and great thickness. Men ofmore normal taste and purse had them on a some-what smaller scale with mahogany frame. Of suchMr. Percival Griffiths has brought together four veryrepresentative and well-preserved pieces. The largest[Plate XVIII], dating from about 1730, carries a topof Breche Violette marble, 64 in. long by 32 in. wide.The mahogany frame has a wave pattern frieze withcarved aprons below it, and the legs have ball-and-claw feet. A very similar, but rather smaller, tablehas a much bigger central shell to the apron, whichis exceptionally bold and massive in its carving. Amuch less important pieceonly 40 in. longhasa plain frieze of choice veneer, and the feet are frillyfurred lion paws. These three side-tables are almuch of the same date, but the fourth onelikewiseabout 40 in. longcomes nearer to the close of the


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English Furniture ofAway from the dining-room small light tables

found ready acceptance during the latter end of theseventeenth century. But there is seldom anythingso distinctive about those of that period as to showthat any one form was restricted to an exclusive use.Distinctive names, however, begin to occur. In 1690Evelyn published ^^ Mundus Muliebris^ or the Ladies'Dressing-Room Unlock'd," wherein a tea-table is oneof the many novel and luxurious adjuncts enumerated.^In the same year Lord Bristol, furnishing his newhouse in St. James's Square, pays ^10 "to Medina yJew for a Tea-table & 2 pair of China cupps fordear wife."^ Much oriental porcelain was bought for" dear wife " during that and the following year, forthere are a score of payments to various dealers, sixentries being for cups and saucers and two for teapots.Vases and large pieces were, no doubt, placed onmantel and other shelves as designed by Marot forHampton Court. But the teapots and cups would beset out on tables, which soon had a raised edge orgallery for the protection of the precious little pieces.In the cabriole period such tables, when small, werefixed or hinged on to a central pillar rising out ofa tripod base. The example given [Plate XIX]

^ [Evelyn, Af/xc. Writings^ 1825 edition, p. 700.]


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The Cabriole Periodconsists of a round tray, about two feet across andtilting up at will, set on a tripod, of which theunusual detail is the human mask on the knee of thecabriole-shaped legs.

It is very solidly constructed, there being muchweight of mahogany in the beautifully carved pillarand footing, but it was intended to be carried about,as is shown by the four hand openings that break theline of the balustered rail. It may therefore beassigned to the service of tea rather than to thedisplay of china, whereas the oblong four-legged table[Plate XX] is better suited to the latter purpose,although much greater size is attained with littlemore weight. It is a piece exquisite in design andexecution, a cabriole precursor of the Sheraton mannerwhen the craftsman, having attained the highestmastery over both material and construction, was ableto give durability and strength combined with aflimsiness of appearance that seems to deny thoseutilitarian qualities. Much water must have flowedunder London Bridge before the devotion to massive-ncss that marks the early Georgian use of mahoganywas replaced by the desire for cutting down theamount of wood to a minimum which resulted in theproduction of the example illustrated. It will there-fore date from about the time of Chippendale's first


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English Furniture ofbut the other cabrioled with French feet and elaboratestretchers of ornate Chinese type with a tree standingat the central point of junction. He describes themas : " Tables for holding each a Set of China, andmay be used as Tea-Tables. . . . Those Tableslook very well when rightly executed." ^The Director sheds little light on the character

and uses of the varieties of small tables that prevailedin the cabriole period. Besides these " tea or china "tables he only gives a couple of little " breakfasttables with flaps and four straight legs. There is notripod table, if we except a little kettle-stand, so thatit would seem that this form was already beginningto lose favour. But it is a very distinct feature ofearly Georgian furnishing, the majority of survivingexamples belonging to the latter half of George IFsreign. Such is a very fine specimen belonging toMr. Percival Griffiths [Plate XXI, i]. The top,instead of having the usual round form, is oblong,with undulating sides and cut-off corners. It restsfirmly on a quintette of short columns and is hingedto turn up. The gallery bends over basketwise withrichly modelled pierced scrollwork. The columnand tripod have acanthus-leaf ornament, and the feetare of a late and decadent ball-and-claw type. Suchtables, and the smaller stands of the same form, could


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The Cabriole Periodeasily be set about for the convenience of ladiestaking tea or needing adjuncts and lights for theirneedlework. But neither they nor chairs were leftpermanently in the central portions of reception-rooms, which were intended to hold people ratherthan furniture. In mediaeval and Tudor times thelatter was so scarce that immobile pieces were notin the way because there were so very few of them.With the multiplication of the numbers and thepurposes of the pieces, thought was at once given toa mitigation of their weight and clumsiness. Walnutreplaced oak, and the flap, the tilt and the slidebecame usual table features. When the full surfacewas not needed such pieces, assuming their compactform, projected little from the walls they lined, andthe area of the room was available for a crowd moreaccustomed to stand than ourselves. The gate-legged table with two vertically hinged flaps wasone form. The half-square or round with one flapfolding over the fixed part, or opening out tocomplete the square or circle, was another, and thisbecame almost universally adopted for card-playing.An early form, in oak, occurs in a style that betokensthe pre-Restoration period, but as the chief purposeswere no doubt card-playing, drinking and such con-vivialities as were taboo under the Puritan regime, its


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English Furniture ofthe final specialisation of the card-table only becamefrequent within the cabriole period. Yet two and ahalf centuries before that cards were a commodity insufficient demand in England for the London makersto have so strong an objection to free trade in themas to obtain an Act prohibiting their import. Card-playing was then esteemed a mild form of pastime,and, unlike such " lowde dysports " as '' harpyng,lutyng and syngyn," was permissible in a householdstill mourning for its deceased lord.^ In Charles IPstime its extreme popularity at Court made it usual atWhitehall all seven days of the week, and Evelyn,moralising over the death ofthe King in 1685, recordshow on a previous Sunday, " twenty of the greatcourtiers and other dissolute persons were at Bassettround a large table." ^ This will probably havebeen a walnut gate-table, for there was not yet adistinct card-table even of small size, although suchwere then being specialised for chess and back-gammon. They were not folders, but the top,inlaid as a chess-board, slid or lifted off, disclosinga wellthe depth of what in an ordinary tablewould be a shallow drawerinlaid for backgammon.Samuel Pepys possessed one, the top of which is


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The Cabriole Periodillustrated by Mr. Macquoid/ and there was aspecimen at Hamilton Palace, which was rebuilttowards the close of the seventeenth century byDuke William and Duchess Anne.

With the cabriole came the folding card-table ;but at first the plan of covering the inner surfacewith a woven material glued on was not generallyadopted. Not only veneer, but lacquer was apt toform the top, and that this was not used bare for teaand such purposes, nor covered with a cloth for theconvenience of taking up the cards, is shown by suchsurfaces being, at the corners, rounded with a slightlyraised moulding to hold the candlesticks, and at theedge, right-handed for each player, an oval depressionfor money. These are found in mahogany and ofthe time of George II. But there are Queen Anneexamples with woven material. This might beneedlework, such as we find at Raby Castle on awalnut table of about 17 12. The walnut is usedfor the banding round the edge and for the candleroundels, but the rest of the surface is needlework.Here there are no money hollows, but they, as wellas the candle circles, occur in a table at Penshurst,similarly covered, but dating a score of years later.It is of mahogany, and has lion mask and paw onknee and foot, resembling those of a table of the


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English Furniture ofsame date now illustrated [Plate XXII]. Here,however, the lion holds a ring in his mouth. Thewhole character of the leg and the nulling of the loweredge of the frame exactly resemble the treatment ofthe large settee shown on Plate IX, and as boththese choice pieces have also the characteristic ofbeing of walnut although dating from the mahogany-age, they are likely to be by the same maker, if notof the same set. The card-table is of unusuallylarge size, 38 in. across when open. The top hasbeen re-covered, but in the old material and onthe old lines. The practice of using a close-wovengreen cloth, similar to that of billiard-tables, andclean cut against the edge of the banding, came later,and is characteristic of the round straight-leggedcard-tables of George Ill's time. The most usualearlier covering was green velvet, with a narrow goldgalloon, fixed with small-headed gilt nails about aninch apart, masking the junction of wood and stuff.So normal was this before the close of Queen Anne'sreign that Pope, in a mock heroic description of agame of ombre, calls the cards

. . . party coloured troops, a shining trainDrawn forth to combat on the velvet plain.

The multiplication and development of the card-


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The Cabriole Periodtable was then called for by the rage for gamblingwith card-playing as its basis. " Rather than foregomy cards, I'll forswear my visits, fashions, my walking,friends and relations," ^ cries Lady Lurewell after aruinous loss. Nor were they merely a pastime forthe frivolous ; for, describing the Assemblies fashion-able in 1 74 1 5 Lady Hertford writes to Lady Pomfret,who was in Italy : " Boys and girls sit down asgravely to whist-tables as fellows of colleges used todo formerly. It is actually a ridiculous, though, Ithink, a mortifying, sight that play should becomethe business of the nation from the age of fifteen tofourscore. I am to have one of these rackets nextWednesday." ^

Some card-tables were fitted with a double flap,thus providing both a velvet and a wood top. Suchmay Pope have had in mind for his game of ombreas, the moment it is over,

" Sudden the board with cups and spoons iscrown d ^

and the company drink coffee. Such tables might^ [Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair^ Act II, sc. 2,

first performed in 1701.^ ^Correspondence of Lady Hertford and Lady


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English Furniture ofbe of round form and dating from Queen Anne'stime, as does onenot, however, with double flapbelonging to Mr. Percival Griffiths, with legs of thepied de biche type merging into the full cabriole.But the square shape, with serpentine front and pro-jecting corners to accommodate candlesticks, prevailedthroughout the cabriole period. Thus the form oboth the tables illustrated is the same, althoughthey date some thirty years apart. The later one[Plate XXIII] may, indeed, not have been made tilGeorge III was king, for, though the legs are stilcabrioled, they show the same lightness alreadycommented on in the oblong " tea or china " tablillustrated on Plate XX. The whole treatment andornamentation of the card-table shows the latLouis XV influence that possessed Chippendalewhen he published the Director, It is an exception-ally finished piece, and the fine quality of the woodwill be the excuse for the use of walnut so long aftemahogany had established itself in popular esteem.It is in untouched condition, and retains its originafiddle varnish surface.

As a change from needlework and cards manyladies dabbled in art. The rather large and heavdrawing-tables, with various fitments and tops to fiat any angle, which began to be made for architectand artists before the close of the cabriole period


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The Cabriole Periodthat the idea could be adapted to the use of the fairis shown by the example given [Plate XXI, 2]. Itis a charming little piece in Chippendale's Chinesestyle, with an oblong top, 2 ft. long by 1 8 in. wide.The double top when raised reveals a shallowdepression wherein unfinished drawings can lie flat,while there is room in the little spaces afforded atthe ends by the bowing-in of the front for pencilsand other such material. The rachets, that enablethe top to be fixed at any angle, work in a curvedcase, making, with the corresponding flat slat, anX-shaped filling to the sides with perforated orna-ment. These, and the stretchers below them andalong the back, render the cluster-column legs,fragile as they look, quite capable of sustainingconsiderable weight. It is in the best manner ofthe straight " Gothick " leg that began the oustingof the cabriole form and was the forerunner of thetapering square leg of Sheraton times.The table, such as we have seen it for china

display or tea-taking, was not the first or by anymeans the only use made of the tripod base. Itappears to have come to us from France, where thatform of foot was affected by such late seventeenth-century designers as B6rain and Marot for the tallstands called giieridons. They were part of thesumptuous get-up of the reception-rooms of the


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English Furniture ofof silver or of wood gilt. For placing ^^ Jlambeauou porcelaines " is Littre's description of their uswhile a design by Berain shows one with a coverevase on it. But their height, anywhere betwee4 and 5 ft., made them as a resting-place fbranched candlesticks exactly suitable, togethewith chandeliers and wall sconces, for lightinsaloons where people assembled for conversatioand mostly stood. Thus it is as candlestands onlthat Chippendale describes them, although in htime they were in more general use on a humblescale. While he gives four examples on one plate'' which, if finely executed, and gilt with burnishegold, will have a very good effect," ^ no gold is evesuggested as an alternative for those on three otheplates, mahogany having become the customarmaterial. The Marot type, of course, found iway to Hampton Court, the tripod being a dwaradaptation of the C scroll and stretcher form thawe found him using as an alternative to the balusteleg in chairs and tables. This form continued witmodifications under Anne, and it is probably not tiher successor was on the throne that the cabriolshape, with acanthus knee and club or claw footmakes its appearance, and that mahogany beginto be the substance. Mr. Percival Griffiths has


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The Cabriole Periodpair answering to that description and dating fromabout 1725, the pillar being of baluster typemassively treated out of material 5! in. in diameter.Later on, with the incoming of the Chinese taste,a more elaborate building up was introduced ; thepillar became only part of the design between tripodand top, or was entirely replaced by a storeyedscheme of scrolls, frets and carved devices. Such isthe character of Chippendale's designs, one or two ofwhich quite closely resemble another ofMr. Griffiths'sspecimens [Plate XXIV, i]. The scroll is now re-placing the cabriole for the tripod, on which rests atriangular plinth supporting three scrolled uprightsof the same moulding as the tripod, but breakingout into cusp foliation when they meet and cluster.They open again to support a second triangle,between which and the hexagon top with Chinesefret rail is a third three-membered storey. Thedate will be about 1755, and the height of49 ins. is normal for the period, Chippendaletelling us of his examples that " they are fromthree Feet, six Inches, to Four Feet, six inches inHeight."

Early in the cabriole period it had been foundconvenient to have much lower stands on whichcandlesticks might be placed to light the seated


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English Furniture ofwool and other adjuncts without fear of their falHoff. Two out of Mr. Griffiths's fairly numeroupieces of this kind are illustrated. The shorter onis 202 ins. high [Plate XXV, i]. Tripod anpillar are richly carved with acanthus, and therean acanthus valence to the top which is 1 1 inacross and hollowed out so as to give a raised edgeThe 10 in. candlestick on it is of wood witstrings of inlay round its base. The other stand ancandlestick [Plate XXV, 2] are decidedly highernearly 4 ft. 6 ins. to the top of the latter, a gooheight to serve the reading desks and stands thein use. The shade affixed to the candle, nowlargely used, had not then been thought of, bulittle independent screens were occasionally madeThe example illustrated [Plate XXIV, 2] has a totheight of 15 ins., the whole, including the panebeing in mahogany. It is modelled on the planthe then fashionable pole screens. In days whethe only source of heat in a draughty room was aopen fireplace, it was well to sit as close by itpossible, and the only preventive to being roasted othe one side while the other was chilled was thscreen, of which mention is made for the purposewarding off fire heat as early as the fifteenth centuryTwo hundred years later a meditative bishop liken

screen


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The Cabriole Periodheate of the unjust displeasure of the great." ^ Ihave not met with a survival of that date, but thoseof the end of the seventeenth century were of theframe type, the panel working up and down betweentwo uprights. At Hampton Court there is one withexactly the same design of footing as the gu^ridonsalready mentioned and ascribed to Marot. Althoughthis form continued it was not so fashionable underthe Georges as the pole type, which was equallyefficacious and lighter to move. Ofthese Mr. Griffithshas got together very excellent and representativeexamples, of which two are now illustrated. Theone [Plate XXVI, 2] has the interesting singularityof feet carved in the semblance of the front half of amastiff or bear, perhaps an allusion to the crest orsupporters of the family for whom it was made.Shell, acanthus and husk are the motifs of the richlycarved tripod and pillar. The panel with roundedtop is filled with a needlework presentment ofElijah being fed by the ravens, framed in a floralborder. Why, with stag, goat and rabbit at hisfeet, he needed this attention on the part of thebirds is a question which did not occur to the fairneedleworker. The other screen [Plate XXVI, i]


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English Furniture ofhas dolphin-head feet to its Hghter stand withshallower carving. The oblong needlework panehas a pastoral subject in its central oval, and idelicately edged with a half-circular mahoganybaguette, carved with ribbon and flowers ouof material only seven-eighths of an inch idiameter.

Other tripod pieces, fashionable during the cabriolperiod are two and three tiered waiters, and thexiguous washing accommodation which Chippendalcalls ^' Bason Stands." ^ Though very insufficienfrom a modern standpoint, their design and finisare as high as that of more important pieces, anbring home to us the excellence and originalitof our eighteenth-century cabinet-makers. If, iambitious grandeur, they fell short of the Frenchto whose invention and artistry they owed muchthey, alone among other nations of the age, formea school of their own and produced every sort opiece in the highest quality adapted to its purposand to the scale of living of its purchasers. Thisnot an insular view, but is admitted by Frencauthorities, who, although claiming France as thteacher, admit the EngHsh creative power, whilranking Germany as entirely under French tutelag


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The Cabriole Periodand mere copyists so far as worthy output isconcerned.^

^ " L'Angleterre si elle subit, elle aussi,Tinfluence frangaise, si elle connut le mobilierde I'dpoque de Louis XIV, le style rocaille etle style antique, sut du moins, de bonne heure,donner une physionomie bien personelle a cesdivers emprunts et cr^er k son tour, k la fin duXVIIP siecle, un mobilier qu'on pent ne pasadmirer dans toutes ses parties, mais qui luiappartient en propre."Emile Molinier, His-toire des arts Appliquis ci I'Industrie^ Vol. Ill,p. 238.


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Chapter 5 Looking-GlassesLOOKING-GLASSES played an important part

in the furnishing of rooms during the cabrioleperiod, the favourite position assigned to

them being between windows, where pictures showpoorly, but mirrors are an incident that adds to thefeeling of light and extent. Such use was wellestabUshed under William III, and in the 1699Hampton Court Palace furnishing accounts we findthe item : ^ s. d.

For two Tables and standssuitable to the two panelsof glass to be set betweenthe windows . . . 50 o o

Three years earlier Lord Bristol was getting into hisSt. James's Square house, and among the expenses isthe sum of qo paid to

Mr. Gerreit Johnson y^ Cabinett-maker infull of his bill for y"" black sett of glass table &stands and for y^ glasses over y^ chimneys &elsewhere in dear wife's apartment."

^ [Hampton Court Palace accounts, 1699.]^ Bristol^


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English FurnitureHere we have the same arrangement of side-table setagainst the wall between windows, with looking-glassoccupying the panel above as at King William'sThames-side palace, and also the mirror which, asstill seen in that king's bedchamber, filled the longnarrow panel above the chimney arch and below thelarge panel, which in sumptuous rooms was wontto be surrounded with Grinling Gibbons's carvings.Lord Bristol's glasses were framed in " black "/. e,black lacquer with or without ornament, copied fromChinese and Japanese examples, such as are mentionedby Evelyn as fashionable in ladies' dressing-rooms atthis period.^ For this purpose a frame with wideconvex moulding and a large cresting was usual, andthe same model was also used for marquetrie. Thetwo types of decoration may be readily compared atHam House, where, in the " yellow bed-chamber,"are placed stands and mirrors of cognate design, inlacquer to the left and in marquetrie to the rightof the chimney-piece. Of the latter Mr. PercivalGriffiths has a good and typical example [PlateXXVII]. The background is of walnut-wood.Lilies, carnations, tulips and ranunculuses, all greatfavourites of the period, are the principal flowers, veryexactly rendered, and perched among them is the

^


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English Furniture ofequally favourite parrot. Wood, variously decoratedwas not the only, perhaps not even the most usual, forof framing under William III, when glass itself, cutmoulded, coloured and etched, was freely used for thpurpose. The majority of such mirrors were made iEngland, although very elaborate examples still camfrom Venice, where the Earl of Manchester went odiplomatic missions under both William and Anneand will have brought to Kimbolton Castle an exquisitpiece of the kind which, in small compass, plays thwhole gamut of the Venetian glass-maker's art.had flourished there from mediaeval days, but Draconian laws had not prevented some of the workerbeing enticed away by envious sovereigns, so that thart, as practised in Venice for table glass as welas silver-backed mirrors, gradually spread to othecountries, and reached England under James I. I1615 he grants a patent for "the making olooking-glass plates " to Sir Robert Mansel, whnine years later petitions for its renewal in consideration of his having brought " into the Kingdommany expert strangers from forraigne parts " to teacthe craft to Englishmen.^ People of not more thamoderate means began to acquire them, suchMrs. William Murray, whose husband obtaineHam House under Charles I, and who, before he


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The Cabriole Perioddeath in Commonwealth times, arranged for thedistribution of her effects. Of her looking-glassesshe classed three as large, and so her eldest daughteris to have the "greatest" and the two youngerdaughters those that came next in size.^ No doubtthey would have been thought small before thecentury ended, just as the largest plates made underWilliam III were pigmies compared to those thatChippendale supplied for Harewood under GeorgeIII.The Restoration of 1660 gave a great impulse to

looking-glass manufacture as to all branches of thedecorative arts. That erratic genius, the second andlast Villiers to be Duke of Buckingham, in theintervals of being the leading Minister of State of" Cabal " fame, and of indulging in spendthrift de-bauch, founded in or soon after 1670 the Lambethglass works where in 1677 Evelyn found themmaking " looking-glasses far larger and better thanany that come from Venice." ^ The factory, with aVenetian craftsman named Rosetti as chief expert," was carried on with amazing success in the firm ofDawson Bowles & Co.," until 1780, being locatedin Vauxhall Square.^ At first the plates were small,

^ [Ham House MSS.]2 Vol. II,


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English Furniture ofbut ere the seventeenth century closed the improvedFrench methods of casting plates were introducedtogether with the processes of moulding, etc.necessary for the borders and ornamented frames.Even then the customary sizes, to our notionsvi^ere somewhat exiguous and a large mirror had tbe made of several plates. Fortunately the usuabetween-window position made a narrow shapapplicable, and, with a greater or less augmentatioby borders, a single-plate width was quite sufficientalthough two or three were necessary to obtain threquisite height, which might well amount to 8 ftin one of the lofty saloons of that age. A foot lesthan this is the height of one in this manner ownedby Mr. Griffiths [Plate XXVIII, i]. It is composedof two plates, of which the lower one is just unde4 ft. in height and just over 2 ft. in width. It hathe bevelled edge then considered so essential that ihad to occur whatever the shape or purpose of thpiece of glass might be. Thus it runs round thtwice-broken curve of the round-topped upper platethe intricate outline of the cresting or hood and thedge of every part of the border. Hood and bordeare decorated in gold on a black ground behind thglass, the design of the former, with its central baskeof flowers, reminding us of the marquetrie exampleRound the border, and aiding the back in keepin


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The Cabriole PeriodBevelling and moulding of the same very shallowkind were elaborated into decorative designs, as may-be seen in another example belonging to Mr. PercivalGriffiths. No doubt this was also a tall specimen, butthe lower plate will have got broken or otherwise de-stroyed, and the top made good as a complete mirrorby placing at its base the bottom border and section offraming so that every bit of what survives is original.The border, with three flats and three hollows cast-ing prismatic lights, runs round the plate and thenrises up to form a cresting. There is a very slightwooden frame between border and plate and a largerexterior one decorated in gold and black lac. It isa very restrained but very refined piece and camefrom Finedon Hall in Northamptonshire. Anyonewho visits country houses of the period that haveretained their old gear knows how numerous theselooking-glasses are. Even the sale of the placeata time when such objects did not fetch prices makingthem worth bringing up to Christie'sdid not alwaysmean their displacement. When, a century or soago, the Herefordshire Hampton Court passed fromthe descendants of the Lord Coningsby, who had re-built and refurnished it under William III, most ofthe contents remained and among them a wholeseries of Vauxhall looking-glasses, with frames in

well as several glass-


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English Furniture ofof the cresting. In the same manner, but far moresumptuous, are a pair of mirrors in the State bed-chamber at Chatsworth. The total height approaches12 ft., and though the central plate is very large fothe period, yet to make up such dimensions requirean elaborate and multiple bordering, with a rich andmany-pieced cresting wherein amid other moulded,coloured and etched devices are the ducal arms andsupporters. An item in the accounts ^ may very welrefer to them :

Z s, d.1703. Paid Mr. Gumley for

two large looking-glasses . . 200 o o

Paid Mr. Chadwickfor going to Chats-worth with y^glasses . . 16 2 6

So precious were they that, unlike any other objecrecorded in the accounts, they needed personallconducting. The Gumleys were evidently important dealers in fine furniture. In March 1693 JohnGumley advertises his "Japan cabinets, Indian andEnglish"^ in the London Gazette. In 1702 Lord

^ [John Weldon's account book, ChatsworthLibrary.]


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The Cabriole PeriodBristol pays Peter Gumley ^29 for China and Japanware.^ Between the windows of the " pubHc dining-room " at Hampton Court Palace are two big looking-glasses of the early Georgian period. The plates aremuch larger than of yore, yet to make up the desiredsize, besides the more important gilt-wood framingthat had become the decorative feature of mirrors,there are borders of plain bevelled glass in strips, thejoints of which are covered with little slips of wood,gilt, about 4 in. long and i in. wide, a single cavettomoulding running round a flat in one of which occurs,in very slight relief, the word Gumley, proving thatwell on in the cabriole period one of the family wasmaking and selling finely framed looking-glasses, ob-taining the plates, no doubt, from " Dawson Bowles& Co." Another illustration [Plate XXVIII, 2]shows one of a pair exhibiting the character of suchmirrors. They follow the lines of the overmantelsof the period, but the latter framed pictures ratherthan mirrors, as we may see at Ditchley and Hough-ton among a host of places. At Hamilton Palacethere was, until 19 19, a suite of rooms with fixedbroken-pedimented overmantels framing pictures andalso movable gilt-framed broken-pedimented mirrors.Two very big ones, not a pair, occupied their properplace in two-windowed rooms of this large-scaled


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English Furniture ofhouse, whereas Mr. Griffiths's lesser pair will havbeen designed for a three-windowed room ofsmaller-scaled house. They resemble one of thosat Hamilton Palace, having the same scrolled cornerand the same feather-coifed female mask in the pediments, which, however, in the pair, are not brokenbut of small size standing free of the corners wherthe scroll is continued as an upward-turned leaf, thuemphasising the curved line in a model that largelignored it. Frames, both of overmantels and omirrors, long withstood the spirit of the cabriolperiod that banned the straight line wherever it coulbe avoided. But in 1740 the spirit triumphed anthe curved scroll became the dominant featureevery form and detail of the looking-glass, the wabeing thus open for a perfect debauch of Chinesmotifs, including even entire Chinaland scenes as wfind in the books of Thomas Johnson, Ince and Mayhew, and even of Chippendale. In his later timunbroken expanse of plate was an object considereworth striving and paying for, and for wealthy clienhe obtained them larger even than the 5 ft. 6 in.height which is the largest quoted price in tPlateglass Book of 1773. This worship of mersize was a misfortune from the decorative pointview. The great plate-glass mirror gives somethinof the same cold vacuous appearance to the room th


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The Cabriole Periodno more delightful mirrors than those made up sovariously but pleasingly from Vauxhall plates at theoutset and during the early half of the cabriole periodof which those now illustrated are representative.


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Chapter 6 Miscellanea for the Rating-RooTHE elaborations of civilisation and settlsociety grew rapidly during the cabrioperiod, and in no place more than in th

dining-room. There had been splendid feastinwith every sort of device for dressing food. Buthe furniture of the hall or parlour where food waserved and the objects for that service had been feuntil after the Restoration of 1660. Then,improved methods were still lacking, it was a fauto be noted, and when Pepys sat at the " MerchanStrangers' table " for the Guildhall feast on LorMayor's Day, 1662, he complains that: "It wavery unpleasing that we had no napkins nor changof trenchers, and drink out of earthen pitchers anwooden dishes." ^ By the end of the century thewas not only desire for but realisation of a fuller anmore specialised equipment. The trencher was gonand until porcelain and fine earthenware becamfairly plentiful, services of pewter and silver werusual. Partly by money payment and partly bexchanging " old plate of my dear father's," ^ Lor

^ \Pepyss Diary ^ ed. Wheatley, Vol. Ill, p. 321


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English FurnitureBristol acquired in 1696 dishes and plates weighingabout 1,000 oz., and in 1703 ^^22 new dishes &3 dozen of plates weighed in all 1668 ounces 5 dwtt."^Chafing dishes and Monteith, salvers and stand,chased basket and " large silver cystern " he alsoobtained during those years. In 1705 he "paidMr. Chambers for 12 spoons, 12 fforkes & 12knives," and in 1727 there come to him throughthe Duke of Shrewsbury's sale " y case of 12 giltknives, 12 spoons & 12 forks." ^ Such cases,habitually of wood, were often in pairs, and stoodupon the side-tables. In the cabriole period theywere of plain mahogany with curved fronts, but laterin the century the form became straighter and therewas variety and inlaying of wood veneers.Not only the Lord Mayor's " earthen pitchers,"but even the large silver tankards which went round,gave way to the individual drinking vessel of glassor silver. The cabriole period saw the climax of thedrink habit in high places. It was not merely theSquire Westerns, but the all-powerful and wealthyminister, Walpole, in his splendid new country palaceat Houghton, who indulged in lengthy carousing afterdinner. The uproar consequent on such habits causesLady Lyttelton, when Hagley is being designed in

^


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English Furniture of1752, to wish for "a small room of separatiobetween the eating room and the Drawing room,hinder the Ladies from hearing the noise and talkthe Men when they are left to the bottle." ^ Thbottle, therefore, largely governed the furnishingthe " eating-room," as it was then habitually calleBefore the side-table became the sideboard witdrawers and cupboards, a locked receptacle fbottles had to be a separate piece of furniture, anit was convenient for it to be kept under a sidtable, but to run on castors so as to be easily broughforward. Such an one belongs to Mr. PercivaGriffiths [Plate XXIX, i]. It is octagonal in shapeeach section of side and top being a sheet ofmahoganveneer of exceptionally line figure, rich but not daror hot in tone, and in untouched condition. Thtop segments start from a triple ring of ivory anebony, and end against a string of chequy inldividing them from the plain banded edge. Thbase, so far as its height permits, fulfils cabrioforms in its curves and outlines, and is carved witfoliage motifs. The top lifts to show a lead liniwith divisions for nine bottles. The lining is morlikely intended for drip from the bottles than f

^ [Lilian Dickins and Mary Stanton, An Eighteenth-Century Correspondence^ London, 19


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The Cabriole Periodicing, although it would admit of this on occasion,so that the piece may also be termed a wine cooler.Its lid and lock, however, fitted it for storage ratherthan as a receptacle for bottles in process of beingemptied. For the latter purpose an open waggon oncastors was devised, of which Mr. Griffiths's example[Plate XXIX, 2] is formed like an oblong stool, butinstead of a padded seat there is a fixed tray to holdsix bottles or decanters. The corners of each divisionare high to prevent the possibility of falling out, butramp down in curves, and the central division rises upto form a handle to direct the course of or even liftthe waggon. The somewhat coarse low-relief carvingof straggling design with rustic background proclaimsits Irish origin, and if any gentry drank more freelythan the English at this period it was their Irishbrethren.

The service of tea soon became as important asthe service of wine. At first it was an expensiveluxury. In 1696 Lord Bristol has to pay a couple ofsovereigns for half a pound ; but in 1739 he buysit in 2 lb. lots at from i6j. to 2 ox. per Ib.^ Lockedreceptacles were needed for it, and tea caddies ofvarious forms and materials were freely produced.Silver ones, in Chinese style within shagreen silver-


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English Furniture ofmounted cases, were for the wealthy, while a simplmahogany box to hold a couple of little canisterserved for lesser folk. Tea was black and green, sthat at least two canisters were needed. As tebecame more plentiful, and was bought and used igreater bulk, the caddy was enlarged and set on legsand the " nabobs " brought the name of teapoy bacfrom India. It was a corruption of a Hindu wordfor a tripod, and by erroneous association came tmean the receptacle, on tripod or other form of standin which tea was kept. When, in the middle of theighteenth century, the example illustrated [PlatXXX, i] was made, the name was n

english furniture of the cabriole period

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