Chats on Old Furniture Part 8

Corner cupboard, Dutch marquetry, 8 ft. high, having carved crown-shaped cornice, with centre vase, four doors, with bow fronts, inlaid with flowers and carved raised beadings, the interior fitted. C. W. Provis & Son, Manchester, May 9, 1904 32 0 0

Table, Dutch marquetry, with shaped front and two drawers inlaid with sprays of flowers in coloured woods and ivory, on cabriole legs, 32 in. wide. Christie, March 4, 1904 37 16 0

[1] By the kindness of the proprietors of the _Connoisseur_ these items are given from their useful monthly publication, _Auction Sale Prices_.

V

QUEEN ANNE STYLE

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons_

QUEEN ANNE OAK SETTLE.

Scrolled arms, panelled back and loose cus.h.i.+oned seat. Width 6 feet.]

V

QUEEN ANNE STYLE

Anne 1702-1714.

1707. Act of Union between England and Scotland. First United Parliament of Great Britain met.

1713. The National Debt had risen to 38,000,000.

With the age of Queen Anne domestic furniture departed from the ornate characteristics which had marked previous epochs. The tendency in English furniture seems to have made towards comfort and homeliness. The English home may not have contained so many articles of luxury then as does the modern house with its artistic embellishments, and a popular taste rapidly ripening into a genuine love of the fine arts. "A modern shopkeeper's house," says Lord Macaulay, "is as well furnished as the house of a considerable merchant in Anne's reign." It is very doubtful whether this statement holds good with regard to the days of Elizabeth or the days of the early Stuarts, but there certainly seems to have been in the dawn of the walnut period a curtailment of luxurious effects that might well tempt a casual observer to generalise in the belief that the days of Anne spelt dulness in art.

The settle, the ill.u.s.tration of which is given (p. 149), bearing the date 1705, the year after Blenheim, shows that Jacobean models of early days were not forgotten. The inlaid borders are very effective, and there is nothing vulgar or offensive in the carving. It is simple in style and the joinery is good. A walnut mirror, carved and gilded (ill.u.s.trated p. 137), exhibits the same solidity. There is nothing to show that the glorious age of Louis XIV. had produced the most sumptuous and richly decorated furniture the modern world had seen. The simplicity of this carved mirror frame is as though art had begun and ended in England, and probably it is this insularity of the furniture of this period, and the almost stubborn neglect of the important movements going on in France that makes the Queen Anne style of peculiar interest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Harold G. Lancaster & Co._

QUEEN ANNE MIRROR FRAME.

WALNUT, CARVED AND GILDED.]

The oak desk ill.u.s.trated (p. 139), dated 1696, is similar to the one at Abbotsford, in which Sir Walter Scott mislaid his ma.n.u.script of "Waverley," where it lay among his fis.h.i.+ng-tackle for eleven years.

Another piece of the same period is the cupboard with carved doors and drawers beneath (ill.u.s.trated p. 140).

[Ill.u.s.tration: OAK DESK.

WITH INITIALS "L. G." AND DATED 1696.

(_From the collection of T. E. Price Stretche, Esq._)]

Some pretty effects were now obtained by veneering, which was largely coming into practice. The pieces with the burr-walnut panels, marked in a series of knot-like rings, are especially sought after. This pattern was obtained from the gnarled roots of the walnut-tree, and applied in a decorative manner with excellent result.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of T. E. Price Stretche, Esq._

OAK CUPBOARD. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Metal handles of drawers, eighteenth century.

(Height 6 ft. 7 in.; width, 4 ft. 6 in.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Brown & Bool._

Cabinet closed; showing fine mottled figure of burr walnut.

Cabinet open; showing drop-down front and nest of drawers.

QUEEN ANNE WALNUT CABINET.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DUTCH MARQUETRY CHAIR. QUEEN ANNE CHAIR.

_By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: QUEEN ANNE WALNUT ARMCHAIR. BLACK AND GOLD LAC CHAIR.

_By permission of Messrs. Waring._]

In the fine cabinet, the ill.u.s.tration of which is given (p. 141), the style is typical of this period. The panels of the doors are of exquisite finish, and show a beautiful walnut grain of peculiarly-pleasing mottled appearance, and the mellow effect which time has given to this specimen cannot be imitated with any degree of success in modern replicas. In the ill.u.s.tration showing this piece when open, the rich effect of the walnut in the middle panel may be noticed; the contemporary bra.s.s handles to the nest of drawers are typical of this style.

In chairs and in tables the elegant cabriole and colt's-foot legs were now commonly adopted, and apparently, simple as is the construction, it is only when Queen Anne pieces come to be repaired that it is found how expensive an undertaking it is, owing to their ingenious construction and the patient labour that was expended upon them, to produce unpretentious and harmonious effects.

The a.s.sertively English spirit which was the dominant note of the furniture of the early eighteenth century continued up till the early years of the reign of George II. During this period, which covers half a century, walnut was the wood mostly used in the manufacture of furniture, and this walnut period shows a quiet dignity of style and a simple proportion, reticently elegant and inornate without being severe.

The Queen Anne oak settle, with shaped panelled back and scroll arms, which appears as the headpiece to this chapter, is especially representative of the kind of piece in common use at the time; oak was still employed in furniture of this nature. The legs show the newer design, which was already departing from the elegant turning of earlier Jacobean days.

In the Queen Anne chair which is ill.u.s.trated in the group of chairs of this period (p. 143), with open back and carved scroll foliage, the cabriole legs are finely carved with lion masks and acanthus leaf ornament, on lion's claw-and-ball feet. The seat is removable, and is stuffed. Queen Anne chairs had high carved or plain splat backs. The armchair in the same group shows this type of back. The Dutch sh.e.l.l-pattern often appears either on back or at the juncture of the leg with the seat. Chairs decorated in marquetry, in Dutch fas.h.i.+on, were in use at this period. The one ill.u.s.trated with the two above-mentioned chairs is inlaid with birds and flowers, and the legs are cabriole. The seat follows the growing usage of being loose and stuffed.

Dutch marquetry cabinets on stands, with straight uprights, were imported and became a feature in the early eighteenth century drawing-room (see ill.u.s.tration, p. 147). The earlier forms had straight sides, but later, as the fas.h.i.+on grew, bureaux and large cabinets, with the dimensions of a modern wardrobe, had taken their place, with _bombe_ or swelled sides, and profusely decorated in marquetry, with vases and tulips and unnamed flowers of the cabinetmaker's invention, birds, b.u.t.terflies, and elaborate scrollwork, in which ivory and mother-of-pearl were often employed as an inlay.

The stands on which the smaller cabinets stood were turned with the spiral leg of Jacobean days, and later they have the cabriole leg, with ball-and-claw or club feet. Cabinets and stands are frequently found together, in which the one is much earlier than the other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._

DUTCH MARQUETRY CABINET.

Fitted with shelves. Door richly inlaid with flowers and scrolled foliage. On stand with turned legs and stretcher.]

Rich damask began to be used in the furnis.h.i.+ng of hangings, and in some of the palatial furniture of the period the looms of Spitalfields produced the coverings. In Queen Anne's bedroom the hangings were of rich silk velvet.