An introduction to old english furniture

The following notes are intended to act as a ready guide to those who feel an interest in this subject, but have neither time nor inclination to study a lengthy work. The aim is to show in a concise manner the successive periods of English furniture, to give the origin and evolution of each style, to point out its most characteristic features, and to explain how to determine the date of any particular specimen.

In such a work the pictures tell the story almost better than the letterpress. I feel, therefore, that I have been very fortunate to secure the help of Mr. H. M. Brock, whose drawings not only faithfully reproduce the piece, but seem in some subtle way to convey the spirit of the time in which it was made. Every sketch has been taken by the artist from furniture now or recently in the possession of my firm at the Octagon. Many of the examples have been purposely chosen of a simple character, because they are more typical; and because, being more obtainable, they are more interesting to the average collector. It is, indeed, the fine drawing in the simplest bit of old work, rather than its elaboration, which is its special charm. With regard to values, rare and elaborate pieces are now, of course, costly ; but much genuine and satisfactory work of this simpler type can still be procured for moderate sums. The collector who aims at having everything of one period should avoid a very early date, as many of the comforts, which have become the necessities of a modern house, were not then understood, and it means that furniture, more or less new in character, has to be put up with, or worse, that old bits are pulled to pieces and made up into other articles. In this way many a fine antique bedstead has been destroyed to create a sideboard or mantelpiece of no artistic or monetary value whatever.

These notes have, of course, no pretension to be even a brief history of English furniture. All who are desirous of becoming fully acquainted with this very interesting subject should obtain the important work now being brought out by Mr. Percy McQuoid, a most accurate and beautiful book, illustrated by examples from all the greater collections in the country, and written with a rare knowledge.

Styles of furniture succeed each other in waves. In this, first period, almost everything was made of solid wood, and though the decoration varied, the whole of this solid work was dependent rather on form than color for its effect. Later this was succeeded by a time in which, during the Dutch influence, everything was veneered, and form, to a certain extent, became subservient to color. The early Hanoverian period was a return, caused by the introduction of mahogany, to solid work, and once more form, instead of color, was relied on to produce decorative effect. About 1770 taste once more changed. This solid furniture was discarded, veneers of rich woods, gilded and even painted surfaces, again asserted the claims of color, until the style, from being varied and lovely, became fantastic and impracticable, and was, in its turn, replaced by the very useful, but very clumsy solid work of early Victorian days.

These alternations from the use of form for the attainment of beauty in the solid furniture, to the use of color for that purpose in the veneered and painted, are the key-note of every change. Each mode of decoration at the time it was abandoned seemed to have exhausted the resources which were contained in it of further development, but when, after it had been superseded for a long time by its rival method of construction and decoration, it returned, it started with different inspiration, and achieved another success, reigning once more only as long as it succeeded in developing fresh forms of beauty, and succumbing to its rival as soon as it showed signs of staleness.

In the early periods of English furniture, European woods, oak, walnut, and elm, were almost exclusively used ; oak, plain and solid, or slightly inlaid with sycamore and yew, being mainly employed. The most elaborate and beautiful work in oak dates from the end of Elizabeth to nearly the end of Charles II. After this, though still largely used, it was employed where the more costly woods were grudged for the purpose.

Few fine oak pieces for reception rooms are found later than 1680, though a great deal of simple, nice work was made up to the reign of George II., when the fall in the price of mahogany rendered it as cheap or cheaper to use that wood.

In the mid-Tudor work, Italian influence replaces the old Gothic. The decoration chiefly used is fine carving, sometimes in conjunction with a little bold sparse inlay of sycamore.

In the reigns of James I. and Charles I. various forms of panelling took the place of carving, and the chests and buffets display most intricate and beautiful patterns, composed of those panels spaced out with spindles, etc. The solid chair is succeeded by the elegant high-backed cane type, and, as will be noticed in the following sketches, oak gradually gave way to walnut as the favorite wood.

The principal pieces of furniture, of an elaborate description,, were state and other four-post beds, settles often with beautiful panelled backs, dower-chests, long drawing-out tables, and court cupboards or buffets. In the earlier Stuart days a great deal of the furniture was draped with valuable velvets and silks, and of such pieces little is lett, as when the coverings were worn out the plain frames were thrown away and destroyed.