Historic styles in furniture

This account of "Historic Styles in Furniture" was originally issued ten years ago by the publishers of The House Beautiful magazine, mainly for special sale in connection with their publication. It received little exploitation in the general market, and its merits did not, therefore, become widely known. The present publishers have believed that there is a distinct place for this volume, containing, as it does, a bird's-eye view of the development of styles in furniture through ten centuries, and giving the backgrounds and settings an equal importance with the furniture itself.

As a record of manners and customs the illuminated missal is to the Middle Ages what the sculptured frieze is to ancient Greece and Rome. It represents the earliest history of domestic life of medieval times. The Egyptians constructed their household furniture in stone, the Greeks and Romans in marble and bronze, and the people of the Middle Ages in wood. Setting aside coronation chairs and choir stalls few pieces of medieval handicraft are in existence. Without the aid of old manuscripts all domestic furniture made prior to the thirteenth century would be a matter of conjecture. Thanks to these human documents a faithful, if crude, picture is obtained of the life of the times. Furniture is merely a detail in the old drawings; simply an accessory used by the scribe to illustrate a situation. If a royal banquet be the theme, a long, narrow table is suggested; if a coronation ceremony form the subject of the story, a chair of state is rudely indicated; if an interview between a knight and a lady be the main point in the tale, a bench or settle fills the background. Picturesque sidelights on customs and costumes, as well as furniture, are revealed in the old illuminations.

Broadly speaking, the period termed the Middle Ages began with the fall of Rome and ended with the capture of Constantinople, but it was the great intermediate stage, roughly spanned by the sixth and tenth centuries, which constituted the dark age of history and art.

The British Museum contains illuminated manuscripts dating back to the ninth century. From these priceless records and from wills of the period the home of the Anglo-Saxon thane has been deciphered. " Fragments from many sources have been fitted together and a fairly clear picture has resulted.

The ham, or home, contained one large apartment called the heal which served as a dining, living, and sleeping room. Adjoining it was the bower, or chamber, reserved for the ladies of the household. The hall was sparsely furnished. A board laid upon a trestle formed the dining-table. Benches and stools were the common seats and were used by all members of the family, except the lord and his lady who occupied two rudely constructed chairs. The walls were hung with walhrifts, or wall cloths, which served as a protection from wind and rain. The rafters were covered with a ceil cloth, from which our word "ceiling" is derived. In the center of the floor was the hearth, the smoke of the fire escaping through a louvre, or opening in the roof. Illumination was provided by torches and by a primitive lamp of horn, termed a cresset. The cresset lamp was a feature in English houses for many centuries and may still be found in rural districts.

The bower contained a straw bed and a cyst, or chest. A curtain protected the bed and served to conceal the chest which was the most important article in the house. The chest, or coffer, was a characteristic piece of medieval handicraft, and the first piece of furniture to express the skill of the wood-carver and the metalworker. The development of the chest, in- its various guises of coffer, hutch, and bahut, forms an interesting phase of furniture-making. The cupboard, the dresser, the credence, the cabinet, and the bureau were all evolved from this primitive article. In early Anglo-Saxon times it was a strong box placed near the bed and large enough to hold the family valuables. In an age when one baron waged warfare upon another it was important to have a receptacle always at hand where valuables could be stored, and, if necessary, easily transported.

The homes of the common people of this period lacked the barest comforts. A bench and a chest and a few skins of wild beasts were the household effects of the masses. The bench was crudely constructed and without a back. The chest was of more careful workmanship and served many purposes. It was sometimes used as a seat, sometimes as a table, sometimes as a bed. It was the poor man's chief article of furniture and as such it remained until after the Norman Conquest.

The conditions of Europe were not such as to foster the gentle side of living. Two figures were pre-eminent: the monk and the soldier. One kept art alive; the other nearly exterminated it. Italy, France, and Germany were torn with wars, civil and ecclesiastical, and England, while more remote from the cause of conflict, was also more remote from the centers of civilization. Southern countries still preserved a few classic traditions. In the north they were long since extinct. As England was' last to respond to the Renaissance so she was last to develop a medieval art. At best it was a rude age even in the countries that came in touch with Greek and oriental influences.

With the Norman Conquest came England's awakening to continental methods. With the invasion came French ideas in dress and manners. A more refined mode of living followed. Houses were fitted with the rude comforts which had been known on the continent for nearly a century. Walls received their first decorations. The skins of wild beasts, hung against the rafters to keep out the cold, gave place to pieces of rude tapestry. Fireplaces were fitted with Norman fire-dogs, and the blazing torches were superseded by branches of iron holding tallow candles. In the homes of the feudal lords dishes of metal increased the limited table service of wood and horn. In Ivanhoe a vivid picture is given of Cedric's castle, where French innovations found little favor:

"In a hall, the height of which was greatly disproportioned to its extreme length and width, stood a long oaken table, formed of planks rough hewn from the forest, and which had scarcely received any polish. On the sides of the apartment hung implements of war and of the chase, and there were at each corner doors which gave access to other parts of the extensive building. The other appointments of the mansion partook of the rude simplicity of the Saxon period, which Cedric piqued himself upon maintaining. The floor was composed of earth mixed with lime and trodden into a hard substance. For about one quarter of the length of the apartment the floor was raised by a step, and this space, which was called the dais, was occupied only by the principal members of the family and visitors of distinction.

"For this purpose a table, richly covered with a scarlet cloth, was placed transversely across the platform, from the middle of which ran the longer and lower board where the domestics and inferior persons sat. Massive chairs were placed upon the dais, and over these seats and the elevated table was fastened a canopy of cloth which served in some degree to protect the dignitaries who occupied that distinguished station, from the weather, and especially from the rain, which in some places found its way through the ill-constructed roof. The walls of this upper end of the hall, as far as the dais extended, were covered with hangings or curtains with some attempts at tapestry or embroidery. In the center of the dais were placed two chairs more elevated than the rest, for the master and mistress of the family. To each of these was added a footstool, curiously carved and inlaid with ivory, which mark of distinction was peculiar to them."

The arrangement of the bedroom changed little, except that a wooden bed with curtains replaced the bed of straw. Hungerford Pollen in the hand-book of the furniture of South Kensington refers to the bedchambers of this period: "Bedrooms were furnished with ornamental bed-testers and benches at the bed foot. Beds were made with quilts and pillows, and with spotted or striped linen sheets; over all was laid a covering of green sag, badgers' furs, the skins of beavers, or martens. A perch for tame falcons was fixed to the wall. A chair and a projecting pole, on which clothes could be hung, completed the Anglo-Norman bedroom."

The bench was a convenience in receiving visitors. The soler was used by the lady of the manor as a sitting-room until the parloir became a common feature of house-building. Furniture was more varied after the Conquest and included settles, arm-chairs, and folding seats. Thomas Wright, in treating of this period, states that our word "chair" is Anglo-Norman, and that the Anglo-Saxon term was sell or stol, the latter being retained in our modern word "stool." Fadestol was one name for a chair of state, a word which has been translated in modern French to fauteuil, and in' English to arm-chair. The Norman table, as depicted in the Bayeux tapestry, is similar to the Saxon trestle design. It was placed in the hall and taken apart after the meal was finished. "Laying the board" was a matter of ceremony. Lines were sharply drawn in regard to the seating of the household. The lord and his lady occupied chairs, the retainers sat upon benches, and those lower in rank remained standing. The placing of the salt was a matter of consideration. "Above salt" or "below salt" indicated the social status of the guests.

Furniture of this age, with the exception of the table, was slightly carved. Chests were the first pieces to receive decorative treatment and chairs came second. In the oldest manuscripts there is a suggestion of ornament in most of the furniture. Much of the decoration is impossible to classify, for it is too archaic to be defined, but a small portion may be assigned to one of the three great styles of the Middle Ages.