Little books about old furniture

In compiling the first four volumes of this series, covering the four great periods in the development of English Furniture, from Tudor to Georgian times, the writers have very naturally in turn held a brief for each period. In Volume I, whilst extolling the delights of old oak in general, and sideboards, coffers, and draw-tables in particular from the purely decorative point of view, they frankly warned the reader that very little in the direction of absolute comfort could be expected from the farm-house settle, joyned stool, or angular and unyielding arm-chair.

The Elizabethan oak bedstead was practically dismissed as unhygienic, even if, from its extreme rarity and consequent high value, it came within hail of the modest collector. In Volume II (written, as in the case of Volume I, in collaboration with Mr. J. P. Blake), dealing with the Queen Anne period, a claim was advanced that the prevailing curves in the outlines and the more ample proportions introduced under Dutch influence brought the walnut-wood seats well within the range of practical household politics ; whilst the roomy wardrobes, escritoires, and glazed cabinets of the same period have in no sense outlived their usefulness.

In the first volume of the series the writers explained at some length that the books were being written for the amateur collector, and more especially the collector of moderate means. This idea has been kept in view all through the series. The writers have endeavoured to give the benefit of their experience to those who, whilst having no desire to turn their homes into museums, would live with interesting old furniture in preference to equally useful but uninteresting new furniture.

The present volume covers the period of the post-Chippendale designers, from Ince and Mayhew to Sheraton and the Brothers Adam, all of whom lived and worked during the sixty years of the reign of George III. (1760 to 1820). Practically all the furniture of the period is suitable for present-day requirements. This is emphasised in the fact that the bulk of the furniture of to-day is modelled on the eighteenth-century conventions.

A great number of admirable books have been published during recent years dealing with the period, and the present writer records his thanks for the help he has received from them. A short bibliography is included in the volume.

The illustrations have been drawn from the collection both National and Loan at the Victoria and Albert Museum, from private friends, and the stocks of some of the well-known dealers in London and the provinces. Special thanks are due to Mr. George Stoner, of West Wickham, Kent, for photographs of fine painted specimens in his collection; to the Hon. Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, K.C.B., for permission to reproduce the Adam chairs at Brympton.

In the period covered by this and the preceding volume of this series the last word on furniture was said by the furniture- maker. The Victorian designer could produce nothing better than the chattels made by or under the influence of Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and the Brothers Adam in the eighteenth century.

Doubtless the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, founded in 1888 under the presidency of Sir Walter Crane, did, and is still doing, something for the advancement of taste in house- hold appointments. To give the gist of a clever article which appeared in the Morning Post some two or three years since, on the aims and work of the Society: the late William Morris did much to demolish the antimacassar and the horsehair sofa of the Victorian era. But even he did little or nothing to replace that which he demolished. Apparently out of sympathy with the period, or frankly admitting the hopelessness of the task, he did nothing to improve on the lines of eighteenth-century furniture conventions.

Steeped to the lips, as he was, in medievalism he confined his efforts in design to the more distinctly decorative arts. The article referred to puts it very lucidly : "As there are certain things made to perfection in the fifteenth century still suitable for modern use or modern buildings, such as tapestries, carpets, fabrics, and stained glass, Morris, too, in his own way, made these things to perfection. His firm still make at the works at Merton Abbey, tapestry which is technically quite as fine as mediaeval work. He also compromised with modernity in wall-papers and cretonnes, materials unknown in his favourite Middle Ages. . . . With all theprestige of Morris and Co., and all the literary and artistic glamour clinging to the aftermath of the Pre-Raphaelites, the 'Arts and Crafts' cannot be said to have left a very distinctive mark on English decoration in the nineteenth century.... So you are often reduced to wondering who, outside Bedford Park, ever possessed the courage to furnish and decorate entirely on the lines suggested by the Society. The most noticeable result of the movement (superficially, no doubt) was Art Nouveau or Modern Style as it was called in Paris. This atrocious fashion spread all over Germany and leaked into Italy even. . . . The English public, which has a keen sense of quality in manufacture if not in art, sought oblivion in the eighteenth century. There was a reaction in favour of the great French periods of furnishing, especially among plutocrats, and this was stimulated by the opening of the Wallace Collection. Those without knowledge affected Louis XIV., those without morals Louis XV., and those without minds Louis XVI. The more patriotic sought for English examples. Those who could not afford genuine Chippendale, Sheraton, Adam, and the like, went in frankly for copies ; while even those who could afford luxuries were unwittingly supplied with reproductions in lieu of originals."

It is, perhaps, outside the province of a book of this nature to hold a brief for modern furniture and furniture-makers. The furniture-maker is quite capable of fighting his own battle. But in all fairness it would be simply absurd to suggest that we should with one consent leave off designing, making, selling, and buying modern furniture. In the first place, the furniture-maker must live, and the better his furniture the greater his claim on life. Chippendale and Sheraton were both makers of modern furniture in their own days. They lived by their craft, and being master craftsmen and designers their fame is undying.

In the second place there certainly is not enough of the old-time furniture to go round, and, that being the case, it is just as well that the desire to possess it is not universal.

The mere possession of but one or two really good albeit simple pieces of old furniture has in itself a humanising influence. It is good to look forward and it is good to look backwards. A piece of old furniture to the person of even small imagination is a lovable thing from its association, real or imagined ; and, furthermore, it is an educator in good taste. The man or woman who has learnt to justly appreciate a Chippendale cabinet, a Hepplewhite chair, or a Sheraton side-table will scarcely go far wrong in the selection of modern appointments for his or her rooms. To such enlightened beings the hideosities of the Early Victorian workshop or the still worse atrocities of Art Nouveau will appeal in vain.

But these books are written for the edification of the collector, or would-be collector, of old furniture, and more particularly for the collector with moderate means. We suggest that the furniture of the period covered by this and the preceding volume is eminently suitable for almost all modern requirements. The strongest evidence in favour of this theory lies in the fact that the majority of the admittedly best furniture-makers of the day are employing the same materials used by, and copying, or at least adapting, the styles of the eighteenth-century designers. For generations Tottenham Court Road has been the home, or rather the temporary sojourning-place of furniture, and, perhaps, Curtain Road its birthplace. The question may be asked, "Can any good come out of Tottenham Court Road?" We answer emphatically, yes. The very name has become a byword and a peg on which to hang cheap witticisms. A very eminent statesman was once severely and quite properly censured for speaking disrespectfully of that historic thoroughfare. Like another road, it is paved with good intentions, and the more catholic our taste in furniture the more likelihood of its rendering goods compatible with those intentions. The high prices obtained at auction during recent years for admittedly finest specimens of Georgian mahogany, satin, and other fancy-wood furniture have given an impetus to the market for the humbler grade contemporary chattels which adorned the homes of the middle classes. In mid- Victorian times many a fine old leather-seated Spanish mahogany chair of simple Chippendale, Hepplewhite, or Sheraton design, with a shaky leg or weak back (which could have been cured at the cost of a few shillings), has been consigned to the limbo of the lumber-room and supplanted by the horsehair upholstered suites of light-toned mahogany or pseudo-French walnut creations with red or green rep coverings, which we still find in the houses of our friends who furnished, say, before the 'eighties.