Title: The Old Furniture Book - With a Sketch of Past Days and Ways
Author: Moore, N. Hudson
Language: English
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THE OLD FURNITURE BOOK

[Illustration: HALL IN KING HOOPER HOUSE. _Danvers Mass._]



  THE
  OLD FURNITURE BOOK

  WITH A SKETCH OF
  PAST DAYS AND WAYS

  BY
  N. HUDSON MOORE

  AUTHOR OF
  "THE OLD CHINA BOOK"

  _With one hundred and twelve illustrations_

  _Second Edition_

  [Illustration]

  NEW YORK
  FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
  PUBLISHERS



  Copyright, 1903,

  BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

  _All Rights Reserved_

  _Published in October, 1903_



  "TO A LADY
  WHO SHALL BE NAMED LATER."



ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece--Hall in "King Hooper" House, Danvers, Mass.

  CHAPTER I

  FIGURE

  1. Old Oak Bedstead
  2. Olive-Wood Chest
  3. Old Oak Chest
  4. Chest with One Drawer
  5. Oak Chest on Frame (English)
  6. Spanish Leather Chair
  7. Turned Chair with Leather Cover
  8. English Chair (1680) Italian Chair (Same Period)
  9. Cane Chair, Flemish Style
  10. Turned and Carved Arm-Chair

  CHAPTER II

  11. Dutch Furniture, called "Queen Anne"
  12. Carved Kas
  13. Marquetry Chairs
  14. Screen, Cradle, and Church Stool
  15. Ebony Cabinet
  16. Bed Chair
  17. Marquetry Desk

  CHAPTER III

  18. Kitchen, Wayside Inn, Sudbury, Mass.
  19. Chippendale Chairs
  20. Chippendale Chair
  21. Carved Cedar Table
  22. Chippendale Chairs
  23. Chippendale Candle, Tea and Music Stands
  24. Chippendale Card-Table
  25. Chippendale Marble-Topped Table
  26. Chippendale Chair-Backs and Mirror-Frame

  CHAPTER IV

  27. Room in Whipple House, Ipswich, Mass.
  28. Chippendale, Sheraton, and Hepplewhite Chairs
  29. Adam Chairs
  30. Hepplewhite Chairs
  31. Hepplewhite Card-Table
  32. Hepplewhite Settees
  33. Sheraton Chairs
  34. Sheraton Desk
  35. Sideboard
  36. Sofa, Sheraton Style
  37. Sheraton Sideboard
  38. Sheraton Sideboard
  39. Empire Sofa
  40. Empire Sofa
  41. Pier-Table
  42. Empire Sideboard
  43. Empire Work-Table

  CHAPTER V

  44. Kitchen at Deerfield, Mass.
  45. William Penn's Table
  46. Rush-Bottomed Chairs
  47. Connecticut Chest
  48. Mahogany Desk
  49. Corner Cupboard
  50. Banquet-Room, Independence Hall, Philadelphia
  51. Windsor Chairs
  52. Wall-Paper
  53. Bed at Concord, Mass.
  54. Bed at Mount Vernon
  55. Bed at Somerville, N. J.
  56. Carved Oak Bedstead

  CHAPTER VI

  57. Room in Whipple House, Ipswich, Mass.
  58. Carved and Gilded and Mahogany Mirror-Frames
  59. Mahogany Desk and Chest of Drawers
  60. Combined Bookcase and Desk
  61. Field Bed
  62. Low Four-Post Bed
  63. French Bed
  64. Highboy
  65. Corner Cupboard
  66. Inlaid and Lacquered Table and Chair
  67. Lacquered Table
  68. Mahogany Bureau
  69. American-Made Chairs
  70. American-Made Rosewood Card Table

  CHAPTER VII

  71. Bedroom of Anne of Austria at Fontainebleau
  72. Bed of Louis XIV at Versailles
  73. Chairs of the Period of Louis XIV
  74. Tapestry Furniture
  75. Commodes of the Time of Louis XV
  76. Garderobe Period of Louis XV
  77. Bedroom of Marie Antoinette at the Little Trianon
  78. Chairs and Table of Louis XVI Style
  79. Encoignure, Period of Louis XVI
  80. Bed of Josephine at Fontainebleau
  81. Bed of Napoleon at Grand Trianon
  82. Room at Fontainebleau with Historic Table
  83. Empire Reading and Writing Desk

  CHAPTER VIII

  84. Organ in St. Michael's Church, Charleston, S. C.
  85. Spinet
  86. Harpsichord
  87. Cristofori Piano
  88. Harp
  89. Bass Viol
  90. Glass Harmonica
  91. Geib Piano
  92. Nuns Piano
  93. Upright Piano

  CHAPTER IX

  94. Tall-Case Clocks, English
  95. Three Centuries of Clocks.--Lantern, Portable, and Willard or
      Banjo Clocks
  96. Tall-Case Clocks, English and American
  97. Mantel Clocks

  CHAPTER X

  98. Kitchen of Whipple House, Ipswich, Mass.
  99. Handles, Escutcheons, etc.
  100. Feet



CONTENTS.

  CHAPTER                                       PAGE

  I. OLD OAK, OLD LEATHER, TURKEY WORK, ETC.       1

  II. DUTCH FURNITURE                             28

  III. CHIPPENDALE                                48

  IV. ADAM, SHERATON, EMPIRE                      73

  V. COLONIAL AND LATER PERIODS                   95

  VI. COLONIAL AND LATER PERIODS--_Continued_   128

  VII. FRENCH FURNITURE                          148

  VIII. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS                      173

  IX. CLOCKS                                     197

  X. HANDLES, FEET, STUFFS, ETC.                 222

  INDEX                                          237



THE OLD FURNITURE BOOK.



CHAPTER I.

OLD OAK, OLD LEATHER, TURKEY WORK, ETC.


With the revival of interest in all "antiques," which is so widely
spread at this time, any of us who chance to own an old piece of
furniture feel an added degree of affection for it if we can give it an
approximate date and assign it to a maker or a country. There is much
good old furniture in the United States, chiefly of Spanish, Dutch and
English make, though there are constant importations of other makes,
notably French, since it is recognized on all sides that Americans are
becoming the collectors of the world. Our public museums are gradually
filling with works of art presented by broad-minded citizens, while the
private galleries are rich and increasing every day. To keep pace with
these possessions, furniture from old palaces and manor-houses is being
hauled forth and set up again in our New World homes. Indeed, whole
interiors have been removed from ancient dwellings, and the superb
carvings of other days become the ornaments of modern houses, like the
gilded oak panels from the Hotel Montmorency which were built into the
Deacon House in Boston, or like Mrs. Gardiner's Venetian carved wood
which decorates her palace in the Boston Fens.

Oak panelling, like everything else, passed through various periods and
styles. In Queen Elizabeth's time the panels were carried to within
about two feet of the cornice; then, after some years, there came a
division into lower and upper panelling, the upper beginning at about
the height of the back of a chair from the floor. Pictures became more
common, and they were frequently let into the upper panelling, and
then it was discarded altogether, only the lower half or dado being
retained. This, too, after some years, became old-fashioned, and the
board known as skirting, or base-board, was all that was left of the
handsome sheathing which extended from the floor almost to the ceiling.
This old oak panelling was entirely without polish or varnish of any
kind, and grew with years and dust almost black in colour. Sometimes it
was inlaid with other woods, and often it was made for the rooms where
it was placed. Where the panels are carved, they are generally bought
in that state and set in plain framework by the household joiner. If,
however, the frame is carved and the panels plain, they were made to
suit the taste and purse of the owner of the mansion. Oak panelling
took the place of the arras, tapestry hangings, and crude woodwork of
earlier times. Of course it was adopted by the rich and luxurious, for
it rendered more air-tight the draughty buildings.

[Illustration: Figure 1. OLD OAK BEDSTEAD.]

The oldest furniture was made of oak, more or less carved, whether of
Spanish, Italian, Dutch, or English make. The multiplication of objects
which we consider necessary as "furnishings" were pleasingly absent,
and chests used as receptacles for clothes or linens, for seats by day
and beds by night, with a few beds also of carved oak, and tables, made
up the chief articles of domestic use.

Even the very word "furniture" itself is of obscure origin and was
used formerly, as now, to describe the fittings of houses, churches,
and other buildings.

There are a few terms applied to furniture referring either to its
decoration or process of manufacture with which it is well to become
acquainted. They are given here in the order of their importance.

_Veneering_ is the process of coating common wood with slices of rare
and costly woods fastened down with glue by screw presses made to fit
the surface to be covered. It was first used in the reign of William
and Mary, in the last decade of the seventeenth century. Until that
time furniture had been made of solid wood. Veneer of this early
period, particularly burr-walnut veneer, was about one sixteenth of an
inch thick, and was sometimes applied to oak. Chippendale, Hepplewhite,
and Sheraton used mahogany and satin-wood both solid and for veneers.
When used as veneers they were all hand-cut, as they are in all
high-class furniture to-day. It was not till the late Georgian period
that machinery for cutting veneer was first used, and slices were
produced one thirty-second of an inch in thickness. Most of the cheaper
kinds of modern furniture are veneered.

_Marquetry_ is veneer of different woods, forming a mosaic of
ornamental designs. In the early days of the art, figure subjects,
architectural designs, and interiors were often represented in this
manner.

_Rococo_, made up from two French words meaning rock and shells,
_roequaille et coquaille_, is a florid style of ornamentation which was
in vogue in the latter part of the eighteenth century.

_Buhl_, or _Boulle_, is inlaid work with tortoise-shell or metals in
arabesques or cartouches. It derived its name from Boule, a French
wood-carver who brought it to its highest perfection.

_Ormolu_ refers to designs in brass mounted upon the surface of the
wood. This metal was given an exceedingly brilliant colour by the use
of less zinc and more copper than is commonly used in the composition
of brass, and was sometimes still further made bright by the use of
varnish and lacquer.

_Baroque._ This word, which was derived from the Portuguese _baroco_,
meant originally a large irregular pearl. At first the term was used
only by jewellers, but it gradually became technically applied to
describe a kind of ornament which became popular on furniture early
in the nineteenth century, after the rage for the classic had passed.
It consisted of a wealth of ornament lavished in an unmeaning manner
merely for display; and scrolls, curves, and designs from leaves were
used to cover pieces, making them lack beauty and that grace which
comes from pure and simple lines.

_Lacquer_ is coloured or opaque varnish applied to metallic objects
as well as wood. The name is obtained from "resin lac," the material
which is used as the base of all lacquers. In the East Indies the
whole surface of wooden objects, large and small, is covered with
bright-coloured lacquers. The Japanese lacquers are the finest that are
made. They excel in the variety and exquisite perfection of this style
of work, and under their skilful manipulation it becomes one of the
choicest forms of decorative art. The most highly prized lacquer is on
a gold ground, some specimens of which reached Europe in the time of
Louis XV.

_Japanning._ This style of treating wood and metal derives its name
from the fact of its being an imitation of the famous lacquering
of Japan, although the latter is prepared with entirely different
materials and processes, and is in every way much more durable,
brilliant, and beautiful than any European "Japan work." This latter
process is done in clear transparent varnishes, or in black or colours,
but the black japan is the most common. By japanning a very brilliant
polished surface may be secured, which is more durable than ordinary
painted or varnished work. It is usually applied to small articles of
wood, to clock-faces, papier-maché, etc.

_Joined_ furniture. All the parts are joined by mortise and tenon, no
nails or glue being used. This method prevents the parts from warping
or springing, as so much of the modern machine-made furniture does.

Figure 1 shows an ancient carved-oak bed of the time of Queen
Elizabeth, with grotesque carvings on the headboard in Renaissance
style, which is said to have been introduced into England by Holbein.
This bed has an interesting history. It belongs to the Herricks
of Beaumanor Park, and came to them from Professor Babington, of
St. John's College, Cambridge, England. He inherited it from his
father, whose ancestors kept the "Blue Boar" inn at Leicester, where
Richard III slept the night before the battle of Bosworth Field, in
August, 1485. This has always been called "King Richard's Bed," and
many learned antiquaries have waxed eloquent for and against this
assumption. Mr. Henry Shaw, author of "Specimens of Early Furniture,"
published in 1836, says it is a good specimen of the modern four-poster
of Elizabeth's time, the more ancient beds being without foot-posts.
In fact the earlier beds were mere couches. As more luxury was demanded
they grew larger, counterpanes were made of the richest materials,
gorgeously embroidered with the arms and badges of their owners, and
from their great cost and imperishable character descended from one
generation to another. They provided employment, too, for the lady of
the castle and her bower maidens, who had no end of leisure which had
to be filled in some way, and which dragged along for many a long year,
broken only by the chance visit of a wandering hawker or my lord's
return from the wars.


Hollingbourne Manor, in Kent, is one of the old mansions still standing
which was built in Queen Elizabeth's time. The manor was originally
owned by Sir Thomas Culpeper, and his initials appear in many places
about the house. In the great hall the fireplace has an iron back with
the initials "T. C." and the date 1683 wrought in it. The present
owner, Mr. Gerald Arbuthnot, has preserved the old-time atmosphere
as much as possible, and in connection with home-made tapestry the
"needle-room" is especially interesting. In that room the four Ladies
Culpeper, daughters of that John, Lord Culpeper, who was exiled for
his devotion to King Charles, spent so much of their time making
tapestry that one of the sisters became blind from the effects of
her close application. Among the pieces of the handiwork of the four
sisters preserved is a magnificent altar-cloth which they presented
to the parish church. For two centuries and a half a needle left
by the fingers of the worker remained sticking in the corner of the
cloth, but it was stolen about two years ago by some one of a party of
antiquarians visiting the Manor.

[Illustration: Figure 2. OLIVE-WOOD CHEST.]

In Mr. Shaw's book already quoted are many items concerning these great
and handsome beds, which were often the finest pieces of furniture in
the castle or manor, and from the safe seclusion of which the king or
great lord received the homage of his vassals.

The bed and bedstead were sometimes classed separately, but in
many inventories the former word covers the bedstead and all its
furnishings. The fittings of the bed were well in keeping with the
fine carved woodwork, and were of softest feathers or down. Sheets of
linen, and rugs or blankets of fine wool, were covered by a cloth woven
of samite, damask, or heavy with gold threads.

Richard, Earl of Arundel, in 1392, left to Philippa, his second wife,--

--"a blue bed marked with my arms and the arms of my late wife, also
the hangings of the hall, which were lately made in London, of blue
tapestry with red roses, with the arms of my sons, the Earl Marshall,
Lord Charlton, and Mons. Willm. Beauchamp; to my son Richard, a
standing bed called "Clove"; also a bed of silk embroidered with the
arms of Arundel and Warren quarterly; to my dear son Thomas, my blue
bed of silk embroidered with greffins; to my daughter Margaret my blue
bed."

Not many earls had so great a store of worldly goods.

In 1434 Joanne, Lady Bergavenny, devises--

--"a bed of gold swans, with tapettar of green tapestry, with bunches
and flowers of diverse colours; and two pair of sheets of Raynes; a
pair of fustian, six pairs of other sheets; six pairs of blankets; six
mattrasses; six pillows; and with cushions and bancoves that longen
with the bed aforesaid."

This was only one bed of six specified by this lady, several being of
velvet, silk, and one of "bande kyn," a rich and splendid stuff of gold
thread and silk, still farther enriched with embroidery. Before the
cloth spread or counterpane the covering was of fur. It was also the
fashion in these primitive times to name the beds, like that specified
"Clove" in the Earl of Arundel's inventory, sometimes with the names of
flowers, sometimes with those of the planets or of birds. The beds were
surmounted with testers or canopies of rich silk edged with fringes,
and suspended from the rafters of the room by silk cords. There were
side-curtains also, and much carving on the headboard, while the
foot-posts, as we have said, are wanting in the earliest beds, prior
to the year 1500. Mr. Shaw goes on to say that there are very few beds
still extant which date before Elizabethan times, and that the most
ancient he met with was of the time of Henry VIII., and belonged to a
clergyman of Blackheath who bought it out of an old manor-house. The
posts and back are elaborately carved in Gothic style, but the cornice
is missing.

Of Elizabethan times there are several noted beds extant, the finest of
them being known as the "Great Bed of Ware" mentioned by Shakespeare in
"Twelfth Night." It is seven feet high and ten feet square. There is
one in the South Kensington Museum, London, more richly carved than the
one we show, and having in addition a carved foot-board. This bed is
dated 1593.

[Illustration: Figure 3. OLD OAK CHEST.]

The curtains and hangings which have in our day become mere
ornaments were during the Elizabethan period most necessary. Windows
unglazed, and rude walls unplastered, or at best hung with tapestry,
permitted drafts to wander through the sleeping-rooms, so that the
curtains were closely drawn at night for actual protection. At best in
many a castle or dwelling of the wealthy but one bed would be found,
and that belonged to the lord and lady, the rest of the family taking
their rest on rugs or cushions bestowed on the floor, or on chests or
settees, or even on tables.

There are also found, though rarely, oak tables of this period, or
perhaps a little later, heavily carved along the sides, and with
ponderous turned legs and plain stout braces. These tables, perhaps the
earliest approach to a sideboard, are so long that they have six legs,
the top seldom being less than twelve feet in length. One we refer to
was found recently in an old barn in England, where it had lain since
the neighbouring manor-house had been pulled down in 1760. While its
condition was good,--that is, needing no restoring,--it had become
nearly black and almost fossilized from exposure. It is now used as a
sideboard by the vicar of the parish who found it in its lowly estate,
and on it stand pewter and plate, also antiques from the neighbourhood.
Such treasures can seldom be found here, certainly not any that have
lain concealed since 1760.

After the Elizabethan period the next one of importance may be called
Jacobean. James I. encouraged his people to use chairs instead of
stools. It was not long before settles, lounges, and "scrowled chairs,"
the latter inlaid with coloured woods, crowded out the stools of former
days, and the idea of enriching the useful became the interest of
the skilled workman, and utility was no longer the measure of value.
Stools, to be sure, were still used, but they had heavy cushions of
brocade, or worked stuff, or velvet, and were hung around with a rich
fringe and with gimp, fastened with fancy nails. The arm-chairs of this
period, a fashion introduced from Venice, had the legs in a curved X
shape across the front, and chairs are still extant which were used
by James I. himself. These chairs, which are all somewhat similar in
design, were rendered still more comfortable by a loose cushion which
could be adapted to the inclination of the sitter. The bedsteads of the
period were also smothered in draperies, the tester trimmed with rows
upon rows of fringe, the head-boards, carved and gilded, being about
the only woodwork allowed to show.

As we have said, the earliest wood used, at least in northern England,
seems to have been oak. At the close of the sixteenth century there
was furniture decorated with inlays of different coloured woods,
marbles, agate, or lapis lazuli. Ivory carved and inlaid, carved and
gilded wood, metals and tortoise-shell, were used also in making the
sumptuous furniture of the Renaissance. The greatest elegance of form
and detail was observed during this century, and it declined noticeably
all over Europe, during the seventeenth century. The framework became
heavy and bulky and the details coarse. Silver furniture made in Spain
and Italy was used in the courts of the French and English kings.
Then came the carved and gilded furniture which received its greatest
perfection in Italy, though it was made throughout Europe till late in
the eighteenth century.

[Illustration: Figure 4. CHEST WITH ONE DRAWER.]

Second only to the bed in importance as an item of household furnishing
was the chest, a seat by day, a bed by night, and a storehouse of
valuables always. It usually stood at the foot of the bed, possibly so
that it could not be pilfered at night without the owner's knowledge.
Some chests, heavily made, provided with locks and bound with iron,
held all the worldly wealth of the owner, as well as his papers and
deeds. Before the time of James I. bills of exchange were not used, and
the actual coin passed in all transactions. Italy was the first country
to establish banks, the money-dealers of Florence practising banking
as early as the thirteenth century. Holland followed their example,
and in 1609 the Bank of Amsterdam was founded, but kept in its coffers
the actual coin paid in, being merely a repository for safe keeping.
England had no bank until the seventeenth century, when this business
was undertaken by the goldsmiths of London. The Bank of England was not
founded until 1694. It can be easily seen how necessary a part of the
household goods a stout chest for valuables was, especially in remote
parts of the country, where access to the cities was not easy. Not
alone in houses was the chest a necessary article; one or more were a
part of every church's furniture, and in them were kept the vestments,
church linen, the plate, and other valuables.

There is a lawsuit mentioned in the Court Records of New Amsterdam,
where one of two sisters living at Jericho, Long Island, about 1647,
sues a neighbour for coming into their house and breaking into her
chest, which was in her bedroom, and stealing from it several measures
of wheat which were stored therein, as well as some coins which were in
the till.

The wearing-apparel of the family also was kept in these chests, and
for years before her marriage the daughter of the house was employed
in filling one up with linen spun and woven through all the different
processes from the flax, the size and fullness of the chest often
proving quite a factor in the marriage negotiations.

The chests of the Jacobean time, enriched with mouldings, panellings,
and drop ornaments, are by no means unknown in America. They are
furnished with drawers, cupboards, and then drawers above, making them
massive and useful pieces of furniture. They stand upon large round
legs, and the handles to drawers and cupboards are drops. In Italy
marriage chests were beautifully painted, often by famous masters, and
sometimes gilded as well. In Holland the chests were carved or inlaid;
and many of these, owing to the commercial relations between England
and Holland, found their way into the former country and thence to
America, in addition to those brought directly from the Low Countries.
Chests were used as trunks by travelers long before Shakespeare's time,
and he makes a chest play an important part in "Cymbeline." In the
early days of the American colonies, when the settlers sent back to
England for comforts not procurable in America, these were generally
despatched in chests for safe keeping and to preserve their contents.
The following letter shows a lady's desire to get hold of her
property which had been unduly detained. Lady Moody was a member in
1643 of the Colony of Massachusetts, but, "being taken with the error
of denying baptism to infants, was dealt with by many of the elders,"
As she persisted in her "error" she was persuaded by friends, in order
to avoid further trouble, to move to the New Netherlands. This she did,
and it is noted by the Rev. Thomas Cobbett, of Lynn, that "Lady Moody
is to sitt down on Long Island, from under civil and church watch,
among the Dutch."

[Illustration: Figure 5. OAK CHEST ON FRAME. _English._]

Later she became a warm friend of the younger Winthrop, and many
letters passed between them. The following was written in 1649:

     "Wurthi Sur:

     My respective love to you, remembering and acknowledging your
     many kindnesses and respect to me. I have written divers lines to
     you, but I doubt you have not received it. At present being in
     haste I can not unlay myselfe, but my request is y^t you will be
     pleased by this note, if in your wisdom you see not a convenienter
     opertunity to send me those things y^t Mr Throgmorton bought for
     me, and I understand are with you, for I am in great need of y^e,
     together with Mark Lucas's chest and other things.

     "So, with my respective love to you and your wife and Mrs Locke
     remembered, hoping you and they with your children are in helth,
     I rest; committing you to y^e protection of y^e Almighty. Pray
     remember my necessity in this thing.

     DEBORAH MOODY."

Chests are to be found in the well-settled as well as in out-of-the-way
corners, and of Dutch, English, and American make. The Dutch, broadly
speaking, are more common in the neighbourhood of New York, Albany,
and other places settled by these pioneers from Holland, while the
English-made ones, many of them, are to be found in New England, and
scattered over the Eastern States as well, since in the past year
I have seen two fine ones, both found in the western part of New
York State. The very earliest chests which were among the effects of
our first settlers are very plain affairs, hardly more than boxes
mounted on simple sawed legs. They were all furnished with locks,
and generally with rude handles, and we can well conceive the motley
array of household and personal "stuff" which came over in them. Elder
Brewster's chest is in the Memorial Hall at Plymouth, and is just such
a plain box on legs as has been described.

Though there were many oak chests undoubtedly brought over during these
early years, there were also many of pine, and, being plain and cheap
receptacles, more easily damaged than if of harder wood, they gave
way to better and more ornate pieces as soon as the family fortunes
warranted it.

In Flanders were made many fronts of chests only, quite elaborately
carved, and sent to England, there to be fitted with the other parts.
Among the guilds the chest-makers bore an important part, as chests,
particularly of churches, were sometimes fastened with two locks, and
the lock plates were often very highly and handsomely wrought. Of later
years chests of every degree of elegance and beauty have found their
way to America; some covered with carving of the florid style of the
Renaissance, some still showing traces of the fine gilding with which
they were covered. Even some of historic interest are owned here,
such as the carved chest of olive-wood said to have belonged to the
Stuarts, and brought to this country by a member of the family who
fled to Virginia after the beheading of Charles I. It remained in the
possession of a family named Stuart till recently, and was bought by
its present owner, Miss C. F. Marsh, of Clermont-on-the-James. This
chest, though restored as to its feet, is remarkable on account of the
decorations on the inside of its lid, which are unusual in that place,
and from the fact that they are done in burnt work as well as carving.
A portrait of James I. occupies the centre, and there are carved panels
on either side depicting the "Judgment of Solomon." On the top of the
lid the arms of the Stuarts are burnt in, while the front is decorated
with panels of castles and warriors, and above the middle panel are
the British lions supporting the royal arms. This chest is about six
feet in length, twenty-four inches high, and twenty-two inches wide.
The plantation on which it was found belonged to Captain John Smith in
1610. Its real value was quite unknown to those who possessed it. It
was sold at auction, and was bought by a German farmer for a feed-box,
on account of its strength. He carted it home, and was so satisfied
with his bargain that he was quite unwilling to sell. It is made of
eight-inch planks of olive-wood, cut several centuries ago in Palestine.

Nor is this the only chest of this description in the country. In
Memorial Hall, Philadelphia, is one very similar to it (Figure 2), but
in a perfect state of preservation, with the original ball feet and
more ornate twisted wrought-iron handles. The style of decoration on
the two chests is quite similar, they are both made of olive-wood, but
the wrought-iron handles are much handsomer on the Philadelphia chest
than on the Stuart one. It has, however, no carving on the inside of
the lid; the four panels of carving are enclosed with a moulding; but
the lions rampant are very well done, and there are figures in cavalier
costume on the panels. While, of course, elegant chests like these are
most uncommon, it is the less ornate specimens which prove the most
interesting, because there is more likelihood of our becoming possessed
of them.

Figure 3 represents a good specimen of one of these early chests. It
is of English make, entirely of oak, the boards of the bottom being
as heavy and solid as lead. The top is a heavy plank of oak with a
fine grain. The chest is panelled within and has one till. The lock is
modern, and some nails have been driven to hold the chest together,
for the back legs as well as the sides are worm-eaten. This chest is
three feet nine inches long, twenty-eight inches high, and twenty
inches wide, and is in good condition save for the nails. Its date is
about the last quarter of the seventeenth century. It was found in
New York State and belongs to Mr. W. M. Hoyt of Rochester. While oak
and pine were the most common materials for these chests, olive-wood
was sometimes used, as we have seen, and sometimes the panels were of
cedar, and the ornaments of some of the softer woods, like pine or
maple, coloured and stained to imitate ebony. American walnut came into
use late in the seventeenth century, but, although used in furniture
and popular as a veneer, it was not used for chests. Cypress wood was
also in demand as a material for chests, the aromatic smell keeping off
the pest of housekeepers, the moth. In summer time the heavy woollen
tapestries and woollen clothes of the family were stowed away, and
the former, at least, from their cost and the labour expended upon
them, had to be carefully protected.

[Illustration: Figure 6. SPANISH LEATHER CHAIR.]

The roughest sort of a chest was called a "standard," and in it were
packed the more perishable movables and furniture; and in moving from
one residence to another these standards were carried by pack-horses or
on rude carts. Chinese chests of teak-wood, lacquer, or cedar are very
rarely met with, though you will sometimes see them in old homes in
England, where some ancestor of the family followed the sea.

The inventory of the estate of Colonel Francis Epes, of Henrico County,
Virginia, dated October 1, 1678, is a long and varied one. The first
article recorded is "One foure foot chest of drawers seder Sprinkled
new, but damnified £1-10.0." Further along are mentioned--

     --"one middle size calve skin truncke with drawers. One old
     leather truncke with lock and key ... one old middle size chest
     with lock and key. One small old chest with lock and key. Two
     other old chests without keys and one without hinges."

Quite a number of chests and trunks for one family when it is noted
that they had chests of drawers also. When the Rev. Samuel Sewall, so
well-known from his voluminous diary, returned from a trip to England
in 1689, he brought with him on the ship "America" a trunk for each
of his three children, with their names and the dates of their births
carved thereon. Presumably these trunks did not come over empty. He
brought also a sea-chest, a barrel of books, a large trunk marked H. S.
with nails, two smaller trunks, a deal box of linen, a small case of
liquors, and a great case of bottles. He slept on a feather bed laid
above a straw bed on the voyage, and was comfortably covered with a
bedquilt.

American oak was used, however, in many American-made chests. Some
of the early chests, particularly those found in the United States,
stand flat on the ground. Others have legs, sometimes formed by the
continuation of the stiles, as those parts of the chests are called
which hold the panels on the sides. The two boards which occupy the
top and bottom of the sides and back and front are called the rails.
The upper rails in some of the chests of early make have a row of
carving on them which adds still further to the beauty of the chest,
and in some instances the stiles are also carved. Ordinarily, however,
the stiles are plain or with but a slight moulding, and the rails are
quite plain. Geometric patterns in arched, diamond, or square form were
early employed, each maker copying industriously the patterns used by
other makers and only occasionally having the originality to design for
himself. After the legs formed by the continuation of the stiles came
legs made in the shape of great balls such as were used on much Dutch
furniture and were copied by the English makers.

The great Dutch _kas_, or chest, was a very large and ornamental piece
of furniture, carved, painted, or decorated in marquetry. Such pieces
are unusual now, most of them having been gathered in by collectors
or museums, the Dutch towns along the Hudson, as well as Albany and
Schenectady, having been pretty well picked over.

The evolution of the bureau from the chest is an interesting study,
and shows plainly the different periods through which the useful and
homely "kist" passed before it emerged into such an ornamental thing
as the carved and decorated highboy. The first step in its upward
career was taken when a drawer was added below the chest proper. This
came as early as the last half of the seventeenth century, those chests
belonging to the first half being without drawers. Sometimes this
single drawer was divided, and the very earliest specimens had the
runners on which the drawers moved on the sides, and not on the bottom,
as came later. The sides of the drawer were hollowed out in a groove,
and a stout runner was affixed to the side of the chest. Such a chest
is shown in Figure 4. With the appearance of drawers came a difference
in ornamentation, and mouldings in great variety were used, beading and
turned drops also coming in for use. These patterns were merely the
familiar mouldings used in wainscots and panellings put to the purpose
of adorning the chests. The early chests without drawers ran in the
neighbourhood of five feet long and twenty-four inches high. As the
drawers were added, the chests naturally rose in height, and to prevent
their becoming too bulky they decreased in length.

A nice example of one of these early oak chests, mounted on turned
legs and with curved strainers, is shown in Figure 5. It is in a fine
state of preservation and has the original brass escutcheons. It was
evidently intended as a receptacle for valuables, as both drawer and
chest are made to lock. It belongs to the Waring Galleries, London.
Two drawers followed one, the chest portion still retaining its
prominence, and in this simple way the chest of drawers grew from the
box-like affair of 1600 and later. By 1710 chests were looked upon as
"old," and so advertised for sale, although they continued to be made
until the middle of the eighteenth century. They were too useful to be
abandoned by a people who were obliged to be often on the move, and
who needed some stout receptacle in which to carry their household and
personal goods.

There are chests which are peculiar to certain localities, notably in
New England, which were doubtless made by a single cabinet-maker, his
workmen and apprentices. They are almost entirely confined to these
localities, and are therefore of less interest to the collector in
general than such pieces as are more widely distributed. Under this
head comes that style of receptacle known as the Hadley Chest, and the
Connecticut chest shown in Chapter V. The Dutch chests were often of
pine, painted, only the choicest ones being of walnut. One inventory
records a "chest brought from Havanna,"--probably Spanish.

After matters became a little less anxious for the early settlers,
personal comfort began to be thought of more, and such colonists as had
brought no chairs began to send for them to England or have them made
in America. Every ship from England took out fresh comforts, and the
dignitaries of the colonies had substantial household gear. Tables,
chairs, beds, and carpets,--these latter not for floors, but for use as
table-covers,--are mentioned with great frequency in the inventories,
and the settlers' house, albeit many of them boasted of but four rooms,
had more than a modest degree of luxury.

[Illustration: Figure 7. TURNED CHAIR WITH LEATHER COVER.]

The New Haven Colony--as indeed did all the Colonies--had, as her
chief officers, men used to the best that England afforded, and
the following inventory speaks for itself. John Haynes, governor of
Connecticut, in 1653 left an estate at Hartford valued at £1,400. In
his hall, one of the most esteemed parts of the house at this period,
were,--

  5 leather and 4 flag-bottomed chairs     1 table and 3 joined stools
  1 tin hanging candlestick                7 cushions
  1 firelock musket                        1 matchlock do.
  1 carbine                                1 rapier
  1 pr. cob-irons                          1 iron back
  1 gilded looking-glass                   1 smoothing-iron

--the whole valued at £8 13_s._ 10_d._ The parlor had velvet chairs and
stools, also Turkey-wrought chairs, and a green cloth carpet valued at
£1 10_s._ There were also curtains of say, curtain rods and "vallants,"
many napkins, as these were necessary from lack of forks, and much
Holland bed and table linen. There were many chests and "lean-to" or
livery cupboards.

"The men's chamber," had "a bedstead with two flock beds; one feather
boulster, one flock do.; one blanket; one coverlet." His best rooms had
feather beds. In the cellar were many brewing-vessels and wooden-ware,
while the kitchen had a complete "garnish" of pewter, but not a single
piece of crockery. Brass candlesticks, iron possnets and porringers,
and the useful brass warming-pan were here also. Theophilus Eaton, also
governor of Connecticut, left in 1657 an inventory of goods of even
greater value.

Even earlier than this, rich furniture was imported by those who could
afford it, and in 1645 a Mistress Lake, sister-in-law of Governor
Winthrop the younger, sent to England for the furnishings for her
daughter's new house. There were many items in the list, and among
them were only one--

     --"bedsteede of carven oak; 2 armed cheares with fine rushe
     bottums; three large & three small silvern spoons, & 6 of horne."

As late as 1755 "armed cheares" were highly esteemed, and Joseph
Allison, of Albany, N. Y., bequeathed two to his second son, a
walking-cane to his firstborn, and to his youngest son some clothes.
Chairs, stools, and cushions are mentioned in many inventories as being
covered with "set work;" this was heavy woolen tapestry much after the
fashion of Oriental rugs, and most durable. It is rather unusual to
find no mention of leather chairs in inventories, for they were used in
America late in 1600, and chairs covered with "redd lether," as well as
with Spanish leather, are of frequent occurrence.

Lion Gardiner was one of the chief proprietors of Easthampton, L. I.,
in 1653, where he passed the last ten years of his life "rummaging old
papers" and in other peaceful pursuits. The inventory of his estate is
set out fully and seems scant enough.

  2 Great Bookes                several bookes
  4 Great cheirs                15 peeces of pewter
  13 peeces of hollow pewter    4 porringers & 4 saucers
  5 pewter spoons               A stubing how
  A broad how                   A little how
  Horses                        Cattle
  Swine                         Clothing
  Bedding                       2 pastry boards
  Cooking utensils              A cickell
  A cheese press                A churn

It was this same Lion Gardiner who, after the Pequot War, bought from
the Indians the island Monchonock, embracing thirty-five acres of
hill and dale. The price paid was a large black dog, a gun, some powder
and shot, a few Dutch blankets. This is the place which we know to-day
as Gardiner's Island. The "great cheirs" mentioned in the inventory
were, no doubt, either Turkey-work or leather, and seem to be the only
articles of this kind of furniture possessed by him.

[Illustration: Figure 8. ENGLISH CHAIR. _C. 1680_]

[Illustration: ITALIAN CHAIR. _Same Period._]

In 1638, in London, a man named Christopher took out a patent for
decorating leather, which somewhat reduced its cost. Up to this time
all leather was imported from Spain or Holland.

Figure 6 is a fine example of a Portuguese or Spanish leather chair, as
they were variously called, and shows well the splendid and ornamental
leather as well as the rich carving seen particularly on the front
brace. The leather is fastened to the frame with large brass nails, and
that part of the oak frame which is exposed is turned work. On many of
these chairs there are three little metal ornaments on the curved top.
In this example two are lost. Besides the carving on the front brace,
a pattern which was often adopted and copied by English and Dutch
cabinet-makers, this chair shows well that form of foot which came to
be known as the "Spanish foot." It is seen on all makes of furniture,
and with some variations of form, but always turns out at the base,
and has the grooved work so conspicuous in Figure 6. There is no doubt
that this was an exceedingly popular style of chair, for there are many
examples almost exactly like this in many collections. This particular
one is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Another style of leather chair is shown in Figure 7, and its solidity
is a great contrast to the Spanish chair previously shown. The woodwork
is turned, and the heavy underbracing shaped, while the second bracing
is a feature peculiar to this chair itself. The date of this piece is
probably about 1650, or a little later,--about the same date as similar
turned pieces which are covered with Turkey work. The leather on the
seat is so old and worn that it seems as if it had never been renewed,
while the back is much fresher and looks comparatively new. The seat of
this chair is so high from the floor that a footstool was a necessity,
and in the old inventories the item of "low stools," or "foot-banks"
appears with some frequency. This chair is of about the same period as
the Spanish leather chairs. Many leather chairs are found in the United
States, both North and South, and are probably of English make. Some
inventories mention them as "old," as early as 1667, and many were in
use in different parts of the country.

But while most of our early New England colonists were grappling with
the serious business of life, almost content if they could scrape
together enough to eat and to wear, and a substantial roof to cover
them, in England life was taking a more ornamental aspect. Charles II.,
indolent and fond of luxury, came to the throne in 1660. Two years
later he married Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess, and
both of them introduced a more elegant style of living; his French and
her Spanish training leading them to require more comforts than had
hitherto been known in England.

[Illustration: Figure 9. CANE CHAIR, FLEMISH STYLE.]

Among other things which were exported from Holland was cane furniture
of a superior quality. It became very much the fashion, and was in
Spanish or Flemish styles, both of which were copied or adapted
by English cabinet-makers. Some of this furniture found its way to
America, and there are pieces to be found showing all three styles,
Flemish, Spanish, and English adaptation. In Figure 8 is shown an
example of the English treatment of the Spanish style, at least as to
foot; while the flat underbrace is English, the curved back and bandy
leg are quite Dutch. The carving on the top is very beautiful, and the
knees of the front legs carved, not with the usual shell, but with
heads, and below these an oval with moulding. This chair is in the
South Kensington Museum, London, and dates from about 1680. The wood
is walnut, and the scrolls and foliage on the back stand out in high
relief; the seat, originally as now, is covered with a rich brocade,
with fine brass nails and a fringe.

The second chair is one of about the same period, of very beautifully
carved oak, and not restored. The arms are missing, but show the places
where they originally were. It has lost its feet, but the exquisite
carving on the underbrace and top is still quite intact and quite
Italian in style. This chair is at the Waring Galleries, London.

A very splendid example of the Flemish treatment of the same style is
shown in Figure 9, the oak woodwork being carved and turned, and the
foot turning out in true Flemish style. The date of the chairs shown in
both Figures 8 and 9 is prior to 1700.

The wealthy people of Charles II.'s time all indulged in these chairs.
Before that period stools had been in general use, and only the master,
mistress, or guest of honour occupied the few chairs possessed in a
household.

In New England centres like Salem, Boston, or New Haven, even before
the time of Charles II., there was in some of the houses comfort as we
understand it. Mr. George Lamberton, of the New Haven Colony, sailed
in 1646 to England upon business in the "Great Ship." She was never
heard from again, and her loss crippled the little colony almost beyond
belief. Mr. Lamberton's inventory shows a variety of items. He had as
many as eighty napkins; bedding and table, chimney and board cloths in
proportion; feather and down beds with their accompanying hangings.
These with more than a dozen cushions to make soft the stiff chairs
and settles, silver plate, four chests, ten boxes and trunks, eleven
chairs, five stools, and three tables, both round and square, made up
comfortable furnishings for a house with probably not more than four
rooms. The colonists were not only "plain people," but there were those
who came, shortly after the first settlement, who brought with them
the household goods and clothes to which they had been accustomed. The
"Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth" tells not only of the stress of
living and the struggle with Indians and forest creatures. There was
time to reprehend the frivolities of women's wear, and the pastor's
wife was the chief offender in the matter of over-gay apparel. She was
a young widow when Mr. Johnson married her, and brought goodly estate
and personal belongings to her second husband. She continued to wear
the clothes she had brought with her, and the chief exceptions were
taken to the cork-soled shoes she wore, and the whalebone in the bodice
and sleeves of her gown. Both the pastor and his wife seem to have been
more than reasonable, since they were willing to reform the cut of
their garments as far as they could "without spoiling of them."

[Illustration: Figure 10. TURNED AND CARVED ARM CHAIR]

While the general habit of the Puritans was to keep their houses and
apparel extremely plain, yet here and there among them bits of comfort
and elegance would crop out. Among the stiff and straight-backed
chairs, one with stuffing would be found, while in the more luxurious
and easy-going South they were not so rare. The covering probably was
"sett work or Turkey work;" but then, too, brocade ones were found, and
such a chair as is shown in Figure 10 would be an ornament in any home.
It is a fine example of walnut-wood, turned and carved with bannister
back and stuffed seat. The covering has been restored, but is of a
pattern which was of the period. The out-turned Flemish foot is more
ball-like in shape than is often seen, but it has the bowed knees which
are so familiar.

Yet, if the chairs were none too comfortable, there were few families
in any of the settlements that did not own at least one feather bed.
If not feathers, then "flock beds" were used, that is chopped rags, or
feathers and flock mixed, or, as a last resort, the down from the brown
soft, cat-tails which grew plentifully in every marsh was utilized
instead of more costly material.



CHAPTER II.

DUTCH FURNITURE.


Miss Singleton, in her exhaustive book "Furniture of Our Forefathers,"
says that probably the first pieces of furniture that were landed on
the shores of the Hudson came in the ship _Fortune_, and were brought
by Hendrich Christiansen, of Cleep, who founded a little settlement
of four houses and thirty persons in 1615. A little later came the
_Tiger_, _The Little Fox_, and the _Nightingale_, all bringing
colonists and their household furniture. The early Dutch settlers
were better fitted to start an infant colony than their New England
brothers. The Dutch were ever colonizers and knew just how to plan and
prepare a settlement. The trouble with the Indians was not so constant
as it was with the New England colonies, although on one occasion New
Amsterdam was almost wiped out. On the whole, the Dutch seem to have
treated the Indians more wisely, buying the lands of them and having
the purchase further confirmed by grants. In New Amsterdam the settlers
were comfortably fixed, comparatively speaking, long before the New
England colonists were, for they had a sawmill in operation as early as
1627, the machinery for which had been sent from Holland, and which was
worked by wind-power.

[Illustration: Figure 11. DUTCH FURNITURE, CALLED "QUEEN ANNE".]

The Dutch settled at Albany and its neighbourhood and around
Schenectady, as well as those at New Amsterdam, had many creature
comforts. In 1643 Albany was a colony of about one hundred persons
living in about thirty rough board houses. By 1689 the number of
inhabitants had increased to 700 and the houses to 150. During the next
ten years the improvements were rapid and wonderful; gardens grew,
filled with flowers and fruit; the class of houses improved; wealthy
merchants came to such a rich market (of furs chiefly); and the Dutch
city grew apace, and the fine beaver-skins which were so plenty bought
luxuries for the pioneers. That luxury is not too strong a word to
use is shown by the splendid carved kas shown in Figure 12, which now
belongs to the Albany Historical Society, and is a piece of furniture
which may date back as far as the last quarter of the seventeenth
century. It is made of walnut, and stands over eight feet high, with
cupboard and shelves. While this chest was of unusual beauty, there
was a certain solidity and ponderous character observable in most of
the Dutch furniture. It is characteristic of the people themselves and
is noted in everything belonging to them. Their very ships had long,
high-sounding names, _The Angel Gabriel_, _The Van Rensselaer Arms_,
_King David_, _Queen Esther_, _King Solomon_, _The Great Christopher_,
_The Crowned Sea-Bears_, and brought in their flat hulks fine goods
from all quarters.

[Illustration: Figure 12. CARVED KAS.]

The dress of the portly Dutch _vrouw_ was in unison with her
cleanliness and love of thrift, for her gown--whether of cloth, or
her very bettermost one of silk--was cut short enough to well clear
the ground, and showed her shoes with shining buckles, and her
bright-coloured stockings, often clocked with her favorite flower, the
tulip. The hair was drawn back from the brow, smoothed and flattened
and covered with a cap which, among the wealthy, was bordered with
Flanders lace, and in any case was fluted, plaited, and snowy white.

The practical education which the Dutch women always obtained in their
own country sharpened their judgment, and the laws which permitted her
to hold real estate and carry on business in her own name, even if a
married woman, gave her an added independence. It was no unusual thing
for women to engage in business on their own account and to carry it on
without the aid or interference of the men of the family. At home in
the Low Countries, the women had sold at the market, beside the produce
of the gardens and poultry yards, the products of their own industry
as well,--laces, linen, cloth of wool, etc., and as early as 1656 they
sought and obtained permission to hold their market in the new country
as they had in the old. Curaçao provided for them many luxuries, such
as "lemons, parrots, and paroquettes," besides a variety of liquors.
The women grew flax in their own door-yards for the finest linen, and
every house had its spinning-wheel.

Hospitality was dispensed at these homes, supper being a favorite
meal, and as "early to bed and early to rise" was a national motto
the guests were expected to come early and to leave early also,--nine
o'clock verging on riotous dissipation. Madam Steenwych was noted for
her suppers, which were more substantial than the waffles and tea which
was the usual menu. In 1664, after her husband's death, she married
Dominie Selyns. At this time she had in her living-room twelve Russia
leather chairs, two easy-chairs with silver lace, one cupboard of
fine French nut-wood, one round and one square table, one cabinet,
thirteen pictures, one dressing-box, cushions, and curtains. Her chairs
with silver lace may have well been like the handsome pair of marquetry
ones shown in Figure 13. The seat of the side chair is entirely gone,
but the arm-chair yet retains a portion of its cover of wool plush, no
doubt the original one, since some of the stuffing protrudes, and it
is dried sea-kale instead of hair. The wood is maple with an inlay of
satin-wood. These chairs belong to the Museum connected with Cooper
Institute, New York, which is being carefully gathered by the Misses
Hewitt.

Property had become valuable, and loss had been sustained by fire, so
in August, 1658, 250 leather fire-buckets for public use were ordered
from Holland, together with hooks and ladders. In addition each
household was required to have a certain number of buckets of their
own, which were to be kept hanging under the back stoop.

In 1686 a rich Dutch burgher in New Amsterdam owned a house of eight
rooms over cellars filled, no doubt, with choice liquors and schnapps,
and the rooms above set out with chairs and tables, cabinets, cupboards
and a "great looking-glass." Ornaments were there, too,--alabaster
images and nineteen gaily decorated porcelain dishes. Nor was the
house suffered to want for thorough cleansing, as there were thirteen
scrubbing and thirty-one rubbing brushes, twenty-four pounds of Spanish
soap, and seven other brushes. With an increase of prosperity our Dutch
housewives lost no whit of their notions of cleanliness, for here is a
housecleaning described, presumably by a victim, a hundred years later.

     "The husband gone, the ceremony begins. The walls are stripped
     of their furniture; paintings, prints, and looking-glasses lie
     in huddled heaps about the floors; the curtains are torn from
     their testers, the beds crammed into windows; chairs and tables,
     bedsteads and cradles crowd the yard; and the garden fence bends
     beneath the weight of carpets, blankets, cloth cloaks, old coats,
     under-petticoats, and ragged breeches. This ceremony completed,
     and the house thoroughly evacuated, the next operation is to smear
     the walls and ceilings with brushes dipped into a solution of lime
     called whitewash; to pour buckets of water over the floor and
     scratch all the partitions and wainscots with hard brushes charged
     with soft soap and stone-cutter's sand."

Even these thrifty pioneers did not all accrue many goods, for 1707,
when Hellegonda De Kay, of New York, came to make her will, she was
obliged to leave her "entire worldly estate" to one daughter. It
consisted of one Indian slave. The Dutch wife had an equal interest
with her husband in disposing of household goods and furniture. She
was always consulted, and sometimes she even signed the will with her
husband. The wives of the English settlers, whether Quaker or Puritan,
did not have the rights of their Dutch sisters in the ownership of
household goods. The wife's dowry passed into her husband's hands at
marriage, and remained there until his death, as the inventory of
the estate of Alexander Allyn of Hartford, Conn., who died in 1708,
testifies.

     "_Estate that deceased had with his wife Elizabeth in marriage
     (now left to her)._"

     "One round table; bed with furnishings; chest of drawers; two
     trunks; a box; books; earthenware; glasses; pewter platters;
     plates; bason; porringers; cups; spoons; tinware; a fork;
     trenchers; four chairs; nine pounds in silver money; table-cloths;
     napkins; towels; a looking-glass; a chest; a silver salt;
     porringer; wine-cup and spoon; a brass pot; an iron pot; two brass
     skillets and hooks."

The following extract from a will drawn in 1759 by a man eighty years
old shows the Friend's point of view as to whom the household stuff
belonged. He wills to his wife as long as she liveth, unless she
marries again (she was seventy years old at the time),

     "two good feather beds and full furniture, and all my negro
     bedding; and all my grain, either growing or cut, or in store at
     the time of my decease; and all my flax and wool, and yarn and
     new cloth and cattle hides, leather, and soap, and meat, and all
     other provisions which I have in store in my house, either meat
     or drink, and all my negro men and one of my negro women, such of
     them as she shall choose, and my negro girl named Priss; and if I
     should chance to dye when I have cattle a-fatting my wife shall
     have them for the provision of herself and family, at my wife's
     disposal."

No doubt the feather beds and "negro bedding," as well as the "new
cloth," had been made by the patient fingers of this wife of fifty
years' standing; but she must forfeit all this fruit of her labour
should she marry again. The Dutch system seems preferable.

In another inventory, that of Charles Mott, also a Long Island Quaker,
dated 1740, the eldest son has the house and homestead, "together with
the negro boy Jack and one feather bed." The sole provision for his
wife was "four pounds a year" to be paid to her by the eldest son "so
long as she remains my widow." He seems to have put a premium on her
filling his place, and that quickly.

Possibly our Dutch settlers were more notable house wives than their
sisters in New England or the South. In the latter region the mistress
did not contribute with her own hands to the cleanliness of her home,
but she had onerous duties in overlooking the work of sometimes over a
hundred negroes, seeing to their food, clothes, and shelter. Our New
England wives were still suffering from Indian depredations, and the
young housewives whose doors were driven thick with nails to repel the
deadly tomahawk, as Mistress David Chapin's was at Chicopee in 1705,
would probably not have risked her "goods" out of doors, as did the
Dutch housewives at Albany.

[Illustration: Figure 13. MARQUETRY CHAIRS.]

The Dutch kitchen utensils seem numerous and varied. Possets, pans,
jack-spits, strainers and skillets were seen in inventories as well as
the more familiar pots and kettles. The prosperous Dutch at home had
sent out and brought back many a rich argosy, and silks and tissues,
porcelains and lacquers, carved ivory and fantastic carved wood, spices
and plants had been brought to Holland and found their way to America.
There were many ships unloaded at New York filled with spoils from
the East, which were eagerly bought up. There was a variety of moneys
current,--beaver-skins; wampum; Spanish pistoles, worth 17_s._ 6_d._;
Arabian chequins at 10_s._; "pieces of eight" (as the Spanish reals
were called), which, if they weighed 16 pennyweight (except those of
Peru) passed for 5_s._; and French crowns worth 5_s._ Peruvian pieces
of eight and Dutch dollars were valued at 4_s._, and all English coin
passed "as it goes in England." These were the values in 1705, but they
varied somewhat, the currency being inflated by one governor, though
his act created such a disturbance that he was obliged to withdraw it.
The Long Island Dutch seem to have had less rich belongings than those
up the Hudson and about Albany. Around Jamaica and Hempstead were
stout clapboard and shingle houses, but the inventories are not lavish.
Daniel Denton, writing in 1670 "A Brief Description of New York," says
this about his dearly loved Hempstead.

     "May you should see the woods and Fields so curiously bedeckt
     with Roses and an innumerable multitude of delightful Flowers not
     only pleasing to the eye but smell. That you may behold Nature
     contending with Art and striving to equal if not excel many
     gardens in England."

But he has little to say about the way of living, except that it is
"godly."

The records of New Amsterdam, which are so wonderfully complete, show
what a valuable assistant to these first settlers was the powerful West
India Company. By 1633 there were five stone houses containing the
Company's workshops; and as the land near at hand was poor,--"scrubby"
the Dutch farmers called it,--they spread out to the neighbouring New
Jersey, Long Island, Gowanus, and East River shores and from 1636 to
1640 were busy with their settlements.

By 1651 New Amsterdam was prosperous enough to have a brick house so
good and well built as to be worth 5,195 florins (about $2,100 of our
money). In 1649 Adam Roelantsen, a general factotum of the West India
Company, whose name constantly appears in the town records, (as he was
unfortunately addicted to strong waters, and under these conditions
was very quarrelsome and aggressive,) owned the following house. It
was a clapboard structure covered with a reed roof, and eighteen by
thirty feet in size. It stood gable end toward the street, and at the
front door was the usual "portal" with its wooden seats. Outside of
the frame the chimney of squared timber was carried up, while within
the fireplace had a mantelpiece and the living room had "fifty-one
leaves of wainscot." There was a bedstead or state-bed built in, but
of the movables no record is left. In reading these old records it
is noticed that matters moved quickly; not much time was spent in
grief and repining; and to illustrate we give the experience of one
woman whose career does not seem to have excited any comment among
her contemporaries. In 1685 William Cox married a young woman named
Sarah Bradley, who had come from England with her father and brothers
to settle in New Amsterdam. She was said to have been handsome and
dashing, and certainly she needed spirit to carry her through her
subsequent career. Four years after her marriage her husband met with
the following accident, thus described by a political opponent.

     "Mr. Cox, to show his fine clothes, undertook to goe to Amboy
     to proclaime the King, who, coming whome againe, was fairely
     drowned, which accident startled our commanders here very much;
     there is a good rich widdow left. The manner of his being drowned
     was comeing on board a cannow from Capt Cornelis' Point at Staten
     Islands, goeing into the boate, slipt down betwixt the cannow and
     the boate, the water not being above his chin, but very muddy,
     stuck fast in, and, striving to get out, bobbing his head under,
     receaved to much water in. They brought him ashore with life in
     him, but all would not fetch him againe."

The good rich "widdow" whom he left soon changed her loneliness for
the pleasures of married life, this time with Mr. John Oort. He,
too, made a brief stay, for by May 16, 1691, the widow Sarah Oort
had the necessary license under colonial law for her marriage to no
less a person than Captain William Kidd. They lived comfortably in
a house left by Sarah's first husband, Mr. Cox (who left her with
an estate of several thousand pounds) till Captain Kidd set out on
his notable voyage in the "Adventure." The goods which Mrs. Oort
had at the time of her marriage to Captain Kidd were the following:
fifty-four chairs, of Turkey work and double and single nailed; five
tables with their carpets (covers); four curtained beds with their
outfits; three chests of drawers; two dressing-boxes; a desk; four
looking-glasses; two stands; a screen; a clock; andirons; fire-irons;
fenders; chafing-dishes; (3) candlesticks of silver, brass, pewter, and
tin; leather fire-buckets; over one hundred ounces of silver plate; and
a dozen glasses. The screen, no doubt, was such a one as is shown in
the same figure, No. 14, as the Dutch cradle, which was used for many
years in the Pruyn family, of Albany. The third object in the picture
is what is known as a church stool, and was useful in keeping the good
_vrouw's_ feet off the cold floors. This stool is painted black and is
dated 1702. There is a lurid picture of the Last Judgment painted on
it, and also a verse in Dutch, which reads as follows:

     "The judgment of God is now at hand. There is still time; let us
     separate the pious from the wicked and entreat God for the joy of
     heaven."

All these articles are now at the rooms of the Historical Society,
Albany.

William Kidd was executed in May, 1701, and, nothing daunted by her
matrimonial ventures, Sarah took as her fourth husband, in 1703,
Christopher Rousby, a man of considerable influence in the colony. She
lived until 1745, and left surviving her four children.

While the houses were rough, some with but two rooms, yet articles
even of luxury were there and offered for sale. As early as 1654 a
casket inlaid with ebony was sold and brought thirty beavers and
nineteen guilders. Cornelis Barentsen sued Cristina Capoens in 1656 for
payment for a bed he sold her, payment to be made in fourteen days.
The price was six beavers (about $57.00), which Cristina seemed unable
to pay, but which payment was ordered by the court. In June, 1666, the
administrators of the estate of the late Jan Ryerson sold some "beasts"
(horses, calves, and hogs), as well as furniture at public sale. "The
payment for the beasts, also the bed, bolsters, and pillows," was to
be made in "whole merchantable beavers, or otherwise in good strung
seewant, beavers' price, at twenty-four guilders the beaver."

Here is the inventory of a bride who was married at New Amsterdam in
1691, and although her husband was a man of consideration and some
wealth it was deemed of sufficient importance to record.

     "A half-worn bed; one pillow; two cushions of ticking, with
     feathers; one rug; four sheets; four cushion-covers; two iron
     pots; three pewter dishes; one pewter basin; one iron roster;
     one schuryn spoon; two cowes about five years old; one case or
     cupboard, one table."

August 31, 1694, Jan Becker's inventory entered at Albany, New York,
showed a long list. Besides abundant household goods he had--

     "A silver spoon; 3 pr. gold buttons; 5 doz. & 10 silver buttons
     for shirts; & 2 silver scnuffies."

[Illustration: Figure 14. DUTCH SCREEN, CRADLE AND CHURCH STOOL.]

It is not difficult to picture in the mind how these old Dutch houses
looked when the living-room was made snug and warm of a winter's
evening. At various places along the Hudson and on Long Island there
are still standing some of these old, low-ceiled, wooden houses, with
sloping roof and great chimney. The furniture was generally of oak
(particularly if it had been brought from home) and carved. The most
important objects in the room are the mantelpiece and the bed, the
former of carved wood, its ornate character significant of the wealth
of the owner, and its size seldom less than the height of the room.
The bed was frequently built in the room, a sort of bunk, hung with
curtains often of bright chintz, though, judging from the inventories,
"purple calico" curtains were immensely popular, just as this same
fabric is beloved to-day by the pretty maid-servants one sees tripping
through the quaint old streets of Holland. There were stools; not many
chairs; tables, one or two; each with its bright carpet or cover; racks
on the wall for what delft the mistress had; and below it the treasured
spoons. In the great kas, which took up a large portion of the room,
was the linen, covers for tables, side-tables, shelves, etc., and all
the napkins and choice belongings of the housewife. If this kas was
carved oak it sometimes stood on a frame; sometimes it had ponderous
locks. If it was painted or inlaid wood it might reach nearly to the
floor, and then stand upon large ball feet. Some of these kas were so
large and heavy that it was almost impossible to move them, and there
is the record of one _vrouw_ who upon moving from Flatbush was obliged
to abandon hers, leaving it behind her and selling it for £25:

In the Van Rensselaer family is a marriage kas which goes back to the
beginning of the eighteenth century. It was imported from Holland by
the parents of Katherine Van Brugh, who wished their only daughter
to have everything that money could buy, and during her early years
it was being filled with linen and household goods woven under her
father's roof. It was no light task to fill this great chest, for it
stood seven feet high and proportionally wide. It is of carved oak,
has many drawers and receptacles, and will hold the silver and finery
of the mistress, while there are secret drawers for "duccatoons and
jacobuses." The keyhole is concealed under a movable cover of carved
wood, which looks like a part of the carving when dropped in place. The
ponderous key is of iron and has many wards.

If the family was quite well to do and owned a good stock of clothes,
there would be one or more smaller cases, or chests, in which these
were stored away. Much furniture was made here by Dutch workmen,
who followed the fashions of their native land. They found abundant
material, and more was brought into the country,--in devious ways
sometimes, but still it came.

The court records for New Amsterdam for 1644 report a bark, _Croisie_,
of Biscay, which was brought into the harbour as a prize by the ship
_La Garce_, being laden with sugar, tobacco, and ebony. The claim of
the master of the _La Garce_ was granted, and the goods sold.

Nearly always there was a little silver,--spoons, mugs, and a
salt-cellar; and, as years passed on, much coin was beaten by some
member of the family (for there were many Dutch silversmiths) into
tankards,--splendid heavy vessels, capable of holding a quart, with
cover and thumb-piece, and showing the marks of the mallet on the
bottom and inside, for all of these pieces of plate were hand-made.
Waiters and massive bowls were seen in nearly every family of easy
circumstances, and they scarcely ever went out of the family, as it
was a matter of pride to retain them. Much of this fine old plate is
treasured to-day by descendants of its former owners. It has survived
better than the furniture, indestructible as that seemed.

In 1739 Lowrens Claesen, of Schenectady, had, among other property, a
gold seal ring and a silver cup marked "L. V. V." Myndert Fredricksen
of Albany County, New York, blacksmith, left in 1703 a great silver
tankard, a church book with silver clasps and chains, and a silver
tumbler marked "M. F." A blacksmith in those days meant a worker in
iron, and this one must have been prosperous, for he owned his house
and land, and furniture as well as silver.

But even if silver were lacking there were brass skillets and
warming-pans, and pewter was the ordinary table furniture, which was
scoured to a polish little short of silver. One or two pieces of
brightly decorated Delft ware was the crowning glory of the housewife's
treasures, and far too precious for every-day use. So holes were
drilled in the edge, and a stout cord passed through, so that it could
be hung upon the wall. There was, of course, a clock also, and leather
chairs. Nicholas Van Rensselaer, of Albany, who died in 1679, was a
wealthy and important member of the colony of Albany. His house had two
beds, two looking-glasses, two chests of drawers, two tables, one of
oak and one of nut-wood; also a table of pine, as well as six stools
of the same; a sleeping-bunk or built-in bed, over twenty pictures, a
desk, and, of course, brushes and kitchen utensils. These goods were
disposed of through four rooms. Not only were all the necessaries
abundant, but some very elegant furniture came in with almost every
ship, and even before 1700, ebony chairs, boxes and cabinets are
mentioned in the inventories; but such splendid pieces as the cabinet
shown in Figure 15, with carved panels in the doors, and carved twisted
legs, were only occasionally to be met with. The doors conceal shelves,
and above are two drawers with drop handles. There are pieces similar
to this to be found in the United States in private houses as well as
in museums. This cabinet belongs to the Waring Galleries, London.

Children slept in trundle beds, which during the day were pushed under
the large bed, often a four-post bedstead when not the sleeping-bunk.
One thing was found in every house, rich or poor, and this was some
means for striking fire. Tinder and steel, with scorched linen, were
an indispensable part of every household. Sometimes it was necessary
to borrow coals from a neighbour, and there were stringent town laws
ordering that "fire shall always be covered when carried from house to
house." In the "Court Records of New Amsterdam" one of the earliest
laws regulated the carrying about of hot coals, and several Dutch
_vrouws_ were hauled to court for breaking them.

[Illustration: Figure 15. EBONY CABINET.]

The furniture in these houses was by no means all of Dutch or domestic
make. They had what they were able to get, and among painted kas and
inlaid chests would be Spanish chairs or stools, and English walnut
beds with serge hangings, folding tables and Turkey-work chairs. Before
the close of the seventeenth century there came direct to New York
Dutch ships from the Orient, or from the Low Countries themselves,
loaded with rich goods, among which was much furniture. Styles had
begun to change a little; the Dutch were absorbing ideas from the
Chinese and copying and adapting forms and decorations. Beautiful
lacquer work was coming in, and splendid inlaid or marquetry work; not
any more in two colours, as was the earliest style, but in a variety of
colours and in divers patterns, and standing upon bandy legs with ball
and claw, or what is known as the Dutch foot, instead of the straight
or turned leg.

The inventories show how far East Indian goods were coming in, and
there is frequent mention of "East India baskets," boxes, trunks,
and even cabinets. The most usual woods were black walnut, white oak
and nut-wood, which was hickory. Occasionally pieces were made of
olive-wood, or of pine-wood painted black. Ebony was used for inlay
and for adornment for frames. Looking-glasses were mentioned in nearly
every list, the earliest coming from Venice. By 1670 looking-glass was
manufactured at Lambeth, England, in the Duke of Buckingham's works,
and was not now so costly as to be seen only among the wealthy. The
cupboards were no longer uniformly made with solid doors, but glass
was introduced, so that the family wealth of silver and china could
be easily seen. By 1727 mahogany is mentioned occasionally in the
inventories, and it could be bought by those who were wealthy enough to
afford it.

Probably the Spaniards were the earliest users of mahogany, followed
by the Dutch and English. Furniture made of this wood is known to have
existed in New York prior to 1700, and in Philadelphia a little later.
The old Spanish mahogany was a rich, dark, heavy wood, susceptible
of a high polish. It darkened with age and was not stained. The new
mahogany, at least that which comes from Mexico, is of a light, more
yellow colour, and requires staining, as age does not darken it. It
is light in weight. The mere lifting of a piece enables one to judge
whether it is made from Spanish wood.

The carpets referred to in nearly every inventory were not
floor-coverings, but table-covers,--small rugs, no doubt, but far too
precious to be worn out by rough-shod feet walking over them. The
floors were scoured white, and were strewn with sand which showed the
artistic capacity of mistress or maid in the way it had patterns drawn
in it by broom-handle or pointed stick. It was not until the middle
of the century that carpets became at all common, and even then they
are mentioned in the inventories as very choice possessions. There
were "flowered carpets," "Scotch ditto," "rich and beautiful Turkey
carpets," and Persian carpets also. The colonists traded with Hamburg
and Holland for "duck, checquered linen, oznaburgs, cordage, and
tea,"--goods appreciated by the housewife, and which she could not make.

[Illustration: Figure 16. BED CHAIR.]

The festivities indulged in by the Dutch settlers were generally
connected with the table; they played backgammon, or bowls when the
weather was fine and they could go out of doors. The cards they used
numbered seventy-three to the pack, and there was no queen, her place
being supplied by a cavalier who was attended by a hired man, and
they both supported the king. Cards were not popular, however, except
among the English settlers, and they followed the home fashions.

After English rule had been dominant in the little city of New
Amsterdam for nearly fifty years the larger number of the families was
still Dutch, as a collection of wills made at that period testifies.
What would be now domains worthy a prince--farms lying in Nassau
Island, as Long Island was then called, vast tracts in New Jersey, and
thousands of acres between New York and Albany--were divided by these
wills. Such names as Killian Van Rensselaer, second lord of the manor;
Harmanus Rutgers, Philip Schuyler, Van Cortlandt, Provoost, etc., are
signed to these documents but it is in the minor wills that we find the
records of the lives of the main body of the people. A feather bed, one
or more slaves, and the family Bible are the bequests usually first
specified, the Bibles in some cases being very massive and ponderous
affairs. Jarminaye Sieurs, widow, 1709, bequeaths to her daughter her
Bible with silver clasps, in addition to her gold rings and one half
of her clothes. A grand-daughter, Hilley Veghten, gets a "silver cup
with two ears," and other grandchildren, bearing such interesting names
as Reynier, Simesse, and Gretie Veghten, get a silver spoon each. In
1711 a fond mother leaves to her daughter "the red and white worsted
and linen stockings," besides two pillows, two coverlids, a bed and
furniture.

A Hempstead yeoman is very careful to stipulate that his daughter shall
have--

     "one feather bed, an iron pot, six plates, three platters, two
     basins, one drinking pot and one cupboard worth £3, and six chairs,
     six sheep, and one table."

The price of the cupboard being specified shows that it was held in
great estimation, and it must have been a handsome piece of furniture.

Only very occasionally do we find a record in the inventories of a "bed
chair," yet such were sometimes found here early in the eighteenth
century. One is shown in Figure 16. It is carved on the top and inlaid,
and covered with woollen plush,--not the original covering, which no
doubt was Turkey work. Two hinges are shown on the front rail; the back
lets down, and a leg unfolds to support it; while the legs and arms
coming together make the centre firm. This unusual piece is at the
Museum connected with the Cooper Institute, is of nut-wood or maple
inlaid with tulip-wood, with bandy legs and the well-known Dutch feet.

The Dutch settlers had other elegances which are more rarely met with,
such as walnut kas or chests, inlaid with plaques, or rather small
saucers and plates of Oriental china. These were tall, with doors
opening their whole length, and stood on the great ball feet which are
so familiar. One such cabinet is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York,
and another is owned by Mrs. Pruyn of Albany. In the former example the
plaques display flowers and birds in various colours; in the latter are
plain blue and white.

[Illustration: Figure 17. MARQUETRY DESK.]

Of later manufacture were pieces of rich marquetry in vari-coloured
exotic woods upon mahogany. The heavy foot was replaced by others,
still turning out, to be sure, in the Flemish fashion, but very ornate
and beautiful, and still further embellished with ornaments in gilt.
Such a piece, massive in shape, but enriched with much ornament, is
shown in the desk depicted in Figure 17. It was never made for any of
the humbler houses of the Dutch settlers, but such a piece was worthy
to stand in the study of a wealthy patroon or to belong to some "lord
of the manor." This particular desk, a very perfect example of its
class, belongs to the Waring Galleries, London.



CHAPTER III.

CHIPPENDALE.


In studying the various periods into which different makes of furniture
may be divided, the accentuating of one point, say of ornaments or the
structural peculiarities, is noted, not as being sharply defined, but
as being a gradual growth. Chippendale did not originate at first.
Indeed, he hardly adapted, for the East India trade had brought to
market Chinese designs which he used, and French furniture was so
popular that he copied bodily in his book such designs as pleased him,
although the term "French chairs," as employed at this time, referred
to their being upholstered and not to the style or decoration. Thomas
Johnson published a book about the middle of the eighteenth century, in
which was a medley of French, Gothic and Chinese designs, many of which
have a strong family likeness to Chippendale's. There was also Matthias
Lock, who began to publish his books as early as 1740, dedicated to
such "nobility as would stand for him." These books included one on
Pier Frames, Girandoles, Tables, etc., also, one on Ornaments and
Sconces, all of which were characteristic of what was considered
desirable at this time, and which style Chippendale followed too. Ince
& Mayhew published what they called a "Universal System of Household
Furnishing." They made many designs, over three hundred, and not
only set forth the fine taste in which they were conceived, but gave
the workmen directions for executing them. They positively ran wild on
"Chinese taste," their fretwork and combination of Chinese and Gothic
being perfectly extravagant. Like Chippendale they designed terms, or
as we should call them pedestals, for busts, toilet-tables, bookcases,
many mirror-frames, and chairs most intricate in their carved backs,
with ribbon-work, scrolls, and elaborate patterns in brass nails.

[Illustration: Figure 18. KITCHEN, WAYSIDE INN, SUDBURY, MASS. ]

What were known as "overdoors" were very carefully designed by
Chippendale, Ince & Mayhew, Robert Manwaring, and later by the Adam
Brothers. These overdoors were the wood or leadwork into which glass
was set, to go above front doors.

William Halfpenny, carpenter and architect, as he called himself,
published many works on Furniture, Temples, Garden Seats, Windows,
Doors, Obelisks, etc., beginning in 1719. Among the many books are
these two, "Twenty New Designs of Chinese Lattice and Other Works for
Staircases, Gates, Failings, etc.," and also, "Chinese and Gothic
Architecture." So fond were the Halfpennys (for the son was later
associated with the father) of Chinese work that they seldom missed
an opportunity of putting in a Chinese figure. On their ceilings,
above the chimney-pieces--everywhere that decoration could be crowded
in,--one is apt to find a Chinese mandarin with pigtail and umbrella.

The originality of Chippendale soon spoke for itself. He worked in so
many styles, and has so grown in estimation, that his name is made
to cover the greatest variety of designs. When he first came before
the public his work met with much adverse criticism. Isaac Ware, a
contemporary, writes of him thus:

     "It is our misfortune at this time to see an unmeaning scrawl of
     C's inverted and looped together, taking the place of Greek and
     Roman elegance even in our most expensive decorations."

But the early extravagances of his designs were soon modified, and
even they were touched with a grace which made them pleasing to the
eye while wholly extravagant. His better and more familiar work is
to-day the model upon which cabinet-workers rely, no one having arisen
who can improve on his designs. Thousands of pieces of furniture are
called by his name, both in this country and England, which were not
even contemporary with this maker and bear no resemblance either to his
designs or to work known to be his.

About the time that Chippendale came on the field (1750) it had become
the custom for architects and designers to publish catalogues of their
designs. Thomas Chippendale, a progressive business man, was not behind
his contemporaries, so in 1754 he published his catalogue, which he
called "The Gentleman's and Cabinet-Maker's Director." It was a very
successful publication, passed through several editions, and brought
him added name and fame. It sold for £3 13_s._ 6_d._, and had fine
copper-plate engravings. The title page of Chippendale's "Director,"
specifies designs for the following pieces of furniture:

     "Chairs, Sofas, Beds and Couches, China-Tables, Bason-Tables
     and Tea-Kettle Stands, Frames for Marble Slabs,
     Bureau-Dressing-Tables, and Library-Tables, Library Bookcases,
     Organ Cases for Private Rooms or Churches, Desks and Bookcases,
     Dressing and Writing-Tables with Bookcases, Toilets, Cabinets, and
     Clothes-Presses.

     China-Cases, China-Shelves, and Book-Shelves, Candle-Stands and
     Terms for Busts, Stands for China Jars and Pedestals, Cisterns
     for Water, Lanthorns, and Chandeliers, Fire-Screens, Brackets
     and Clock-Cases, Pier-Glasses and Table-Frames, Girandoles
     Chimney-Pieces and Picture-Frames, Stove-Grates, Boarders, Frets,
     Chinese-Railing and Brass-Work for Furniture."

[Illustration: Figure 19. CHIPPENDALE CHAIRS]

At this period the best room or "saloon" was wainscotted chair high,
and the remainder prepared for wall-paper, or battened for hangings of
silk or tapestry. Chippendale drew many beautiful designs, which he
calls "borders for paper-hangings," and which were used as finishings
at the top of the paper. Some of them were also employed as patterns
for carving, or work in stucco painted and gilded.

It must be remembered that Chippendale was par excellence a carver
of wood, and so we find him working almost exclusively in "solid
mahogany," as we have come to call it, which wood had been introduced
into England about the time of Raleigh (1595), though it was not used
to any extent as a material for furniture until about twenty-five years
before Chippendale published his book. Indeed it seems to have been
used in America for this purpose quite as soon as in England, although
there are in that country a few detached pieces of mahogany furniture
made late in 1600, showing that some wood had been imported before
Raleigh caused it to be brought in more freely, along with "tabac" and
the potato, which latter vegetable was first grown at Sir Walter's
estate called "Youghal," near Cork, Ireland. Sir Walter did not use
the new wood in his own beautiful house, but had splendidly carved oak
chimney-pieces and furniture made by men whom he brought from Flanders
for that purpose.

At the time Chippendale published his book he was about forty years
old, as it is generally supposed that he was born about 1710. Worcester
is given as the place of his birth, and authorities state that other
members of his family practiced the art of wood-carving before him, but
the information about his early history is very scant. His shop was in
St. Martin's Lane, London, and he employed as many as a hundred men,
so it is rather strange that more authentic specimens of his handiwork
have not survived. While mahogany was the wood which he used chiefly
for his furniture, he employed a close-set pine for carving many of
the beautiful floriated mirror-frames for which he was so justly
celebrated. Scrolls, flower and leaves, falling water, and a particular
bird of his own fancy, with a long and prominent beak, were employed in
the decoration of these mirrors, which were richly gilded, the ornament
being entirely of wood without the addition of porcelain plaques or
metal work, which was such a feature of the French furniture of this
period, the influence of which is noticeable in many of Chippendale's
designs. It is true that he did not carry out some of his designs,
notably such pieces as the state beds, etc., after the style of Louis
XV. One glance at the "Director" will show how impossible these beds
were. The top, supported on posts, rises like Ossa upon Pelion piled,
with layers or terraces of carved figures of children, rock-work, and
everything else, the whole crowned by groups consisting of several
figures and animals.

[Illustration: Figure 20. CHIPPENDALE CHAIR.]

His designs for bedposts show the French influence, being fluted and
wreathed with flowers. Many stand flat on the ground without ornamental
feet, and are plain on top to support a canopy or tester.

Most successful of all the furniture designed by this maker are the
chairs, many of them decorated with graceful scroll-work and delicate
garlands of flowers, though the styles with which we are most familiar
are massive, heavy pieces with carving upon them, and either with
or without solid underbraces. A unique piece is shown in Figure 20.
This chair is thought to have been imported into this country about
1760, but I should suppose it to be a very much earlier example of
Chippendale's work, while he was still content to copy, for the front
legs show the bear's paw while the rear ones are the familiar Dutch
foot.

It belongs to the South Carolina College, at Columbia, S. C. and
was given to it by General Preston about 1850. In his letter of
presentation he calls it "the quasi throne of the Colonial Governors
of South Carolina," but beyond this its history is unknown. This chair
is of solid mahogany as most of these chairs were, and shows about the
edges of the carving traces of the chisel-marks, a not at all unusual
feature in these old hand-carved pieces. The splat (_i. e._ the central
part of the back) is plainly pierced. The term "cabriole", which we
apply now to the leg, in Chippendale's time referred to a chair having
a stuffed back. It has generally been supposed that Chippendale was the
originator of the ball-and-claw foot, which is of two varieties, but
he copied this style of decoration directly from the Dutch. The foot
in this chair is what is known as the "bear's paw", so called from
the fur which is rudely carved above the foot. The other style being
the "bird's claw." The chairs with cabriole legs were called bandy or
bow-legged when they first came into use, about 1700, which is also
about the time that easy-chairs were first used in bedrooms. Up to that
date chairs had been rather severe and of the nature of stools and
settles. As writing became better learned there was a demand for dainty
and ornamental desks for ladies' use, as well as library desks for men,
and bookcases were also needed.

In Chippendale's book, "The Gentleman's and Cabinet-Maker's Director",
while there are designs given for every imaginable piece of furniture,
there is not a single illustration of the ball-and-claw or hoof foot;
yet it is known by authentic pieces, coming down as late as 1780, and
preserved in the South Kensington Museum, London, that such work was
done by him. Further than this, we are used to consider mahogany as
pre-eminently the wood he worked in, yet in this same guide this wood
is mentioned by him but once.

     "Six designs of chairs for Halls, Passages, or Summer-houses. They
     may be made either of mahogany or any other wood, and painted, and
     have commonly wooden seats."

All this fine solid mahogany furniture made by Chippendale, and by
which his name is so firmly perpetuated, was regarded by him as merely
commercial work. What he really took a pride in was very fussy, covered
with upholstery, with an abundance of carving and gilding, and even
metal work on the exposed parts. Rosewood was used by him also, with
elaborate carving which was sometimes embellished with gilt, or, in
cases where great elegance was demanded, by brass, copper, or silver
mounts richly chased. He turned out many pieces of soft wood japanned
or painted, and decorated also with gilt and colours.

Little of this furniture ever came to America. It was made to order
for the nobility and gentry, and its immense cost rendered it possible
only for the very wealthy. Among the two hundred copper-plate designs
given in Chippendale's book, quite a large portion of them are in what
is known as "Chinese taste," which had taken the world of fashion by
storm. Sir William Chambers, who had travelled in China, is given the
credit for having introduced this style into furniture and decoration,
which was further adapted by Chippendale and other makers, but it was
already known before Chambers's day. Both Chambers and Robert Adam,
the best architects of their day, were Scotchmen. Chambers was born
in 1726, and from his earliest years had a love for the sea. This
induced him to make a voyage to Canton, where he made innumerable
notes and sketches of furniture, buildings, and gardens, which he made
full use of later. In 1759 he published his book "The Decorative Part
of Civil Architecture," which was most successful. He was appointed
drawing-master to the Prince of Wales, afterward George III., and
managed to retain the royal favor for the rest of his life. He not only
designed many houses for wealthy patrons and altered many others, but
he was afterward appointed landscape gardener at Kew, and knighted.

The older Chinese furniture which one sees in Europe dates from the
eighteenth century, and was made for and imported by the Dutch; hence
the medley of styles. Elaborate bedsteads, tables, and cabinets were
decorated with ivory figures in relief. There is furniture of this
description in the United States, splendidly carved out of cedar and
decorated with hundreds of tiny figures of men and women carved from
ivory and set on. Such a piece is shown in Figure 21, the original of
which is at Memorial Hall, Philadelphia.

Not only was Chinese furniture in wood and wicker brought from the
Orient, but the Dutch, whom we have come to look upon as ready
imitators, followed Oriental styles not only in furniture but in
pottery as well. Chippendale specifies nine of his designs for chairs
in Chinese style as proper for a lady's dressing-room, especially if
it were hung with an India paper. They were likewise recommended for
Chinese temples. These chairs commonly have cane bottoms with loose
cushions, but if required may be stuffed and have brass nails.

As early as 1711 Addison comments on the motley confusion heaped
up in a lady's library, where there were few books but "Munkies,
Mandarins, and Scaramouches" without end; and to keep these ornaments
in countenance was also furniture made after Chinese designs.

[Illustration: Figure 21. CARVED CEDAR TABLE.]

Besides these styles Chippendale also used a modification of the
Gothic, notably in such places as the doors of cabinets, or the doors
and the tops of bookcases. Horace Walpole, in his little Gothic villa
at Strawberry Hill, had awakened a still further taste for a revival
of Gothic designs; and everybody, to be in the mode, had their cabinet
doors and bookcases with embattled tops and Gothic tracery. Of all
the styles Chippendale adopted and adapted, this one left the least
enduring trace. More successful were his bookcases based on Louis XV.
style. They are of mahogany and have the rococo ornaments peculiar to
this style. This work shows off gilding admirably. These bookcases with
drawers and desk, as well as the bureaus, were used in bedrooms which
were often boudoirs and studies as well. So a receptacle which could be
quickly locked was quite necessary.

In Chippendale's catalogue are directions given for many small
articles which were much in demand and highly fashionable when the
book was written, but for which the present day and generation has
no use. Such were the charming little tea-caddies with brass handles
and locks, stands for candles, or china jars or animals with which
the drawing-rooms of those days were crowded. There were also carved
brackets, decorated with the bird we have spoken of before, and
exquisite foliated designs making graceful adornments for any room,
and often neglected in sales where other and better-known examples of
this period bring fabulous prices. When carved in pine these brackets
are always gilded, but occasionally they may be obtained in walnut and
mahogany.

The designs for such pieces are largely original with Chippendale,
for their use had just become needed, and we must remember besides
that it was Chippendale's misfortune to live in a transition period,
and that the rococo which preceded him, and by which his first work
was influenced, died very hard. Indeed his first style might be
called rococo, and the designs swelled and bulged, were covered with
meaningless and fantastic ornament, and ran riot through all styles
and countries. It had for its chief merit the fact that it was executed
with great delicacy and beauty and had a grace about it which was
always pleasing. The two sides of a design are seldom alike, and the
merit of such pieces is due purely to the skill of the carver. Yet it
was under his skilful hand that later the beauty of simplicity was once
more proved, and he sought classic models for his inspiration. Speaking
himself of designs for French chairs he says, "for greater variety the
feet and elbows are different." The moulding around the bottom of the
edge of the rails also comes under his consideration, and he mentions
Spanish leather or damask as good material for covering chairs.

He it was who exemplified the principle that each part of a piece of
furniture should be adapted to its use, and that overloading an article
with ornament did not necessarily add to its beauty. After his rococo
period came the rage for Chinese designs, and lastly the plain and
solid style with which we are familiar.

Two very handsome chairs are shown in Figure 22, the side chair showing
an abundance of exquisite carving on the knees and in the splat. It is
wonderful what variety he encompassed working in the small space and
confined shape of this part of a chair. It will be observed that in all
the chairs shown no two splats are alike.

[Illustration: Figure 22. CHIPPENDALE CHAIRS.]

All the construction of the Chippendale furniture of the last period
is remarkably solid and of the first order, and the wood is of a dark
and rich mahogany. The best pieces of this period are those in which
the originality of the designer had full play, and when he was not
influenced by either the French or Oriental taste. The furniture of
this period, fine and free in design, was well adapted to the fashions
and mode of life of the people for whom it was made. He retained the
roomy character of the Dutch furniture, which was needed for the style
of dress affected by both sexes. The Spanish furniture of oak, with
cane work or leather, introduced by Catherine of Braganza, was not the
only innovation brought to England by that lady, for Evelyn says in his
"Diary" for May 30, 1662,

     "The Queene ariv'd with a traine of Portuguese ladies in their
     monstrous fardingals or guard-infantas ... Her Majesty in the same
     habit, her foretop long and curiously turn'd aside."

In the next forty years fashions changed,--they changed slowly in those
days,--and among other things laid at the door of "Good Queen Anne"
may be added the hoop-skirt. Flowered and damask gowns were worn over
it, and in the "Spectator" of 1712 a number of gowns are advertised
for sale, all the property of Mr. Peter Paggen, of Love Lane, near
Eastcheap, London. Among them is an "Isabella-coloured kincob gown,
flowered with green and gold; a purple and gold Atlas gown with a
scarlet and gold Atlas petticoat edged with silver."

A little later in the century a lady's gown was all ruffles and
flounces, in fact "every part of the garment was in curl, and caused a
lady of fashion to look like one of those animals which in the country
we call a Friesland hen."

The reigns of the first two Georges had Hogarth for their illustrator,
and in the set of drawings called "Marriage à la Mode" we see the
hoods, skirts without trains, unruffled and often accompanied by a
sack, or something between a cloak and a gown, and called a mantua.
During the reign of George I. there was no queen to set the fashion, so
it changed little. In 1735 Caroline, queen of George II. on the king's
birthday appeared in a "beautiful suit made of silk of the produce
of Georgia, and the same was acknowledged to excel that of any other
country." The ladies who accompanied her wore flowered silks of various
colours, of a large pattern, but mostly with a white ground, with wide
short sleeves and short petticoats. These gowns were often pinned up
behind in fantastic fashion, and generally quite narrow. It was also
_à la mode_ to wear gold or silver nets on the petticoats, and to face
and guard the robes with them and even to wear them on sleeves. Lady
Harcourt, a famous beauty of Caroline's court, wore on one occasion
a "white ground rich silk, embossed with gold and silver, and fine
coloured flowers of a large pattern."

What we know as a morning-gown they called, in the middle of the
eighteenth century a nightgown, and we read of a "garnet-coloured
lustring nightgown with a tobine stripe of green and white, trimmed
with floss of the same colour and lined with straw-coloured
lutestring." A gay garment truly.

These were the styles in vogue when Chippendale began to design and
make furniture for his patrons, whom he desired to see among the most
fashionable. While the ladies were so gay, the gentlemen were quite
as elegant, with three-cornered hats, wigs and patches, embroidered
waistcoats, with stiffened skirts to their coats, knee-breeches, silk
stockings, and snuff-boxes. Such modish people could not bestow
themselves comfortably in chairs with arms, so chairs without arms, and
tabourets, as they were called, were quite necessary for comfort. The
fashionable ailment of the day, for men at least was gout, and we find
designs for "gouty stools," in which the top could be raised or lowered
as best suited the needs of the patient. His designs for sofas made
these articles of great size; they ran from six feet nine inches to ten
feet long. His ideas as to decoration seem amusing, for he mentions
that the carvings on the sofa should be emblematic of Watchfulness,
Assiduity, and Rest.

Wine-coolers for which Chippendale made many designs, sometimes had
brass bands around them which had the effect of making them look very
heavy and clumsy. Coolers of this style were round or oval, but some
of better design were oblong or square. Numbers of beautiful little
tea-tables, or tea-poys, as they were often called, were also made by
Chippendale, and what he called in his book of designs "candle stands"
were no doubt sometimes put to this use, though their height--he says
they should run from three feet six inches to four feet six inches,
rendered the taller ones awkward. Figure 23 shows a very beautiful
example of one of these stands richly carved. The post is three feet
seven and a half inches high, and the hexagonal top has a standing rim
of very delicate carving. The little tea-stand next to it has also a
slight rim, and some carving on the pedestal and feet. The music-stand
is not a usual piece, and has a cupboard and drawer to contain the
sheets. All three pieces are of mahogany and belong to the collection
at Memorial Hall, Philadelphia.

Many of these tables or stands made their way to America, for
tea-drinking was a great resource for the ladies. As early as 1720
Bohea tea was selling at Philadelphia for thirty shillings a pound. Its
great cost prohibited its common use, and it was not until much later
that it became common, so the greatest treat that could be offered to a
neighbour was a drink of tea, particularly if the proud housewife could
serve it out of a tiny porcelain cup without a handle, such cups being
almost as great a rarity as the tea.

The little rim which set up above the edge of the table was intended
to prevent the tea furniture from falling off. These tables are
occasionally seen in America in their simpler forms. There are special
ones made to order for customers by Chippendale, which are seldom
allowed to leave the families for which they were originally made.
There are two such tea-tables made in "Chinese taste" with fretwork
legs, sides to the table, and the little standing rim to protect the
china. One of these tables was made for the great-grandmother of the
present owner, by Chippendale, and has come down in a state of perfect
preservation. It is held in England, is thirty-nine and three-eighths
inches high, the top is thirty-two by twenty-one and five-eighths
inches.

Chippendale, in his book, gives very elaborate directions for preparing
the wood from which this fretwork carving was to be made. In order to
have it as strong as possible he advises the use of three thin sheets
of wood glued together, the grain to run in opposite directions, and
the fret carving to be made in this. He particularly recommends this
use of glued wood for such pieces as China-Cases, which were largely
fretwork with pagodas on top and hanging ornaments at the sides.

[Illustration: Figure 23. CHIPPENDALE CANDLE, TEA AND MUSIC STANDS.]

Card-tables were also made in great varieties and numbers by this
same maker, and his graceful designs were copied by other and less
well-known makers, so that these tables, at least in "Chippendale
style," are not uncommon. His card-tables were of two styles, with
leaves which folded together on top when not in use, and a plain oblong
table without leaves. As card-playing was one of the most fashionable
pursuits of the day in England, which fashion was followed with
becoming promptitude by us. It is seen that many of these tables were
needed to accommodate the gay world. Those most esteemed were the kind
with leaves, which could seat a larger party than the oblong ones, and
which, when not in use, could be folded together and set against the
wall. Both styles, when made by Chippendale, were decorated only with
carving. During the last half of the eighteenth century there were
probably few families who did not own at least one card-table.

Gambling at cards had always been an amusement at courts, and there
were many games in vogue. Ombre had been introduced in the previous
century by Catherine of Braganza, and quadrille was another favorite
game of hers. Pepys under date of February 17, 1666-7, alludes to the
fact that Catherine played not only on week days but on Sundays as well.

     "This evening, going to the Queene's side to see the ladies, I
     did find the Queene, the Duchesse of York, and another or two
     at cards, with the room full of great ladies and men, which I
     was amazed at to see of a Sunday, having not believed it, but
     contrarily, flatly denied the same a little while since to my
     cosen Roger Pepys."

The next reign, that of James II., saw basset introduced, and it
retained its popularity through several reigns and was still the mode
when Queen Anne occupied the throne. It broke "into her hours by day as
well as by night," and the drain on the privy purse was excessive, for
the queen was a good loser. The Cocoa-Tree Club, at No. 64 St. James
Street, London, was, during Queen Anne's reign, a regular gambling-den.
Walpole says:

     "Within this week there has been a cast at hazard at the
     Cocoa-Tree, the difference of which amounted to £180,000."

By George II.'s reign cards were universal. The preface to the "Court
Gamster" says:

     "Gaming has become so much the fashion that he who in company
     should be ignorant of the games in vogue would be reckoned
     low-bred and hardly fit for conversation."

The Princess Amelia Sophia, daughter of George II., was an inveterate
snuff-taker as well as gambler. Horace Walpole, who was often invited
to make one at her card parties, has left many graphic pictures of her.
At Bath the card-tables were one of the chief attractions, and the sums
of money staked during a single night seem prodigious. But of all the
Georges, George IV. had the most reckless propensities. Before he was
twenty-one years old he had lost £800,000, one of his boon companions
being that confirmed gamester, Charles James Fox.

Almack's was a famous gambling-club, opened in 1764. The gamesters
began by pulling off their velvet and embroidered coats, putting on
frieze garments, and pulling leather sleeves over their lace ruffles.
High-crowned, broad-brimmed straw hats were worn to shade their eyes
from the light, to keep their hair from being tumbled, and perhaps to
conceal their emotions.

[Illustration: Figure 24. CHIPPENDALE CARD-TABLE.]

George II. was still on the throne when Chippendale published his
"Director," and in such a gambling age it is no wonder that he made
many card-tables in order to please his patrons. Not alone at court
were they in demand, but one has only to read such transcripts of the
times as Jane Austen's or Miss Burney's novels to find that nearly
every country family sat down of an evening to a quiet hand at cards.
Following at a distance, but as well as they were able, the fashions
set at court, Americans too played cards, and Chippendale's tables
were sent across the ocean and were copied by colonial cabinet-makers,
who by this time had become very successful workers themselves.
Contemporary letters, which describe the propensity of the ladies to
play loo all day as well as all night were, no doubt, too extravagant.
On the great plantations at the South, gambling was said to be a
favorite diversion, and piquet, écarté, faro, hazard, and basset were
played, as well as less exciting games. Besides the tables with plain
polished surfaces, some were covered with a green cloth. Others had
pockets to hold the counters, which were old silver Spanish pieces or
were made of mother-of-pearl. These tables were valued highly, the
early ones being walnut, the later mahogany. In some of the inventories
already quoted mention is made of various styles of playing-cards which
were imported by the gross, as well as "pearl fish," which were the
fashionable counters.

In Figure 24 a very beautiful Chippendale card-table is shown. It is
of mahogany, richly carved on the knees, and with a heavy carved
moulding. It is unusual in having five legs, one of which moves out
to support the second half of the top. The feet are ball-and-claw,
and within the lid is lined with cloth, has depressions for counters,
and also four flat panels, one at each corner, where the candlesticks
stood. It belongs to Miss Sarah Frost, Rochester, N. Y., and has been
in her family over 100 years.

Most of Chippendale's furniture presents certain characteristics that
are easily mastered. First may be mentioned the ball-and-claw foot,
and the cabriole leg which he adopted from the Dutch, and which he
used so freely before he introduced the straight leg. Then the backs
of his chairs are quite distinctive, whether the splats run up and
down, or become cross-braces, or are elaborated into very ornamental
ribbon-work. The top bar is generally extended on each end into what,
for a better name, we will call "ears."

Chippendale never used inlay on any of his pieces, preferring to
produce the decoration by carving. In his very ornate carvings we have
mentioned the long-billed bird, the falling-water effect, and the
familiar ribbon-work which is often introduced into backs with such
good effect. There are a number of patterns for carving shown in the
designs in his book, and used by him over and over again, with which we
have become well acquainted. Little carved bands were quite universally
employed to decorate the rims of his card-tables, and in his fine
chairs the front bar of the seat often had a shell or other ornament
carved upon it. The very finest chairs by this maker are seldom found
in America, though furniture was imported freely. In Smith's "History
of New York" for the year 1756, two years after Chippendale
published his work, there is the following statement:

[Illustration: Figure 25. CHIPPENDALE MARBLE-TOPPED TABLE.]

     "In the City of New York, through our intercourse with Europeans,
     we follow the London fashions, though by the time we adopt them
     they become disused in England. Our affluence during the late
     French war introduced a degree of luxury in tables, dress, and
     furniture with which we were before unacquainted. But still we
     are not so gay a people as our neighbours at Boston, and several
     Southern colonies."

This is the first time possibly that the descendants of the Pilgrims
have gone on record as a "gay people."

When the seats of Chippendale's pieces are stuffed, it will be noticed
that the material is usually drawn over the rails, and sometimes
adorned with gilt-headed nails set in a pattern or straight. See Figure
19. He says in his catalogue that he considers this the handsomer
fashion; but in some cases, where the seats were covered with set
work or crewel work, they were set in the wooden frame. There are
two such chairs made by Chippendale and given by the fourth Duke of
Marlborough in 1790 to an ancestor of the present owner. The seats of
these ribbon-backed chairs were worked by the famous Sarah, Duchess
of Marlborough, and are still in a fresh and blooming state of
preservation. These arm-chairs are very handsomely carved, and rest
on large ball-and-claw feet. The carving is not confined to the knee
alone, but runs down the leg to the end of the claw. These are owned in
England.

That quantities of this furniture are changing hands all the time is
evident from reading the records of sales which go on at all the large
auction rooms in Europe. It is safe to say that fully half of it comes
to America, and that it is possible to buy here choice specimens of
the works of all the famous cabinet-makers. Even the well-known Battle
Abbey has been despoiled, and while much of the furniture was Flemish
and German, and not of particularly good quality, there were also some
pieces of both Chippendale and Adam Bros., the latter being represented
by several mirrors. Chippendale chairs of undoubted authenticity bring
easily at these sales $200 each, while one of distinctly inferior
quality sold for $335, owing to the authenticity of its history.

At a sale of furniture held within the year at Christie's, in London,
a genuine surprise was furnished when a set of mahogany Chippendale
chairs brought $5,225. A few weeks later two chairs, apparently out of
the same set, appeared at another sale, also at Christie's and about
an hour before the sale they were withdrawn. These chairs, says the
catalogue, were given by a lady to the vicar and church wardens of a
parish church in Lincolnshire. The lady died, and her executors held
that they were lent, not given, and the sale was stopped until the
rightful ownership should be established by law. But there was also
in the catalogue still another chair which was said to belong to the
same set, yet which was of a different wood and more boldly carved.
This chair brought but a little more than $100. The removal of the
two previously mentioned chairs from the sale, and the whole mystery
which surrounds them, has given rise to wild rumours, and all kinds
of reports are circulated which makes one very cautious about buying
at auctions. In fact catalogues at auctions are little to be relied
on, as one will often find pieces heavy with inlay, or of undoubted
American make, boldly marked Chippendale, while Sheraton is made to
shoulder the baldest imitations of his style and design. It must always
be a matter of regret that furniture-makers so rarely signed their
work. If they had realized that individual specimens would bring as
much as fine paintings, they would not have left their work clouded
with an uncertain pedigree.

[Illustration: Figure 26. CHIPPENDALE CHAIR-BACKS AND MIRROR-FRAME]

Chippendale did not make sideboards. He made side or serving-tables but
the sideboard was a later growth, due largely to three cabinet-makers
who succeeded Chippendale,--Shearer, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton, all
of whom, like Chippendale, published catalogues of their designs. The
nearest approach which Chippendale made to a sideboard was a table with
a shallow drawer for linen. He did not make any of those pieces of
furniture with drawers and cupboards which are so often called by his
name.

It may be seen that on Chippendale's title-page he refers to "frames
for marble slabs." These were generally tables,--side or serving tables
we should call them,--and they were elaborately carved on legs and
edges. Nor were they unknown in this country, for inventories as early
as the middle of the eighteenth century refer to sideboard tables with
marble tops, as well as marble-topped parlor tables.

In Figure 25 is shown an unusually elegant marble-topped parlor
table. The profuse carving is in Chippendale's very best style, not
flamboyant, but elegant and graceful. On each of the long sides is a
grotesque mask, and the legs, carved over the knees with shells and
flowers in low relief, end in a ball-and-paw, the hair on the foot
being most delicately carved. The wood is dark, rich mahogany; the
marble top is of brown tint with light veinings. This fine piece is at
Memorial Hall, Philadelphia.

To sum up, then, briefly, Chippendale's peculiarities may be expressed
as follows:

He used the ball-and-claw foot with the cabriole leg: this was
succeeded by the straight leg.

The tops of his chairs are almost invariably prolonged into little
ear-like ornaments.

He never used inlay on his furniture.

He used carving as ornament, generally worked in solid mahogany for his
larger pieces, and in a close-set pine which was gilded for his smaller
and ornamental pieces.

Many of the gold-frame looking-glasses have the glass pane divided by
delicate ornament or pilasters. This was to save expense, as in this
way several small panes of glass could be used instead of one large and
more costly one. The glass made in England was in very thin plates, and
the bevel was ground by hand, so that it followed every twist and turn
in the convolutions of the frame which rested on it.

Strength, beauty, and adaptability to the use for which the piece
was made, were the watchwords for Chippendale's most characteristic
furniture. It is true that during the early years of his work there
was a large demand for everything French, to which he catered, yet
he in time reversed this and caused the attention of the world to be
drawn to England as the centre from which could be obtained the best
designs in furniture. While Chippendale sought for his effects largely
in his use of carving and gilding, although we find little of this
latter work in the pieces seen in America, he also took the greatest
pains to select brilliant and elegant brocades, wrought stuffs, and
hand-worked material for the upholstered parts of his furniture. Nor
did he neglect brass nails as a means of brightening up a piece, though
both Hepplewhite and Sheraton used them more than he did. None of the
furniture which we so fondly ascribed to his name is from the designs
figured in his book, his use of brilliant metal mounts is practically
unknown among us. He himself admired the beautiful Louis XIV ribbon
ornament which he lavished on so many chair backs, and he says "If
I may speak without vanity, they are the best I have ever seen, or
perhaps have ever been made."

Like his fellow-craftsmen, Chippendale made cases for tall clocks, and
some of them are odd and not in the least graceful or beautiful. One
will have for ornament on the extreme top a crowing cock, life size,
and rampant, the base on which he stands being a mass of ugly carving.
Another has what might be called a sunburst, with a star in its midst;
others have allegorical figures. His designs for mantel clocks were
much prettier and in better taste everyway. He used walnut as well as
mahogany for the cases, and sometimes Chinese panels, or panels painted
with nymphs and goddesses, called in "French taste," were inserted.
These decorations served, besides, to ornament the fire-screens which
were popular pieces of furniture. He made designs for chimney-pieces or
"over-mantels." These were filled in with glass. Chippendale says:

     "Chimney-pieces require great care in the execution. The
     embossments must be very bold, the foliage neatly laid down, and
     the whole properly relieved. The top may be gilt, as likewise some
     other ornamental parts."

Knowing the sturdy, plain characteristics of Chippendale's furniture
as we see it, this constant reference to gilt and the mass of
over-decoration seems quite out of place. His beds were called
Canopy beds, Chinese beds, Dome beds, Gothic beds with flat testers,
Field beds, Tent beds, Sofa beds with canopies, and the usual high
four-posters.

Many beautiful clothes-presses were made by Chippendale, either chest
like affairs on four legs, or having drawers below and wardrobe above,
some of these latter bearing a strong resemblance to the French pieces
from which they were copied.

Scant mention is made of Chippendale, in contemporary literature, but
he has the distinction accorded to but few of having a large class of
furniture design called by his name, instead of being designated by the
period in which it was made. Mr. Clouston, in his book on "Chippendale
Furniture" says that there were two Chippendales, father and son, and
alludes to the author of the "Director" as "the elder Mr. Chippendale".
The son, like many sons of great men, seems to have lost his identity
in the reputation which has been gradually gathering about his father's
name. He seems to have produced nothing of moment, and the family has
sunk again into the obscurity from which one man had the genius to
raise it.



CHAPTER IV.

ADAM, SHERATON, EMPIRE.


The increased market offered to English merchants in the colonies, now
more prosperous, produced in quick succession several cabinet-makers
who worked in a different style from Chippendale, and made much very
handsome furniture. Robert and James Adam, by training and profession
architects, turned their attention to furniture which would be
appropriate in rooms of Greek or Roman style. Their designs were all
on classic lines, and were beautifully painted besides by the popular
artists of the day, like Angelica Kauffmann and Pergolese, who, like
Alma Tadema in our day, did not hesitate to expend their art upon fine
pieces of furniture.

The Adam brothers introduced the use of composition ornaments coloured
and gilded, which were really a revival of the Italian process of
"gesso," and which they had learned during their years of study in
Italy. They designed many mantelpieces, also decorated in classic
style, and had a decided influence in moulding the taste of their
contemporaries and successors. Satin-wood was introduced by them, or
at least at this period, and was used for inlaying as well as for the
manufacture of whole pieces of furniture. Most of it, when used as the
wood of the entire piece, is decorated with medallions of marquetry of
some darker wood, as tulip, rosewood, or mahogany.

The Adam brothers did not make any furniture themselves, but had it
made by popular makers under their personal direction. In Figure 29 are
shown three chairs of Adam design. The side chair retains its original
covering of a heavy wool plush, with classic figures stamped in it of
wreaths and maces. Its covering was also designed by Adam. This chair
and the arm-chair like it are very delicately carved in low relief
with a small leaf pattern. The legs are fluted and end in a form of
spade-foot. The arm-chair on the top is very richly carved, and the
entire woodwork is gilded. The covering has been restored. These three
chairs are in the Museum connected with Cooper Institute.

In 1764 Robert Adam published his book dedicated to George III., and
illustrated with most elaborate engravings by Bartolozzi and other
fashionable engravers. For this graceful act Robert Adam was appointed
architect to the king, and his rise was rapid and brilliant. James
Adam had now completed his studies and was taken into partnership
by his brother. In 1773 they began to publish engravings of their
architectural works in serial parts. They continued to issue these
until 1778, when the entire work was published under the title of
"Works in Architecture by Robert and James Adam Esquires." It contains
quite as many designs for furniture as some of the so-called furniture
catalogues. While the outlines of the furniture are very graceful
and delicate, their beauty is much increased by the skilful and
artistic paintings of Angelica Kauffmann and Zucchi by which they are
embellished. Pergolese was brought from Italy to add still further to
the beauty of their work. John Flaxman, at this time creating
lovely classic designs in various kinds of wares for Wedgwood, also
contributed to their success, and many of his plaques and panels were
set in their furniture to its further adornment. They were used not
only in satin-wood, but in other furniture as well which was painted
in the same colours as the Wedgwood ware. Whole rooms, walls, ceiling,
and furniture were coloured to match, even the harpsichord and
candle-stands being painted and decorated with Wedgwood plaques. Of the
second book, furniture designs fill one volume, mirrors another, and
girandoles a third.

[Illustration: Figure 27. ROOM IN WHIPPLE HOUSE, IPSWICH, MASS.]

[Illustration: Figure 28. CHIPPENDALE, SHERATON, AND HEPPLEWHITE
CHAIRS.]

Robert Adam showed wonderful skill and aptitude in adapting classic
forms to modern taste, and his pieces are never overloaded with
ornament, but retain simple, graceful lines. He never considered any
detail too small for his minute attention. Besides designing the
woodwork of his furniture he also drew the patterns for the stuffs to
cover them; even the little silk cushions on the arms of the chairs
had the same care bestowed on them as the backs and seat. When he
designed a bed, the counterpane to go on it was also made under his
direction or designed by him. A little bag to hang on a lady's arm was
not too slight an object to be made beautiful by his artistic hand.
He paid the greatest attention to having the covering for upholstered
furniture appropriate to the style of chair it went on, but he allowed
himself great latitude in gilding, and, as we have already said, in
painting his furniture in colours. He also gave variety to his tables
by the use of coloured marble tops. The Adam brothers designed some of
the interior fittings for "Strawberry Hill." They also built Colzean
Castle, designed Alnwick Castle, and many other splendid homes.

Thomas Shearer is a name not often heard in America, yet the book,
"The London Cabinet-Maker's Book of Prices," published in 1788,
contained many beautiful designs by him. This work provided more for
the cabinet-maker himself than for the gentleman, to whom most of the
previous works of this nature had been dedicated. There were many
members of the London Cabinet-Maker's Society, but only three made the
illustrations to the book,--Thomas Shearer, Hepplewhite, and a man
named Casement, who furnished but two. Now, when there are so many
banks and safe-deposit companies, we do not feel the need of secret
drawers and repositories for storing our valuables. They were quite
necessary a hundred years or more ago and much ingenuity was expended
in concealing them from curious or prying eyes. We are also wont to
consider recent times and conditions responsible for such shams and
mockeries as folding beds, and articles of furniture that are not
what they seem. In these early books of designs are not only folding
beds, press-beds, and library bedsteads, but folding washstands and
toilet-tables, as well as tables, toilets, and bureaus which concealed
the mattress and bed furniture by day.

Some of these pieces were most elaborate and had intricate machinery
to work them. A graceful, classical urn of wood, touched on the right
spot, would open and disclose a basin and ewer, while a writing-table
could be unfolded into a lady's dressing-table with folding glasses,
and boxes for the necessary powder, pomatum, brushes and pins.

[Illustration: Figure 29. ADAM CHAIRS.]

[Illustration: Figure 30. HEPPLEWHITE CHAIRS.]

To Thomas Shearer we are indebted for that useful article, the
sideboard, which has assumed such a variety of forms, and among his
designs were dressing, card, and tea-tables, of many styles, and
various desks, but he designed no chairs. Many of his pieces bear a
close resemblance to those of Sheraton. Between the severity of the
latest period of Chippendale and the dainty designs of Sheraton,
Shearer and Hepplewhite find their place, though neither of them ever
approached in beauty of design, or in popularity, Chippendale who
preceded them or Sheraton who succeeded them.

A. Hepplewhite's book, "The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, or
Repository of Designs for Every Article of Household Furniture in the
Newest and Most Approved Taste," was published in 1789 and contained
three hundred designs for pieces of furniture which have been so often
copied that they have grown familiar to us. His chairs are extremely
pretty, but, unlike those of Chippendale, who sought solidity and
careful construction, Hepplewhite's chairs were so faulty and fragile
in construction that they broke easily. Up to this time the splat had
joined the back of the chair and served to make it much stronger, but
Hepplewhite never brought it down to the seat, usually having it curved
and joining the side rails three or four inches above the seat.

There are more pieces of Hepplewhite furniture in America than one
is aware of. His chairs are by no means uncommon, and are very
easily recognized by their peculiar backs. His tables, with the
delicate inlay and slender tapering legs, as also his sideboards,
are frequently called by the name of his great successor, Sheraton,
and even in England the two makers are frequently confused. He had a
specialty of his own,--that of japanned or lacquered furniture, and
the patterns he most frequently employed were fruit and flowers on a
black ground. Paintings such as these were taught to young ladies as
an accomplishment at school, and no doubt many of them tried their
"prentice" hands on some nice old mahogany piece as soon as they got
home.

Hepplewhite had another peculiarity in his preference for using a
circle or some portion of it in his designs. On looking over his
"Guide" one will notice that a half circle was often used as the design
for a sideboard, or table to be set against the wall. His small tables
are nearly always round or a broad oval, and his chair-backs follow the
same shape, so did his girandoles and tea-trays. For a central ornament
to his chair backs he frequently carved three Prince's feathers,
or drooping ears of wheat, neither of which design is particularly
pleasing. Besides the circular he used also the shield-shaped back. In
Figure 30 are shown three of his characteristic chairs. The one on the
left has the Prince's feathers, and all of them show the slender leg
which in two of them ends in the spade-foot.

The dining-tables of this period, before the days of the extension
table, had round, square, or octagonal tops, supported on a column
which rested on a plinth having several carved feet. There were
a number of variations of the arrangement of feet. In order to
accommodate a large party several of these tables could be placed
together, and when not in use could be placed against the wall to serve
as side-tables. His easy chairs--and he made many of these, large
and comfortable--he covered entirely with upholstery, no woodwork
showing but the legs. (See Figure 56).

[Illustration: Figure 31. HEPPLEWHITE CARD-TABLE.]

In the Hepplewhite and Shearer pieces the noticeable feature of
decoration is the inlay, often of two or three coloured woods and in
a variety of designs. Many kinds of wood were employed at this time
in inlay or marquetry work, besides all the familiar ones Shearer
mentions,--"tulip, rose, snake, panella," etc., and later lilac-wood
also was used. The husk pattern was very popular at this period for an
inlay pattern, and Wedgwood also used it frequently in his splendid
jasper pottery. It resembles the husks of oats when ripe, the spreading
of the two halves allowing the pattern to be used over and over again.

In Shearer's work, as well as Hepplewhite's, a slender tapering leg is
much in use, inlaid down about half its length, often with satin-wood
or holly, and sometimes with ebony as well. Many of the sideboards
made in America were on English models, and they are veneered on pine,
the back and drawers being made of this same wood. There are many
variations of shape,--what are known as serpentine and swell fronts
being quite usual, the handles being the oval ones which are so common
on all varieties of pieces with drawers, and there is also a fan-shaped
piece of inlay which will frequently be seen. The position of this is
not always the same, it may be found in the corners of closets, and
long bottle-drawers, or it may be inserted as a sort of brace between
the bottom of the sideboard and the legs. Hepplewhite was very fond
of inlaying a band of holly or satin-wood around the legs of his
pieces, three or four inches from the ground. It will be found on
his sideboards, card-tables and desks, and is generally about an inch
wide. His book was one of the most valuable ever given to English
cabinet-makers. His individuality of shape is always pleasing, even
if he did not concern himself about making his furniture structurally
correct. He claims, and indeed with absolute correctness, "to unite
elegance with utility and blend the useful with the agreeable."

In Figure 31 is shown one of a pair of card-tables, Hepplewhite design,
made of mahogany and inlaid with ebony and satin-wood. They belong to
Mr. William M. Hoyt of Rochester, N. Y.

Like Adam, Hepplewhite made great use of satin-wood for whole pieces
of furniture. He used his well-known and characteristic shapes in
chair-backs and little sofas, cabinets and workstands, table stands,
harpsichord cases, and commodes. Satin-wood had been but recently
introduced from the East Indies and was instantly popular. Even
mantelpieces were made of it, to match the furniture, and there was a
fancy to have the drawing-rooms and boudoirs very light and elegant.
Clothes had shrunk in dimensions, no more hoops and farthingales
embarrassed their wearers, the stiffness was banished from coat-tails,
and consequently the furniture had shrunk too. Chairs were small
and narrow, and window-seats, made in abundance by Hepplewhite,
were deservedly popular, and the coverings were in accord with the
gaiety of the woodwork. Figure 32 shows two Hepplewhite settees with
shield-shaped backs. The upper one is of mahogany with low relief
carvings on the tops, and the lower of satin-wood, with cane seat and
the woodwork beautifully painted. The elegance of this painted
satin-wood has long been admired. Unfortunately it has caught the
popular taste, and it is now reproduced in such large quantities
that it is freely offered for sale by dealers in our large cities.
The pieces shown in our illustration are both fine specimens of the
original maker and are owned by the Waring Galleries, London.

[Illustration: Figure 32. HEPPLEWHITE SETTEES.]

[Illustration: Figure 33. SHERATON CHAIRS.]

It was no longer necessary to make the legs of chairs of such stout
proportions, and as the bodies of the chairs were lighter so the legs
dwindled exceedingly and were given only a semblance of solidity by
the use of the "spade-foot" so much affected by Hepplewhite. Their
appearance of fragility was farther enhanced by groovings and flutings,
but they are always pretty.

Although his characteristic chairs have shield-shaped or oval backs, he
gives in his book eighteen designs of bannister-backed chairs, to be
carried out in mahogany. The general dimensions given by Hepplewhite
for his chairs are as follows:

     "Width in front, 20 inches; depth of seat, 17 inches; height of
     seat frame, 17 inches; total height, about 37 inches."

He gives most definite directions about coverings. Mahogany chairs
should have the seats of horsehair, plain, striped, checkered, etc.,
according to taste; or cane bottoms with cushions which should be
covered with the same material as the bed and window curtains. He was
fond of the "Duchess," which consisted of two Barjeer or arm-chairs
with a stool between them, all three pieces fitting together at
pleasure and making a lounge from six to eight feet long. His
press-beds vary little in appearance from wardrobes, but it was in
smaller and daintier pieces that his particular talent found play. His
knife-boxes are extremely elegant, particularly when in urn shape with
a rod in the centre to prevent the top of the urn from being removed.
All the handles and knobs on his larger pieces of furniture are round,
but on sideboards frequently oval, his double chests of drawers have
either French or block feet.

Tripod reading-desks, urn-stands, beautiful tea-trays, caddies and
tea-chests are richly inlaid or painted. We find him not only making
very ornate and richly inlaid card-tables, but "Pembroke tables" as
well, with either round or square tops. Such tables have leaves, but,
instead of the legs moving out to support the leaves, small arms come
out from the table-frame.

His writing-tables and desks have tambour tops, that is strips of wood
pasted on cloth, so that they roll back into receptacles provided
for them, and are filled with secret drawers and flat cupboards for
deeds or papers. Among his other small pieces which are distinguished
by their grace are dressing-glasses, shaving-tables with glasses
and without, "bason" stands, designs for brackets, fire-screens,
wash-hand-stands, cornices, lamps, girandoles, and looking-glasses.
His larger designs show dressing-tables and bureaus with curved and
swell fronts, beds, four-posters, and field-beds with very graceful
sweeps and much variety of design. His stuffed furniture is comfortable
in the extreme, and the tall easy chairs with cheek pieces must have
been well calculated to protect from searching draughts. Many of these
easy chairs found their way to America, and as their cost was not
extortionate moderate homes enjoyed them as well as wealthy ones.

After the Revolution, in all the seaboard towns and the more settled
places near cities, there was a still greater call for all styles and
luxuries popular in England. Indeed the former Colonies presented very
curious and marked contrasts, being, as it is tersely put, "rolling in
wealth or dirt poor." In Philadelphia there had been much style and
"gentility" for many years. The English officers had, no doubt, brought
some comforts with them, and they found others awaiting them. Major
Andrés letter describing supper at the "Mischianza," May 18, 1778,
gives a vivid picture of the festivities of the times.

[Illustration: Figure 34. SHERATON DESK.]

     --"At twelve, supper was announced, and the large folding-doors
     being suddenly thrown open discovered a magnificent salon of
     210 feet long by 40 feet wide, and 22 in height, with three
     alcoves on each side which served for sideboards. Fifty-six large
     pier-glasses ornamented with green silk artificial flowers and
     ribbands; one hundred branches with three lights in each trimmed
     in the same manner as the mirrors; eighteen lustres each with
     twenty-four lights suspended from the ceiling and ornamented as
     the branches.

     Three hundred wax tapers disposed along the supper-tables, four
     hundred and thirty covers, twelve hundred dishes, twenty-four
     black slaves in Oriental dresses with silver-collars and bracelets
     ranged in two lines, and bending to the ground as the General Howe
     and the Admiral appeared together."

All the lustres, mirrors, etc., with which the room was adorned, were
borrowed, says Watson, from the townsfolk, and all were returned
uninjured.

Eighty-four families kept carriages in 1772, and writing as late as
1802, Dr. Michaud calls Philadelphia--

     --"At present the largest, the handsomest, and the most populous
     city of the United States. The streets are paved, and are provided
     with broad bricked footways. Pumps, placed on each side of them at
     about one hundred yards from each other, supply an abundance of
     water."

Dolly Madison, writing in 1791 of the fashions of the day in
Philadelphia, says:

     "Very long trains are worn, and they are festooned up with loops
     and bobbin and small covered buttons, the same as the dress. The
     hats are quite a different shape from what they used to be. The
     bonnets are all open on the top, through which the hair is passed,
     either up or down as you fancy, though latterly they wear it more
     up than down; it is quite out of fashion to frizz or curl the
     hair."

Salem, in Massachusetts, with her vessels touching at every port, was
already becoming known for her luxury, her teak-wood as well as her
mahogany furniture, her china and plate. Enough of these still remain
to show her importance and the elegance of her homes. But there was
another side to this picture. Here is the description of the home of a
settler away from any of the large centres, Charles Rich, of Vermont,
member of Congress, began housekeeping as late as 1791. All his
household possessions were valued at $66.00. He writes:

     "I constructed at the mill a number of household articles of
     furniture which have been in daily use from that time to the
     present."

The newest styles were of small importance in such surroundings as
these, and luxuries passed slowly along pioneer roads; yet every ship
coming to American ports brought furniture, stuffs, plate, and china
to tempt the wealth of those who could afford them, and among such
were pieces made by Sheraton, the fashionable cabinet-maker who came
on the scene late enough to profit by the designs of his predecessors.
Indeed he is most frankly pleased with his own skill and artistic
taste, and in his long preface sets forth the merits of his own book
and discredits all those before him. He considers his book much
superior because he gives drawings in perspective. Much of the
book is a very dry dissertation on geometry. Its second half gives
descriptions of furniture, of the various styles, and the uses of the
pieces. He says in his Introduction:

[Illustration: Figure 35. SIDEBOARD.]

[Illustration: Figure 36. SOFA, SHERATON STYLE.]

     "The design of this part of the Book is intended to exhibit the
     present taste of furniture, and at the same time give the workman
     some assistance in the manufacturing part of it."

Sheraton's early furniture is distinguished by great elegance of
design, fine construction, and graceful ornament. (See Figure 33.) The
legs of his pieces are slender and straight, as distinguished from the
cabriole leg, but are generally enriched with flutings, and they taper
pleasingly to the foot. While he uses carving, it is generally applied
in low relief and does not interfere with the lines of construction.
His preference is, like Hepplewhite's, for ornamenting with inlay
of woods of different colours and decorating with brass. The fine
proportions of his early furniture, the simple shapes clearly defined,
and its structural beauty where each part is doing its work, render it
admirable in every way.

A simple desk of Sheraton pattern is given in Figure 34. It is of
mahogany, and the doors of the upper part open, revealing pigeon-holes
and drawers. The flat top over the drawers opens out on rests, making a
broad, flat desk top. The brasses and key-scutcheons are original, and
the moulding of the drawers overlaps.

After 1793 Sheraton made little furniture, but gave his time chiefly
to writing his furniture books. For the patterns used in his inlay
he had recourse to classic models for his inspiration, like the Adam
brothers, who had done much to popularize this simplicity of design.
Sheraton used urns, rosettes, festoons, scrolls, and pendant flowers
as his favorite decorations. The simple curves of which many of these
are composed lent themselves admirably to inlay, and the harmony of the
colours of the woods gave a grace to this form of ornament and suits it
exactly to the furniture on which it finds a place.

Sheraton wrote several works on furniture and upholstery. The first one
published in 1791, was "The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing
Book." This was followed by "Designs for Household Furniture" in 1804,
and he had not completed his "Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer, and General
Artist's Encyclopedia" in 1807. He gave directions for making, among
other things, folding-beds, washstands, card-tables, sideboards, and
many other pieces. He frequently employed the lyre as a design for his
chair-backs, as well as supports for tables. In chairs it often has
strings of brass; on the tables it takes heavier and more substantial
form.

Sheraton's beds seem almost as impossible as Chippendale's. He, too,
made alcove, sofa, or couch beds. He also gave designs for "summer
beds" made in two compartments (we should call them "twin beds,") but
both are included under a frame or canopy, and the whole affair is
very cumbersome and heavy. His chairs, tables, and sideboards are the
pieces by which we know him best and in which he is most admirable. He
says himself, in regard to drawing-room chairs, that many are finished
in white and gold, or that the ornaments may be japanned, but that
the French finish them in mahogany with gilt mouldings. Sheraton
made very dainty designs for tripod stands, fire-screens and ladies'
desks, with tambour doors. Also "bason"-stands with tambour doors and
writing-desks with curved cylinder tops, which tops fell into the
space behind the pigeon-holes and drawers. Wash-hand tables had also
these curved cylinder tops, and all furniture which was put to toilet
purposes was so arranged that it would look like something else, and
transform a bedroom into a boudoir. These cylinder-topped pieces were
designed as early as 1792.

[Illustration: Figure 37. SHERATON SIDEBOARD.]

In furniture, as in art, there are no absolutely abrupt changes, but
one style is overshadowed by another as Chippendale gradually overcame
the rococo and stood for an individual style. Hepplewhite influenced
Sheraton very much, although the latter declares in one of his books,
published two years later than Hepplewhite's, that the latter's designs
have become quite antiquated. Such a piece of furniture is seen in the
sideboard-table or sideboard given in Figure 35. It was undoubtedly
made by one of these two men, and it is difficult to decide which. The
form of foot is more common to Hepplewhite than to Sheraton, and the
inlaid border of satin-wood is wider than he was wont to use. The brass
rail at the back was used to support silver or porcelain dishes. The
handles are original and the wood mahogany. This handsome piece belongs
to the Waring Galleries, London.

Horsehair was used for covering by both makers, and in both cases
gilt-headed nails put in a festoon were used to fasten it down.
Sheraton's first style was much the most pleasing. It was distinguished
by a delicacy and an elegance which were entirely lost in his later
designs, which were so strongly influenced by the Empire style. The
first illustration in his "Cabinet Maker's and Upholsterer's Book" is
what he calls a "Universal table," to be made of mahogany, and which
at will may be converted into a dining-table, or, by pulling out a
drawer, discover all the compartments necessary for storing kitchen
condiments, such as sugar and spices, etc. The sofa depicted in Figure
36 shows this merging into Empire style, for the legs are heavier than
those we are accustomed to, and the carved pineapple appears on the arm
instead of the more delicate carving seen on earlier chairs and sofas.
The covering is hair-cloth fastened down with brass nails. This sofa
stood for many years in the Old Manse at Concord, Mass. It belonged to
the Rev. Ezra Ripley, who came to Concord as pastor in 1778. Times were
unsettled and currency was depreciated, so that when his salary of five
hundred and fifty pounds was paid it was found to be worth just forty
pounds. To make up this deficiency Dr. Ripley did a man's work in the
fields. For years he laboured at tilling the ground at least three days
in a week and sometimes even more. He was an ardent man, and from his
moral worth was often known as "Holy Ripley." This sofa, uneasy as it
looks to modern eyes, perhaps seemed luxurious to him after a day at
the plough. The cover which it wears is said to be the original one,
and if this is true its condition is so good that I fear the sofa was
kept permanently in the "south parlor" or the "north parlor," as the
best room was called in those days, and the good man was given nothing
easier to rest on than a wooden Windsor chair, or a straight-backed
rush-bottomed one, or perhaps the kitchen settle.

[Illustration: Figure 38. SHERATON SIDEBOARD.]

With the introduction and extended use of the sideboard came several
articles to be used in connection with it, to which Sheraton turned his
attention. Among these may be mentioned knife and spoon-boxes, which
were of several different designs. Sheraton apparently did not make
these knife-boxes himself, but only designed them, for he says,

     "As these cases are not made in regular cabinet shops it may be of
     service to mention where they may be executed in the best taste by
     one who makes it his main business, i. e. John Lane, No. 44, St.
     Martin's-le-Grand, London."

Two pretty ones, as well as two wine-coolers, are shown on the
sideboard in Figure 37. This sideboard has two little closets with
tambour doors at the bottom, and deep wine-drawers on the sides. There
is the brass rail similar to the one in Figure 35. This piece belongs
to the Waring Galleries, London.

One of the handsomest knife-boxes is an urn-shaped one which has
been noted as made also by Hepplewhite. It is wrought in mahogany,
the veneer made in pie-shaped pieces, each bit being outlined with a
delicate line of hollywood. The knives were held in a perforated rack
inside, with the handles up, and a pair of these boxes on either end
of the sideboard made a very ornamental finish. Another shape also in
vogue was more box-like in shape, the cover sloping toward the front.
Not only knives, but spoons also, were held in the racks with which
the interior was fitted; and as these latter were put in bowls up, the
cases, when open, showed to excellent advantage the worldly wealth of
the household, and were ornamental besides. Sometimes the covers of
these boxes set back flat against a portion of the top, and made a
tray on which could be placed silver cups, mugs, posset-pots, ewers,
or any pieces of table silver of moderate size. Then there were the
wine-boxes, or wine-coolers as they were often called, handsome massive
boxes of wood, generally mahogany, or whatever wood the sideboard was
made of. They stood beneath it, or, if the sideboard was low, at one
side. The usual number of bottles they contained was from four to a
dozen. General Washington's wine-box has room for eighteen bottles.
There are still a dozen of the original bottles in it, holding a gallon
each. We should call them decanters, for they are of handsome cut glass.

There is a letter from General Washington to Colonel Hamilton in the
possession of Major Church of Rochester, N. Y., presenting him with
a wine-cooler, "holding six bottles ... one of four which I imported
during my term of governmental administration."

A more usual style of sideboard, Sheraton pattern, is that given
in Figure 38. This handsome and useful piece of furniture had its
counterparts in many of the stately old houses from the Carolinas up.
It is of the swell-front type and has five deep drawers and a closet.
The wood is mahogany and without inlay. This sideboard is at the
Whipple House, Ipswich, Mass.

[Illustration: Figure 39. EMPIRE SOFA.]

[Illustration: Figure 40. EMPIRE SOFA.]

After the French Revolution of 1790 furniture became markedly
different. Greek models were chosen once more; the tripod became a
favorite support. Mahogany was freely used, but so were coarse woods,
in which case they were carved and profusely gilded. The most valuable
book, for cabinet-makers, on "Empire" furniture, was published by
the architects Percier and Fontaine in 1809. It was not filled with
fanciful designs merely, as we have seen was the case with some
of the catalogues of English makers, but every design shown in it had
been carried out before it was published. Many of the drawings were
adapted from classic models preserved in the Vatican. In many ways this
style has not much to recommend it. It is apt to be heavy and stiff,
particularly when made by English makers. The French decorated it with
exquisite forms in metal (treated in another chapter), but the English
contented themselves with cast brass. It was far preferable under the
manipulation of American cabinet-makers, who restricted the use of
brass and allowed the handsome woods to show themselves to the best
advantage. The Dutch, who also were not behind hand in the adoption
of this and Napoleonic style, made tables, secretaries, chairs,
etc., severe and regular in form, but enriched with their admirable
marquetry, and with heads and feet of animals sparingly used. Sheraton
and Shearer were swept along by the tide of fashion and drew Empire
designs.

Gillow, the inventor of the extension-table, whose firm was established
as early as 1800, made many fine designs and had orders from the best
patrons. His firm is still carried on under the same name.

In 1808 George Smith was made "Upholder Extraordinary to H. R. H., the
Prince of Wales." He published a book, of course, having a hundred and
fifty-eight designs. They included bedsteads, tables, chairs, bookcases
and commodes, and other articles of furniture copied from the French,
like escritoires, jardinières, chiffonièrs, showing how the fancy for
French things was increasing. He gives very definite rules as to how
and when to use various woods.

     --"Mahogany, when used in houses of consequence, should be
     confined to the parlour and bed-chamber floors.

     "In furniture for these apartments the less inlay of other woods,
     the more chaste will be the style of work. If the wood be of a
     fine compact and bright quality, the ornaments may be carved clean
     in the mahogany. Where it may be requisite to make out panelling
     by inlay of lines, let these be of brass or ebony.

     "In drawing-rooms, boudoirs, ante-rooms, East and West India
     satin-wood, rosewood, tulip-wood, and the other varieties of woods
     brought from the East, may be used. With satin and light-coloured
     woods the decorations may be of ebony or rosewood; with rosewood
     let the decorations be ormolu and the inlay of brass."

Figure 39 shows a handsome sofa of carved mahogany, Empire style,
before it had arrived at its heaviest stage. The carving is extremely
handsome, both rails of seat and back being decorated with dolphins.
The foot is of the bear shape, and the arms are graceful in curve. This
piece is of English make.

While we miss in the late Empire styles--say from 1810 to 1825--much
of the lightness and grace which had been contributed by the carving
and inlay which were so freely used in the preceding period, yet there
was a solidity and massive dignity which was not without a certain
charm. Then, too, these pieces were generally veneered, and in them the
beautiful grain of the mahogany, which was the favorite wood, showed
to greatest advantage. The sofa in Figure 40 is such a piece. It is of
unusual length, the top of the arm is stuffed, thus doing away with
"squabs," as the cushions which were used on sofas, long and narrow,
were called.

The wood, which is largely shown, is of that dark rich hue inclined
to red, with veining many shades darker, and it is in a fine state of
preservation. This piece belongs to Anthony Killgore, Esq., Flemington,
N. J.

[Illustration: Figure 41. PIER-TABLE.]

[Illustration: Figure 42. EMPIRE SIDEBOARD.]


To about the same period does the pier-table belong (Figure 41), which
is not usual in design, because of the third pier which starts from a
circular shelf in the middle of the base. The swan piers at each end
are very graceful, and the handsome grain of the mahogany is shown
to great advantage. This piece belongs to the Misses Killgore, of
Flemington, N. J., as does the sideboard shown in Figure 42. The doors
of the lower part, with the fan, are solid mahogany, the carving on the
legs and ornamental scrolls is fine. The middle of the top is raised to
permit the insertion of a looking-glass, and the capitals at the tops
of the pillars are of fine brass-work. Above the middle drawer, a shelf
draws out for use in serving meals. The whole sideboard sets back on a
little shelf above the bear's feet, a feature not unusual in the finer
boards of this period.

The surroundings of this fine old piece of furniture are in keeping
with its importance, the china showing above it on the wall being the
Staffordshire blue made during the first quarter of the nineteenth
century, while the mirror directly above it is of equal age.

Environment has a great deal to do with bringing out the true beauties
of this stately old furniture. It must be surrounded with objects of
approximate age and of equal dignity, otherwise it looks as unseemly as
an ancient dame with a pink rose in her hair. The work-table shown in
Figure 43 belongs to the same period, but of a little earlier date than
the last pieces shown. The legs are richly carved, as is the central
pillar. This also belongs to the Misses Killgore.

Not many pieces of such solidity were required in a room, and in
those days overloading did not stand for elegance. In 1800, when the
spacious Tayloe house in Washington was built, the furniture of the
great drawing-room was a set of ash, sixteen pieces. There were twelve
chairs with chintz cushions, and two card-tables; there were also a
centre table and one upholstered couch, and a settee, but not one
so-called easy-chair. Much furniture like that shown in Figures 40-43,
is to be found in the old houses of such places as Cherry Valley, N.
Y., where there is little changing about, and furniture has descended
from one generation to another and still stands in its old familiar
home.

[Illustration: Figure 43. EMPIRE WORK-TABLE.]



CHAPTER V.

COLONIAL AND LATER PERIODS.


Under the broad head of Colonial Furniture may really be classed all
the "movables and chattels" which belonged to the early settlers, while
to be entirely correct, this characterization belongs only to such
furniture as was brought in or made before 1776. As the pioneers came
from many lands, so many different kinds of furniture will be included
in the list.

We must begin at the South, with the melancholy little plantation at
Jamestown. Through evil times the feeble colony struggled, harassed
by poverty, disease, savage foes, and internal dissensions. There in
1607 were planted the first beginnings of the settlements which were in
three hundred years to cover a continent. Traces of the little colony
have almost disappeared now by the action of the James River, high tide
covering the brick foundations of the ancient buildings. Walking along
the shore one may find little red and white clay pipes, in smoking
which, filled with the fragrant weed, the pioneers forgot their woes.
Glass beads striped like gooseberries, to take the eyes of the Indians
in barter, pieces of water-soaked brick from these toil-built houses,
and even traces of the days of Smith, sword-hilts, bits of armour,
balls, etc., and--more pathetic mementos of Jamestown's trials--human
bones and coffin-handles.

Yet in 1639, thirty-two years after the foundation of the colony,
there were in Maryland some planters called "rich," who measured their
worldly goods by their value in tobacco, the raising of which weed
had proved their only salvation. The laws regarding its cultivation,
particularly in Massachusetts, were very stringent. It was only to be
grown as medicine and used privately. It was considered a more harmful
indulgence than liquor, and the "Creature called Tobacko" was hemmed
and hedged about with rules and restrictions. It circumvented them all,
was planted and grown, and finally became a commodity of much value
and a medium of exchange. About ninety years later we find an item
which shows how universal had become its use. The will of May Bickley,
attorney general of the province of New York, filed April 27, 1724,
directs that he "wishes to be buried without pipes and tobacco as is
usual."

[Illustration: Figure 44. KITCHEN AT DEERFIELD, MASS.]

To Maryland and Virginia were transplanted almost bodily rich homes
from the mother country, filled with the luxuries to which their
occupants had been accustomed. It has been said that many of the grand
old homes in the South were built of "English brick." While this is
true in the letter, it is entirely misleading to the reader in general.
The bricks were not brought from England, because at that time there
were few ships afloat capable of bearing any such quantity as would
have been necessary for a house of any considerable size. Mr. McCrady,
in his "History of South Carolina," has taken considerable pains to
explain how this error arose. The historic Miles Brewton house, now
called the Pringle house built about 1770 in the city of Charleston, is
one of the best known houses in the State. It was used as military
headquarters during both the Revolutionary and the Civil wars. It has
been computed, by actual measurement, that the house contains 1,278,720
bricks. Each of these weighs eight pounds, the whole amounting to
4,566 tons. No vessels then afloat could carry more than 500 tons, so
it would have taken nine of such vessels to bring over the bricks for
this house alone. Josiah Quincy says in his Journal that this house
cost about $50,000, which sum would hardly have covered the expense of
so many vessels from London. Mr. McCrady's solution is that there were
two styles of brick made, one, large and heavy, known as "English" the
other called "Dutch" which were very small.

There were, however, bricks brought from England, for the prices of
brick, both of British and New England make, were fixed by statute. As
early as 1662 brickmakers and bricklayers were paid by each thousand
bricks made and laid by them. The first material brought into Virginia
for building purposes was in 1607, for the use of George Percy.
Brickmakers were twice advertised for in 1610, and joiners were at work
on the furniture needed for the new homes.

The houses late in the seventeenth century were by no means so large as
one would expect. Six or eight rooms was the usual size, and many had
even fewer. The house of Cornelius Lloyd, whose estate was valued at
131,044 pounds of tobacco, contained a chamber and hall and a kitchen
with loft and dairy. The windows were often but sliding panels, but
in houses of any pretensions glass was used. In 1684 Colonel Byrd
sent to London for 400 feet of glass, with drawn lead and solder
in proportion. Robert Beverly, Sr., one of the richest men in the
Virginia colony prior to the opening of the eighteenth century, had in
his dining-hall one oval and one folding table, a leather couch, two
chests, a chest of drawers and fifteen Russia-leather chairs, value
£9 9_s._ His supply of table linen was abundant, and the table-ware
was pewter, with wooden trenchers and some earthenware. Richard
Hobbs, of Rappahannock, who died in 1667, owned, among much household
stuff, but a single fork, John Frison, of Henrico County had one of
tortoise-shell. Robert Dudley, of Middlesex County who died in 1700,
had several forks made of horn.

To show some of the luxuries for sale in Virginia prior to 1670 the
inventory of the store of John Frison, mentioned above, is given.

     "Holland night-caps; muslin neck-cloths; silk-fringed gloves;
     silver shoe-buckles; embroidered Holland waistcoats; 2 doz.
     pr. white gloves; 1 lace cap; 7 lace shirts; 9 lace ruffles;
     holster-caps of scarlet embroidered with silver and gold; gold and
     silver hat-bands; a parcel of silver lace; and a feathered velvet
     cap."

There were also many valuable furs.

Mrs. Diggs, widow of the governor of Virginia, died in 1699. She was
a person of much consequence in the colony, and her inventory is
interesting on that account. In her hall parlour were--

     --"5 Spanish tables; 2 green and two Turkey-worked carpets; 9
     Turkey-worked chairs, and 11 with arrows woven on the seats; 1
     embroidered and 1 Turkey-worked couch; 5 pictures (valued at five
     shillings); 2 pairs of brass andirons; 3 pr. old tongs; and 1
     clock."

[Illustration: Figure 45. WILLIAM PENN'S TABLE.]

Not only did English ships bring on every voyage the best that England
afforded, but Dutch traders, too, crowded in with their own goods, and
others besides from the East. The inventories mention "Dutch cases",
and "Dutch turned chairs", before 1680; and as these rich planters
had tobacco to trade, they obtained all the luxuries to be had. It is
seen that New England had her rich and prosperous men also, and some
fine homes were built as early as 1639. Figure 27, shows a room in
the famous old Whipple House, Ipswich, Mass., built about 1642. The
solidity of these houses is exemplified by the beams, with their finely
moulded edges. The furniture is both interesting and beautiful, one of
the most attractive pieces being the desk made on Sheraton lines which
stands on the right-hand side. A handsome bookcase and desk fill the
corner, and a little Pembroke table holds much glass.

The picture (Figure 44) shows a typical New England kitchen in Colonial
times. It has been arranged in the Deerfield Memorial Hall, and all the
furniture and utensils shown herein were gathered in the neighbourhood.
These primitive homes did not have mantelpieces as a rule, but the
heavy wooden beam fashioned with an axe was called the mantel-tree.
The one shown here did duty for a hundred and sixty-eight years. The
wide chimney-piece could easily accomodate the small children of the
family sitting on billets of wood, while the elders were comfortable on
the settle with its high backboard. It has a convenient candle-bracket
which could be adjusted to suit the reader, and if more light were
needed the candle-stand was convenient. The back of this settle is
sixty inches high, more than is usual. It was owned by Jacob Rich, who
settled in the neighbourhood of Deerfield, Mass., in 1777.

A famous house was known as the "Old Stone House" at Guilford, Conn.,
while at Boston, Salem, Danvers, Dedham, and Dorchester was built many
a sturdy dwelling still standing to show with what solidity these
pioneers did their work. In the earliest days of the Colony's struggles
too much luxury was not deemed good for those battling with the
wilderness. Governor Winthrop writes with some gratification in 1630 of
the burning up of some fine table linen, brought by a "godly woman of
the Church of Boston" from London, and of which she was very proud.

     "But it pleased God that the loss of this linen did her much
     good, both in taking off her heart from worldly comforts, and
     in preparing her for a far greater affliction by the untimely
     death of her husband, who was slain not long after at Isle of
     Providence."

Yet in 1647, when he married the widow Coytemore, he seems to have had
no hesitation in accepting with her a rich dowry, her share of the
estate of her former husband, and valued at £640 1_s_ 8_d_. Among the
items were such frivolities as "a silver girdle and a silk iacket."
There must have been also other choice garments in the many chests and
trunks enumerated. One of these chests is specified as "spruce." The
widow had a brave stock of pewter, worth £135, and among other goods
unusual at this period were,

  "1 chest of drawers £1
  a copp. furnace £1 10_s._
  A parcel of cheney platters and soucers £1
  2 flaskets
  A bedstead, trundle bed with ropes and mats."

[Illustration: Figure 46. RUSH-BOTTOMED CHAIRS.]

It is a matter of wonder how the governor reconciled his conscience
to the silver girdle and "iacket," for in 1634 the Massachusetts
General Court had particularly prohibited the wearing of either "gold
or silver girdles, hattbands, belts, ruffs, and beaver hatts." Also
they forbade the purchase of "any appell, either wollen, silke, or
lynnen with any lace on it, silver golde, silke or threed." They
were only allowed one "slash" on each sleeve and one on the back.
These rules were operative for many years, for in Salem, in 1653, a
man is haled before the court for excess "in bootes, rebonds, gould,
and silver lace." In Newbury, Mass., in 1653, two women were brought
before the court for wearing "a silk hood and scarfe," but both were
discharged for proving their husbands were worth over £100. John
Hutchin's wife was also discharged "upon testimony of her being brought
up above the ordinary ranke." These items show that both rank and
property were saving grace even among the Puritans, and no doubt Mrs.
Winthrop escaped censure under this rule.

Boston, about 1650, had houses partly of brick and partly of stone,
as well as plainer wooden ones. In 1640 John Davys built for William
Rix, a weaver, a house "16 feet long and 14 feet wide, with a chamber
floare finished with summer and ioysts." There was also a cellar, the
walls were covered with clapboards, and the chimney was made of hewn
timber, daubed. The whole house cost £21. This was a typical house of
a workingman, and must have required little furniture besides the loom
to fill it. The fine houses with ample halls and large rooms were but
the forerunners of that comfortable style we call by the name Colonial.
But they were precious things when once built, and it is by no means
uncommon to find them parcelled out to different relatives. In 1658
John Greene of Warwick, R. I., gives to his beloved wife--

     --"a large hall and chimni with a little chamber adjoining to
     the hall, as also a large chamber with a little chamber within
     y^t, with a large garret and with a little dary room which buttes
     against ye oule house during her life; also half ye orchard."

It seems as if this bequest might have been open to different
interpretations among the heirs. He does not specify if he left the
"goods" which were in the hall and rooms,--quite important items.

The widow Francis Killburn's house at Hartford, whose estate in 1650
was valued at £349, had in her hall "tables, formes, chaires, stools,
and benches," all valued at £1.

Mr. Palfrey says in his "History of New England" that Whitfield's
house at Guilford, Mass., built in 1639, is the oldest house standing
now in New England. There were three stone houses built at Guilford
this same year, and it is now asserted that there are quite a number
of houses still standing which were built before that of Whitfield.
The Barker house at Pembroke, Mass., built in 1628, is said to be the
most ancient. The walls of the Whitfield house are of stone; it is
two stories high with garret, and the timber is oak. There are two
secret closets which were found by removing a board in the attic. This
house was ample and commodious, and the household furnishings were of
corresponding value.

[Illustration: Figure 47. CONNECTICUT CHEST.]

In the colonies during the seventeenth century the doublet was worn
by women as well as by men. Men wore it over a sleeved waistcoat. The
sleeves were elaborately slashed and embroidered. There were falling
bands at the neck for those who wished, while the sedately inclined
wore white linen collars. Trunk hose were used, and shoes plainly tied
or with rosettes. A beaver or felt hat was a necessary adjunct, and all
those who could afford it wore gloves, embroidered if possible. These
gloves had gauntlets, worked or fringed, and such an important item of
dress were the gloves that in 1645 the glovers petitioned the Council
to prevent the export of undressed goat-skins.

In many inventories the item of leather breeches appears, and in
connection with them the comment "half wore out." Henry Webb, of
Boston, who died in 1660, left an estate much of which descended to
Harvard College. His wearing-apparel was unusually limited for a man of
means. In women's inventories the most important item is always linen
or plate, a "ring with a diamond" valued at eight shillings being an
unusual piece of luxury belonging to Mistress Anne Hibbins in 1656.

The best articles which New England exported, and for which England
was most greedy, were masts, thirty-three to thirty-five inches in
diameter, selling for from £95 to £115 each. These and salt fish proved
of more value to the colonies than any other commodity possessed at
that time.

Much of the furniture of the old homes has disappeared. Some is still
retained by the descendants of its original owners, and there are other
pieces now gathered in museums, nearly every city endeavouring to
retain the mementos of her early history.

By 1700 Philadelphia was quite a flourishing town. The life of the
country magnates was elegant and dignified. Many rich men had both town
and country houses complete in every detail. Before the Pennsylvania
Colony was five years old, (the grant was given March 24, 1681) William
Penn had set the example of having a town and country house, the latter
being completed in 1685. He owned a coach and a calash, and had,
besides, a fine barge with oars-men who rowed him between his house and
Philadelphia. Fairfield, the home of the Norris family, was finished in
1717, and was at that time the most beautiful home in Philadelphia. The
sashes for the windows and most of the interior woodwork was imported
from England, as was the furniture. The hall was considered wonderfully
elegant, being paved with marble. There were substantial houses of
brick, the latter of which were home-made, and many artizans of all
trades, Dutch as well as English, were coming over. William Penn wrote
to his agent of such a one, and said that he was to be set to work
making wainscot and tables and chairs, as Penn himself was to bring
much furniture with him. His house in Bucks County was of brick, two
stories and a half high, and was comfortably filled with furniture,
some, as we see, made before he arrived, but most of which he brought
with him. There was much silver plate, pewter dishes, cisterns, etc.,
beds, tables, stands and chairs. In the best parlour were two tables,
one great cane chair, four small cane chairs, one couch, and many
cushions of divers materials. The great hall where they dined had "one
long table, two forms, and six chairs." The dining-room was a later
development, and not until the eighteenth century was well advanced do
we find rooms so called in even the better class of houses.

Figure 45 shows an oak table, of what is called the thousand-legged
pattern. It belongs to Mrs. B. H. Oliver, of Chester, Pa., and has an
interesting history. It is circular in shape, five feet in diameter,
and is in good order. It is said to be part of the furniture brought
to America by William Penn, from whom it descended to the Bradfords, a
well-known Philadelphia family of printers. It was given by them to a
young clerk in their office, named McGowan. In 1849 it came into the
possession of Mrs. Oliver's father, and when he died he bequeathed
it to his son, Dr. John Hepburn, of Warren, Pa., who gave it to his
sister, Mrs. Oliver.

[Illustration: Figure 48. MAHOGANY DESK.]

This style of table dates to the first half of the seventeenth century,
as may be seen by the drawer which all these early tables had. The
brass handle is a late addition, and the drawer has about it the
overlapping edge, this style immediately succeeding the drawers with
mouldings like those shown in the chest on frame in Figure 5. The legs
fold together, fitting into the lower braces, and the leaves drop. This
make of table was always considered of value, so we find them selling
at Philadelphia in 1705 at £2; at Boston, 1699, at £2; in 1690 at
Salem, "a round, black walnut table, £2 5_s_." Such a table as this was
used by Sir William Johnson, so potent a factor in the settlement of
the Mohawk Valley. His table is of mahogany, the leaves drop on hinges,
and it has one more leg on each side than our example. It is oval in
shape instead of round, six feet six inches long, and five feet eleven
inches in its shortest diameter. In 1776 this table was confiscated,
and was bought by the Hon. John Taylor. His descendents have lent it to
the Albany Historical Society.

The social life in Philadelphia in Revolutionary times was easy and
agreeable, consisting of the original Quaker families and another class
connected with the government, and these two gave the tone to society.
The pleasures of the table were the only luxuries which the sedate
Quakers allowed themselves, and the city was famous for the quality of
its Madeira and French wines, and the wonderful cooking of West India
turtle. In 1778 differences in rank were strongly marked. The labourer
wore his leather breeches, checkered shirt, and neat's-hide shoes. The
queue or club was still worn by men of fashion; so were rich broadcloth
coats of every colour except scarlet, which was seen only on the "backs
of soldiers, Carolinians, and dancing-masters." Winthrop Sargent, a
Philadelphian himself, writing of this time, says:

     "Silver tankards and china punch-bowls were evidences of
     prosperity, as were the small mirrors in wooden frames, and the
     mahogany tea-boards that are still sometimes met with in the
     lumber-rooms of old-time houses. Glass tumblers were rarely seen,
     a dipper for the punch-bowl, or gourd or cup for the water-pail
     supplied those who did not have recourse to the vessel itself."

This latter statement seems hardly compatible with "elegance," but
there were certainly great extremes to be met with even in the Capitol
City, as Philadelphia was at that time.


[Illustration: Figure 49. CORNER CUPBOARD.]

When it became fashionable to have tables round or oval, it was no
longer possible to use forms or settles at them. So chairs took their
place, and we notice with greater frequency in the inventories "sets"
of chairs, six, twelve, and occasionally twenty-four. These early
chairs, straight-backed (Figure 46), with rush or bass bottoms, or of
carved wood or leather, were hard to sit upon, so cushions were
provided in large numbers and of varying degrees of elegance. These
rush-bottomed chairs with turned wood frames remained in use for many
years. They were made with different degrees of elaboration, one of
the two in Figure 46 showing a more ornamental banister back (_i. e._,
the vertical slats) than the other. These two chairs have seen much
service, but are uncommonly well preserved, and belong to Mr. William
M. Hoyt, of Rochester, N. Y. They were frequently painted dark green,
a fashion said to have come to us from Holland. As chairs grew more
comfortable the decrease in the number of cushions is very marked.

With the increase in comfort in household belongings a corresponding
increase in the elegance of dress was visible. There was a "court
circle" in America as well as in England. Broadway, as early as
1700, presented a brilliant sight at church time. Lord Bellomont was
governor, and Colonel Bayard and his wife were citizens of wealth and
importance. On such an occasion as church-going, on a fine spring
morning, Mrs. Bayard wore no bonnet, but a "frontage", a sort of
head-dress of rows of muslin stiffened with wire. She also wore a
"steenkirk", or voluminous necktie, which fell over her bodice. The
skirt of her purple and gold atlas gown was cut away to show her black
velvet petticoat edged with two silver orrices, and short enough to
show her green silk stockings and fine embroidered shoes. Her hair was
powdered and her kerchief scented with rosewater.

The furniture in use at this time has been already shown in Chapter I.
Oak chairs, leather chairs, and those of cane are all mentioned. We
find entries of "12 cane chairs with black frames" (1712); "6 Spanish
leather chairs" (1703); "one fine chest of drawers," of maple (1703);
"a fine chest of drawers of olive and walnut wood" (1705) and other
similar items.

Furniture was now being made in the Colonies in quite large quantities,
and New England was actively engaged in the furniture business, which
employed many cabinet-makers. Salem had James Symond as early as 1714,
and others, with each succeeding year. Lynn had John Davis by 1703, and
Marblehead, which was expected to become a great commercial centre, had
at least a dozen more or less celebrated between 1729 and 1780. Figure
47 is an example of home-made furniture. It is known to collectors
as the Connecticut chest, because this design is found only in that
vicinity. Quite a number of such chests are in existance, all bearing
the same pattern carved on the panels. They are of oak, often with pine
tops, backs, and bottoms. The one shown has the top of oak; the turned
drops and ornaments are of pine stained black; its height is 40 inches,
width 48 inches, and breadth 22 inches. It is at Deerfield, Mass.

In the eighteenth century ministers were often glad to turn their hands
to some work which would eke out their slender stipends. We have seen
how Mr. Ripley of Concord increased his. The Rev. Theophilus Pickering,
of Salem, in 1724, made furniture. Pieces are still in existance which
he made, sturdy and in good order, showing that he put his best work
and best wood into this business, as he put his best thought into his
pulpit labour.

[Illustration: Figure 50. BANQUET-ROOM, INDEPENDENCE HALL,
PHILADELPHIA.]

The woods used by these cabinet-makers embrace all kinds, walnut,
maple, cherry, nut-wood (hickory), poplar, ash, and pine. American
dealers imported mahogany also in quantities, and it was for sale in
planks as well as made up into furniture.

"New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury" for 1774 published the following
advertisements.

     "To be sold by Leonard Kip, A quantity of New Beef by the barrel,
     Honey by the barrel or half barrel, Albany boards and planks,
     Highland butter in firkins and European Goods. Which he will sell
     very low for cash or short credit, at his store in Dock Street
     opposite Mr. Gerardus Duyckinck's."

The following also appeared in many issues of the paper.

     "Mahogany Furniture, 3 elegant desks & book cases, 1 chest upon
     chest of drawers, 1 lady's dressing-chest & bookcase, 3 desks & 1
     pr. card tables, 2 setts of chairs, 3 dining-tables & 5 breakfast
     tables, 1 clock-case furnished with a good plain 8 day clock,
     Sundry stands, etc. The above articles are well made and most of
     them are of wood of the first quality and will be sold as low as
     any furniture of equal value in the city by Willett & Pearsey,
     cabinet & chair-makers, at the sign of the clothes-press nearly
     opposite the Oswego Market, at the end of Maiden Lane."

In Philadelphia, renowned for its manufacture of household goods,
the trade was so large and important that the "Journeyman's Cabinet
& Chair-maker's Philadelphia Book of Prices" was issued. In a second
edition (1795) are given the prices of many local furniture-makers,
such as:

     "A plain mahogany high-post bedstead £1. 4_s._ 6_d_.

     "A plain sofa 6 ft. long, with 6 legs, fast back & no low rails.
     £1. 8_s._ 0_d_."

The desk shown in Figure 48 is a piece found at Bedford Springs, Pa.,
a place which was known as a "resort" as early as 1778, and had houses
with plastered walls, quite an unusual luxury in country regions,
though as these Springs were frequented by the fashionable society of
Philadelphia and New York, who went for the waters, special effort was
used to make the place attractive. The desk is mahogany and solid,
not veneered. It has a roll-top of the style made by Sheraton, which
falls back behind the drawers and cupboards. The brasses are new, and
the lid has been restored; otherwise the desk is as it was made. It
stood for many years in one of the little outside houses near the main
hotel, and when, a number of years ago, a visitor asked to buy it, the
proprietor told him the piece was known as "Jimmy Buchanan's desk." Mr.
Buchanan was in the habit of spending his summers at Bedford Springs
and always occupied the room where this desk was. In 1857, when as
President Buchanan he arrived at Bedford, the proprietors in his honour
had refurnished his room. They were congratulating themselves that the
President would be gratified at what they had done for him, when he
suddenly came into the room and demanded in a rage what had become of
the desk. If it was not forthcoming he would go elsewhere. He could
use it, he said, to write on, and then the drawers were roomy and just
suited him for his clean shirts. It is needless to say that the desk
was brought down from the garret, and was never removed from the room
when President Buchanan visited there.

[Illustration: Figure 51. WINDSOR CHAIRS.]

The desk is in company suited to its age, the larger powder-horn
hanging above it being a veteran also. It is seventeen inches long and
ten inches broad at the largest end. It bears the following inscription
cut in quaint old letters on lines drawn so that they should go
straight:

     "This is William Norton's Horn made at Qubeck y^e 10 day of Aprill
     1776. I powder with my Brother Ball we wound them all that in Our
     way may chance to fall."

The smaller horn bears the date 1810, and the two swords were used
in the General Training days of the first quarter of the nineteenth
century. All these relics belong to Anthony Killgore, Esq., of
Flemington, N. J.

During the first quarter of the eighteenth century, and even a little
earlier, houses were built with wainscoting and panelling, and it was
the fashion to build into walls cupboards for the display of china and
plate. Frequently they were placed in the corner of the room, and were
either with or without doors. Such a cupboard was called a "beaufait,"
which was sometimes shortened to "bofet," or "buffet," according to the
taste of the owner. Figure 49 shows a specimen. The house from which
this beaufait came was built in 1696 in Vernon Place, Boston, Mass.,
by William Clough. Two years later he sold it, and it passed through
several hands by inheritance and sale till in 1758 it was bought by
Captain Vernon, who with various members of his family held it for
seventy-five years. The cherub's heads which ornament the cupboard are
somewhat unusual on a piece of furniture of this kind, and it has also
a very handsome shell at the top. It is now at the Old State House,
Boston.

Mention is also made in many inventories of "Court cupboards," and
"livery cupboards." The former were light movable shelves, making a
kind of sideboard, and used to display plate and porcelain. A livery
cupboard was somewhat similar. It had usually but three shelves and
stood upon four legs. It sometimes had a drawer for linen, but no
doors. Mugs and cups were hung from the bottom of the shelves, and a
ewer stood below. These were put in what was called the dining-parlour,
a stately room on the second floor never used to dine in. (See Figure
50 showing the banquet room at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, with
the beautiful moulding, wainscot, and over-mantel which were seen in
handsome houses in the middle of the eighteenth century.) It was many
years before the dining-room was set apart for meals. At first only
a screen gave privacy, but gradually the dining-room grew in favour.
The early dining-rooms held beds, as well as the parlours, they being
given to guests on account of the warmth. Joint stools were there, and
Flanders chests, in which the mistress often rummaged, so that the
guest should see the goodly store of clothes and linen owned by the
family.

As was the custom in England, many wealthy men had their furniture made
to order, often in their own houses, where the cabinet-makers came and
worked. Sometimes they imported their own woods, as in the case of Mr.
Champlin, a merchant of Newport, R. I., who brought home with him in
1762, from a voyage in the West Indies, some logs of mahogany, from
which he had several pieces of furniture made. Watson, in his "Annals
of New York," says that the use of what was foreign and modish was
noted earlier in New York before the Revolution than elsewhere.

     "They earlier used carpets, wall-papers, foreign milliners,
     dress-makers, Windsor chairs, glass utensils, jewelry, dentistry,
     watches, umbrellas, stage-playbills, etc.

Windsor chairs were advertised in 1768 as made and sold by William
Gautier in New York. He also had high-backed, low-backed,
sack-backed chairs and settees, and dining and low chairs. A pair of
Windsor chairs are shown in Figure 51.

[Illustration: Figure 52. WALL-PAPER.]

Carriages were imported in 1766 from Dublin, as also men to keep them
in repair. They were landaus, curricles, sedans, and even sleighs with
gildings, carvings, and japan to suit. In 1774 there was advertised
for sale "A handsome Riding Chair with full set of harness," and an
announcement was made that there was "To be sold a Genteel Post-chaise."

The carpets referred to above were imported ones, Turkey and Scotch.
"Persian and plat carpeting" was offered for sale in 1761 by H. Van
Vleck. A later advertisement announced: "There will be sold at Public
Auction, April 7, 1777, Two very handsome Turkey carpets." Rag carpets
were used as early as 1660, and private families who could afford it
owned their own looms. Sometimes those who wished extra elegance bought
the yarn and paid for the weaving.

In 1761, "Pennsylvania Stoves newly invented, both round and square, to
be sold by Peter Clopper" were advertised in the "New York Gazette."
These were, no doubt, what became known as Franklin stoves. This same
year were also advertised wall-papers by quite a number of firms in
various cities: "A variety of paper-hangings imported from London."
"Flowered papers," "printed papers," and "printed papers for hanging
rooms," were imported as early as 1752. Figure 52 shows the fashionable
wall-paper of about this period. It is in the Cowles House, Deerfield,
Mass., and is in an excellent state of preservation. The sofa below
is of the late Sheraton or early Empire, similar to the one belonging
to Rev. Mr. Ripley and shown in Figure 36. Some wall-paper of equal
elaboration is shown in the Frontispiece, which gives the hallway of
the famous "King Hooper House," built at Danvers, Mass., now occupied
by Francis Peabody, Esq.

Wall-paper, however, was not very generally used,--just why one
cannot tell, but some of the gaily flowered papers were used for
window-shades. Curtains for windows and beds were at this time very
popular, and it was the fashion of the time to have the window- and
bed-curtains alike. The materials were very numerous and their names
have a most unfamiliar sound. There was perpetuana, Kitterminster,
serge, darnick (a coarse damask,) silke darnick, camlet, mohair,
fustian, seersucker, camac or camoca, bancour, red and green
paly-(vertical stripes of equal size,) printed calico, checked and
striped linen, India and Patma chintzes, corded dimities, harrateen,
lutestring, moreens of all colours, fine French chintzes, Pompadour
chintzes, "fine laylock and fancy callicoes," and "muzlins." There were
bed-cords, and fringes to edge and trim all these materials, and the
bed in full dress was a very ornamental affair.

Beds varied in size and height in quite a remarkable degree. The one
shown in Figure 53 has a very wide reputation, and is now to be seen
at the rooms of the Antiquarian Society, Concord, Mass. It is of
mahogany, with bandy legs and ball-and-claw feet. The curtains are the
original ones that came with the bed and are worn in many places. They
are very curious showing agricultural scenes and domestic animals in
large numbers. These curtains were not intended to be drawn, but to
hang permanently in place, and there were to be inner curtains of
"muzlin" or "callico" to draw and keep out drafts. One peculiarity of
this bed is its extreme narrowness; it is intended for a double bed and
yet its width is only four feet, it was included in the wedding outfit
of Miss Martha Tufts, who was married at Concord in 1774. The cabriole
leg and style of curtain lead to the supposition that the piece is
Dutch.

[Illustration: Figure 53. BED AT CONCORD, MASS.]

In February, 1768, Miss Harriott Pinckney was married to Daniel Horry
in "Charles Town," South Carolina. This was one of twelve weddings that
took place that year, all the bridegrooms being wealthy rice-planters.
The furniture to fill the houses of these rich couples was all brought
from England, and the beds were lofty mahogany ones, four-posters
with tester, canopy, curtains, and valances complete. The large heavy
posts for all twelve beds were said to be alike, and were carved with
rice-stalks, the heavy clustering heads forming the capitals. So tall
were these beds that steps were necessary to climb into them, and the
ones belonging to Mrs. Horry were in existence a few years ago.

In the "History and Present State of Virginia," 1705, is the following
paragraph relating to the homes:

     --"The private buildings are of late very much improved; several
     Gentlemen having built themselves large Brick Houses of many Rooms
     on a floor and several stories high, as also some Stone-Houses;
     but they don't covet to make them lofty having extent enough of
     Ground to build upon. They always contrive to have large rooms
     that they may be cool in Summer. Of late they have made their
     Stories much higher than formerly, and their windows large and
     sasht with Cristal Glass, and within they adorn their apartments
     with rich furniture."

The eighteenth century was rightly called the Golden Age of Virginia.
The planter in his manor-house, surrounded by his family, served by a
vast army of retainers, was like a feudal patriarch, though his rule
was milder. On the plantation itself were produced all the necessaries
of life; it was a little community in itself. Wool was woven into
clothing, flax was spun, shoes were made, and blacksmithing done.
Luxuries such as books, wines, silks, laces, and the more elegant
household plenishings were brought to the very wharf from London in the
planters' own ships in return for tobacco. The writer previously quoted
goes on to say, about the people themselves:

     --"They are such abominable ill husbands that, though their
     country be overrun with wood, yet they have all their wooden ware
     from England, their cabinets, chairs, tables, stools, chests,
     boxes, cart-wheels, and all other things, even so much as their
     bowls and birchen brooms, to the eternal reproach of their
     laziness."

Although Beverly calls himself an "Inhabitant of Virginia", it
is curious that he was not aware that the southern colonies were
interdicted by special act of legislature from trading with the Dutch
or English colonies. "Wooden ware" is especially mentioned as being
subject to "imposicon."

[Illustration: Figure 54. BED AT MOUNT VERNON.]

A typical bed of the last quarter of the eighteenth century is shown
in Figure 54. This bed belonged to George Washington, and is in his
bedroom at Mount Vernon. It is said to be the one he used in his last
illness. Unlike the bed shown in Figure 53, this bed is of unusual
proportions, being nearly as wide as it is long. The small table
between the doors shows an excellent example of the Dutch foot. Upon
it stands a small dressing-glass, so much in use at this period, of
very handsome black and gold lacquer. Whenever General Washington had
the opportunity he added to the furniture and appointments of Mount
Vernon. Belvoir, the home of the Fairfax family, was one of the most
splendid of the mansions on the Potomac. In 1774 its contents were sold
at auction, and Colonel George Washington bought goods to the value of
£200 sterling. Among the most important lots were the following:

     "1 mahogany shaving desk, 1 settee bed and furniture (£13), 4
     mahogany chairs, 1 chamber carpet, 1 oval glass with gilt frame, 1
     mahogany chest and drawers in Mrs. Fairfax's chamber, (£12. 10s)
     1 mahogany sideboard, (£12. 5_s._) 1 mahogany cistern and stand,
     1 mahogany voider, 1 desk and 1 knife tray, 12 chairs & 3 window
     curtains from dining room (£31), 1 mahogany wash desk, (£1. 2_s._
     6_d._)."

Among the smaller articles were several pairs of andirons, tongs
and shovels, bellows, brushes, toasting-forks, and "1 hot rache in
cellar," with many blankets, 19 coverlids, pillows, bolsters, bottles
and pickle-pots, wine-glasses and pewter water-plates. There were also
two tables, one "a mahogany spider-make tea-table, £1 11_s._" and "1
mahogany table £11," showing that articles of this wood obtained good
values even then. The list of the goods in all of the rooms of Belvoir
is far too long to be given here, but in the dressing-room connected
with Colonel Fairfax's bedroom were "1 oval glass in burnished gold,
(£5 10_s._), 1 mahogany shaving-table, 1 mahogany desk (£16 16_s._), 4
chairs and covers, 1 mahogany settee bedstead, Saxon green, covers for
same, 1 mahogany Pembroke table, dogs, shovel, tongs and fender."

It is also a matter of interest to see of what books a library
consisted among people who were considered to have a literary bent and
to be extensive readers. There is nothing "light" about it, and would
to-day be accounted very dull reading.

  Batavia Illustrated
  London Magazine, 7 vols.
  Parkinson's Herbal
  Knoll's History of the Turkish Empire
  Coke's Institutes of the Laws of England, 3 vol.
  England's Recovery
  Laws of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay
  Laws of Merchants
  Laws of Virginia
  Complete Clerk and Conveyancer
  Hawkin's Pleas of the Crown
  Gunnel's Offences of the Realm of England
  Ainsworth's English and Latin Dictionary
  Haine's Dictionary of Arts and Sciences
  Blackmore's Prince Arthur
  History of the Twelve Cæsars by Suetonius
  John Calvin's Institution of Religion
  Fuller's Church History from its Rise
  Locke on the Human Understanding
  Hughes's Natural History of Barbadoes
  A New Body of Geography
  Croope's Law Reports
  Heylin's Cosmography, in 4 vols.
  Collection of Voyages and Travels
  Political Discourses by Henry, Earl of Monmouth
  Wooten's State of Christendom
  Hobart's Law Reports
  Johnson's Excellency or Monarchical Government
  Latin and French Dictionary
  Langley's Pomona, or Gardening
  A Political Piece
  Strada's History of the Low Country Wars
  Spanish and English Dictionary
  Latin Bible
  A Poem on Death
  Judgement & Hell
  Knox's Martyrology
  Jacob's Law Dictionary
  Chamberlayne's Great Britain
  Laws of His Majesty's Plantations.



[Illustration: Figure 55. BED AT SOMERVILLE, N. J.]

A bed showing better the handsome solid posts is given in Figure 55.
This is also associated with the Father of his Country, for it is in
the house at Somerville, N. J., occupied by him as headquarters
during one of his campaigns in the Revolutionary War.

In Chapter I a "bedsteade of carven oak" was referred to as having
been sent for to England by Mrs. Lake, as a wedding-present for her
daughter. It could hardly have been such a very splendid piece of
furniture as that shown in Figure 56, with its coat of arms on the
headboard, and the two beautiful foot-posts. The draperies were
intended to cover the two head-posts, so that they were left plain.
The old easy-chair standing beside the bed has unfortunately lost its
feet, but they were the well-known ball-and-claw pattern generally
seen on this style of chair, which was well calculated to keep off
swirling draughts from the head and back of the occupant. These chairs
were popular for a century or more, and were made not only by English
cabinet-makers like Chippendale and Hepplewhite, but by the Dutch and
Flemish makers as well. They all have the bandy leg, but the Dutch foot
is sometimes used instead of the ball-and-claw.

But all the luxury and elegance were not absorbed by the South and New
York. Boston kept well to the front. In 1700 Andrew Faneuil, Huguenot,
came to Boston and engaged in business. His brother was in this
country, too, and, he dying not long after, Andrew assumed the care
of, and took into business with himself, first one and then a second
nephew. They were merchants and the following entries of consignments,
taken from their old ledgers, which are still in existence, show the
nature of their business. Besides crapes, poplins, lawns, and silks,
they had for sale durants and duroys, osnaburgs, camblets, narrow,
double and cherry, with ingrains, silk druggets and calamancoes. They
also imported dishes, pans, and kettles, "wooden lanthorns and tin
ditto" (1725). Nor did they neglect to provide amusement for their
fellow townsmen, for they imported "one-half gross man-in-the-moon
cards." Among other goods in this same invoice were "1 chest muskets
and one large pair looking-glasses."

Andrew Faneuil died in 1738, and his favourite nephew and chief
heir, Peter Faneuil, did not hesitate, on account of the cost, to
have an elaborate and seemly funeral. Three thousand pairs of gloves
were distributed, and later two hundred mourning-rings were given to
intimate friends. Peter Faneuil, now a wealthy young man by inheritance
as well as by his own exertions, lived in the old house with his maiden
sister. This same year, 1738, he sends to London for "a handsome
chariot with two setts of harness," and a coachman warranted to remain
sober. A few months later he writes for china and glass from England,
for table-cloths and napkins from France, and he sends for silver
spoons, "forks with three prongs," all to have upon them the Faneuil
crest. "Let them be very neat and handsome," says he.

The next order is for silver candlesticks and a punch-bowl of silver
holding two gallons, also to be decorated with the family crest. His
clothes were also a matter of concern, and he sends to London a pattern
of a piece of Duncy, orders buttons of the newest fashion to match it,
of mohair silk, and knee-straps. Nor is he less scrupulous about his
sister's affairs, and sent all the way back to London six pairs of
stockings which had been sent of worsted instead of "3 pairs thread
hose, and 1 pair Galous hose, and 2 pair of thread ditto."

[Illustration: Figure 56. CARVED OAK BEDSTEAD.]

Boston at this time (1738) seems to have had some luxuries demanded
by New York, for an order comes to Peter Faneuil to send there "a
dozen red Turkey or Morocker leather chairs." One of these easy-chairs
cost £14 14_s._ In 1742 Peter Faneuil gave to the city of Boston the
hall called by his name. It was built of home-made brick (Salem had a
brick-kiln as early as 1629), but the glass in the windows was brought
from England in Mr. Faneuil's own ships. The first furnishings bought
by the selectmen for Faneuil Hall were "two pairs of brass candlesticks
with steel snuffers, and a poker, for the town's use."

Peter Faneuil's inventory, filed in 1742, contains items under 158
heads, and makes quite a volume of manuscript. It includes not only
his and his uncle's gatherings in the way of household goods, but the
contents of warehouses, cellar, coach-house, and stables. The house was
handsomely furnished. In the best room were, "12 carved vineered chairs
& couch, £105; 1 pier glass, £100." Other costly articles were, "1
buffet with parcel of china delph & glass, £199." There were, besides,--

     --"1 chimney glass and arms; 1 marble table; 1 large Turkey
     carpet; 1 compleat brass sett, hearth-dogs, tongs, shovel, and
     bellows; 1 copper tea-table; cups, saucers, tea-pot, stand,
     bowl and sugar-dish; 3 alabaster bowls and stands; 1 large oval
     mahogany table, 12 plain walnut-frame leather-bottom chairs; 1
     prospect of Boston, 2 landskips on copper, and the Temple of
     Solomon."

The "Great Centre Hall" must have made a quaint appearance, since here
hung the fire apparatus; "1 large entry lantern; 12 baggs and buckets,
and books £50."

The sleeping-rooms were handsomely equipped, and each was furnished
with its appropriate colour. The list includes:

     "1 harrateen bed, bedstead and window curtains, matrass and two
     green silk quilts and feather-bed, £65

     3 scones with arms

     1 bureau, 1 table, 1 pr. brass-faced dogs, 1 fire-shovel, tongs
     bellows, and one Turkey carpet, £107"

Peter Faneuil's own room was not lacking in comforts, as is shown by
the enumeration of:

     --"1 silver-hilted sword, 1 pair of pistols and 1 powder-flask,
     £15; 1 case 6 razors, bone penknife, strap, 2 bottles,
     looking-glass tipt with silver; yellow mohair bed-counterpane,
     feather-bed, bolster, 2 false pillows, false curtains, 6 chairs, 1
     great chair, 2 stools, window curtains," etc.

The furnishings of this room, exclusive of the small-arms, was valued
at £245. He had "6 lignum-vitæ chocolate-cups lined with silver",
which were probably Dutch, for among the goods of Sara Van der Vulgen,
of Schenectady, at about this same period, was a great "saler" or
salt-cellar, made of lignum-vitæ, bound with silver and standing on
three little silver feet.

In Mr. Faneuil's kitchen were many utensils of copper, pots, pans, and
kettles, together with an "engine and cistern." He had many jewels,
1,400 ounces of plate, including a shaving-basin worth £40. There were
silver snuff-boxes, seven gold rings, and "chrystall buttons set in
gold." Just before he died he sent to London for "six gross of the very
best London King Henry's cards", for his store no doubt, for cards were
becoming more popular among the descendants of the Puritans than they
had been.

In 1729 Governor Burnet, of New York and Massachusetts, died, leaving
behind him a long list of valuable personal goods. He owned as many
as seventy chairs and twelve tables. The chairs were of mahogany and
walnut, with leather or bass bottoms, and one easy-chair was covered
with silk. Twenty-four chairs had seats of red leather, a noble set,
and there are two chairs now in the Yale University Library which
belonged to Governor Burnet, and which are of the exact style of what
we call Chippendale. They were made more than twenty-five years before
the "Director" was published, but are made of mahogany with richly
carved knees, ball-and-claw feet, with carved and ornamentally pierced
splats, handsome upper rail curved and ending in the little ears before
mentioned.

In all the inventories of wealthy and poor alike there is mention of
candlesticks, sconces, girandoles, etc. The "entry lanthorns," as well
as the perforated tin ones, were made to hold bits of candles and lamps
are few and far between. It was not till 1783 that the flat-wick lamp
was invented, the lamps before that time being pewter and glass, with
small, round, string wicks, burning whale oil. When the question of
lighting was so difficult, it is no wonder that the pioneers were in
the habit of going to bed at dark and rising with the sun. The bayberry
or candleberry was of recognized value, and the laws of Brookhaven, as
early as 1687, forbade the gathering of the berries before September
15, under a penalty of a fine of fifteen shillings.

Candlewood, as pine knots were called, was burned in the fireplace on
long winter evenings. The manufacture of home-made candles was one of
the tests by which the careful housewife was distinguished, dozens of
candles being made and laid away in the candle-box. In 1753, in the
"New York Gazette," were advertised "Green mould candles for sale, at
the Old Slip Market." The old moulds, generally of tin, were passed
around among neighbours in country districts and villages. "Dipping"
candles was a trying business, and required skill and experience on the
part of the dipper. Lustres holding many candles were used on festive
occasions, and four or six lights were often set in branches on either
side of mirrors. Many candlesticks with cut-glass prisms are still to
be found, and betty-lamps, crude little metal lamps, were often used
for bedrooms or in sick-rooms. "Glass lamps and chamber lamps" were
advertised as early as 1759, and "fine large lamps at 20 shilling
each" in 1752. Candle-screens, "red, green, gilt and black japanned
candlesticks with snuffers and extinguishers", were on sale in 1773,
and no card-table was complete without at least a pair of tall massive
candlesticks of Sheffield plate.

By 1760 the newspapers contain advertisements of what are really
luxuries. James Gilliland, dealer in earthen, delf, and glass in Wall
street, New York, has the following named articles: "Enamelled and
cabbage teapots [Wedgwood, no doubt], cut and ground glass decanters,
tumblers, punch and wine glasses."

The fair sex is by no means forgotten, and even during the stress of
the great struggle for freedom her appearance is considered. Many times
the following announcement appears: "The Venetian Paste so well-known
to the ladies for enameling the Hands, neck and face of a lovely
white" is for sale by Hugh Gaine, printer. Nesbit Deane offers hats
"to exceed in fineness, cut, colour, and cock." He also has "Ladies'
white riding hats." "Goods for the approaching season" are duly set
forth in the spring advertisements, and "Sagothies, Hairbine, white
silk embroidered and tambour with gold shades" are recommended for
waistcoats. There was also to be bought "gold and silver vellum lace,
gold and silver bullion fringe, silk sashes and hat feathers for the
gentlemen of the militia and army." "Spittlefield corded tabbey,
peneaffcoes and peling sattens" were to be had in all colours for
ladies' use, while "Prunells and Oxford crape" were provided for the
"Rev'd clergy."

The servant question was a burning issue even at that time, and there
are quantities of rewards offered for runaway slaves and apprentices.
Some desperate householder advertised in March, 1777:

     "WANTED. A cook, black or white, male or female. Such a person
     will meet with good encouragement by applying to Hugh Gaine,
     printer."

Those who did not wish to be annoyed by the labour of housekeeping
could be accommodated with "Diet and Lodging," also, by applying to
Hugh Gaine, printer.

Other advertisements read:

     [1761] "Morrison, peruke maker from London, dresses ladies and
     gentlemen's hair in the politest taste. He has a choice parcel of
     human, horse, and goat's hairs to dispose of."

     [1768] "James Daniel, wig-maker and hairdresser also operates on
     the teeth, a business so necessary in this city."

Wigs were an important feature in the costume of the men. They were
subject to tax and were a good source of revenue. The Treasurer of the
Colony of New York, as early as 1732, reported that he had received
from the tax on wigs the sum of £9 17_s._ 6_d_. This tax was called--

     --"a wise and prudent measure, because it was the fashion for even
     young boys to conceal their own hair under large and spacious
     wigs. To repress a custom so absurd, or to make a source of
     revenue has been the object of the legislature."

So we paid, and gladly, for our wigs, even though visiting Englishmen
spoke of us thus: "The people, both in town and country, are sober,
industrious, and hospitable, though intent upon gain."

All travellers mention our hospitality. Prince de Broglie writes in
1782:

     "M. de la Luzerne took me to tea at Mrs. Morris, wife of the
     Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. Her house is
     small, but well ordered and neat, the doors and tables of superb
     well-polished mahogany, the locks and andirons of polished
     brass, the cups arranged symetrically, the mistress of the house
     good-looking and very grey."

Mrs. Morris was considered to have one of the handsomest houses in
Philadelphia, and it was not at all the mode to display one's own hair
if it had turned grey, so the fact of Mrs. Morris doing so seems to
have impressed the volatile Frenchman.

Another traveller, Captain Laurence Butler, writes from Westmoreland,
Virginia, in 1784, to Mrs. Craddock, an Englishwoman, as follows:

     "When balls are given, which is very frequent, the company stay
     all night (not as in your country), for every gentleman has ten
     or fifteen beds, which is sufficient for the ladies, and the men
     shift for themselves."

These beds were the high four-posters, carved and draped, and ten or
fifteen seems a liberal allowance for every household. One Alexander
Mackraby, visiting Philadelphia in 1768, before the Revolution, writes
home: "I could hardly find myself out this morning in a most elegant
crimson silk damask bed." Poor indeed was the householder who did not
manage to have one "feder bed," or one of flock, or something soft, and
there were always pillows, bolster, coverlids, and blankets, though
sometimes, judging from the inventories, the owners did not care
particularly about sheets.



CHAPTER VI.

COLONIAL AND LATER PERIODS--_Continued_.


We have seen by the middle of the century, 1750, how many comforts were
obtainable at the large centres, and how many cabinet-makers were at
work in the Colonies. About 1756 the ways and people are described thus:

     "New York is one of the most social places on the continent. The
     men collect themselves into weekly evening clubs. The ladies in
     winter are frequently entertained either at concerts of musick
     or assemblies, and make a very good appearance. They are comely
     and dress well, and scarce any of them have distorted shapes.
     Tinctured with a Dutch education they manage their families with
     becoming parsimony, good providence, and singular neatness."

Twenty-five years later the British officers quartered in New York
made life there very gay. Fox-hunting was practiced till 1781, and was
advertised in the "Royal Gazette" as taking place on Ascot Heath, in
Brooklyn. Horse-racing took place on Hempstead Plains, Long Island, for
life in general was a full copy of what was going on in England. The
"New York Gazette" of June 4, 1770, tells us that--

     --"a Great Horse-Race was run off on Hempstead Plains for a
     considerable wager, which engaged the attention of so many in the
     city that upward of seventy chairs and chaises were carried over
     the ferry from hence, and a far greater number of horses, so that
     it was thought that the number of Horses on the Plains at the
     Races far exceeded a thousand."

[Illustration: Figure 57. ROOM IN WHIPPLE HOUSE, IPSWICH, MASS.]

[Illustration: Figure 58. CARVED AND GILDED MIRROR FRAME.]

[Illustration: MAHOGANY MIRROR FRAME WITH BRASS ORNAMENTS.]

The comparatively peaceful sport of horse-racing was not the only one
indulged in. Bull-baiting was not at all unusual. The posters for this
amusement were headed "Pro Bono Publico," and in the "New York Mercury"
for August, 1774, John Cornell announces that there will be "a Bull
Baited on Town Hill at 3 o'clock every Thursday during the season."
Town Hill was Columbia Street, near Cranberry Street, Brooklyn Heights.

On March 24, 1777, in the "New York Mercury" was the following
advertisement:

     "On Thursday At the Theatre in John St. On next Thursday evening
     will be performed a Tragedy called Venice Preserved. With an
     Occasional Prologue. To which will be added a Farce called 'The
     Lying Valet.' The Characters by the Gentlemen of the Army and
     Navy."

As for clothes, of course the people followed the English styles,
and copies of such magazines as "The Maccaroni Magazine or Monthly
Intelligence of the Fashions & Diversions," found their way to America.
Here is an extract from the issue October, 1772:

     "Hats are rising behind and falling before. The blazing gold loop
     and full-moon button is now totally exploded, and succeeded by a
     single narrow looping, broad hatband, and pin's-head button. In
     full dress the three buttons zigzag with the foretop à la Grecque.
     Roses are entirely confined to Cheapside, and bags are increasing
     daily. The late stunting of coats having promoted the growth
     of skirts, the pockets are capable of holding conveniently a
     tolerable-sized muslin handkerchief and smelling bottle. Shoes are
     decreased in heels two inches, and cut like a butter-boat to show
     the clocks of the stockings."

"The Magazine a la Mode, or Fashionable Miscellany," particularly
adapted to the People of both Sexes, and calculated to convey early and
useful information to those who are in any way concerned in furnishing
articles of Dress, either in "Town or Country," appeared in 1777. From
one of these useful repositories we learn under date of 1786 that
grass-green was the fashionable colour for gentlemen's suits, that the
hair was dressed à la Taureau, and that watch-keys were remarkable for
size and weight.

In 1760, pattern-books published in London were to be found in
America for the benefit of native cabinet-makers, as the following
advertisement duly sets forth:

     "John Rivington of Hanover Square has for sale many books for
     cabinet makers, joiners, etc., and calls particular attention
     to a new work called Household Furniture for the year 1760, by
     a society of Upholsterers, Cabinet-makers, etc., containing
     upwards of 180 Designs consisting of Tea-Tables, Dressing, Card,
     Writing, Library and Slab tables, Chairs, Stools, Couches,
     Trays, Chests, Tea-Kettles, Bureaus, Beds, Ornamental Bed Posts,
     Cornishes, Brackets, Fire-Screens, Desk and Book Cases, Sconces,
     Chimney-Pieces, Girandoles, Lanthorns, etc., with scales."

Not a paper but had advertisements of furniture offered for sale. Thus
in 1774 we find:

     "To be sold at private sale a large black walnut cupboard with a
     set of Delft, a large pier looking-glass, one pair of sconces, 3
     large gilt frame pictures, and sundry other articles."

In the same number of the "Weekly Mercury," and in many succeeding
issues appears the following notice:

     "A scheme for the disposal of a large quantity of silver-plated
     furniture by lottery. The owner is a Philadelphian."

[Illustration: Figure 59. MAHOGANY DESK AND CHEST OF DRAWERS.]

In Figure 58 are shown two looking-glasses of styles that were
fashionable about the middle of the eighteenth century. One of them
is dated 1749, of mahogany handsomely carved, and further embellished
with ornaments of chiselled brass, a beading of it being next to
the glass. It rests upon two mirror-knobs, which were screwed into the
walls to support looking-glasses, and the collection of which is such
a pleasing hobby to-day. The central ornament on the top is missing.
The other glass is of carved wood gilded, and is now in Memorial Hall,
Philadelphia. It hung for many years in the fine old house "Belmont,"
and is of the very finest style. The broken-arch cornice is finished
with rosettes, and the central ornament is not the usual urn, but
something more ornate.

There are constant notices of mahogany for sale, such as:

     "A cargo of fine mahogany for sale by Anthony Van Dam, Jan'y 17,
     1774."

In May of the same year John Morton advertises--

     --"the largest and most elegant assortment of mahogany or gilt
     oval looking-glass frames ever imported in this city."

William Melbourn advertises also, in 1774, over a hundred items, among
them are the following, showing that "small wares" were easily to be
obtained:

     "White and green ivory table and desert knives and forks.

     Ditto with silver caps and ferrils. Ditto black ebony with caps
     and ferrils. Also Black horn, camwood, centre-bone split buck,
     sham stag table knives and forks. Carving and oyster knives. Neat
     mahogany and fish skin knife boxes. Mahogany and fish skin razor
     cases. Plated coffee pots and spoons. Mahogany tea chests. Merry
     Andrew, Harry, and Mogul's playing cards, Pearl and ivory fish and
     counters, Mustard and Marrow spoons."

In Memorial Hall, Philadelphia, is a set of table knives with green
ivory handles, like those advertised in the first item, and looking
at the end of the blades we can no longer doubt that the use of
two-pronged forks was supplemented by a dexterous manipulation of the
knife-blades. Writing-desks or scrutoirs, or desks and bookcases, or
even desks fitted into the drawers of a bureau, had become pieces of
furniture that were found in every well-to-do home.

In Figure 59 is shown one of the early styles of make, about the
middle of the eighteenth century. This particular desk was brought
from England, is of mahogany, and is in good condition except that the
front feet have been restored. It still has the original brasses and
the overlapping drawers. It has several secret drawers where during the
Revolution the private documents of the owner were concealed. During
the Civil War its secret drawers were again in use, and effectually
concealed papers of value. It has never passed out of the possession
of the family whose ancestors brought it over, and it belongs to Miss
Hite, of Waynesboro, Va. The two-drawer chest beside it is of a much
earlier period. The mouldings make the chest part resemble two drawers,
but the top opens as is usual. The handles on the desk are of the shape
used so much by Hepplewhite on his bureaus and sideboards, while those
on the chest are an earlier form of the well-known willow pattern of
brasses and are fastened in by wires. The earliest patterns of handles
were the knob and drop, which were used on furniture before 1700.
These were succeeded by others which were fastened in by wire, and
these again were replaced by handles which were affixed with nut and
screw. On page 224 are shown the different styles of handles, and their
approximate dates. The chest is of mahogany, with bracket foot. This is
a most unusual and interesting piece.

[Illustration: Figure 60. COMBINED BOOK CASE AND DESK.]

At the time of the Revolution there was comfort generally in most of
the large cities at least. In 1776 there were sent to Cold Spring, for
the use of the army, the following:

     "2 Mah'y tables, 6 Rush Bottom chairs, 4 Mah'y Rush Bottoms, and 2
     small bedsteads, a kitchen table, a new case of bottles, a Coffee
     Mill, Brass Scales and Waights, 2 Kitchen Tramels, 2 pickel Tubs
     and 2 Wash Tubs, an Iron hooped Pail and a soap barrel mostly full
     of soap and the Ticke of a Stra bed. Value £20."

The works at Cold Spring were destroyed, and the goods were never used,
but the Government's strong-box paid for them.

Cornelis Van Santvoordt, who lived at Esopus, near Kingston, N. Y.,
when it was burned by the British October 16, 1777, put in a claim for
damages for £54 17_s._ 3_d_. a large variety of goods, as may be seen
from the following list:

  "1 Fether bed Holl'd Tick, 1 Boulster, 1 Pillow,
    1 Coverlin to bed                                     14    0    0
  1 Bedsted 20_s._--1 Green Rug 55_s._                     3   15    0
  2 large Rose Blanckets                                   1    8    0
  1 large lookinglass                                      6    0    0
  2 chaina Teapots                                             16    0
  8 Burnt China Chocolate Cups                                 10    0
  ½ Doz Teacups and Saucers                                    14    0
  4 tea plates                                                  4    0
  2 large Cream Couler sauce cups                               4    0
  ½ doz blew chaina plates                                      6    0
  ½  " cream couler    "                                        2    6
  1 dining-table black cherry wood                         1    4    0
  1 Teble larg                                             1    0    0
  1 large Copper Kittle                                    3   13    9
  1 Brass Kittle                                           1   12    0
  6 Flat back chairs                                       1   16    0
  1 Holland cubberd neatly adorned with Waxwork           10    0    0
  1 Barrel soap                                            1   12    0
  3 Wine Canters                                                6    0
  4  "   glasses                                                6    0
  1 chest wt. Clothing and linen                           1   10    0
  1   "    " Sundry books & 1 large Dutch Bible            3    0    0
  1 large Kibbe, 1 Sermon book some of the
  others Divinity & some History                           1   12    0
  1 New Spinning Weale                                     1   12    0
  12 pictures w't Glass over                                   18    0
  1 larg Knot Bowl Cost                                         1    4
  2   "    "    "    "                                          2    0
  2 beds with Straw                                             2   10
  2 fine worked Baskets                                        16    0
  1 Tapend Water Crane                                          6    0
                                                              --------
                                                          54   17    3

This inventory is somewhat unusual from the number of "Chaina" articles
enumerated, and among all the items there are but six chairs and not
a stool. This claim, with many others, is recorded in the "New York
Records of the Revolution," and it was paid out of the "strong-box."
This box was not a mythical object at all, but a veritable chest.
Gerard Bancker was State Treasurer for twenty years. During the
Revolution the iron chest moved about from one place to another like
the Continental Congress, and the Treasurer went with it. According
to a custom of the times Mr. Bancker took the chest with him when he
retired from office. His family kept it for a hundred years, but with
many other relics it was sold in Philadelphia, in 1898, by one of his
descendants.

[Illustration: Figure 61. FIELD BED.]

[Illustration: Figure 62. LOW FOUR-POST BED.]

There were various patterns of combinations of desks and
bookcases, and of desks and bureaus. There were the high, wide ones
of Chippendale or Sheraton, that would almost fill one side of a
room. There were small ones with desk below and shelves above, and
occasionally there were such great ones as that shown in Figure 60.
This piece of furniture is so tall and massive that it could not have
been accommodated in any save a large house. It is over eight feet
tall and five feet three inches wide. It is of a light mahogany, with
pillars of Empire style and very handsome brasses. The lid of the
desk folds back on itself and below it is a drawer and cupboard. The
handsomest things about the bookcase are the glass doors with Gothic
tracery. The date of this piece is about the first decade of the
nineteenth century. The four legs on the front are of unusual elegance.
It belongs to the Historical Society at Albany.

Quite as interesting as the inventories of property left by will are
some old records in the State Library, New Jersey, called a "Record of
the Damages done by the British and their adherents to the Inhabitants
of Middlesex Co., New Jersey." This contains the inventories made by
six hundred and fifty persons who suffered from the depredations of the
plundering Hessians and the English soldiery. The lists extend over
the years from 1776 to 1782 inclusive, but the worst mischief was done
in the time from December, 1776, to June, 1777. There were eighteen
hundred horses taken, and these form a single item. That the settlers
were good livers the following inventory of one patriot shows. He lost--

     --"4 hogsheads of cider, ½ pipe of madeira, 10 gallons brandy, 7
     gallons Jamaica brandy, ½ barrel cherry Rum, barrel Porter."

The inventory does not state his business, but we trust from
appearances that he kept a "public."

Another list reads:

     "Three cupboards of Dutch make as good as new, also three large
     Bibles 1 Dutch and 2 English."

David Harriott, of Middlesex County, was completely stripped by the
enemy. Among many items were--

     "a set of Homespun curtains wove with damask flowers, one ditto of
     white in large damask flowers, and one ditto of double dimons."

Napkins, quilts, bedspreads, and sheets, as well as large-flowered
damask table-cloths and linen covers testify to the industry of the
women of the family. The good wife lost her long gowns and short
gowns, her "shifts of 500 linen," handkerchiefs of gauze, lawn, and
linen, aprons of new flowered lawn, fine linen and homespun, 3 caps of
cambric and lawn, all new, and even two bibs for a child. They took all
of David's clothes and his silver teaspoons and buckles, smashed his
windows and doors, broke down his partitions, drove off his cattle,
and did not leave him so much as "a bed, a piggin, a trammel, or a
gridiron."

Jacob Hyer was another sufferer. His house must have been one of
considerable size and well furnished. There are many items, among them--

     --"5 fluted brass candlesticks, 2 pr. common ditto, 1 doz. iron
     ditto, 10 pr. snuffers; 11 feather beds with bolsters and pillows,
     etc."

[Illustration: Figure 63. FRENCH BED.]

The enemy left him nothing, even taking his "Iron chain for Smoke
Jack." Much of the furniture listed in these inventories was evidently
of American make, for the woods mentioned are bilstead, gum pine,
walnut, cherry, or red cedar. The last was the favorite. "Bilstead" was
maple.

The beds were chiefly of three styles, field beds, high four-posters
with testers and valance, and low four-posters, with an occasional
"English" or "French" bed. There were beds much plainer than the
carved ones we so much admire, but in any case the bed was the most
valuable household possession, as it had always been. In 1640 William
Southmead's house in Gloucester, Mass., is valued at £8, and his
feather-bed, bedstead, and appurtenances at the same sum. In 1628
a pair of sheets was furnished to each Massachusetts Bay Colonist.
Linen and flannel sheets were the ones in use. After spinning became
universal and flax abundant, homespun sheets abounded,--"20 and 1 pr."
is not an unusual number; and where there were several daughters whose
chests had to be filled, the number was many times greater. Table linen
also was of domestic manufacture.

One of the fashionable patterns of beds shown in the English books
imported into the Colonies, and made by American cabinet-makers, was
known as the "field bed." The one shown in Figure 61 is in the Whipple
House, Ipswich, and is draped with the netting curtains, heavily dotted
and fringed, which were customary in its day. Early in 1700 there was
an auction sale of Governor Cornbury's effects in New York, and the
following advertisement concerning them:

     "A fine yellow Camblet bed lined with silk and trimmed with
     fine lace, which came from London. One fine field bedstead and
     curtains. Some blue cloth lately come from London for liveries and
     some broad gold lace. A very fine medecine chest with a great
     variety of valuable medecines. A parcel of sweetmeats and jelly
     glasses. A case of 12 knives and 12 forks with silver handles. A
     large iron fireplace and iron bars all to be seen at the Fort.

It seemed as if the field bed had been made here, as it is specified
that several of the other articles came from London. "The Journeyman's
Cabinet & Chair-makers Philadelphia Book of Prices" gives in 1795 the
price of a mahogany field bed, with sloped roof, at £1 7_s._, while
one of poplar, with the roof sloped each way, cost but one pound.
The carving of the posts was of course extra and was to be paid for
according to time. Each inch that the bed was longer than six feet and
wider than four feet was to be charged for at the rate of two pence per
inch. This may be the reason why many of the beds were so narrow. It is
often stated that the field bed was in use for a few years only, about
the middle of the 18th Century, while in fact it was here, imported and
of domestic make for fully one hundred years, and I am by no means sure
that Governor Cornbury's was among the earliest.

[Illustration: Figure 64. HIGHBOY.]

Great attention was paid to the draping and arranging of the curtains,
valances, and testers of the high four-posters. Heavy materials of
silk and woollen were used, as well as cotton stuffs. Men paid great
attention to the colourings of their bed furniture, as we have seen
in several inventories, and Horace Walpole chose for his own bed at
Strawberry Hill purple cloth lined with white satin, and bunches of
feathers on the tester. Hepplewhite spent much pains on the details of
his beds, and recommended that the valance be made very full, in which
case it was called the "petticoat valance." There were also elaborate
details for tying back the curtains and trimming them with gimp and
fringe. The bed-drapings, even in early days, were often very valuable.
Col. Francis Epes, of Henrico Co., Va., has in his inventory dated
October 1, 1678:

     "One large new feather bed with camlett curtains and double
     vallins lind with yellow silke, bolster, pillow, counterpane,
     Rodds and hooks tops and stands, 1 curtaine and some Fringe
     damnified £24 5_s._ 0_d_."

The low-post bed was also a very handsome piece of furniture, and in
many cases the post was surmounted by a pineapple, like the example
shown in Figure 62. This bed has passed through a career of violent
contrasts, and it is only within a year that the four posts were
rescued from a barn, where they afforded convenient roosts for poultry.
The side and head and foot boards had passed entirely out of sight, no
doubt in some moment of stress they had fed the family cooking-stove.
The missing parts have been restored in solid mahogany, and it makes a
very handsome piece of furniture. It belongs to Mr. William M. Hoyt, of
Rochester, N. Y. The acanthus leaves on the lower parts of the legs are
unusually handsome. The posts are 63 inches high, and the brass drops
which conceal the screw-holes have been restored from a bed of the same
period.

An unusually elegant example of the French bed is the one given in
Figure 63. This bed is of rosewood, with legs of splendidly carved
dolphins, and on the side rails and rolling ends are very rich ormolu
decorations cut from solid brass. The medallions directly over the
legs show Fame blowing her trumpet, and the rams' heads terminating
the head and foot boards where they rest upon the wood above the stars
are solid brass also. This bed has been many years in this country,
and stood in the bridal chamber or guest-room of the old Van Rensselaer
Manor House at Albany, N. Y. This room was situated on the ground floor
to the right of the front door.

A most necessary piece of furniture which every housekeeper endeavoured
to own was some form of "highboy," as it has come to be called, or a
chest-on chest of drawers. Figure 64 depicts a fair example of the
highest style of perfection to which these articles reached. Few are
found more ornate than this. The wood is mahogany, and is richly
carved on the knees, with the upper and lower drawers ornamented with
shell and scrolls. The escutcheons and handles are original, and the
only defect is the loss of the two ornaments which decorated either
side of the top. The date of this chest of drawers is anywhere from
1750 to about 1780, the overlapping drawers making it more likely to
approximate the earlier date. Belonging to about the same period is the
corner cupboard shown in Figure 65. This is of cherry, with the broken
arch-cornice and Gothic door. It has turned posts with rosettes which
Sheraton often used, and the cupboard doors overlap and are panelled.
The back of the cupboard is of pine, as are the shelves. The wood is a
rich dark colour and unpolished. Similar pieces, though not exactly in
this form, are to be met with in Virginia and are doubtless of native
manufacture.

[Illustration: Figure 65. CORNER CUPBOARD.]

[Illustration: Figure 66. INLAID AND LACQUERED TABLE AND CHAIR.]

American makers used not only mahogany, cedar, ash, elm, pine, maple,
cherry, poplar, and walnut, but could inlay with "King, tulip, rose,
purple, snake, zebra, Alexandria, panella, yew, and maple." There were
cabinet-makers in every town, and many of them put out as handsome
work as their contemporaries in London. In Chapter V mention has been
made of the cabinet-makers of the eighteenth century, but furniture
was made in the Colonies even before that. The native joiners began
to work as early as 1622, for Phineas Pratt, of Weymouth, Mass.,
was what we now call a cabinet-maker, and before 1700 Boston had
at least 25 cabinet-makers whose names appear in various records.
We have also spoken of Connecticut chests, and their manufacture
somewhere in that State. There is also another style known as the
Hadley chest. Mr. Lockwood, in his fine work on furniture, places
the date of these chests as ranging from 1690 to 1720. They come in
one-, two-, and three-drawer patterns, varying in height from 32½
inches in one-drawer size to 46 inches for the three-drawer style. The
peculiarity of these chests is their decoration, their shape being
similar to other chests of the same period. In addition to being carved
they are stained as well,--red, mulberry, and black being the colours
chosen. On the central panel of the front the initials of the owner
were usually roughly carved; the decoration of the chest, confined
to the front, being a rude vine, while the sides are panelled. The
top, body of drawers, and back of chest are always pine, the thrifty
New England craftsman saving his hardwood for places where it would
show. There is a very fine specimen of these Hadley chests in the
Museum at Deerfield, Mass. Several more are in collections gathered in
Massachusetts or adjoining States. The black-stained pine ornaments do
not always mark a piece as of domestic manufacture, for pear-wood was
used by the Dutch, and even occasionally by the English, stained black
to imitate ebony, which was always more or less costly.

After 1725 there was considerable travel by merchants, and to a small
extent by others bent on pleasure. Inns became of importance, and
brought in good incomes to their owners. Abel Chapin kept a tavern
at Chicopee, Mass., in 1730, and some few leaves of his account-book
still remain. The records of the bar are the most numerous entries,
and he sold there "Rhum & Cyder", bowls of punch and mugs of flip,
and sometimes "Shugar, seed-corne, salt, and molasses." When this
prosperous innkeeper died he left personal property valued at £400,
and his real estate was worth £1,300. There were six hundred items
mentioned in his inventory among the household furnishings, including
iron, pewter, and brass ware with some china and glass. There is also
special mention of "36 linen sheets, sixteen blankets, eleven woolen
sheets, 6 table cloths and 21 towels." The inventory of his wardrobe
shows richness for those days, and justifies his mother's statement
that she had one son who was too rich. The inventory begins with:

     "2 Great Cotes, 1 srait Body Cote, 1 pare lether Britches, 1 pare
     shues, 4 pare pumps, 1 hat, a black Velvet Vest, 1 pare Velvet
     Britches, 9 pare hose, 4 fine shirts, 6 common shirts, shoe
     Buckles."

His brother, a bachelor, died in 1747, and also had much worldly geer.
He had "cotes and jackets of Camlet, serge and Broadcloth", and "some
shirts, some more shirts, and some fine shirts."

[Illustration: Figure 67. LACQUERED TABLE.]

[Illustration: Figure 68. MAHOGANY BUREAU.]

There was no longer such great stress for the necessaries of life,
in the Connecticut Valley at least, though there was still hardship
and danger a plenty. Game and wild fowl abounded in the woods,
and the rivers were full of fish. There is on record a single catch
in one night of 6,000 shad and 90 salmon, six men being at work. Each
householder was required to keep at least three sheep, and these, with
the fields of flax, supplied bedding and clothing.

The Wayside Inn, South Sudbury, Mass., is still standing to show what a
handsome and hospitable dwelling one of these old-fashioned inns was.
In Figure 18, is shown the old dining-room, looking to-day pretty much
as it did a century ago. On the left is a handsome lowboy with carving,
and from the little alcove on the right many a steaming glass of flip
or negus was served to cold and weary travellers. The dining-room
was the centre of hospitality in the later Colonial days, as the
kitchen had been in the earlier period. There was no handsomer or more
hospitable entertainer than John Hancock, of Boston. In September,
1778, he gave a dinner to Count D'Estaing, the French Admiral, and his
officers and other dignitaries. There was such a large company that
the spacious ball-room at the Hancock House was not large enough, so
Faneuil Hall was engaged for the occasion. All contemporary accounts
agree that it was a very splendid affair and went off with great
_éclat_. The following amusing glimpse behind the scenes shows Mr.
Hancock's anxiety about the provisions for this same dinner.

    "MONDAY NOON,  30 Aug. 1778.

    DEAR SIR--The Phillistines are coming upon me on
    Wednesday next at Dinner. To be Serious, the Ambassador,
    etc., etc., are to dine with me on Wednesday, and I have nothing
    to give them, nor from the present prospect of our Market do I
    see that I shall be able to get anything in Town. I must beg the
    fav^r of you to Recommend to my man Harry where he can get
    some chickens, Ducks, Geese, Hams, Partridges, Mutton or anything
    that will save my reputation in a dinner, and by all means
    some Butter. Be so good as to help me and you will much oblige
    me. Is there any good Mellons or Peaches or any good fruit
    near you? Your advice to Harry will much oblige me. Excuse
    me, I am very troublesome. Can I get a good Turkey? I
    walked in Town to-day. I dine on board the French Frigate
    to-morrow, so you see how I have Recovered. God bless you.
    If you see anything good at Providence, do Buy it for me.

    "I am Your Real Friend

    "JOHN HANCOCK."

Apparently the friend came to his assistance. The appearance of the
company must have been very gay, for bright apparel was not confined to
ladies alone.

Seven years later James Bowdoin, the Governor of Massachusetts (1785)
on a review day at Cambridge, wore a grey wig, cocked hat, white
broadcloth coat and vest, red small-clothes, and black-silk stockings.
Thomas Jefferson wore a white coat and red breeches. The ladies were
looked out for also, and--

     "a neat assortment of women's and children's stays, also hoops and
     quilted coats, also men's and women's shoes from England"

were advertised in the "New York Mercury." As early as 1761 Mr. H. Levy
offered for sale Hyson tea, coffee and chocolate, and English-made
shoes.

The "New York Gazette" of May 15, 1789, describes a gown of the
prevailing mode as follows:

     "A plain but celestial blue satin gown over a white satin
     petticoat. Over the neck was worn a large Italian gauze
     handkerchief. Head-dress a pouf of gauze in form of a globe, the
     head-piece of which was made of white satin having a double wing
     which was trimmed with a wreath of roses. The hair was dressed in
     detached curls and a floating chignon."

At this same period in winter weather the gentlemen wore muffs of
bearskin with knots of scarlet ribbon, while the hats of the ladies
were so immense that it was suggested that a larger style of umbrella
be invented so as to protect them.

[Illustration: Figure 69. AMERICAN-MADE CHAIRS.]

From 1750 the decoration of the fireplace became of importance, and
marble chimney-fronts, blue and white tiles, and beautifully variegated
marble hearths in different colours are freely advertised. Carved and
open-work mahogany mantelpieces could be had by 1765, and elegant
grates and Bath Stoves are imported from England. Fire-dogs or andirons
of many patterns are advertised for sale. In Figure 57, there will be
seen in the fireplace a pair representing marching soldiers.

We have seen in many inventories how the elegances of the East crept in
among stouter and more practical goods. In Figure 66 are shown two fine
examples of Oriental lacquer-work ornamented with gold and inlaid with
mother-of-pearl flowers. The chair is lacquered on some exceedingly
light and porous wood, and has a cane seat. The table, which is of
a very ornate design, has a heavy base to prevent its tipping over.
Both belong to the Erastus Corning Estate, and are now at the Albany
Historical Society Rooms. Music-stands were also made of lacquered wood
and decorated with gilt patterns and mother-of-pearl.

Another very beautiful example of lacquer-work is shown in Figure 67.
This is gold lacquer on black and special attention should be given to
the Oriental rendering of the pillar and claw feet of the table. The
carving is very fine, the dragon's head in which each foot terminates
being quite a work of art. The vase which stands on the table is
Sèvres, made under Napoleon's direction as a gift to the Emperor of
Russia. It never reached its destination; for Napoleon himself went
to Russia, and his mission was not to give, but to take. The vase was
secured in Paris by Mr. William Bayard, and presented by him to his
brother-in-law, General Stephen Van Rensselaer, the eighth patroon of
Rensselaerwick.

Bureaus with flat tops, upon which stood either lacquered or wooden
dressing-glasses, were in use during the latter part of the eighteenth
and in the early part of the nineteenth centuries. Sometimes the
glasses were attached to the bureau itself, which then had an extra set
of small drawers above the larger ones, set back so as to leave a shelf
in front of them. Such a piece of a very ornate character is shown in
Figure 68. It is of mahogany with gilt mountings of very beautiful
design on the pillars of the front. The drawer which swells out has
on it a splendid Empire gilt ornament. Above this the rail across the
front is painted black and has a pattern in gold upon it. The curved
supports to the mirror are carved and then painted with gold, as is
the mirror-frame itself. The handles are glass, with bosses of gilt,
completing an unusually handsome piece of furniture. The glass handles
place the date of this bureau as not earlier than 1820.

[Illustration: Figure 70. AMERICAN-MADE ROSEWOOD CARD-TABLE.]

The work of domestic furniture-makers has often been referred to in
this work, and in Figure 69 are given examples of three chairs, all of
them mahogany, the two on the left being in Sheraton style, and the
one on the right rather later, and coming under the head of Empire.
The latter has the curved back and legs which were very popular, and
a very distinctively American touch in the finely carved eagle
which ornaments the cross-bar of the back. All three chairs are well
carved, and the panelled back of the middle one has a thread of brass
moulding. The carved design is adapted from some well-known patterns by
Sheraton. The one on the extreme left has some very delicate carving
above the three arrows. In the little open panel are a bow and quiver
quite out of proportion, in their size, to the large, heavy arrows
below it. All three chairs had the covering nailed down with brass
nails in the popular style, and the middle one still has the original
stuff. American cabinet-makers also excelled in making and carving very
beautiful rosewood furniture which was held in high estimation down
to the middle of the century. A piece of such work is shown in the
handsomely carved card-table represented in Figure 70. The legs are
gracefully curved and embellished with fine carving. The top turns, and
then opens, a circular portion of the center being covered with cloth.
Within the frame the table is finished with handsome curled maple, and
has numerous little compartments for holding cards and counters. This
specimen belongs to Miss Sarah Frost, of Rochester, N. Y.



CHAPTER VII.

FRENCH FURNITURE.


The glory of the French Renaissance had begun to wane when Louis XIII.
came to the throne in 1614, and by the time of his death in 1643 it
had become hardly more than a tradition. Its strongest period had been
during that century which embraced the reigns of five sovereigns,
Francis I., and II., and Henry II., III., and IV. This was from 1515
to 1610, and, of all monarchs who held the throne of France, Francis
I., who sat upon it thirty-two years, did more for it in raising the
standard of art than had been done by his predecessors in a century,
though Henry II. and Henry IV. had made their reigns notable.

[Illustration: Figure 71. BEDROOM OF ANNE OF AUSTRIA AT FONTAINEBLEAU.]

Rich, ambitious to have France as great in art as Italy, Francis was
a liberal patron, and invited to Paris, the centre of all literature
and art in France, painters, sculptors, and architects. Italy had
difficulties to contend with from the fact that she was divided into
many small principalities and dominated by many schools. Florence,
Milan, Sienna, Naples,--each had their distinctive styles; but in
France the court of Francis was the pivot upon which all the arts
turned. He built that series of chateaus which remain among the wonders
of the world,--Chambord, Chenonceau, and Fontainebleau. He left traces
of his taste on mediæval Amboise, remodelled the Louvre, and finished
the restoration of Blois which had been begun by Louis XII. The
throes through which France has passed has swept away some of her
choicest historic monuments, but Fontainebleau remains a true example
of French Renaissance. With this fine old palace are connected some of
the most critical moments of French history. In one of its rooms was
signed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes; Condé was murdered here
in the library, or Gallery of Diana. On the great curved staircase
Napoleon bade adieu to what remained of the Old Guard before he went
to Elba, and on a little table in one of the six rooms which might be
called the suite of the First Empire, extending back of the gallery of
Francis I. he signed his act of abdication.

The decorations of this palace are superb, the very flower of the
French Renaissance. Oak, carved and gilded, wainscots the walls in many
of the rooms, but in the chamber of Anne of Austria, shown in Figure
71, the wainscoting consists of carved panels framed in marbles, and
above them carved figures stand out from the painted walls, which
are divided by oak mouldings into sections, while a beautiful carved
cornice of scallop-shells on a gold ground surrounds the room.

The French, as no other nation has ever done, set in a fitting shrine
the beautiful furniture which they made; the decoration of walls,
doors, ceilings, and fireplace always playing an important part in the
whole scheme. The French "style," a word on which Lady Dilke strongly
insists in her great work on "French Furniture of the XVIII Century,"
was unmistakably impressed on all they attempted. The woodwork was
lighter and more openly carved than Italian work of the same period.
Even when made by Italian workmen who swarmed to the French court under
promise of abundant employment and rich emolument, the work was imbued
with the French spirit and an elegance with which even Italy could not
vie.

The noble appreciation which had grown up in France was fostered by
Louis XIV. when he came to the throne, not so much for art's sake as
for his own aggrandizement, and to make his court the most elegant in
the world. Louis contemned the style of elegance and luxury begun in an
earlier reign, and artists of even superior merit were set to work to
make beautiful the homes of those uncrowned queens on whom the "Grand
Monarch" lavished such immense sums of money. Versailles was enriched,
the lovely gardens planned by Le Notre, with their superb flower beds
and fountains, the "green carpet" of turf down which the monarch loved
to walk, were all made with enormous outlay of money.

The hotels and buildings at Versailles set apart for the service of the
king and his attendants were numbered by hundreds. There were the royal
stables, the new hotel of the Governor of Versailles, the green rooms
of the actors who performed at the palace, the hotel of the keeper
of the wardrobe, the hotel of the guardsmen, the English garden, the
riding-school, the king's icehouses, the houses of the body-guard, and
so on. Street after street was filled with these buildings, besides
those devoted to falconry, boar-hunting, the kennels, the little
stables, and those filled with shops, vegetable gardens, etc., and in
addition that great habitation occupied by more than two thousand
persons, with other buildings called "Louises" where the king assigned
temporary or permanent lodgings. The great stables built in 1682 and
costing 3,000,000 francs are some of the few buildings left to show the
magnificence of old Versailles. They were so ample and beautiful that
under the direction of the great Louis himself they served sometimes as
a ball-room, sometimes as a theatre, and more often as a circus for the
princes.

[Illustration: Figure 72. BED OF LOUIS XIV AT VERSAILLES.]

There is a bound volume extant, bearing the name of Mansart, in which
the cost of the palace is given at 153,000,000 francs. This was but the
casket itself without any of its furnishings. Louis preferred to live
in the open air, and the gardens were merely outdoor drawing-rooms,
where people conversed and exchanged the compliments of the day. Round
his person the king loved to group his retinue, and down the broad
staircases of the gardens sixty ladies with hoopskirts measuring
twenty-four feet in circumference could move easily. On the outskirts
were a swarm of courtiers and servants in uniforms, costumes, and
liveries as brilliant as the rainbow.

Consider the life of one of these courtiers under the reign of Louis
XIV. Here is the routine of the Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Master of the
Hounds:

     --"He never missed the king's rising or retiring, both changes of
     dress every day, the hunts and promenades likewise every day, for
     ten years in succession. Never sleeping away from the place where
     the king rested, not able to stay away all night, and yet obliged
     to dine away from court."

Even after the court etiquette became more stiff and precise, and the
formal manners arranged by Louis and Madame de Maintenon were in daily
practice, the smaller details of life remained as elegant as possible.
Hoopskirts of such size as has been mentioned were too enormous for
chairs, so a sort of stool without arms or back became a necessary
article of furniture. One sofa, two arm-chairs, and nine stools were a
proper proportion for a set to furnish a room, and these were stiffly
set about the walls, leaving the middle of the room quite bare.

In Figure 72 is shown part of the bedroom of Louis XIV. at Versailles,
with the elaborate decorations which were lavished on that palace,
and the furniture which accompanied it. Tapestry-covered chairs and
hangings of the richest embroidery were all in harmony with the
splendid walls. The tall bronze girandoles were Cupids supporting
branches of flowers in ormolu to hold candles. Over the doors were
portraits or mirrors surmounted by carved and gilt figures with
garlands of flowers. The decorated Boulle cabinet on the right is very
different in its lines from those articles as seen in the succeeding
reign, when everything assumed a lighter air. The curtains to the bed
could completely enfold it, and to their sheltering depths the great
Louis is said to have retired before removing his wig.

The chairs shown in Figure 73 are of this period, the one upon the
right retaining its original covering, the woodwork being carved and
gilt. The cane chair on the left is of walnut, and the one in the
centre, carved and gilt, is a French adaptation of a Flemish design.

[Illustration: Figure 73. CHAIRS OF THE PERIOD OF LOUIS XIV.]

It is difficult to re-people one of these splendid rooms and consider a
period when, as M. Taine says, "life was wholly operatic." The grandee
lived in a state of luxury and grandeur. His trappings were as
magnificent as he could make them, and his household was filled with
military as well as civil appointments, approaching as nearly to that
of the king as possible.

The king must have a stable, so at Versailles were 1,875 horses, 217
vehicles, and 1,458 men who were clothed in liveries costing 540,000
francs a year. This is but a single item in the great total considered
under fifty or sixty heads. To wait on the king himself, 198 persons
were required; some fetched his mall and balls; some combed his hair;
others watched his dogs; and there were those who tied his necktie
after it had been properly folded. Some there were whose sole business
it was to stand in a corner which was not to be left empty.

The policy which prescribed the custom at court was all for
ostentatious display. St. Simon says:

     "He (Louis XIV.) was pleased to see a display of dress, table,
     equipages, buildings, and play; these afforded him opportunities
     for entering into conversation with people. The contagion had
     spread from the court into the provinces and to the armies, where
     people of any position were esteemed only according to their table
     and magnificence."

Louis had so dominated the whole court life that he had brought his
courtiers to believe that the main thing in life for layman and
churchman, and for women and men alike, was to be at all hours and in
every place under the king's eye and within reach of his voice.

With all this army of personal attendants to feed, clothe, and shelter,
the repairs to houses and furniture represented immense sums yearly,
and many establishments were taken under royal patronage in order to
command their products and to reduce the expenditures.

The history of French furniture is quite closely connected with the
history of tapestry, for after a time it was used as a covering.
Francis I., who appreciated the value of this textile as an ornament
as well as a covering for his walls, and unwilling to buy all his
pieces from the skilful looms of Flanders, started a factory in 1531
at Fontainebleau. In 1603 a new factory was started at Paris, under
royal patronage, in the workshop of a family of dyers named Gobelin.
The first workers were Flemish weavers who were brought over to teach
the craft to Frenchmen. Louis XIV. protected the factory through the
mediumship of that great financier, Colbert, who appointed Le Brun, the
artist, director of the works. In 1667 the factory became the property
of the Crown, and most artistic and elegant productions were made.

Not only in France did the Gobelins find patronage, but in England as
well their work was in great demand. Evelyn writes in the last years of
the reign of Charles II.:

     --"Here I saw the new fabriq of French tapisstry; for designe,
     tendernesse of worke, and incomparable imitationn of the best
     paintings beyond anything I ever beheld. Some pieces had
     Versailles, St. Germain's, and other palaces of the French King,
     with huntings, figures, and landskips, exotiq fowls, and all to
     the life rarely don."

The golden age of Louis XIV. saw also the golden age of tapestry, for
it was during his reign that the proud and royal factory at Aubusson
was at its highest estate. The tapestries sent out from this factory
were not mere imitations as close as possible of painted pictures.
The limitations of the process were ever considered, and the number of
gradations in every tint was limited so that the dangers of unequal
fading reached their lowest point. The beautiful borders which
surrounded the central picture were designed and executed with the same
care that was bestowed on the centre, and formed a part of the whole
that could ill be spared.

[Illustration: BEAUVAIS, LOUIS XVI.]

[Illustration: GOBELIN, LOUIS XIV.]

[Illustration: AUBUSSON, LOUIS XIV.]

[Illustration: Figure 74. TAPESTRY FURNITURE.]

The tapestries worked late in the seventeenth century and early in the
eighteenth, before the spirit of commercialism had been suffered to
encroach on what up to that time had been carefully fostered art work,
were all examples of great beauty and merit. In 1694, Louis having lost
interest in the manufactory, and Colbert and Le Brun being dead, the
works at the Gobelins' factories declined, and they became financially
embarrassed. Still the great name was in high esteem, and its more than
national reputation was retained. The splendid works which had been
sent out from the loom, "The Triumph of Alexander," "The History of the
King," "The Elements," and "The Seasons," were no longer in demand.
Fontaine's fables and "The Adventures of Don Quixote" took the place of
the more dignified designs, and at last sets of chair-backs and sofa
covers were woven where previously historic subjects of heroic size had
been demanded. Every year there were "_Chancelleries_" made,--series
of hangings adorned with the royal arms, which the king gave to his
chancellors.

"The Adventures of Don Quixote" consisted of a set of from twenty to
twenty-eight pieces, and so pleased the public taste that sets were
being continually woven from 1723 till the times of the Revolution.
They were varied by the different colours of the background, and also
by having different borders, some of them designed by artists like
Lemaire the younger, and of great beauty. By 1736 the manufactory once
more received assistance and patronage from the Crown, and famous old
models were renewed, and two new sets, from "The Story of Esther," and
"The Story of Medea and Jason," were designed. About the middle of the
century came the fatal desire to copy paintings as they came from the
hand of the artist, and the traditions which had governed the labor
of the tapestry-worker for centuries were thrown aside. In vain the
workmen protested: good taste and the principles of decoration were
sacrificed, and the artist triumphed. The only check to the artist's
exactions was the immense cost of production, for the painter was
totally ignorant of the practical difficulties which had to be overcome
in carrying out his designs; and as the tapestry-workers were paid by
the piece they could no longer calculate or limit the cost of execution.

The Beauvais tapestries were long granted superior excellence in
flower forms, trees, etc., and for figures also, and they held to the
styles in which they excelled. But the Gobelins after 1740 no longer
did work which was not fashionable and profitable. In 1755 Boucher,
the well-known artist, was appointed director of the Gobelins, and,
like his predecessors, believed in simulating, as far as possible the
painter's art. There is tragedy in the history of the devoted band of
workers who, ill-paid, and not sufficiently recognized, laboured at
the looms and in the dye-house to carry out the artist's ideas. One of
them Quimiset, a chemist of undoubted ability, committed suicide.
Neilson and Audran were both ruined financially; and yet these servants
of the crown were not allowed to leave Paris to better their fortunes.

[Illustration: Figure 75. COMMODES OF THE TIME OF LOUIS XV.]

The Gobelins began to produce tapestry for furniture only during the
last half of the eighteenth century. This work was undertaken in hopes
of financial profit, for the competition of woven and embroidered
stuffs from England, as well as the novelty of English paper-hangings,
had crippled them excessively. The very first pieces made were for
four chairs and a sofa, in 1748. These furniture tapestries became
immediately popular. Screens, seat, sofa and chair backs, showing
scenes, figures, ribbon-work, and garlands brought up the failing
fortune of Gobelin and made Beauvais wealthy. From this latter factory
came those coverings, with designs after Boucher, set in wooden frames
of the richest carving and gilt.

The cost of these works was as great as brocade and velvet, and crowded
out the embroiderers, who in turn aimed, with the means at their
command, to rival the efforts of the tapestry-workers. Then came that
most sumptuous combination of painting with embroidery, and in 1743 the
Duc de Luynes describes a new set of furniture for the queen's bedroom.

     "It is of white gros de Tours, embroidered and painted, and
     is quite complete, consisting of the bed, its hangings, the
     fauteuils, and curtains."

During the Revolution, in 1793, a bonfire was made in the courtyard
of the Gobelin factory, and a set of hangings with designs of "The
Visit of Louis XIV. to the Gobelins," several _portieres_, and a set
of "_Chancelleries_" were burned. On another visit the cartoons of
Raphael were destroyed, those of "Esther" and "Medea" thrown out, and
everything with a tendency toward aristocracy discarded.

The terms "Beauvais," "Aubusson," etc., do not give their names to any
particular style of tapestry. The various factories wove according to
their requirements, and used silk, woolen, silver and gold thread as
the design called for it. In Figure 74 are given examples of work from
these famous establishments. The Louis XIV. screen is a silk panel,
the pattern being Flora, surrounded by Cupids and wreaths and garlands
of flowers. The design is by Berain, and was made at the Gobelins; the
frame is richly carved and gilt.

The Louis XVI. chair is covered with Beauvais tapestry--baskets of
flowers and scrolls. The lovely tints are hardly faded, or they
have so faded in harmony that it resembles the changing hues of
mother-of-pearl. The wooden frame is carved and gilded, a fit setting
for the beautiful tapestry. The sofa and chair are but two of a set,
the other pieces being nine more chairs. These are of the Louis XIV.
period and are covered with Aubusson tapestry,--crimson peonies on
a pale-green ground. The bow leg and carved knees are similar to
those shown in Figure 73, and, like the one on the right in that
illustration are gilded. At a recent sale held in Paris, when the
great collection of Madame Lelong was dispersed, the prices obtained
for these old tapestries, whether wall-coverings or on furniture, were
absolutely astonishing. A screen with four panels of Beauvais tapestry
illustrating La Fontaine's fables brought $3,700. One seat, of carved
and gilded wood, covered with a piece of Beauvais, brought $2,000,
and four chairs in carved and gilded wood with Beauvais tapestry
coverings brought $41,000. These prices, while sensational, give some
idea of the esteem in which these antiques are held. The tapestry
covered pieces shown belong to the Waring Galleries, London.

[Illustration: Figure 76. GARDEROBE, PERIOD OF LOUIS XV.]

The best-known name of any one man who worked in furniture during the
splendid reign of Louis XIV. was of André-Charles Boulle, b. 1642, d.
1732. The superb marquetry work he made, composed of brass, ivory,
tortoise-shell, gold, and a choice selection of woods from India,
Brazil, and other tropical countries, took the fancy of the king by
reason of its sumptuous nature. Boulle was given an apartment in the
Louvre and for his great master the celebrated _ébéniste_ composed his
choicest work. A cabinet of this work can be seen in Figure 72 to the
right of the bed.

In 1672 Louis XIV. had made Boulle engraver-in-ordinary of the royal
seals. The patent conferring this appointment calls Boulle "architect,
painter, carver in mosaic, artist in cabinet work, chaser, inlayer, and
designer of figures." The most important works of Boulle which records
show were at Versailles, like those he executed for foreign princes,
have disappeared. His workshops and studios were of vast extent;
he employed many workmen, and consulted for his models a priceless
collections of drawings, medals, and gems, comprising drawings by
Raphael, and that "manuscript journal kept by Rubens during his travels
in Italy and elsewhere, which contained his notes and studies in
painting and sculpture, copiously illustrated by pen-and-ink sketches."

In "French Furniture of the XVIII Century," by Lady Dilke, this
priceless collection belonging to Boulle is described at length, and
also the immense loss to which this worker was subjected when, in 1720,
his entire warehouses and shops were burned down. Boulle was an old
man at this time, and for the rest of his life ill-fortune followed
him, and he died wretchedly poor, leaving nothing but debts which for
years he had been forced to put off by every variety of makeshift. His
four sons, one of whom bore his father's name, never accomplished works
of such elegance and solidity as those of their father. They, too,
had endless misfortune, were ejected from the apartment in the Louvre
which had descended to them from their father, and died, as he did, in
poverty and misery.

Yet the splendid and showy style of furniture to which Boulle gave
his name remained in fashion and was made during the whole of the
eighteenth century. After the death of the younger Boulles, pupils who
had studied with their father and themselves carried on the work, and
of course there were imitators as well. Boulle did not invent this
style of decoration, for ebony cabinets ornamented with tortoise-shell
and copper were known in France long before Boulle was born. He simply
perfected the method of making it. Nor did he confine himself to this
particular style of marquetry, for he made works, mentioned in his
catalogue, of wood inlaid with other woods of various colours and
ornamented with bronze mounts.

[Illustration: Figure 77. BEDROOM OF MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE LITTLE
TRIANON.]

Under the Regency, fashions changed, not only in manners and clothes,
but even in furniture and belongings as well, though this latter
change came slowly. The Duc d'Orleans and his daughter, the Duchesse
de Berri, conducted entertainments of so scandalous a nature that
even the French public was horrified; and gaming, which under Louis
XIV. had risen to prodigious extremes, became more furious still, and,
possessing all classes of society, spread ruin everywhere. The use of
looking-glasses for ornaments had become very much the vogue during the
period of Louis XIV.'s reign. They were introduced into walls opposite
windows, and in places where reflection would carry out the idea of
windows. The court beauties, both male and female, had the walls of
their bathrooms lined with them, and the frames in which they were set
were lavishly carved and gilded.

While Boulle's is associated with the reign of Louis XIV., with the
Regency the name of Charles Cressent rose to eminence. His work was
much like that of Boulle in character, but he gradually gave more
importance to the mounts of metal as a means of ornament, and used less
marquetry. He not only used floral forms for these metal decorations,
but modelled beautiful little groups of Cupids or Loves with garlands
and roses, and these ornaments were applied directly to the rosewood
frames of wardrobe or cabinet, whichever was chosen for such
embellishment. Nor was he content with such charming subjects only, for
he modelled children swinging a monkey, or monkeys swinging themselves,
or dancing a tight rope, and invested even these grotesques with style
and charm.

With the reign of Louis XV. even more sumptuous surroundings were
desired. At Fontainebleau the luxury was unparalleled, and when the
king held a reception, at which there were both cards and dancing, the
spectacle, according to records left in the copious memoirs of the
times, was one of sumptuous elegance. Four or five hundred guests
surrounded the tables where cards and cavagnole were played. Hanging
from the ceiling painted with Cupids garlanded with flowers, were many
blazing chandeliers, their brilliancy reflected a thousand times in the
tall mirrors. Everything was flooded with light,--the painted walls,
the rich gilding, the diamonds sparkling on white necks and in the hair
of the women, whose dresses gleamed with gold, silver, pearls, and
artificial flowers and fruits, all in the most gorgeous hues. The men
were almost as gay. Their hair was powdered, curled, and dressed. Their
coats of sky-blue, rose, peach, pearl or puce-colored satin, velvet,
or brocade, were embroidered with silks and gold, and ornamented with
ruffles and cravats of lace. The dress of a man, with his jewelled
sword, shoulder-knots with diamond tags, and buckles of brilliants on
shoe and knee, might have cost a small fortune. Gold and silver thread
made stiff and costly, stuffs already rich in themselves, while the
money lavished on lace had no limit.

When a princess of France married it was no uncommon thing for the
laces on her bedspreads and linens to reach the sum of $100,000.
The frills on her personal linen added $25,000 more. The ruffle on a
handkerchief was cheap at $50, and a laced nightcap might easily double
that. All this elaboration of elegance had fitting surroundings, and
the case was worthy of its contents.

[Illustration: Figure 78. CHAIRS AND TABLE OF LOUIS XVI STYLE.]

Like his predecessor, Louis XV. lavished vast sums on buildings, and
Madame de Pompadour, an uncrowned queen, spent millions more. The
Hotel d'Evreux, begun in 1718, was many years later finished under her
personal direction. She had the virtue of being a liberal patron of
the arts and an encourager of artistic merit wherever she found it. Her
taste, her sincere love for art, enabled her at least to secure works
of absolute perfection, and during the twenty years of her reign it was
mainly her fostering guidance which developed so many of the applied
arts. She not only assumed the direction of work at her chateaus and
hotels, but she encouraged the manufactory of the beautiful porcelain
of Sèvres; she assisted engravers, and essayed to learn the art
herself; and by taste, natural and acquired, she was looked upon by the
group of artists of her time as a final court of appeal in all critical
matters.

Her successors were no less extravagant, but they lacked her exquisite
and artistic judgment, which amounted almost to genius. It was during
this period of Louis XV. that the evolution of chests of drawers,
writing-tables, and cabinets--that is chests upon trestle-work--was
accomplished. The ornament changed constantly, but the form of the
articles remained much the same. The changes wrought in Paris affected
the country slowly, and provincial artists working at the period of
Louis XV. might have been using the models that had been popular in
a previous reign. In Figure 75 are depicted rosewood commodes with
curved fronts and ends, handsomely decorated with ormulu work in leaves
and scrolls. A French clock of the period, with ormolu mounts, stands
on the marble top of one, and on the other is one of black and gold
lacquer, with very choice water-gilt mounts.

In this period the names of the Caffieri, father and two sons, who
were workers in metal, became famous. They executed bronze mounts for
furniture like those on the commodes shown in Figure 75, a style
which they may be said to have created and by their genius rendered
popular. The mounting on these pieces is very simple, and takes the
subservient place that ornament always should. But in some of the
work executed by the Caffieri the wood became merely the vehicle on
which a wealth of ornament was hung. They made not only mounts for
furniture, but girandoles, branch-lights, mounts for vases and clocks,
and chandeliers--working in bronze and silver as well as in brass. This
taste for metal mounts was carried to an extreme, even pieces of richly
carved furniture being further ornamented with chiselled brass. It is
an item of interest that the monument to General Montgomery which is
placed on that side of St. Paul's Chapel, New York city, which faces
Broadway, should have been designed and executed by Caffier in Paris in
1777. The General was buried first in Quebec, and afterward removed to
New York by act of Congress.

In Figure 76 is given what is called a _garderobe_, that is wardrobe,
with a basket of flowers at the top, this and the two bunches of
flowers at the tops of the doors being in ormolu.

[Illustration: Figure 79. ENCOIGNURE, PERIOD OF LOUIS XVI.]

Even as early as the middle of the previous century there had been
imitators of the splendid lacquer-work of the Orient. By 1723 the
three Martin Brothers, Julien, Robert, and Simon-Etienne, had become
quite famous for their use of a transparent varnish, which, as "master
painters and varnishers," they had perfected in their business. They
pushed their trade, and by 1748 were under national protection, so
popular had their wares become. In 1742 they perfected a certain
green varnish which was immensely popular, and for which they had many
orders, some of them from the king himself. They never excelled as
painters, but the beauty of this famous green ground, powdered with
gold, is very charming. Very little of this famous work remains, a
few fire-screens and some splendid coaches, with some small boxes for
snuff or patches, are all that exist. But in these small pieces like
the boxes, which were considered worthy of gold and jewelled mounts, we
can see this famous work to the best advantage. There were ribbings,
stripings, waves, and flecks which gleam wonderfully through the
varnish. Sometimes there are a few flowers or a Cupid scattered on the
surface, but usually, when the green ground was employed, no decoration
was considered necessary. With the death of Robert Martin in 1765 the
skill necessary to continue this work was lost, and this charming style
of decoration dropped back merely to a trade, and "Vernis-Martin"
became hardly more than a name.

Among the other great workers of this period were Oeben, whose
marquetry in coloured woods was of extreme elegance, and Riesener, who
began to execute his beautiful pieces of furniture under Louis XV.
in what is known as his earlier style, but who finally created the
straight-legged types of Louis XVI. style with which his name became
associated. In the work which he did for Marie Antoinette at the Little
Trianon in 1777, the pure Louis XVI. style is carried out. The earlier
pieces, delivered as early as 1771, still betray the influence of a
previous period.

In Figure 77 is shown the bedroom of Marie Antoinette at the Little
Trianon. Here we see the later style set by Riesener, with the
straight carved legs, the woodwork being painted and gilded. The silk
factories at Lyons were no longer as well patronized as they had been,
and to revive interest in them new furniture was ordered for the queen,
to be upholstered in brocade, and with curtains and hangings to match.
Everything in these rooms breathes of dainty elegance,--the carvings
of the mantelpiece, the walls decorated with garlands of flowers
and Cupids, even the metal mounts, chiselled wreaths and rosettes,
were wrought with the beauty and finish of goldsmith's work. In the
small chair by the bedside is seen a style with gilt framework and
embroidered cushions, a kind of covering which was always in demand.

In 1770 two coaches were sent to Vienna for Marie Antoinette. The work
of the embroiderer was selected to embellish their interiors, and the
description of them is given by Bachaumont:

     "They were two berlins, much larger than usual, but yet not so
     large as those of the king. One is lined with rose velvet and the
     Four Seasons are embroidered on the largest cushions, with all the
     attributes of a festival. The other is lined with blue velvet, and
     on the cushions of this are worked the Four Elements. There is not
     a touch of painting about them, but the work of the artist is so
     perfect and finished that each one is a complete work of art."

[Illustration: Figure 80. BED OF JOSEPHINE AT FONTAINEBLEAU.]

The name of the embroider was Treaumau, and so celebrated did the
beauty of these royal cushions make him that he received large orders,
the most important being one from Madam de Berri for a _vis-à-vis_. The
two berlins for Marie Antoinette were placed on exhibition before they
were sent to her, and constituted an event of the day.

The three pieces shown in Figure 78 are pure types of Louis XVI.
style. They are at the Cooper Institute, New York. The chair on the
right has its original embroidered cover, and the straight carved leg
so much in evidence. All three pieces are entirely gilt wherever the
woodwork shows. The top of the table is marble. The chair to the left
is very prettily carved with a torch and bow and arrows, according to
the conceit of the times, when everything was to be joyous and gay, all
suffering and sorrow being resolutely thrust out of sight. Rose, blue,
and gold were the colours affected, nothing sombre being allowed. The
whole life was careless and without responsibility. The letters of the
day, Saint-Beuve, Comte de Tilly, Duc de Lauzun, and Madam d'Oberkirk,
draw graphic pictures of the life of pleasure. The Duc de Lauzun says
that one of his mother's lackeys, who could read and write tolerably
well, was made his tutor.

     "They gave me the most fashionable teachers besides, but M. Roche
     (the tutor) was not qualified to arrange their lessons, nor to
     qualify me to benefit by them. I was, moreover, like all the
     children of my age and station, dressed in the handsomest clothes
     to go out, and naked and dying with hunger in the house."

This was not through unkindness, but because of dissipation and
carelessness, all the time and attention being given elsewhere. Even
in the last days of the _ancien régime_ little boys had their hair
powdered and dressed in ringlets and curls. They wore a sword, carried
a chapeau under the arm, wore laces and frills, and coats with cuffs
heavy with gold lace. The small girls were their mothers in miniature.
At six one of them would present her hand for a little dandy to kiss,
her little figure would be squeezed into a stiff corset, her huge
hoop-skirt supported a skirt of brocade enwreathed with garlands of
flowers. On her head was a structure of false curls, puffs, knots, and
ribbons, held on by pins and topped with plumes; and if she was pale
they would put rouge on her face. By force of habit and instruction she
bore herself like a mature woman. Her most important instructor was the
dancing-master, her never-ending study deportment.

In the eighteenth century drawing-room women were queens. They
prescribed the law and fashion in all things. There was no situation,
however delicate, that they did not save through tact and politeness.
This was the time when first Watteau, and later Lancret and Fragonard,
painted the _Fêtes galantes_, when pretty picnics and dancing in a
woody dell were great diversions. It was an idealized life of the
brilliant world of France which early in the eighteenth century Watteau
painted. Scattered all through the land were sumptuous dwellings of the
rich, upon which fortunes were lavished. Beaus and belles alike dressed
themselves _à la Watteau_. He became the lover's poet, a painter of an
ideal pastoral which hardly existed, but to which his hand gave beauty
and value. This was one side. On the other, besides heavy taxation,
poor crops, flood, famine, and the devastation of war, there was always
the pest. This terrible contagious fever, with the smallpox, was a
scourge to the people. Hundreds fell victims to these twin plagues, for
the usual treatment was copious bleeding.

[Illustration: Figure 81. BED OF NAPOLEON AT GRAND TRIANON.]

But the court, while it might suffer at times from sickness and death,
never allowed itself to think of such things. It amused itself with
balls and masques, plays, and even with blindman's-buff.
The gardens at Versailles were always in gala dress, and at
night musicians played among the trees, and thousands of lights
sparkled among the flowers. Fifty years later they played at simplicity
too, these great ladies and elegant cavaliers, laying aside the
silks and brocades of which a surfeit had wearied them, and wearing
picturesque gowns of simple material and cut. Marie Antoinette herself
set the example in her retreat at Little Trianon, with the muslin
gown and fichu crowned with a straw hat, in which she ran across the
gardens. Beneath all this elegance, amiability, and extravagance the
Revolution seethed and boiled and finally overran and destroyed. Till
almost the very end extravagance increased, and in Figure 79 is shown
an encoignure, or corner cupboard with commode below, and cabinet
above, of the most elaborate inlaid work, with very rich ormolu
mounts. This work is by David de Luneville, and is a marvel of the
intricacy of inlaying, many different woods being used in that jumble
of ornament which forms the decoration of the door in the cabinet. At
each intersection of the lattice work inlay is a little rosette. The
divisions of the lower part have an edging of satin-wood, which in the
centre panel is made more ornate with an inlay of ebony. This piece is
at the Waring Galleries, London.

The new conditions in France wrought changes in every detail of
life. Simplicity, so called, was becoming the watchword, and once
more antique models were sought for forms and decorations. Under the
Empire the style was much less graceful, the lines coarser, and the
elaboration of ornament heavy. Could anything be less pleasing than
Josephine's bed at Fontainebleau, shown in Figure 80? It is one of the
few unsightly things in that beautiful palace, where are now gathered
so many works of art. The bedstead is covered with heavy chiselled
ornaments in brass, and surmounted by a canopy held on pillars. This
canopy is partly of carved wood and partly of embroidered satin. There
are strings of gold beads hanging from this satin, and in addition
heavy satin curtains very richly embroidered. These are edged with a
long and clumsy fringe. The whole room is in keeping with the bed, for
the floor is covered with a carpet bearing the imperial insignia all
over it, and the hangings on the walls have countless spots in lieu of
a pattern. It was at Fontainebleau that the sentence of divorce was
passed on Josephine, and it seems possible that the sleepless nights
which the poor lady endured must have been rendered more miserable by
the unlovely character of her surroundings.

It is with pleasure that one turns to Figure 81, showing the bed of
the great Emperor himself, at Grand Trianon, Versailles. It is a good
example of the best Empire work, and is mahogany ornamented with ormolu
mounts in classic style.

[Illustration: Figure 82. ROOM AT FONTAINEBLEAU, WITH HISTORIC TABLE.]

It was now the fashion to decry the furniture or costumes which had
prevailed during the latter half of the eighteenth century, and to
seek the Athenian models for gowns and furniture. Nor were these
models used in their simple shapes, but transformed into quite other
guise by the touch of French hands. Marquetry was no longer considered
good taste, and David the painter was largely responsible for much of
the theatrical effect which was noted both in costume and household
belongings. After the fall of the monarchy, sales had been held,
and what had not been destroyed had been sold. It was now necessary
to fill again the palaces that had been denuded, and Percier, the
architect, and Joseph Desmalter, the cabinet-maker, were the men
chosen to do it. Desmalter is responsible for the use of mahogany
commodes embellished with bronze and gilt like those which flank the
bed in Figure 81. After the expedition to Egypt, Sphynx figures were
introduced in bronze or brass to uphold tables and as arms for chairs.
These, however, did not become popular, and soon were replaced by
classic heads.

In Figure 82 is shown a room in Fontainebleau furnished in Empire
style. The imperial N may be seen on the corners of the console
tables and on the commode. The walls are covered with damask woven in
geometric forms, and the rooms once so light and brilliant with their
dainty arabesques and flowers, Cupids and birds on the ceilings, are
now dark and severe. The splendid chandelier of Venetian glass is
the sole reminder of a previous reign. The only piece of furniture
in the room which is absolutely plain is the small mahogany table in
the foreground. Upon this Napoleon signed his abdication. In one of
the rooms adjoining the leave-taking between Josephine and Napoleon
occurred, after which he went to St. Cloud and she to Malmaison.

The commode shows as well as anything the marked change which took
place in the styles under the Empire. The graceful curves of front and
sides are gone; the feet are stumpy, and so short that the pleasing
proportion between the parts is quite lost. The constant repetition of
the laurel-wreath on chairs, walls, mantelpieces and furniture is very
monotonous, and we miss the graceful curves of the acanthus and celery
leaves.

In Figure 83 is a mahogany reading and writing desk combined. The brass
ornaments are beautifully chiselled, and, though some are lost, enough
remain to show what a splendid piece of furniture it once was. They
partake, in their delicacy, of the metal work of the previous century,
particularly the escutcheons and the groups of flowers and musical
instruments which are on the tops of the side pillars. The desk top
lifts up, and inside there are pigeon-holes and drawers finished in
satin-wood. The hole in the rail above the doors is not a keyhole, but
in it fits a handle by which the whole upper part of the desk is raised
on an iron rod so as to suit the height of who-ever uses it. This piece
is at the Museum of the Cooper Institute. The rage for furniture in
Empire style was not confined to France alone, but crossed the channel
to England, where it became even less attractive, and was also used by
our own cabinet-makers, as has been shown in previous chapters.

The changes in the styles of French furniture, like those which took
place in England in the same century (the eighteenth), were not
any more definitely marked. One period overlapped another, certain
characteristics were retained and put to new uses, so that a perfect
style was arrived at only after years of growth.

[Illustration: Figure 83. EMPIRE READING AND WRITING DESK.]

With the name of Louis XIV. is associated the furniture of Boulle, with
its wealth of wonderful inlay. The metal mount in its most correct and
elegant form marks the period of Louis XV. The reign of Louis XVI. and
Marie Antoinette shows the change from the graceful curves of leg and
construction lines to straight lines and less generous proportions,
while the use of the metal mount is brought to the greatest extreme.
The beauty of form taken from leaf and shell, wrought in metal and
placed on the lines of fine construction which had marked the epoch of
Louis XV., ran wild under the workers in the next era, and the fancy
for overlaying with costly ornament blinded the eyes to the poor shapes
employed, which were inspired by a search among classic forms. Even
the severest form may become vulgar when overloaded with ornament, and
with the reign of Louis XV. passed the production of some of the finest
furniture ever made. What was poor under Louis XVI. became poorer yet
under the Napoleonic era, and the men employed, instead of drawing from
the choice models which still remained, still farther debased what in
previous times had risen to the dignity of high art.



CHAPTER VIII.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.


The evolution of the piano from the clavichord occupied the attention
of musicians for over three hundred years, or from 1404, when the
earliest record occurs, to 1720, when Cristofori's piano was completed
in Florence. The next instrument in the upward development after
the clavichord was the virginal, a parallelogram in shape, with a
projecting keyboard. Then came the spinet. The earliest of these now
in existence is in Paris, and was made at Verona in 1523. By 1703 two
Englishmen, Thomas and John Hitchcock, father and son, had made a great
advance in the construction of spinets, giving them a wide compass of
five octavos from G to G.

It was not until about 1660, after the restoration of the Stuarts,
that the name "harpsichord" was given to the long wing-shaped
instrument, similar to our grand piano, which had hitherto been
called _clavecembalo_ in Italy, _flügel_ in Germany, and _clavecin_
in France. Early in the sixteenth century the progressive Dutch had
put into use double keyboards and stops. These were imported into
England, and to John Haward is due the credit for the idea of pedals
for the harpsichord. This was in 1676. This Haward was a fashionable
instrument-maker in the days of the lively Pepys, who mentions him
several times. Thus in April, 1668, he records:

     --"Took Aldgate Street in my way, and then did call upon one
     Haward, who makes virginals, and there did like of a little
     espinette, and will have him finish it for me; for I had a mind to
     a small harpsicon, but this takes up less room."

The little espinette took some time to finish; for in July he says:

     --"while I to buy my espinette, which I did now agree for, and
     did at Haward's meet with Mr. Thacker, and heard him play on the
     harpsicon so as I never heard man before, I think."

On the 15th of July the bargain is concluded; for he states, under that
date:

     "At noon is brought home the espinette I bought the other day of
     Haward; cost me £5."

A few days later he combines business with pleasure, for he notes:

     "To buy a rest for my espinette at the ironmonger's by Holborn
     Conduit, where the fair pretty woman is, that I have lately
     observed there."

Figure 85 shows a very beautiful spinet made by Domenico di Pesaro, in
Italy, in 1661. The instrument can be taken from its outer case, is
of cedar wood, has a projecting keyboard, and is decorated with ivory
studs. The outer case is very handsome, decorated with _gesso_ work,
(which was so much copied by Robert Adam after his return from Italy)
this work being gold on a pale-green ground. The decoration on the
inside of the cover is a boating scene, the keys are of light wood, the
sharps being black. The instrument, triangular in shape, rests on three
richly carved and gilt legs, and is four feet eight inches long, by
nineteen inches wide. It looks very tiny, even beside a "baby grand."

The beauty and enrichment of the cases in which these instruments
were placed shows with what care and reverence they were regarded.
Harpsichords varied much in having one, two, or occasionally three
banks of keys, and being placed in upright cases, the covers of
which opened like a bookcase, or in a horizontal case, as in the one
shown in Figure 86. Each of the three banks of keys has a compass of
five octaves, from F to F. The entire case is gilt Louis XV. style,
decorated with elaborate carvings and with paintings of flowers and
figures in medallions and borders. On the outside of the cover is the
coat of arms of the Strozzi family. The name of the maker is engraved
on an ivory plate above the keyboards, and reads--

  VICENTIUS SODI FLORENTIUS FECIT. ANNO DOMINI 1779.

The length of the case is seven feet; it is three feet wide, and nearly
ten inches deep.

The harpsichord held its own for fifty years after the invention of the
pianoforte, for Bartolommeo Cristofori published his invention as early
as 1711, although he did not perfect his piano till 1720. His action
has the escapement, without which there can be no vibrating note, and
the "check," which was an all-important step toward repeating notes.
There are preserved at Potsdam, Germany, three pianos which belonged
to Frederick the Great, and which were made by Silberman, who exactly
copied the action as well as the structure of Cristofori's invention.
In Figure 87 is shown the first piano made by Cristofori. Above the
front board is the following inscription:

  BARTHOLOMÆUS DE CHRISTOPHORIS PATAVINUS INVENTOR
  FACIERAT FLORENTIÆ MDCCXX

This instrument, as well as the two previously shown, belong to the
collection of musical instruments given by Mrs. Crosby Brown to the
Metropolitan Museum, New York.

[Illustration: Figure 84. ORGAN IN ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, CHARLESTON, S.
C.]

This crude instrument bears testimony to years of patient endeavour.
Like so many old and valuable treasures this one was harboured many
years for sentimental reasons only, and because it had been given to an
only daughter by her father. The story of the discovery of its value
came about as follows, as told in a letter by Signor Martelli, to whose
mother the piano belonged.

     "For the sake of economy during the time that Florence was the
     capital of Italy, we rented the first floor of our house, No.
     3, Via del Melarancio, and occupied the second floor. In 1872
     Signora Martelli (my mother) again changed her apartments from
     the second to the first floor, and at the moment the transfer
     of our furniture was taking place from one floor to the other,
     Prof. Cosimo Conti, a scholar and intimate friend of ours, came
     to visit us. The professor, who was in close correspondence with
     Cavaliere L. Puliti, who was spending a great deal of his time in
     trying to discover the origin of the piano, discovered on it to
     his great surprise an inscription which attested that it had been
     made by Bartolomeo Christofori. He immediately informed Cavaliere
     L. Puliti of this fact, and he came at once to examine it. Then it
     was ascertained that it was one of the rarest and most valuable
     pianos in existence. We sent at once for a tuner and had it put
     into good condition."

The piano was bought by Signora Martelli's father, about 1819, from
the Grand Ducal Palace at Siena, at an auction sale, held by order of
the Minister of the Household, of all such things as he considered
worthless and of no use. The piano was shuffled out of the Ducal
Palace, much as some of our interesting relics have been shuffled out
of the White House, and offered at auction.[1]

[Footnote 1: The writer has seen a very beautiful carved and gilt round
mirror, once the property of Dolly Madison, which was bought at a sale
of White House furniture for twenty-five dollars.]

The Christofori piano has a case of cedar, which is painted black
on the outside. It stands on three clumsy turned legs. The keys are
light-wood naturals and black sharps. The ivory knobs on the side
blocks may be withdrawn, and the action removed from the case. There
are two strings to each note, and the length of the instrument is seven
feet seven and a half inches. It is three feet three inches wide at the
front and nine and a half inches deep.

Keyed instruments at first found little favor in the ears of the
Italians, who much preferred the violin with its "singing voice" and
its superior capacity for expression. Yet they contributed much to the
early history of this branch of the art, though the Germans cultivated
more highly these instruments, which were, in their first state, very
defective in producing melody. It was Domenico Scarlatti who laid the
foundation of modern music for keyed instruments, and his music for the
harpsichord was not confined to fugues and fantasias, as was most of
the harpsichord music of early times. The real centre, however, in the
line of progress for music for this instrument proved to be Germany,
and Graun, Hasse, and John Christian Bach all wrote for the harpsichord.

In America some of the first instruments to come into use were small
organs. They are mentioned as early as 1711. Although large church
organs, with three rows of keys and pedals, were in use in Europe by
the opening of the sixteenth century, it was long before they were
found here.

[Illustration: Figure 85. SPINET.]

The rivalry which church music seems to inspire in the breasts of those
who render it has long existed, and extends even to those who make the
instruments. The following story from "Hawkin's History of Music"
bears out this statement.

     "Bernard Smith, or more properly Schmidt, a native of Germany,
     came to England with his nephews Gerard and Bernard, and to
     distinguish him from them obtained the name of 'Father Smith.'
     He was the rival of Harris from France and built an organ at
     Whitehall too precipitately, to gain the start of them, as they
     had arrived nearly at the same time in England. Emulation was
     powerfully exerted. Dallans joined Smith, but died in 1672, and
     Renatus Harris, son of the elder Harris, made great improvements.
     The contest became still warmer. The citizens of London, profiting
     by the rivalship of these excellent artists, erected organs in
     their churches; and the city, the court, and even the lawyers were
     divided in judgment as to the superiority. In order to decide the
     matter, the famous contest took place in the Temple Church upon
     their respective organs, played by eminent performers, before
     eminent judges, one of whom was the too celebrated Jeffreys.
     Blow & Purcell played for Smith, and Lully, organist to Queen
     Catharine, for Harris. In the course of the contest Harris
     challenged Father Smith to make, by a given time, the additional
     stops of the vox humana, the cremona or viol stop, the double
     courtel or bass flute, etc., which was accepted, and each exerted
     his abilities to the utmost. Jeffreys at length decided in
     favor of Smith, and Harris's organ was withdrawn. Father Smith
     maintained his reputation and was appointed organ-builder to Queen
     Anne. Harris went to Bristol."

In the first half of the eighteenth century the salaries paid to
organists were small indeed, and it was customary for them to add to
their modest stipend in various ways. In Charleston, S. C., in 1739,
the organist taught the art of psalmody. A dozen years before this the
organist at King's Chapel, Boston, Mass., taught dancing.

Mr. Drake, in his "History of Boston," says that King's Chapel was
enlarged and rebuilt in 1713, and an organ was presented by Mr. Thomas
Brattle. In 1756 the King's Chapel Society imported a new organ from
London, and the old one was sold to St. Paul's Church, Newburyport. It
was used there for eighty years, and then sold to St. John's Church,
Portsmouth, N. H. The original pipes and wind-chest remain to-day in
perfect condition.

The second church organ in New England was one in a case of English
oak, presented by Bishop Berkeley to Trinity Church, Newport, R. I., in
1733. It had twenty-three gilded pipes and was fourteen and a half feet
high, eight feet front, and eight feet deep. It was made by Richard
Bridge, London. This organ was used for a hundred and eleven years
by Trinity Church, till 1844, and after a sojourn of a few years in
Brooklyn, N. Y., it was bought for a church in Portsmouth, R. I., where
it still is, in excellent condition.

South Carolina, with her riches and her close communication with
England, had abundant masters to teach not only the more elementary
branches, but accomplishments as well. By 1774 there were two
hundred persons in the colony engaged in teaching, and according to
advertisements a knowledge of English, Latin, and Greek could be
obtained at any time after 1712. French and music were constantly
taught after 1733. Lessons on the harpsichord, spinet, violin,
violoncello, guitar, and flute were all to be had after 1733, and the
boys could be perfected in fencing and the girls in needlework before
the middle of the century. By 1734 a dancing-school was opened at
Charleston, and in 1760 Nicholas Valois gives notice that he still
receives pupils in dancing, and that he has received "40 of the newest
country dances, jiggs, rigadoons, etc., from London, which he
proposes to teach."

[Illustration: Figure 86. HARPSICHORD.]

In 1752 the vestry of St. Phillip's Church, Charleston, sent to London
for an organist. The parish guaranteed him £50 sterling. He was to
have the privilege of teaching the harpsichord or spinet, which would
add 150 guineas more per annum, and also to have "benefits of concerts
which his obliging behaviour to the gentlemen and ladies of the place
may amount to 300 or 400 guineas more." The years between 1728 and 1763
were a time of unprecedented prosperity in South Carolina. The luxuries
of the day were within reach of modest fortunes, and British modes and
manners were eagerly followed. Josiah Quincy, in describing his visit
to "Charles Town" in 1774, speaks of the famous St. Cecilia Society,
which began as a musical club, all the performers being amateurs. He
writes:

     "The music was good, the two bass viols and French horns were
     grand. There were upwards of two hundred and fifty ladies present
     and it was called no great number. In loftiness of head-dress
     these ladies stoop to the daughters of the North; in richness
     of dress surpass them. The gentlemen, many of them dressed with
     richness and elegance--uncommon with us; many with swords on."

The Carolinians travelled often to England. They were lively and
expensive in their dress, and an Englishman visiting Charleston in 1782
writes home that it "was the pleasantest and politest as it is one of
the richest cities in all America." The charming old city still retains
its two first recommendations, though, alas, the riches have flown. In
1768 the organ seen in Figure 84, was imported from England for St.
Michael's Church, Charleston. Within a little frame on one side of the
organ is an inscription as follows.

  JNO SNETZLER FECIT, LONDONI, 1767.

This inscription was found on one of the pipes of the organ when it was
taken down during the bombardment of Charleston in the Civil War. At
this time the organ was stored away in the Sunday-school room of St.
Paul's Church, Radcliffeboro, for safe keeping. This is said to be the
largest old church organ in the country, and this church probably had
the first surpliced choir of boys. They are mentioned in the vestry
books as early as 1794. The photograph of this organ was procured
through the courtesy of Mr. Charles N. Beesley, of Charleston.

[Illustration: Figure 87. CRISTOFORI PIANO.]

In the homes in various parts of the country, besides the virginal,
were found the hand lyre, large and small fiddle, the recorder, flute,
and hautboy. Some of these were imported, some were home-made. The
first church organ built in New England was made for Christ Church,
Boston, by Thomas Johnson, in 1752, and indeed by this time music in
churches was pretty general all over the country. The puritans, with
their hatred of anything secular, or, as it seems now, of anything
that could ornament or beautify this none too joyous stay on earth,
condemned music. In his "History of Music in New England", Mr. Hood
says that before 1690 music was mostly written in psalm-books, the
number of tunes rarely exceeding five or six. At the beginning of the
eighteenth century New England congregations were rarely able to sing
more than three or four tunes, and even these were sung by the doleful
process of "lining out". The deacon would read one line of a psalm,
and the congregation would sing it. Then he would read the next, and so
on. About 1720 an effort was made to improve this method of singing,
but it met with violent opposition. Some of the objections advanced
were that "it grieved good men and caused them to behave disorderly;"
that it was "Quakerish and Popish"; that "the names of the notes were
blasphemous;" etc. Yet after a while the congregations were soothed
by the publication of several "Letters of Pacification", written by
ministers, and some books were published like that of the Rev. Thomas
Walter of Roxbury, Mass., entitled:

     "The Grounds and Rules of Musick Explained. Or, An Introduction
     to the Art of Singing by Note Fitted to the Meanest Capacity
     By Thomas Walter, A.M. Recommended by Several Ministers, 'Let
     everything that hath truth praise the Lord.' Ps. 150. 6. Boston."

Singing-Schools for the instruction of the young were opened, and
music, the only science allowed, crept into the church. "The Newport
Mercury" for January 8, 1770, contains the following:

     "The Public are hereby informed That a Singing-School will be
     opened at Mr. Bradford's Schoolhouse next Thursday evening by a
     Person who has taught the various Branches of Psalmody in the
     Provinces of New York, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut and those
     Gentlemen and Ladies who have an inclination to improve in this
     Excellent Art may expect all that Care and Dilligence which is
     necessary to their being rightly instructed in the same."

William Tuckey of New York was a schoolmaster in that city about 1753,
and taught singing to children. In 1766 the trustees of Trinity Church
paid him £15 for performing the music for the opening of St. Paul's
Chapel in New York.

By 1775 choir singing had become more general, and the old system of
lining out was dying, but dying hard. In several parishes the singers,
male and female, were requested to sit in the gallery and "carry on the
singing in public worship." Many anecdotes are given in Dr. Ritter's
"Music in America", showing how the choir, once called into being, soon
became a thorn in the ministers flesh, sometimes being rebuked from the
pulpit, and in retaliation refusing to sing.

That the music was bad goes without saying, for the singers were
ill-trained under incompetent teachers, and the music was often
incorrect. Dr. Ritter gives the proportion of women voices to men as
about twenty to one hundred and thirteen. The proposition to let women
sing the air was not to be considered for a moment, since men had a
"prescriptive right to lead, and women were forbidden to take the first
part in song or any other religious service."

[Illustration: Figure 88. HARP.]

S. Howe published in 1804 the "Farmer's Evening Entertainment", and in
it gives directions for beating time:

     "To beat crotchets in common Time, let the fingers fall on the
     table six inches, then bring the heel of the hand down gently,
     then raising it a little higher, throw open the fingers to begin
     the next bar. For triple Time, let the fingers fall on the table,
     then the heel of the hand, then raise the whole hand six inches,
     keeping the fingers straight, which fills the bar."

But while religious music was undergoing violent changes, secular music
was having a more peaceful time, and instrument-builders were becoming
more numerous and successful. In 1774, in the "New York Gazette" is
this advertisement.

     "John Shybli, Organ-builder at Mr. Samuel Princes' Cabinet-
     makers in Horse-and-Cart St. New York. Makes, repairs and tunes
     all sorts of organs, harpsichords and Fortepianos, on the most
     reasonable terms. N. B. He has now ready for sale one neat chamber
     organ, one hammer spinet, one common spinet.

Mr. Samuel Blyth of Salem, Mass., made "spinnetts" (they spelled them
with two n's in those days) and then gave instruction upon them. He did
not require cash payment either, as witness the following bill, now in
the possession of Mr. Henry Brooks, author of "Olden-Time Music."

  Mrs. Margaret Barton to Sam Blyth     Dr.
  To making a spinnett for her daughter
  Supra Cr.                                            £18 0  0

  By 34 oz 1¾ dwt of Old silver a. 6. pr. oz.          £10 4 11

  By cash to Ballance                                   £7 15 1
                                                       --------
                                                       £18  0 0.

  Salem 7th Feb'y 1786
  Rec'd payment
  Sam^l Blyth

At Mount Vernon is still to be seen the harpsichord bought for Nellie
Custis by General Washington. In 1798, writing to a young friend at
Philadelphia, she says:

     "I am not very industrious, but I work a little, read a little,
     play on the harpsichord, and find my time fully taken up with
     daily employments."

There is an old song given in "Historic Landmarks of Maryland and
Virginia" as being one which Nellie Custis used to sing, accompanying
herself on the harpsichord. We wonder who selected for her.

  "THE TRAVELER AT THE WIDOW'S GATE.

  "A traveler stop't at a widow's Gate,
  She kept an Inn and he wanted to bait;
  She kept an Inn and he wanted to bait;
  But the widow she slighted her guest,
  But the widow she slighted her guest,
  For when nature was forming an ugly race,
  She certainly moulded the traveler's face
  As a sample for all the rest, as a sample for all the rest.
  The chambermaid's sides they were ready to crack
  When she saw his queer nose and the hump on his back;
  A hump isn't handsome, no doubt;
  And though t'is confessed the prejudice goes
  Very strongly in favor of wearing a nose,
  A nose shouldn't look like a snout.
  A bag full of gold on the table he laid,
  'T had a wondrous effect on the widow and maid,
  And they quickly grew marvelous civil;
  The money immediately altered the case,
  They were charmed with his hump and his snout and his face,
  Though he still might have frightened the devil.
  He paid like a prince, gave the widow a smack,
  And flop'd on his horse at the door like a sack,
  While the landlady, touching his chin,
  Said, 'Sir, should you travel this country again,
  I heartily hope that the sweetest of men
  Will stop at the widow's to drink.'"

The names of some other popular songs of this period were "The White
Cockade," "Irish Howl," "Hessian Camp," "Nancy of the Mill," "Every
Inch a Soldier," "When Nichola First to Court Began," "Baron Steuben's
March," "Sweet Village of the Valley," "King of Sweden's March," etc.
The Revolutionary echoes seemed to be still reverberating.

[Illustration: Figure 89. BASS VIOL.]

In the "Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson" there is a description
given of Monticello, which he built in 1770-1772, and a diagram of the
lower rooms showing where each piece of furniture stood. It seems very
sparsely fitted out, yet it had a great reputation for elegance.
The house was but a story and a half high, and on the ground floor was
a great hall, drawing-room, dining-room, tea-room, sitting-room, and
two bedrooms besides the one occupied by Jefferson himself. In this
latter room was a couch upon which Jefferson rested when studying,
a dressing-table and mirror, a chair near the wall, and beside it a
small bookcase. There was no closet, so in one corner was a rack upon
which his clothes where hung. The chief ornament to the drawing-room
was his daughter's, Mrs. Randolph's, harpsichord. Standing about were
many busts, of Alexander of Russia, Hamilton, Voltaire, Turgot, and
Napoleon, and portraits of Washington, Adams, Franklin, Madison, etc.
The house was at least abundantly furnished with chairs, for Jefferson
himself leaves an inventory which states that there were 36 of mahogany
and 44 of gold leaf. Of small tea and card tables there were 13. In
the dining-room, well toward its centre, stood Jefferson's chair and a
candle-stand. His particular hobby was blooded horses, and he used only
the finest Virginia stock.

This same harpsichord was, as early as 1785, in Jefferson's thoughts,
and he writes to his daughter, Polly, from France, that she shall be
taught to play on it, as well as to draw and dance, to read and talk
French, "and such other things as will make you more worthy of the
love of your friends." Even in remote places like Monticello, where
everything had to be transported by cart, or at Johnson Hall, Sir
John Johnson's home in the Mohawk valley, harpsichords, as well as
other expensive luxuries, were to be found. Sir John's harpsichord was
confiscated by the government in December, 1777, at the same time
with the table which is now at the Historical Rooms in Albany. While
musical instruments are only rarely mentioned in the inventories of the
great body of the people, yet we have seen that they were here both of
domestic manufacture and imported. Thomas Harrison, organist of Trinity
Church, advertises in the "New York Mercury" for 1761 that he has
"harpsichords and spinets imported and for sale."

The harp was not so often seen as other instruments, on account both
of the great cost of the instrument and of the difficulty of tuning
it. It was not until 1720 that the pedal harp was invented by a
Bavarian named Hochbrücker. By means of the pedal working a small
plate set with projecting pins, the performer was able to raise the
pitch of each string a semitone. The mechanism was concealed in the
front pillar, and each note was affected in all its octaves. Erard
made farther improvements. The harp shown in Figure 88 is in the
Metropolitan Museum, New York. It is a very handsome one, painted
blue, and resting on four claw feet. The pillar is fluted, and the
ornaments, three medallions of dancing girls, with wreaths below, are
executed in brass. It has forty-two strings of gut and seven pedals. It
was made by Naderman, Paris, France, late in the eighteenth century.
Naderman perfected the action of the first pedal harp invented by
Hochbrücker. In the South Kensington Museum, London, England, is a harp
which belonged to the ill-fated Marie Antoinette; it also was made by
Naderman in 1780.

[Illustration: Figure 90. GLASS HARMONICA.]

The harp in its various forms is an instrument of great antiquity. The
Greeks and Romans, ever alive to the possibilities of everything
that tended to grace and beauty, admired this instrument not only for
its sweet sound but for its pleasing form. We must look to Egypt for
the origin of the harp, as there are representations in their picture
writings of stringed instruments of a bow-form that support the idea
that the first conception of a harp was drawn from the tense string
of a warrior's bow. This very primitive instrument was borne on the
performer's shoulder and played horizontally. Between this crude
instrument and the splendid vertical harps shown in the frescoes of
the time of Rameses III., painted more than three thousand years ago,
there is a chain of pictures showing so many varieties of forms that
the growth from the bow-form into the triangular harp is explained.
The Assyrians, like the Egyptians, had harps without a front pillar,
but differing from them in using sound-holes, and having the sound
body uppermost. We assign to King David the harp, but mediæval artists
more frequently depicted him with the psaltery, a horizontal stringed
instrument, the parent of the piano.

The harp has always been the instrument of the Celtic race, and
harpists were held in peculiar veneration. For many a long year
harpists traveled from one castle to another, sure always of a welcome
and seat in a warm corner. In return they not only amused the company
with their songs, but brought the news, and isolated and remote
families often heard from the outer world by such uncertain means as
these. For centuries the English harpers were protected in many ways,
and no one has taken advantage of such a picturesque class with the
skill of Sir Walter Scott. The most renowned one he introduced as a
character was Blondel de Nesle, in the "Talisman," that wonderful
picture of the days of the Crusades. The first greeting to the youth
when he appeared at Richard's camp shows the estimation in which these
knights of the harp were held.

     "Blondel de Nesle!" Richard exclaimed joyfully "welcome from
     Cyprus, my king of minstrels! Welcome to the King of England, who
     rates not his own dignity more highly than he does thine.... And
     what news, my gentle master, from the land of the lyre? Anything
     fresh from the trouveurs of Provence? Anything from the minstrels
     of merry Normandy? Above all, hast thou thyself been busy?"

It is also said that Richard Coeur de Lion's place of confinement in
Germany on his return from the Holy Land was discovered when Blondel
sung beneath the Tower Tenebreuse a tenson which they had jointly
composed, and to which the king replied.

Edward I. and his Queen were fond of music and encouraged musicians, as
the following entries in their accounts of the household expenditures
show:

     "To Melioro, the harper of Sir John Mantravers, for playing on the
     harp when the king was bled, twenty shillings; likewise to Walter
     Luvel, the harper of Chichester, whom the King found playing on
     his harp before the tomb of St. Richard at Chichester Cathedral,
     six shillings and eight pence."

Henry V. was a performer on the harp at an early age, and his wife,
Catherine of Valois, shared his taste, as an entry in the Issue Rolls
reads:

     "By the hands of William Menston was paid £8 13_s_ 4_d_, for two
     new harps purchased for King Henry and Queen Catherine."

These harps were tuned with a key like the more modern instruments, and
the player improvised his words to suit the taste of the company in
which he found himself. Harpists were employed much at courts, and
in 1666 Pepys says that for want of pay to the household--

     --"many of the musique are ready to starve, they being five years
     behind hand for wages; nay, Evens, the famous man upon the Harp,
     having not his equal in the world, did the other day die for mere
     want, and was fain to be buried at the almes of the parish, and
     carried to his grave in the dark at night without one linke, but
     that Mr. Hingston met it by chance, and did give 12_d._ to buy two
     or three links."

At the present day, though at no instrument does a graceful woman look
more graceful, solo performers are very rare; but in the orchestra the
harp has an important place on account of its tone, such composers as
Gounod, Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner using it freely in their scores. In
this country there are only occasional references in the old papers to
it, and an advertisement by Signor Pucci in 1815 that he gives concerts
on the "Fashionable and much admired King David's Pedal Harp", seems to
be an effort to introduce it to the notice of music-lovers of the day.

[Illustration: Figure 91. GEIB PIANO.]

Madame Malibran, who achieved such a success in opera in New York about
1825, used to accompany herself on the harp when she sang in response
to an encore. But it can never be considered a popular instrument.

In Dwight's "History of Music in Boston", he says that at the beginning
of the nineteenth century the population of Boston numbered about six
thousand families, and that not fifty pianos could be found. Only a few
of Boston's churches had organs, while those in country parishes were,
almost without exception, without them. The use of instruments had
crept slowly into the choir, and if they had a flute and a bass viol
they considered they did well. Very often a clarinet usurped the place
of the flute. The bass viol was, however, the most popular instrument,
and when, some years later, concerts began to be given, and musical
societies formed, the bass viol was lugged about, notwithstanding its
ponderous size, and duly performed its part in the accompaniment.

The bass viol shown in Figure 89 is an interesting one. It was made
by Deacon Justin Hitchcock, and used by him in the choir of the
Congregational Church, Deerfield, Mass., in 1778. Both it and the
pitch-pipe used by him as leader of the choir are now resting silent in
Memorial Hall. Deacon Justin did not confine his musical performances
to psalmody and the accompanying of hymns. Like all the Deerfield men
of that day he was a fighter, as who should not be who was brought
up among those silent hills which had seen so much of "ye barbarous
enemy" and knew the tales of French invasion? The stories of warfare
and captivity were still fresh in the minds of the people of Deerfield
when Deacon Justin responded to the Lexington alarm. His fife it was
that inspired the weary Deerfield minute-men to press on to Boston to
meet the British. Nor was this the only campaign in which he played a
part, for he never wearied of displaying the trophies captured after
the disastrous experience of Burgoyne, when, harrassed and in flight,
he abandoned his baggage.

[Illustration: Figure 92. NUNS PIANO.]

A very similar bass-viol, but of German manufacture, was played during
the latter part of the eighteenth century in a church in Stonington,
Connecticut. The sisters of the Hospital General in Montreal, before
the conquest of Canada, imported several of these instruments from
France for use in the convent choir. So they must have been played upon
by women sometimes.

An instrument that is interesting rather than handsome is the glass
harmonica shown in Figure 90. It has thirty-five bowls or glasses
arranged on a central rod. Some of the glasses are now missing, but
originally it had a compass of three octaves. The case is three feet
nine and a half inches long, and one foot four and three quarters
inches wide. The interest in this class of instruments arises from
the fact that it was invented by Benjamin Franklin. It has about as
much capacity for producing music as the "musical glasses". One of
these latter instruments consists of twenty-four glasses closely
resembling finger-bowls and standing in a wooden table-like case. They
are partially filled with water, and the performer produces notes by
rubbing on the rim with the finger. They were occasionally to be met
with, and date about the first decade, possibly a little later, of the
nineteenth century. There is one in a perfect condition in Rochester,
N. Y. The case is of handsome mahogany, and the instrument belongs to
Mrs. James McKown.

Up to 1760 pianos were made in the wing shape, like the harpsichords,
but at that date a man named Zumpe made a square one. By 1800 there
were a number of makers in New York, and they turned out many very
handsome instruments. Astor, Broadwood, and Clementi were three
great makers in London, and sent many pianos over here. There is a
slender-legged, fragile, Clementi piano in Memorial Hall, Deerfield,
which was given by a father to his daughter. The story still clings to
it that he sold a house in order to buy it for her.

John Geib, and his sons, John H., Adam, and William, were among the
best-known early makers of pianofortes. They opened a shop in Maiden
Lane as early as 1807, and advertised not only pianos of their own
manufacture, built on a new plan, but those of London makers as well.
They held this shop in Maiden Lane, with a brief interruption of one
year, till 1828, when W. Geib moved up to the corner of 11th Street and
Third Avenue. It was from this establishment that he sold the handsome
piano shown in Figure 91, which is now at the Historical Rooms, Albany.
The name-plate over the keyboard has the following inscription.

"W. GEIB, THIRD AVENUE, CORNER 11TH ST. NEW YORK.
MANUFACTURER OF CABINET, GRAND, HARMONIC,
AND SQUARE PIANO FORTES, CHURCH AND
CHAMBER ORGANS."

This piano is mahogany inlaid, and has a handsome brass moulding and
brass ornamental bands at the tops of the legs. It has six legs and
a pedal, and the top of the lid has a small rest for the music. The
stool, very richly carved with pillar and claw feet, belongs to an
earlier period than the piano, this shape dating from about 1810-20.

[Illustration: Figure 93. UPRIGHT PIANO.]

Indeed, from its ornamentation, the stool would seem to go more
fittingly with the very elegant piano shown in Figure 92. This is of
rosewood, and was made by Robert and William Nuns, and sold by Du
Bois and Stodard, New York. It was probably made about 1823-25, for
in pattern of carving, moulding, drawers for music, etc., it is very
similar to the pianos made at this time by the Geib Brothers. At
the top of each leg is a richly engraved band of brass, and rosette,
to conceal the place where the pin held the leg to the instrument. The
drawer knobs were doubtless brass also, for these are not the original
ones. The panel above the keyboard is beautifully painted in metallic
lustre, and has two carved panels besides, over velvet. The legs are
boldly carved with the acanthus leaf, and everything about the piano
is as elegant as possible. By the time these last two instruments
were made music had taken a decided advance. Musical societies were
organized in all the large cities; there were the Handel and Haydn
Society; the New York Philharmonic Society; the New York Choral
Society; Beethoven Society of Portland, Maine; Philadelphia Musical
Fund; Harmonic Society of Baltimore, and equally flourishing musical
organizations in several cities of the South, notably New Orleans and
Charleston.

Music-dealers all over the country advertised their wares; there were
instruction-books and sheet music to be had:--

     --"Overtures, battles, sonatas, duets for four hands, airs with
     variations, rondos, songs, glees, catches, sacred songs, original
     Scotch airs, little ballads, marches, waltzes, dances, and
     Mozart's songs."

In view of the selection of good music that could be obtained, it
is amusing to know how popular were such ditties as "Mary's Tears,"
"Apollo, thy Treasure," and "Sweet Little Ann," written by Shaw, the
blind singer of Providence. They seem hardly an advance upon "Bid Me,
When Forty Winters," "Little Sally's Wooden Ware," and the "Comic
Irish song 'Boston News'" which were used as concert selections a
quarter of a century earlier.

In Figure 93 is shown an upright piano made by Julius Fiot,
Philadelphia, in 1827. The heavy veneered Empire curved posts are
noticeable, and an extra old-fashioned appearance is given to it by the
movable candle-brackets fastened to either side. In the upper part were
little silk curtains to cover the mechanism, and their arrangement does
not seem to have been particularly neat. This was a very early example
of the upright shape, and is now in Memorial Hall, Philadelphia.



CHAPTER IX.

CLOCKS.


Contrivances for the measurement of time are of such antiquity that
the first such implement is wrapped in the mysteries of a forgotten
past. Before any mechanical form had been invented by which the rate of
motion of a staff or pointer was made to indicate the lapse of time,
the shadow of the sun in his apparent daily progress was used to mark
the passing hours. A gnomon or pin erected so as to throw its traveling
shadow across a graduated arc constitutes a dial. This was the earliest
form.

The subject of sun-dials has been most exhaustively treated by Mrs.
Gatty in her "Book of Sun-Dials", and later in our own country by Mrs.
Earle. In England and Scotland many dials may still be found standing
in old-fashioned gardens where they have marked the flight of time for
hundreds of years. Many more dials, vertical ones, are to be found on
the walls of public buildings, sometimes on churches, and on country
houses as well. Not only stationary dials, but portable ones also, of
silver and gold, were made and were long in use. Some of these are to
be seen in various museums over the country, but most of them seem to
have disappeared. George Washington owned a portable dial, and had a
stationary one placed near his front door at Mt. Vernon.

In some of the famous old gardens of the South that still survive,
echoes of their former glory, the sun-dial yet holds its accustomed
place. In the very heart of New York city there is to-day a sun-dial;
not one person in a hundred that passes knows that it is there, nor
would scarcely one person in fifty know what it was. It stands on the
lawn of Grace Church rectory, on Broadway, near Tenth Street. This spot
of green in a wilderness of brick and stone refreshes the eye of many
a hurrying pedestrian, and the dial marks the flight of the hours as
sharply as if it stood in a country wilderness, amid birds and flowers.

The sun-dial was an important part of every great garden in early
times. One was set up at Whitehall, England, in the sixteenth century.

     "In a garden joining to this palace there is a Jet d'eau, with a
     sun-dial, which, while strangers looking at, a quantity of water
     forced by a wheel, which the gardiner turns at a distance, through
     a number of little pipes, plentifully sprinkles those that are
     standing around."

William Lawson, writing in 1618 a book on "A New Orchard and Garden",
gives the directions about laying it out.

     "And in some corner (or more) a true Dyall or clock, and some
     Anticke works, and especially silver sounding Musique, mixt
     instruments and voyces, gracing all the rest; How will you be rapt
     with delight?"

In 1821 William Cobbett wrote his "Rural Rides". In one of them he
discourses of a visit to Moor Park, once the seat of Sir William
Temple, whose heart, enclosed in a silver box, was said to have been
buried in 1698 beneath his sun-dial. But Cobbett casts a doubt upon
this time-honored legend by declaring that it was beneath a garden seat
that the silver box was buried. Charles Lamb, in his essay "The Old
Benchers of the Inner Temple", discourses lovingly of the sun-dial. "It
spoke of moderate labours, of pleasures not protracted after sunset, of
temperance, and good hours." The dials made out of herbs and flowers
come in for a special share of his commendation. How much more the dial
induces meditation than the clock, but how very much lost we should be,
these bustling times, if we had to depend upon one of these delightful
but irresponsible "antiques" which say to you quite distinctly, "I mark
only sunny hours."

[Illustration: Figure 94. TALL-CASE CLOCKS. _English._
DANIEL QUARE, _maker_. 1690.
J. HARRISON, _maker_. 1715.]

In an inventory of the property of William Bennett, East Greenwich,
Rhode Island, who died in 1753, among other articles were mentioned
"warming-pan, pewter, sun-dial, book, debts, £10."

After the dial came the clepsydra, a sort of clock, which measured
time by the graduated flow of some liquid, like water, through a small
aperture. While the hour-glass was not known in England till 886, it
had been used in Rome long before; but inventions traveled slowly
in those days. The hour-glass remained long in use, even after the
invention of clocks, and while we know it chiefly as marking the period
of agony of some unwilling victim at the piano, it was used even later
than the noon mark on the window-ledge, which may be seen to-day on
some of the old houses still standing.

A writer in the "Gentlemen's Magazine" for 1746 says that he was
present on an occasion when a grave-digger was at work in Clerkenwell
Fields.

     "He had dug pretty deep, and was come to a coffin which had lain
     so long that it was quite rotten, and the plate so eaten with rust
     that he could not read anything of the inscription. In clearing
     away the old wood the grave-digger found an hour-glass close to
     the left side of the skull, with sand still in it. Being a lover
     of antiquity, I bought it of him, and have since learned from some
     antiquarians that it was an ancient custom to put an hour-glass in
     the coffin to show that the sands of life were run."

The origin of clockwork is involved in great obscurity, though there
are statements by many writers that clocks were in use as early as the
ninth century.

By 1288 a clock was placed in the Old Palace Yard, London, and remained
there till the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In 1292 a clock was placed
on Canterbury Cathedral, and in 1368 a striking clock was erected at
Westminster. By 1500, clocks were used in private houses, and watches
were introduced. In 1368 three Dutch clockmakers were invited to come
to England to teach the business to native workers, though "Dutch
clocks" and their makers were held in contempt some years later.

There was a clock put into the tower of Hampton Court Palace in 1540
by a maker whose initials were "N. O.", all that posterity knows of
him. It was the oldest clock in England that kept fairly good time. In
1575 George Gaver, "serjeant painter" as his title runs, had a sum of
money allowed him for "painting the great dial at Hampton Court Palace,
containing hours of day and night, and the course of sun and moon." In
1649 a striking part was added. By 1711 it was found that the clock had
not been running as correctly as it should, owing to the fact that some
careless or ignorant workman had removed some important parts of the
works. After this discovery it was left neglected for many years, and
finally lost its hands. It was in this condition in the first quarter
of the nineteenth century, when G. P. R. James wrote a poem entitled
"Old Clock Without Hands at Hampton Court."

In 1835 the old works were removed, and a set of works put in which
had been made in 1690 by Villiamy, for a clock in the Queen's Palace,
St. James' Park. As this clock was not powerful enough to drive the
astronomical works, these were put away. In 1880 this old clock was
also removed, sold for old brass, and a brand-new clock substituted.
It seems a pity that one of the earliest clocks known should have been
destroyed. It was not till 1639 that Galileo published his discovery of
the isochronous property of the pendulum, which was eight years after
the incorporation of the London Clockmakers Company. Not only did this
company train workers for clockmaking, but they also inspected clocks
brought into England, and rejected those which they deemed unworthy.

Richard Harris is said to have been the man who first connected the
pendulum with clockwork movement, about 1641, and Harris's method was
improved by Huyghens, so that by 1658 very trustworthy time-keepers
were in use. Mr. Lockwood in his book on "Colonial Furniture," says
that the first clock mentioned in the Massachusetts Colony was found
in Boston in 1638, but in Lechford's note-book it is said that Joseph
Stratton had of his brother in 1628 a clock and a watch. In 1640 Henry
Parks, of Hartford, left a clock by will to the church. The first clock
in New Haven belonged to John Davenport, who died in 1670.

E. Needham, of Lynn, Mass., died in 1677. She left an estate valued
at £1,117. The barn, land, out-houses and dwelling house were valued
at £400. This included a "range of ston wall fensing." Her silver
watch, spoons, and other plate were worth £5. She had a striking
clock, another watch, and a "larum that does not strike." These early
clocks were probably like the ones shown in Figure 95. They were
called "lantern," "chamber", or "birdcage" clocks. The lantern clock
shown is of the pattern known as the "dolphin fret," on account of
the ornamentation above the dial, which is made by two dolphins with
crossed tails. This clock was made by Thomas Tompion, of London, a
famous maker, who lived in the last half of the seventeenth century
and died in 1713. He was clockmaker to Charles II., and was held in
high esteem, as may be gathered from the fact that he was buried in
Westminster Abbey, where his tomb may still be seen.

Tompion was called the "Father of English Clockmaking", and has left
a more enduring fame than any of his contemporaries. He had been a
blacksmith, and before his time watches as well as clocks had been
of rude construction, and the watch of Charles I., which is still
preserved, has a catgut string instead of a chain. Indeed watches of
that construction were in use for a long time after the chain was
invented. Very curiously, through some of the strange chances which
govern inanimate as well as animate things, this very watch has found
at least a temporary home in this country.

[Illustration: _Lantern Clock._ 1600-1650]

[Illustration: _Portable Clocks._ 1700-1725]

[Illustration: _Willard or Banjo Clock._ 1800-1825]

[Illustration: Figure 95. THREE CENTURIES OF CLOCKS.]

When Oliver Cromwell obtained his great victory over Charles II., and
drove the enemy from hedge to hedge till they finally took refuge in
the city of Worcester, there were seven thousand prisoners and great
spoils, among the latter the royal carriage in which the king had been
carried. In the carriage was this watch, which was used by Charles II.
as it had been by his father Charles I. It had been made for the latter
in 1640, and after more than two centuries of vicissitudes still ticks
bravely on. It is of the earliest pattern of watches, made entirely
by hand and of great size, as it measures four and a half inches in
diameter, and is an inch and a half thick. The case is very handsome,
of pierced silver in a pattern of flowers and leaves, and has three
winding-holes on the back,--one for winding the works, one for the
alarm, and one for the striking attachment, which consists of a small
silver bell within the perforated case. It has but one hand to mark the
time and goes thirty-six hours. There is an outer case into which the
watch may be slipped, made of copper with a leather cover studded with
silver.

The watch was kept by Cromwell himself for many years, but after the
Restoration it fell into the hands of Joseph Kipling, of Overstone
House, North Hants, England, a relative of Rudyard Kipling. Joseph
Kipling was also an ancestor of Mr. Wilfred Powell, British consul at
the port of Philadelphia, and present owner of the watch.

Robert Hooker invented the double balance in 1658, and Tompion
completed it in 1675, and made a watch which he presented to Charles
II. Two others were made and sent to the Dauphin of France, where
Huyghens had obtained a patent for spiral-spring watches. This idea was
not original with him, but was obtained from a man named Oldenburg. It
is allowed, however, that it is Huyghens who first made those watches
which went without strings or chains. Barlow, in the reign of James II.
is said to have discovered the method of making striking watches, but,
Quare's being judged superior by the Privy Council, Barlow did not get
a patent.

Tompion's watches were in great demand for a long time, owing to their
being large and well made, the wheels being of well-hammered brass.
Three most eminent watchmakers of this time were Tompion, who died in
1713; Daniel Quare, who succeeded him and died in 1725; and George
Graham, who followed Quare and died in 1775. They all belonged to the
Society of Friends.

Watches cannot claim the antiquity of clocks, but they can be traced as
far back as the fourteenth century. In shape they were like an egg, and
Nuremburg claims their earliest manufacture. Although it is said that
they were introduced into England in 1577, yet it is certain that Henry
VIII. had a watch, and in 1572 the Earl of Leicester presented to Queen
Elizabeth--

     --"one amlet or shakell of golde, all over fairly garnished with
     small diamandes, and fower and one smaller pieces, fully garnished
     with like diamandes and hanging thereat a round clocke fullie
     garnished with diamandes and an appendant hanging thereat."

They were so unusual that they were worn ostentatiously round the neck
hanging to a chain.

In an old play called "A Mad World, My Masters!", one of the characters
says "Ah, by my troth, sir, besides a jewel and a jewel's fellow, a
good fair watch that hung about my neck." When Malvolio was telling
over the agreeable ways in which he would occupy himself after his
marriage with Olivia, he says, "I frown the while, and perchance wind
up my watch or play with some rich jewel." Watches called "strikers"
were known in Ben Jonson's time, for he says in his "Staple of News"

              "'T strikes! One, two,
  Three, four, five, six. Enough, enough, dear watch.
  Thy pulse hath beat enough. Now stop and rest."

Watches were in use so rarely in the early times of James I. that it
was deemed a cause of suspicion when in 1605 one was found upon the
person of Guy Vaux. By 1638 they were more common, and in a comedy of
that year called "The Antipodes" it is complained that--

                      "--every clerk can carry
  The time of day in his pocket."

The prices of these first time-keepers must have been high, but there
are no records of them left. In 1643 the sum of £4 was paid to redeem a
watch taken from a nobleman in battle. In 1661 there was advertised as
lost--

     --"a round watch of reasonable size, showing the day of the month,
     age of the moon, and tides, upon the upper plate. Thomas Alcock
     fecit."

The redoubtable Pepys's curiosity extended to watches, and he writes in
his diary, December 22, 1665:

     "I to my Lord Brouncker's, and there spent the evening by my
     desire in seeing his Lordship open to pieces and make up again his
     watch, thereby being taught what I never knew before; and it is a
     thing very well worth my having seen, and am mightily pleased and
     satisfied with it."

The English became such famous watchmakers that in 1698 an act was
passed to compel makers to place their names upon those they made, in
order that discreditable ones might not be passed for English. Among
the possessions of the English Crown is a watch which was found about
1770 in Bruce Castle, Scotland. On the dial plate is written "Robertus
B. Rex Scotorum", and over the face is a shield of convex horn instead
of glass. Robert Bruce began his reign in 1305 and died in 1328, long
before watches were supposed to be known in England. The case of this
watch is of silver in a raised pattern on a ground of blue enamel.

Striking watches were highly esteemed. When Sarah, Duchess of
Marlborough died in 1744 she left a will covering six skins of
parchment, and she designated the disposal of "manors, parsonages,
rectories, advowsons, messuages, lands, tenements, tithes, and
hereditaments", in half a dozen counties. She also specified many
of her jewels, and among them is her "striking watch which formerly
belonged to Lady Sutherland."

The lantern style of clock before mentioned was not original with
Tompion, but had been used in England from the beginning of the
seventeenth century. They ran by weights, and the clock had to be
affixed to a bracket or shelf in order to give room for the weights
to hang. In the clock in Figure 95 the cords and weights have been
removed. The faces of these clocks always stood out beyond the frame,
and were of beautifully engraved or etched brass, as may be seen in
the figure. The single hand showed only the fifths of the hour and the
hours. The small dial in the centre was to set the alarm, which struck
the bell, but in some of them the hours were struck also.

The portable or table clock came into use early in 1600, and one of
them shown in Figure 95 has the oval top to the dial which was not
in use till the last part of the seventeenth century. These were the
common house clocks of the period and were easily carried about. Some
found their way to America, and as they were well made, with brass
works, they are still able to give correct time. This style of clock
was made for many years, and was manufactured in substantially the same
way, late in the eighteenth century, by such famous makers as Isaac Fox
and Joseph Rose.

Samuel Pepys, who recorded everything that was going on in London, in
July 28th, 1660, has this entry.

     "To Westminster, and there met Mr. Henson, who had formerly had
     the brave clock that went with bullets, (which is now taken away
     from him by the King, it being his goods)."

In the "Gentlemen's Magazine" for 1785 is the following comment on this
statement of Pepys.

     "Some clocks are still made with a small ball, or bullet on an
     inclined plane, which turns every minute."

The King's clocks probably dropped bullets. Gainsborough, the painter,
had a brother who was a dissenting minister at Henley-on-Thames and
possessed a strong genius for mechanics. He invented a clock of very
peculiar construction, which after his death was deposited in the
British Museum. It told the hour by a little bell, and was kept in
motion by a leaden bullet which dropped, from a spiral reservoir at the
top of the clock, into a little ivory bucket. This was so contrived
as to discharge it at the bottom, and by means of a counterweight was
carried up to the top of the clock, where it received another bullet,
which was discharged as the former. This seems to have been an attempt
at perpetual motion.

Catherine of Braganza was responsible for introducing many luxuries to
the English world. Pepys makes this mention of her clock in 1664.

     "Mr. Pierce showed me the Queen's [the Portuguese Princess, wife
     of Charles II] bed-chamber ... and her holy water at her head as
     she sleeps, with a clock by her bedside, wherein a lamp burns that
     tells her the time of the night at any time."

Pepys speaks again in 1667 of going to see--

     --"a piece of clocke-worke made by an Englishman--indeed very
     good, wherein all the several states of man's age to one hundred
     years old, is shown very pretty and solemne."

Besides the dolphin fret shown on the Tompion clock in Figure 95 there
were other patterns, perhaps the earliest being what is called the
"heraldic fret", which was a coat-of-arms with scroll-work on either
side. This was not used after 1650, so any clocks bearing this pattern
belong to the first half of the seventeenth century. It was early seen
that to be accurate a clock must have some contrivance to keep it going
while it is being wound. In the old-fashioned house clocks which were
wound by merely pulling a string, and in which one such winding served
both for the going and striking parts, this was done by using what was
called the endless chain of Huyghens, which consists of a chain or
string with ends joined together, passing over two pulleys which are
placed on the arbors of the great wheels, and which have both spikes
and deep grooves in them to prevent the chain from slipping off.

To the best clocks in England it was usual to apply the gridiron
pendulum of Harrison or the mercurial pendulum of Graham. The length of
the pendulum of most clocks made before 1800 was 39 inches; that is,
after the long pendulum came into use at all. The earliest were called
"bob pendulums", which swung so far at the sides that it was often
necessary to cut slits in the sides of the case, if it was hung inside,
for it was as frequently hung outside. Many clocks which started with
bob pendulums were changed to those having long ones, which about 1680
came very much into fashion.

In Mr. Charles Britten's various books on clocks and clockmaking he has
gathered together all the minute particulars which are obtainable on
this subject, and which are of chief interest to collectors of clocks.
Most people are content with one clock, particularly if it be of the
"grandfather" variety.

The term "clock" was only applied to the bell upon which the hour was
rung till well into the fourteenth century, and as late as the time
of James I. clocks were known as horologes. Even at the present day
the old term has clung to the church-tower time-piece in some of the
least-traveled parts of England, and in the quaint and lovely little
town of Wells the Cathedral clock is called the "horologe."

There are long-case clocks made by Tompion to be found in this country;
for of course all the first clocks were of English make. The earliest
long-case clocks were made by William Clement about 1680, and within
the same year Tompion was making them too. The peculiarities of these
first clocks are quite marked and easily distinguished, for the dials
were square, and the top of the case lifted off to permit of winding.

An early and handsome specimen of such a clock is seen in Figure 94.
This clock was made in the latter part of the seventeenth century by
Daniel Quare, the successor of Thomas Tompion. It is a one-year clock
and is at Hampton Court Palace. The dial face is square, and the
top lifts off. The case is very handsomely carved and has some very
handsome figures on the top. The second clock shown in Figure 94 is in
a black and gold lacquered case, and was made by J. Harrison in 1715.
It is at the Guildhall Museum, London. This shows the carved top of the
dial face which became universally adopted. The most important part
of one of these clocks is the pendulum, for the long case was brought
into use solely for the pendulum, as mechanism had not been invented
to permit it to swing in a confined space. The first long-case clocks
were comparatively small in size, and during the reign of William
III., when everything Dutch was in fashion, the cases were ornamented
with marquetry in beautiful patterns and variously coloured woods.
Sometimes this was made even richer by inlay of mother-of-pearl, and
there were cases also of splendid lacquer-work, gold on black grounds,
like that in Figure 94, some of which found their way to America and
are either museum specimens or treasured in private collections. There
are many clocks with English works housed in Dutch cases, but this is
understandable from the fact that so many Dutch cabinet-makers were
settled in London.

Besides the square face to the dial of these early clocks there were
peculiarities of the case as well. On either side of the upper part
of the case there were carved spiral pillars, like those we find in
old chairs of the same period. These were occasionally finished off
by carved or gilt pilasters, and on some choice specimens, notably of
Tompion's clocks, there are pillars at the back also. This style of
pillar was used also in Queen Anne's time. The clocks might stand flat
on the floor or be raised an inch or two on a short foot. The long
doors had mouldings, corresponding to the period of their manufacture,
and many had a piece of glass or a bull's-eye let into the wood, so
that the motion of the pendulum could be seen.

Some of the most distinguishing marks on these clocks are the hour
circles. Before the minute hand came into use the double circles seen
in the mantle clocks were in use. Between them the hour is divided into
quarters, the half hour being shown by a longer stroke, or an ornament
like a fleur-de-lys. When the minute hand came into use, besides the
double circle containing the numerals denoting the hours, and the
smaller figures showing the minutes, there were on the outer edge marks
or divisions to denote the quarter hours, the device being a cross or
a dagger. The dial faces were beautifully embellished with engraving,
those of the William III. and Queen Anne periods being very rich. Not
only were the faces brass, but there were to be found silvered faces
also, ornamented with ormolu mounts of figures and scrolls in brass.
All the space on the dial was utilized; on the extreme edge a border
of leaves, or herring-bone pattern was placed, and the whole interior
of the hour-ring was engraved or etched with flowers, scrolls, or set
patterns, and even the winding-holes had their set of circles around
each.

Of the seventeenth-century clocks the earliest had their makers' names
put into Latin and engraved straight across the bottom of the dial,
and quite concealed when the wooden hood of the case was in place.
Later it was engraved on the lower half of the circle between the
figures seven and five. These two styles were only in use very early,
for about 1750 name-plates were first used, and then makers used their
own taste in the matter, sometimes omitting the name entirely and
substituting some motto like "Tempus Fugit" "Tempus edax rerum", and
even such lengthy mottoes as the following;

"Slow comes the hour; its passing speed how great;
Waiting to seize it,--vigilantly wait!"

Edward East was another well-known early English maker, and some clocks
in splendid cases came from his hand by 1690 and earlier.

Joseph Knibb and James Clowes were other popular makers about 1700.
James Lownes made handsome clocks by 1705 and usually inserted glass in
their doors. The corners of the dials bear devices which also point to
the age of the clock. On the dials which came from the best makers till
just before the close of the seventeenth century, the ornaments were
cherubs' heads. Then the patterns of the spandrels, as these ornaments
were called, altered, and a head set in more or less elaborate
scroll-work, generally of brass, handsomely chased and often gilded,
was used. After this, in the early eighteenth century, came two Cupids
holding up a crown with a surrounding of scroll-work. The clock on the
left in Figure 96 has this fret, two cherubs holding a crown, at the
four corners of the brass face. They do not show very plainly in the
illustration, which also does not do justice to the splendid marquetry
with which the mahogany case is inlaid. Across the dial face is
Monks, Prescot and the clock is in perfect order. The second clock is
quite as interesting. It has a fine mahogany inlaid case, the face is
painted on wood, the works are wooden also, and it is wound by pulling
up the weights by hand. The ornaments which originally decorated the
top are missing, but otherwise it is perfect and is in admirable
condition. Its period is about 1800. This clock belongs to Dr. George
W. Goler, of Rochester, N. Y., and the one previously described to Mr.
William M. Hoyt, also of Rochester.

[Illustration: _American Clock._ 1790-1800.]

[Illustration: _English Clock._ 1720-1740.]

[Illustration: Figure 96. TALL-CASE CLOCKS.]

A crown with crossed sceptres and foliage were also used in the
spandrels. Later in the century the passion for rococo ornament
seized the clockmakers too, and during the reign of George III. these
ornaments degenerated very greatly, and were cast brass, often not
even touched with a graver's tool. Christopher Gould was making clocks
in 1715, and by 1745 Richard Vick's works were put into so-called
Chippendale cases. There is such a clock now at Windsor Castle.

All clocks before the eighteenth century had straight tops. An arched
top was added, in which could be placed a register for the equation of
time. On some of the latest clocks by Tompion, dated about 1709, four
years before his death, such an arch is found. It is considered greatly
to improve the appearance of the face of the clock, and it was utilized
for decoration if not for a time register. Name-plates were put there,
and a handsome dolphin was engraved or mounted on the dial on either
side of the name-plate. A fine specimen of such a clock made by John
Carmichael, Greenock, Scotland, and put in a mahogany case, has been
owned by a family now living in Rochester, N. Y., for over one hundred
and fifty years. The clock is in good order, with the original brass
works, and has a small plate on the dial to indicate the day of the
month. The face is silvered and etched handsomely.

During the last half of the eighteenth century there was a great demand
for moving figures to be placed in this arched top. Ships in motion,
Father Time, etc., were always popular subjects, as well as painted
disks showing the moon in her various phases. The moving figures were
preferred by Dutch makers, who excelled at this species of work. The
English makers, however, used the painted moon-disks the most. The
French, with their taste for the ornamental and elegant, never liked
the square-faced clocks. They preferred the small clocks in ebony or
alabaster casings with ormolu mounts.

Julien Le Roy was a very famous French clockmaker, whose works were
mounted in florid style, sometimes in cases of kingwood, with inlay of
lighter woods, or in ebony. Lepante made clocks dating from about 1750,
and these were always in the best style and elegant taste. Few of such
clocks found their way to America on account of their great cost.

By the last quarter of the eighteenth century watches and clocks
were quite common in the colonies, where they were also made. In the
"Mercury" for May 2, 1774, not only were clocks offered for sale, but

     "watches neat and plain, gold, silver, shagreen, and metal. Some
     engraved and enamelled with devices new and elegant; also the
     first in this country of the small new-fashioned watches the
     circumference of a British shilling. John Sinnet removed to the
     Main St. called the Fly, next house to the corner of Beekman's
     slip, the sign of the dial against the wall."

In this same year Basil Francis offers;

     "£1 reward for any information of a man who did in a fraudulent
     manner obtain one pinchbeck watch with a single case, winds up in
     the face, the hole where the key goes a little flowered."

There were even higher rewards offered at this time for the return
of lost watches, probably not "pinchbeck," for a "military gentleman
offers £5 for the return of his watch and no questions asked." The
English officers made the winter of 1778-9 very gay in New York,
quite rivaling Philadelphia, and set the fashion, which was esteemed
very polite, of wearing two watches. The Quaker City considered this
custom ridiculous. Eli Terry, of Windsor, Conn., was one of the first
clockmakers in the United States, though James Harrison began to
manufacture at Waterbury, Conn., as early as 1790. The first clock he
made was entered in his books, "January 1, 1791, at £3 12_s._ 8_d_".
Yet clocks were made even earlier than this, for in 1783 the Assembly
of Connecticut awarded a patent for fourteen years to Benjamin Hanks,
of Litchfield, Conn., for a self-winding clock. It was to wind itself
by the help of air.

In East Windsor, Conn., Daniel Burnap carried on the manufacture of
brass clocks. William Tenny was one of the earliest makers of brass
work clocks in the United States, and worked at Nine Corners, Dutchess
Co., N. Y. Eli Terry made wooden works for his clocks, although he had
been instructed in his business by Daniel Burnap, who used brass as
well as wooden works, and made tall-case clocks with long pendulums.
These clocks were by no means cheap, ranging from $18 to $48, the more
expensive ones having a brass dial, a dial for seconds, the moon's
phases, and a better case.

Terry's wooden-work clocks were well made and were good time keepers,
and were distributed all over New England by peddlers. In 1807 Terry
undertook to make five hundred clocks; this overstocked the market,
and he was forced to reduce the price from $25 to $15, and then to
$10. Before 1800 the best-known clockmakers in the United States
were Daniel Burnap, Silas Merriam, Thomas Harland, Timothy Peck, and
James Harrison, all of Connecticut. From 1806 to 1815 the number of
clockmakers largely increased, and Seth Thomas, Silas Hoadley, Herman
Clark, and Asa Hopkins were some of the best-known men engaged in the
making.

In 1814 Terry invented what was called the "short-shelf clock," in
which, by a change of arrangement and smaller weights, the pendulum
being brought forward and greatly shortened and the weights being
carried and run on each side, the whole was reduced to a more compact
form. Clock and case were sold for a moderate sum. These clocks,
like the tall-case ones, were made with wooden wheels, but after the
introduction of rolled brass, machinery was invented by which blank
wheels could be struck out with a die, the teeth afterward cut by
machinery, and the brass-wheel clocks made cheaper than the wooden.
This was about 1837.

The next improvement was substituting springs for weights. This
had been done in Europe for two hundred years, but only with the
most costly parlour clocks, and the springs were equal to the best
watch-springs. Many kinds of cheaper springs had been tried without
success, till a superior steel spring was invented in the United
States, and the springs thus produced have for many years been sold at
a price compatible with cheap clocks.

The wooden pendulum covered with gold leaf, which is one of the
characteristics of a regulator clock, was invented by Silas B. Terry,
a son of Eli. America has long taken a leading place in the making
of clocks, and that desire to have the biggest and best which is
characteristic of the youngest nation has influenced clockmaking.

For many years England prided herself on having the largest clock in
the world. It is on the Houses of Parliament, London, and is known
as the Westminster clock. Its dial faces measure 22 feet 6 inches in
diameter. A larger one, however, has been erected during the past few
years in Minneapolis, Minn., by an American clockmaker. These dial
faces measure 22 feet 8 inches in diameter, and the Westminster clock
has receded to second place.

Among extraordinary clocks which have from time to time been invented,
none is more curious than that made in 1767 by David Rittenhouse, of
Philadelphia. It has six dials; on the main one there are four hands
which indicate seconds, minutes, hours, and days, giving one day more
to February in leap year. Phases of the moon are also shown. The second
dial shows the movements of planets about the sun; the third, the moon
revolving about the earth; the fourth, the movements of Saturn; the
fifth whether sun time is fast or slow with meridian time; while the
sixth gives the combination of chimes which sound quarter hours, a
choice of any one of ten tunes being played by pressing a knob on the
dial.

It is not often in the United States that there is a record of any
piece of furniture staying in the same place for twenty-five, much less
one hundred years. Yet in Westernville, Oneida Co., N. Y., there is
an old "grandfather's" clock ticking away, which with the new year of
1903 is said to have stood in its present position a hundred years. The
home which holds this venerable time-piece was built by General William
Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the
old house has weathered the storms as well as the clock. Built in the
centre of a ten-thousand-acre tract of land acquired from the Indians
in 1788, the lands have gradually been sold, but four hundred acres
still remain surrounding the old homestead. The old mansion is well
preserved, and there have been no changes beyond necessary repairs. It
is of Colonial architecture, and its interior furnishings form a feast
for the lovers of the antique. There are some rare pieces of furniture
imported from England over a century ago. The house belongs to the
widow of Admiral Sicard, and was left her by her father, the grandson
of General Floyd.

Of the tall-case clocks there were many to be found all over the
South, in some instances case and all being brought from England,
while in others, as was often done, the case was made by the local
cabinet-maker. Many such clocks have, within recent years, found their
way into Newport, R. I., which is quite a paradise for the antiquarian.
The history of these old clocks is strange. During the Civil War the
negroes appropriated many articles from the manor houses which had been
deserted, or partially sacked or burned, and carried them to their
cabins. Among such loot were many clocks, but they were too tall to
get into the cabin doors or to stand upright afterward. So they were
cut down, generally at the base, for the ornamental tops, particularly
if there were brass ornaments on the top, appealed to their new owners.
A dealer from Newport heard of them, and went to Virginia, buying all
of these sawed off clocks he could find. He took them home, had the
cases restored, and sold them all for good prices.

[Illustration: Figure 97. MANTEL CLOCKS.]

One of the most famous names in the history of clockmaking in America
is that of Willard, and to a certain style of clock this name has been
applied. There were at least four clockmakers by this name, Simon,
Aaron, Benjamin, and Simon Jr. It is supposed to be the latter who
made the style of clock also known as "banjo," although Mr. Lockwood
considers there is great doubt on the subject. One of these clocks is
shown in Figure 95. They had no striking machinery, and often varied as
to the lower part, occasionally being furnished with a brass ornament.
This one has a view of Mt. Vernon, and belonged to the late Mr. Alfred
Hosmer, of Concord, Mass. These clocks were made during the first
twenty years of the nineteenth century. The works are of brass and
generally of excellent make.

In 1802 "Willard of Boston," who was, no doubt, Benjamin, who had
workshops at Roxbury and Grafton as well as in Boston, took out a
patent for his timepieces. At this same period Terry began business
on a larger scale and by water-power. In 1814 he introduced the shelf
or mantel-clock, which he patented in 1816. Three of this style of
clock are shown in Figure 97. All are in good condition and are still
running. They belong to Mr. William M. Hoyt, of Rochester, N. Y.

The central clock is a very handsome one of mahogany, with a carved
case. The ornament on the top is an eagle, and the posts are leaves
bound with a rope. The face of Washington painted on the glass is
much better than those portraits usually are, and loses much in the
reproduction. This clock was made by Ephraim Downs, of Bristol, Conn.
The clock on the left, made by Chauncey Ives, is also a Bristol one,
for Connecticut early obtained and has always retained an eminence in
the clock business. It has an ornamental case with handsomely carved
pineapples on top, and a swan-necked cornice. The one on the right,
with claw feet, has a very handsome decoration of painted patterns on
a black ground. On the inner part of the case is pasted a paper which
reads as follows:

  "PATENT CLOCKS
  PATENTED BY ELI TERRY
  AND MADE AND SOLD BY SETH THOMAS
  PLYMOUTH MASS. WARRANTED IF WELL USED."

The faces of all three are painted on tin, the two Bristol clocks
having ornamentation of gold in the corners. These clocks all date from
1815-20, but the one by Seth Thomas may be a trifle earlier.

A more modern clock than any of the foregoing, yet one of interest,
nevertheless, is one in the commandant's office in the Navy Yard,
Brooklyn. This old clock, which, although fifty-four years old, is not
only in good running order, but practically furnishes the official
time for the yard, occupies a prominent position in the outer office
of Rear-Admiral Barker's suite. Its dial is about the same size as
those seen in the clocks of to-day that keep the official time, but
it is operated by a spring instead of weights. Its mahogany case is
handsomely carved, and its brass hands shine in a way that shows the
care that it receives. The following inscription, revealing the age of
the clock, appears on the case:

  PRESENTED TO THE
  U. S. FRIGATE BRANDYWINE,
  BY THE CREW, 1849.

No one in the yard knows how the old clock got there,--it probably
drifted there, as have so many other waifs and strays. At noon every
day it is set by official time received from the Naval Observatory in
Washington, and most of the other clocks in the yard depend upon this
reliable time-piece which has come down from the frigate "Brandywine."

The collecting of clocks is a fad which few people indulge in. Yet
there are those who own ten or a dozen timepieces, and who like to have
them in running order. The old Dutch clocks, while looking very well,
are notoriously ill-regulated time-keepers. A collector took a prize
lately acquired to an old German clock-repairer who seemed more learned
in the ways of ancient clocks than many a more pretentious maker. The
clock did not come home when it was promised, and the owner went to see
what was the matter. She found her old clockmaker diligently studying
a little German volume with a title which read something like this,
"Thirteen Hundred Reasons why a Clock in Perfect Order Won't Run."



CHAPTER X.

HANDLES, FEET, STUFFS, ETC.


In the manufacture of furniture at one time or another nearly every
variety of wood has been used, if not for the body of the frame, then
for its enrichment, and every quarter of the globe has been laid under
contribution. The island of Borneo yielded Amboyna wood, with its
beautiful mottlings and curlings, and a very splendid cabinet was made
of it for the ill-fated Marie Antoinette by the famous cabinet-maker
of her day, Riesener. Ceylon, held by the Dutch as a colony from the
middle of the seventeenth century until nearly the nineteenth, produced
splendid ebony which was used for whole pieces of furniture as well as
for decoration. The French term _ébéniste_, or worker in ebony, was
given to the French makers of fine work.

To what abundant usage oak, walnut, and mahogany was put we know.
Rosewood, too, was another of the choicer materials. Satin-wood, with
its brilliant colour; tulip-wood, more showy still; kingwood, dark and
rich; zebra wood, with its black and white effect, as well as leopard
and partridge woods,--were all in use before 1800. There were, besides,
cherry, yew, pear, walnut, cedar, fir, olive, beech, sycamore, cypress,
chestnut for timber work, poplar, acacia, with limewood and boxwood for
carving.

[Illustration: Figure 98. KITCHEN OF WHIPPLE HOUSE, IPSWICH, MASS.]

For furniture which was to be painted and gilded common deal was used.
In America hickory (nut-wood, as it was called), was very popular among
the native workers, and all the other woods were gradually imported,
except those used for inlaying, an art never much practiced by American
cabinet makers.

After the first leather coverings of cured bull-hide there followed
Spanish or Cordova leather, Turkey-work, cane, rush, tapestry, brocade,
woollen plush, etc., as styles altered from time to time and luxury
increased. In an earlier chapter mention has been made of stuffs that
were in use in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for bed and
window curtains, draperies and upholstery. Besides all the varieties
of English goods, large importations came from East India of such
unfamiliar materials, as bejurapants bafts, gorgorans, mulmuls,
jainwars, sallampores, and many others.

Miss Singleton in her "Furniture of Our Forefathers," gives a list
of eighty different stuffs, seersuckers being the only familiar name
among them. Presumably some of these were imported here, and Boston
merchants before 1725 advertised linceys and flowered serges, bangalls,
shalloons, Persians and fustian, kersey, silk crêpes, cherry derry
and grass. Worsted, or hair plush, plain or striped hair-cloth,
damask, furniture dimities, moreen, harrateen and tammy were all to
be bought in the larger cities. Nor were these goods by any means
cheap. Harrateen cost about four dollars a yard in the middle of the
eighteenth century, and a set of curtains of this same material was
valued at $210. Other goods were in proportion; some bedsteads without
beds coming as high as $100. But, once acquired, these household goods
were valuable assets and passed from one generation to another, often
mentioned with great particularity by will.

There are various small details which are of assistance in determining
the approximate period of a piece of furniture, and none of greater
value than the handles. The different styles of these, particularly of
brass, are quite definite. The earliest of them is the drop handle,
shown in Figure 99, and also on the old oak chest depicted in Figure
5. The escutcheons were similar, and the material of the drops on some
chests of drawers was iron, but brass was more commonly seen, and was
either hollow or solid.

After the drop handles followed bail handles of a primitive type, the
handles being fastened in with wires. These handles also were of brass
and were sometimes engraved. The shape of these handles and escutcheons
is known as willow, and appears later in a much more ornate form. See
Figures 56, 57 and 59. By this time the handles were fastened by screw
and nut. By the latter half of the eighteenth century there were in
addition to the elaborate willow brasses (see Figure 64), oval ones
of various styles. This shape was much affected by Hepplewhite on his
sideboards, and by Sheraton in his earlier style (see Figures 35 and
38).

There was a handle starting from two small plates, either round or
oval, frequently seen on swell-front bureaus and desks of 1780 and
thereabouts. One is shown in Figure 99. Beginning at the top of the
page the various handles in use in the eighteenth century are shown in
the order of their appearance.

[Illustration: _Drop Handle._ 1675-1720]

[Illustration: _Early Willow Pattern._ 1720-1760]

[Illustration: _Bail Handle._ 1760-1785]

[Illustration: _Pressed Brass oval._ 1780-1810]

[Illustration: _Rosette and Ring._ 1790-1820]

[Illustration: _Inset Ring. Rosette._ 1800-1820]

[Illustration: Figure 99. HANDLES, ESCUTCHEONS, etc.]

There was also a round handle with a ring lying close within it (Figure
37); and when the Empire style was in favour a rosette with a ring
was used on sideboards, bureaus, writing-tables, etc. See Figures 42
and 60. The rosette with a ring was not the only Empire style, but
there were round knob handles of brass (Figure 37), glass (Figure
38), and brass with medallions of china or enamel. The glass ones,
either transparent or opalescent, were held in great esteem, though
they are extremely ugly on pieces of dark furniture on which they were
usually mounted. In many cases they have been removed, and wooden
knobs substituted; yet if one desires an Empire piece to look as it
did when made, it will be necessary to hunt out, if possible, a set of
these knobs to put on it. This is not so difficult a matter as might
be imagined; for even if the handles come from divers places they will
generally match, as there was small variety in the patterns used.

There was a great demand for these opal glass rosettes. Very large ones
held back the window curtains, smaller ones were used to support the
mirrors, besides those on the furniture. About this same time (1820)
those fine handles which are so eagerly sought for to-day made their
appearance. They were china or enamel set in brass, and the patterns on
the china were often portraits of famous men like Washington, Franklin,
Clinton, and Jefferson. When mounted on a piece of furniture like a
small work-table, which had only two drawers, the four patriots named
would make a set. There were also fancy heads, and sometimes tiny
figures, but these were not so popular.

Brass was put to many other uses, ornamental as well as useful, and
wine-coolers of heavy mahogany were set off with bands of it, and
smaller articles, like pipkins, were either made or bound with it.
Narrow thread-like bands of brass were used for purposes of inlay
and in the lyre-back chairs the strings were brass, as well as the
accompanying ornaments. Brass has always been a valuable commodity in
English manufactures, and in the reign of Henry VIII. Parliament passed
an act prohibiting, under severe penalties, the export of brass, which
prohibition was not withdrawn till as recently as 1799. In 1721 over
thirty thousand persons were employed in brass-founding in Birmingham,
England, and the business has grown until it has become the industrial
feature of that city.

The handles of both French and Dutch furniture were extremely ornate,
consisting of scrolls and leaves, many of them of great beauty and
delicacy, particularly when made of water-gilt or of etched brass.

For the benefit of local cabinet-makers brass handles, escutcheons,
and false keyholes were imported and on sale in America. By 1770 many
cabinet-makers were manufacturing very handsome furniture of mahogany,
cedar, or cherry, requiring handsome brasses to go with them. A
cabinet-maker of Newburyport, R. I., had in his shop at the time of his
death in 1773 much furniture completed and some still unfinished. He
also had several thousand feet of costly timber, sixty brass handles
valued at more than one pound, desk brasses, fifty-four escutcheons,
and old brasses, locks, and screws as well. For bookcase and cabinet
doors he had panes of glass, most of it in sheets measuring 5 × 7
inches, which was the size commonly used in windows at that time.
Although glass had been made in this country for a long time we find
"Bristol crown window-glass" advertised for sale in 1771 in sizes as
large as 9 × 12 inches.

Besides these brasses of English manufacture, we find another merchant
advertising "three dozen Dutch rings and escutcheons at three shillings
a dozen." Handles came at various prices, fifteen, twelve, and eight
shillings a dozen, according to pattern and finish. The escutcheons
were at proportionate prices, eleven and eight shillings a dozen, but
locks came high, a fine-ward desk-lock bringing a guinea.

On much furniture, particularly that enriched with inlay, ivory
escutcheons were used, and sometimes those of holly or other wood used
in the inlay were set in. These were in use during the last years of
the eighteenth century, and can be found in connection with various
styles of handles.

At the "Smith's Fly" were many metal-workers who sold ironware and
goods for cabinet-makers. At the sign of the "Cross Daggers," Thomas
Brown, as early as 1745, had many metal furnishings on hand. There
were latches and bolts for doors and locks for chests, drawers, and
cabinets. He had polished brass handles, locks, escutcheons, and
handsome brass locks for parlours. Ring-drops, tea-chest furniture,
knobs and knockers for street doors, curtain-rings and chafing-dishes
were advertised in 1750, and casters and handles and escutcheons of the
newest fashion were to be found in 1751, with brass chair nails.

A few years later double and single spring chest-locks could be bought,
and these were sold by the same merchant who imported--

     --"choice India and Japan gilded Tea Tables, square Dressing
     ditto, of which sort none were ever seen in America before."

The rate to be charged for putting on these brasses was set down
in "The Journeymen's Cabinet and Chair-makers Philadelphia Book of
Prices," 1795, mentioned before. Common castors cost 2½_d_ each, and
1_d_ extra for letting in the plate; a set of sockets "when the legs
are tapered, to fit in, per set," 1_s_ 2_d_. Iron or brass rollers were
8½_d_ per pair. Fitting on a box lock was 1_s_ 4_d_, while a patent
lock came extra and cost 2_s_. Lifting handles could be put on for 1_s_
4_d_ per pair. Letting in an escutcheon was 2½_d_ for each one, and
letting in plates for rods in the tops of sideboards were 8_d_ for each
plate. Ivory escutcheons cost 10_d_ each, and those of holly just half
that.

If a person chose to have his furniture made on the premises it was
an easy matter, for many cabinet-makers worked in this way, and the
furniture could be built to suit exactly the prospective owner's
taste and the place it was to occupy. None of the furniture made in
America and little that was imported here, had the superb handles and
escutcheons which were put on French and Dutch pieces. These mounts
were executed and designed by artists, and made a decidedly beautiful
addition to the furniture.

Another distinctive feature of old furniture is the foot, which in many
cases points to period and country as well as if the piece was dated.
After the turned chairs with their heavy lines and clumsy construction,
the furniture which was gradually finding its way from Spain and
Holland seemed very beautiful. The Flemish foot, so called, turns
outward, and is found on very early chairs enriched with carving and
having cane, rush, or turkey-work seats. This style belongs to the last
quarter of the seventeenth century. (For illustrations see Figure 100.)

Chairs of this same period also came from Spain and Portugal, being
covered with the splendid leather of Cordova, which has now a
world-wide reputation. The woodwork of the frames was handsome enough
to correspond with the leather. These frames were carved, and the foot
turned out like the Flemish, but it was of quite a different shape and
fluted (see Figure 100).

This Spanish foot retained its popularity a long time, appearing on
many varieties of chairs almost as late as 1750. It was associated with
cane, rush, leather, and stuff bottoms, was seen on arm and side chairs
with slatted backs, and backs of cane and leather. Sometimes on the
"roundabout chairs," as those having a square seat set with one angle
pointed forward were called (see Figure 57), only the front foot was in
Spanish style, the others being turned knobs which accorded with the
turned legs and rails. Even on some of the so-called Queen Anne chairs
with spoon backs, a modified form of Spanish foot was to be found, but
this eventually gave way to the familiar ball-and-claw cabriole leg, or
the regular Dutch foot (see Figure 11). It is curious that the cabriole
leg with ball-and-claw foot was seen on pieces of furniture like both
the high and low chests of drawers before it was used on chairs (see
Figure 57), and the earliest of these Queen Anne chairs had the bandy
leg with the plain Dutch foot. This foot is used with the solid splat
and the spoon-shaped back with rounded ends to the top.

Chippendale, in his earliest work, began to use the models then in
vogue, and, with the bandy leg which was found only on the two front
legs of chairs, used also a modified Dutch foot. Very soon he used
instead the ball-and-claw foot, with or without the underbrace, and
with the more ornamental foot the splat became pierced and carved and
very ornate and rich. The later straight legged Chippendale chair (see
Chapter III) came into favour, with or without underbraces, and late
in the eighteenth century the other great cabinet-makers came along,
each with his distinctive styles and characteristics. The first of
these is Hepplewhite, who never achieved the success of Chippendale,
who preceded him, nor of Sheraton, who succeeded him, yet whose work is
often very beautiful. He did not, of course confine himself to any one
style of foot or leg, yet on many of his chairs, tables, and sideboards
he used what is called the "spade foot." This was varied in many ways,
but the most common form is shown in Figure 100.

Both Hepplewhite and Sheraton, as well as the other makers of the
eighteenth century, used a variety of shapes of feet, for bureaus,
desks, bookcases, and other pieces which were in no way distinctive.
Each maker used the bracket foot as suited him best, adding curves
to suit his fancy or the exigencies of the case, or inlay or even
carving. A plain bracket foot is shown in Figure 100. The French foot
(Fig. 100) is more ornate and slender, and comes on chests of drawers,
bureaus, etc. Inlay is very often used for its decoration, and it adds
a graceful line to the piece it is used on, which is always of choice
wood inlaid or painted.

[Illustration: _Flemish._]

[Illustration: _Spanish._]

[Illustration: _Dutch._]

[Illustration: _Dutch._]

[Illustration: _Chippendale._]

[Illustration: _Bracket._]

[Illustration: _French Foot._]

[Illustration: _Hepplewhite, or Spade._]

[Illustration: _Sheraton._]

[Illustration: _English Empire._]

[Illustration: _Pillar and Claw._]

[Illustration: Figure 100. FEET.]

The tapering fluted foot which we associate with Sheraton is also shown
in Figure 100. Under his treatment it was nearly always decorated,
either inlaid or carved, or sometimes both. Although we are most
familiar with Sheraton style furniture in mahogany, he made much other
furniture besides, as the following description of drawing-room chairs
shows:

     "These drawing-room chairs are finished in white and gold, or the
     ornaments may be japanned, but the French finish them in mahogany
     with gilt mouldings. The figures in the tablets above the front
     rails are on French printed silk or satin, sewed onto the stuffing
     with borders round them. The seat and back are of the same kind,
     as is the ornamented tablet at the top of the chair. The top rail
     is pannelled, a small gold bead mitred round, and the printed silk
     pasted on. Chairs of this kind have an effect which far exceeds
     any conception we can have of them from an uncoloured engraving,
     or even a coloured one."

This does not seem like the furniture we know as "Sheraton", yet
in his books are many similar descriptions. After Sheraton gave up
manufacturing furniture, and wrote only books of descriptions and
patterns, France had passed through the throes of the Revolution,
when the old _régime_ was swept away. Napoleon had been proclaimed
First Consul, and then, in 1802, confirmed for life, and took under
his charge even such minor details as furniture and dress. The styles
arranged to suit his whim found an echo in England. The English Empire,
both at its best and worse estate, could boast of nothing better than a
feeble imitation of the antique, while the French Empire was at least
an expression of the conquests and successes of one man.

Thomas Hope was perhaps the best exponent of this style in England,
and he industriously mingled emblems of the gods and goddesses,
Phrygian caps and Roman fasces, Greek amphoræ, and fabulous animals
on the furniture which he designed. In Figure 100 is shown one side
of a chair designed by him, as also an Empire pillar-and-claw leg, as
rendered by American cabinet-makers. Less ornate and ambitious, the
American treatment of this period is preferable, for the chief use to
which they put brass and bronze, the too-abundant use of which was so
characteristic of this style, was to tip columns or pillars, and, to
some extent, the feet of tables.

The best old furniture which is to be found in the United States is
of this period, which was succeeded by what may be denominated the
black-walnut age, the chief characteristic of which was abundant coarse
carving. Our cabinet-makers were very successful in their treatment
of mahogany, both solid and veneered. The latter work has never been
excelled, and shows its perfection by the good condition in which much
of this furniture, seventy and eighty years old, is found to-day.

The smaller affairs of life which go to make up the sum of necessaries
were woefully wanting in the households of pioneers who battled with
the American wilderness. The importance of the iron pot, weighing
thirty or forty pounds, which descended by will through three or four
generations, has already been pointed out. Pewter and brass ware were
equally esteemed, and pewter, while by no means expensive, was not so
plentiful but that many people managed with a small supply. Pewter
spoons bent and broke, and a substitute, at least in the Connecticut
Valley, was a small clam-shell set in a cleft stick. However much
pewter was owned, whenever the Revolutionary heroes called for
bullets, what there was was cheerfully run into those missiles of war,
and there were many "bees" held all through the Colonies where bullets
were run, and wooden trenchers were whittled out by the young lads to
take the place of the sacrificed pewter. This wooden ware later was
smoothed down by the women of the household with broken glass, and
polished with sand made of powdered limestone.

Some of these wooden articles, made of maple, poplar or apple-wood,
have descended to show with what simple appliances our ancestors were
content. How simple were their pleasures the records of the time show.
In fact, anything so enlivening as a hanging was looked upon as sport
for a holiday. The first State's prison was opened in 1797 at the foot
of Tenth Street, New York city. It was in use for thirty years, till
the structure at Sing Sing superseded it. Grant Thorburn, referring to
a man who was reprieved through the efforts of the Society of Friends,
writes as follows:

     "One day I went up to the park to see a man hung. After gazing two
     hours at the gallows, the sheriff announced a reprieve. I must own
     I was disappointed."

Though amusements and pleasures were few, even such as came along could
not well be enjoyed if the weather were stormy, and in Washington's
diary the entry for November 29, 1789, is, "Being very snowy, not a
single person appeared at the Levee." Clothes could not be risked;
they were too valuable to be subjected to bad weather. Romalls, amens,
casserillias, and ribdilures were high-sounding but perishable. Even
while luxury was considered, health was neglected in many ways, such
valuable adjuncts as tooth-brushes not being in use until about 1782.

Many advertisements appear in the papers of men who combined several
vocations, dentistry being one of them, and in 1789 General Washington,
after much pain during the summer, went into the hands of John
Greenwood, dentist, of 56 William Street, New York, who made him a
set of "sea-horse teeth". This had been a very trying summer, and one
newspaper has it that "raw rum has been found exceeding pernicious in
this extreme," and something lighter, like a "Bishop" or "Lawn sleeves"
was recommended, and study of a book published in England called
"Oxford Night-caps" was suggested as furnishing recipes for various
healthful beverages though it was added that the rum had better be
omitted, "as it is very intoxicating, and therefore pernicious."

The President's guests could choose from among Madeira, claret,
champagne, sherry, arrack, spirits, brandy, cordials, porter, beer, and
cider, yet, with it all, unseemly intoxication seems to have been the
exception.

Domestic discipline in New York was enforced on servants, whether bound
or free, by means of an official who was stationed at the calaboose
on the common, and who, for a fee of one shilling, gave a thorough
whipping.

Education was fostered and colleges throve. By 1760 the records state
that the "King's College (Columbia) buildings were so far completed
that the officers and students began to lodge and mess therein."

This was in accordance with the terms of the charter, which further
provided that the students were to wear caps and gowns and to be
within the gates at a certain hour. The plan of education, like our
belongings, was copied from England, and our college was, in the most
material parts, to be like Queen's College, Oxford. The tuition fee
when General Washington entered his step-son, John Parke Custis, there,
was five pounds per annum, with room-rent four pounds, and board at the
rate of eleven shillings weekly.

The late Andrew P. Peabody, writing of college life at Harvard in 1820,
says:

     "Coal, just then coming into use, had hardly found its way into
     college. The student's rooms, several of the recitation-rooms as
     well were heated by open fires. Friction matches, which according
     to Faraday were the most useful invention in our age, were not
     yet."

He says that the feather-bed was a valuable asset (this article had
held its own for centuries), but that ten dollars would have covered
the other contents of a student's room. It had no carpet, and a pine
bedstead, a washstand, table and desk, and three or four chairs were
all it contained, besides a cannon-ball to be heated on extra-cold
nights, and rolled down stairs on warm ones, "at such time as might
most nearly bisect a proctor's night's sleep."

Our maternal great-great-grandmothers must have had little leisure to
spare from the duties that occupied their time. Yet many of them had
still-rooms where they not only compounded the medicaments whereby
many a family was raised from infancy, but where they made extracts
and essences as well. They made, too, from the flowers and herbs that
grew in their gardens, pomander-balls, which were used instead of
vinaigrettes, the outer case being of silver or gold, and often as
large as an orange.

Those whose stock of trinkets did not boast one of these metal cases
used the rind of an orange, the inside being carefully extracted,
and a sponge with vinegar and spices being inserted in its place.
Rose-balls made of leaves beaten to pulp, mixed with sweet spices, and
rolled into a ball, soon became hard, resembling the rosaries made in
the south of France. When held in the hand they became very fragrant
from its warmth. Simpler than any of these was a rosy apple stuck full
of cloves and giving out a fragrance years after the apple had lost
all appearance or consistency of being a fruit, and awakening in the
mind an image of her who made it in some quiet garden long ago. Like
an antique spice-ball, all this old furniture that we have passed in
review has an aroma of its own compounded by the hand that built it,
the person that owned it, and the scenes that it has lived through.

Many a sober old chair could discourse of experiences ranging from
grave to gay, from lively to severe, and every one of these antiques,
whether a treasured heirloom or a reclaimed derelict, has a charm that
is not easily excelled.



  INDEX.


  "A Brief Description of New York", 35

  Adam Brothers, 49, 68, 73, 74, 75, 80, 85

  Adam, Robert, 55, 73, 74, 75, 175, James 73, 74

  Addison, 56

  Advertisements, 124, 125, 129, 137, 138, 144, 205, 214, 215, 228

  Albany, City of, 22, 28, 29, 45

  Albany Historical Society, 29, 37, 105, 135, 145, 194

  Allyn, Alexander, 32

  Almacks, 64

  Amboise, 148

  Amboyna wood, 222

  Amelia Sophia, Princess, 64

  André, Major, 83

  "Annals of New York," Watson, 112

  Anne of Austria, 149

  Antiquarian Society, Concord, Mass., 114

  Aubusson, 154, 158

  Auction Sales, 67, 68


  Ball-and-Claw, 53, 66, 70, 119, 123, 229, 230

  Bancker, Gerard, 134

  Bank of England, 11

  Barjeer, 81

  Baroque, 4

  Bartolozzi, 74

  Bass viol, 192, 193

  Battle Abbey, 68

  Bayard, Colonel and Mrs., 107

  "Bear's Paw", 53, 54

  Beaufait, 111

  Beaumanor Park, 5

  Beauvais, 156, 158, 159

  Beaver skins, 38

  Beds: 7, 38, 114, 115, 116, 118, 119, 126, 127, 133, 137, 138, 139,
      169, 170, 223, 224
    Canopy, 72
    Chinese, 72
    Dome, 72
    Elizabethan, 8
    English, 137
    Field, 72, 137, 138
    French, 137, 139
    Flock, 27
    Folding, 76
    Gothic, 72
    High four post, 72, 137
    Low four post, 137, 139
    Press, 81
    Sofa, 72, 86
    Summer, 86
    Tent, 72

  Bed-curtains, 9, 114, 137, 138, 139, 223

  Bedsteads, 7, 56, 170

  Bedford springs, 109, 110

  Bellomont, Lord, 107

  Belvoir, 117

  Bergavenny, Lady Joanne, 7

  Beverly, Robert, 98, 116

  Bibles, 45

  Bills of exchange, 11

  "Bird's claw", 54

  Block foot, 82

  Blois, 149

  Blondel de Nesle, 190

  "Blue Boar Inn", 5

  Bookcases, 57

  Book of Sun-Dials, 197

  Boston, 100, 101, 119, 121, 141

  Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 23

  Boucher, 156, 157

  Boulle, 4

  Boulle, André, Charles, 159, 160, 161, Sons 160

  Bowdoin, James, 144

  Bracket foot, 132, 230

  Bradley, Sarah, 36

  Brass, 226

  Brasses, 226, 227, 228

  Bricks
    English, 96, 97
    Dutch, 97
    New England, 97, 121

  Brickmakers, 97

  Britten, Charles, 209

  British Museum, 207

  Broglie, Prince de, 126

  Buchanan, President, 110

  Bull-baiting, 129

  Bureau, 19

  Burnet, Governor, 123

  Butler, Captain Lawrence, 126

  Byrd, Colonel, 97


  Cabinet, 42
    Makers, 137, 140, 141, 146, 147, 226, 227, 232

  "Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer, and General Artists Encyclopedia,
      By T. Sheraton", 86, 88

  Cabriole, 53, 66, 70, 229

  Caffieri, 163, 164

  Cane furniture, 24, 59

  Candles, 123, 124

  Candlewood, 123

  Cards, Dutch, 44, 45
    English, 122

  Card tables, 63, 80

  Carpets, 44, 113

  Carriages, 113

  Casement, 76

  Castors, 228

  Catherine of Braganza, 24, 59, 63, 208

  Cedar, 56

  Chairs, 22, 123, 134, 187, 229, 230
    French, 48, 58
    Hepplewhite, 77
    Leather, 23
    Russia Leather, 98
    Rush bottom, 106
    Sets of, 106
    Spanish, 23, 229
    Windsor, 88, 112, 113

  Chambers, Sir William, 55

  Chambord, 148

  "Chancelleries", 155, 157

  Chapin, Abel, 142

  Chapin, Mistress David, 34

  Charles I, 15, 202, 203.
          II, 24, 25, 26, 154, 202, 203

  Charleston, 96, 180, 181, 182, 195

  Chenonceau, 148

  Chests, 11-21, 40, 112, 132, 141, 163

  Chicopee, 34

  "Chinese and Gothic Architecture", 49

  Chinese designs, 48, 58
    Furniture, 55, 56
    Style, 43, 48, 56
    Taste, 49, 55, 62

  Chippendale, 48-72, 77, 86, 87, 119, 123, 135, 213, 230
    Ornaments, 52, 57, 58, 66, 69

  Choir singing, 184

  Clavichord, 174

  Clement, William, 209

  Clepsydra, 199

  Clocks, 71, 163, 197-221, 200
    Banjo, 219
    Brass works, 215
    French, 214
    Lantern, 202
    Long case, 209, 218
    Mantel, 219
    Mottoes, 212
    Price of, 215, 216

    Springs, 216
    Wooden works, 216

  Clockmakers
    Burnap, Daniel, 215
    Carmichael, John, 213
    Clark, Herman, 216
    Clement, William, 209
    Clowes, James, 212
    Downs, Ephraim, 220
    Fox, Isaac, 207
    Francis, Basil, 215
    Gould, Christopher, 213
    Graham, George, 204
    Hanks, Benjamin, 215
    Harland, Thomas, 216
    Harris, Richard, 201
    Harrison, J., 210
    Hoadley, Silas, 216
    Hopkins, Asa, 216
    Huyghens, 203
    Ives, Chauncey, 220
    Knibb, Joseph, 212
    Lepante, 214
    Le Roy, Julien, 214
    Lownes, James, 212
    Merriman, Silas, 216
    Monks, 213
    "N. O.", 200
    Peck, Timothy, 216
    Quare, Daniel, 204
    Rittenhouse, David, 217
    Rose, Joseph, 207
    Tenny, William, 215
    Terry, Silas B., 217
    Terry, Eli, 215
    Thomas, Seth, 216
    Tompion, Thomas, 202
    Vick, Richard, 213

   Villiamy, 201
   Willard, Simon, Aaron, Benjamin, Simon, Jr., 219

  Cocoa-Tree Club, 64

  Colbert, 154, 155

  Cold Spring, 133

  "Colonial Furniture", 201

  Colonial furniture, 95-148

  Colonial houses, 101

  Connecticut chest, 20, 108, 141

  Continental Congress, 134

  Cooper Institute Museum, 31, 46, 74, 167, 172

  Cornbury, Governor, 137, 138

  Costume, 29, 59, 60, 100-103, 106, 107, 120, 129, 136, 142, 144, 145,
      151-153, 162, 167-169, 233

  Counters, 65

  "Court Records of New Amsterdam", 11, 42

  Cowles House, 113

  Cox, William, 36

  Coytemore, Widow, 100

  Cressent, Charles, 161

  Cristofori, 174, 176, 177

  Cromwell, Oliver, 202, 203

  Culpeper, Thomas, 6

  Cupboards, 43, 46, 111, 136, 140

  Curaçao, 30

  Current moneys, 34

  Curtains, 114, 223

  "Cymbeline", 12


  Danvers, 100

  David, 170

  Dedham, 100

  Deerfield Memorial Hall, 99, 108, 141, 192, 193

  Denton, Daniel, 35

  Desks, 132, 135

  "Designs for Household Furniture" T. Sheraton, 86

  Desmalter, Joseph, 171

  D'Estaing, Count, 143

  Diggs, Mrs., 98

  Dilke, Lady, 149, 159

  Dining-rooms, 112

  Dining-tables, 78

  Domestic discipline, 234

  "Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson", 186

  Dorchester, 100

  Drinks, 234

  Drop handles, 42

  "Duchess", 81

  Dudley, Robert, 98

  Dutch
    Cards, 44, 45
    Chests, 46
    Costume, 29
    Foot, 229, 230
    Furniture, 18, 28-47, 56, 59, 91, 99
    Silver, 45
    Silversmiths, 40, 41
    Utensils, 34
    Wills, 32


  Earl of Arundel, Richard, 7

  Eaton, Theophilus, 21

  Easy chairs, 54, 82

  East India, 48, 80, 223

  Ébénisté, 222

  Ebony, 43

  Embroidery, 166

  Empire furniture, 90, 91

  Empire style, 88, 92, 135, 146, 170, 171, 172, 225, 231, 232

  England, 112, 145, 197, 199, 206, 218

  Epes, Colonel Francis, 17, 139

  Escutcheons, 224, 226, 227, 228

  Esopus, 133

  Evelyn's Diary, 59, 154


  "Fairfield", 104

  Faneuil, Andrew, 119, 120

  Faneuil, Hall, 121, 143

  Faneuil, Peter, 120, 121, 122

  Feet, 228, 229

  Fiot, Julius, 196

  Fire-buckets, 31

  Fireplace, 145

  Flaxman, John, 75

  Flemish foot, 228, 229

  Flemish Style, 25

  Flock beds, 27

  Fontainebleau, 148, 149, 154, 161, 169, 170, 171

  Foot-bank, 24

  Forks, 98, 120, 132

  Fox, Charles James, 64

  Fox-hunting, 128

  France, 148-150, 154, 168, 169, 231

  Francis I, 148, 149, 154. II, 148

  French chairs, 48, 58
    Court, 150
    Foot, 82, 230
    Furniture, 52, 148-173
    Revolution, 90, 157, 169
    Taste, 59, 71

  "French Furniture of the XVIII Century", 149, 159

  "Fret", heraldic, 208

  Fretwork, 62

  Frigate Brandywine, 221

  Frison, John, 98

  Frost, Miss Sarah, 66, 147

  "Furniture of Our Forefathers", 28, 223


  Gaine, Hugh, 124, 125

  Galileo, 201

  Gambling, 63-65, 162

  Gardiner, Lion, 22

  Gatty, Mrs., 197

  Gautier, William, 112, 113

  Geib, John & Sons, 194, 195

  "Gentleman's Magazine", 199, 207

  George I, 60
    II, 60, 64, 65
    III, 55, 74, 213
    IV, 64

  "Gesso", 73, 175

  Gillow, 91

  Glass, 226, 227

  Gnomon, 197

  Gobelin, 154-157

  Goler, George W., 213

  Graham, George, 204

  Grand Trianon, 170

  "Great Bed of Ware", 8

  Greek and Roman Style, 73

  Guildford, 100, 102

  Guildhall Museum, 210


  Hadley Chest, 20, 141

  Halfpenny, William, 49

  Hancock, John, 143, 144

  Hampton Court Palace, 210

  Handles, 132, 140, 146, 222-236
    Bail, 224
    Brass, 226
    China, 225
    Drop, 224
    Glass, 225
    Rosette, 225
    Watergilt, 226

  Willow, 224

  Harmonica, 193

  Harps, 188, 189, 190, 191

  Harpists, 190, 191

  Harpsichord, 174, 176, 185, 187, 188, 193

  Harris, Richard, 201

  Harvard College, 103

  Haward, John, 174

  "Hawkin's History of Music", 179

  Haynes, John, 21

  Hempstead, 35, 45
    Plains, 128

  Henrico County, 98, 139

  Hepplewhite, 69, 71, 76-80, 85, 87, 119, 132, 138, 224

  Hessians, 135

  "Highboy", 140

  "History of Boston." Drake, 179

  "History of Music in Boston." Dwight, 191

  "History of Music in New England." Hood, 182

  "History of New England." Palfrey, 102

  "History of New York." Smith, 66, 67

  "History of South Carolina." McCrady, 96

  "History and Present State of Virginia.", 115

  "Historic Landmarks of Maryland and Virginia.", 185

  Hitchcock, Deacon Justin, 192

  Hitchcock, Thomas and John, 174

  Hobbs, Richard, 98

  Hochbrücker, 188

  Hogarth, 59

  Hollingbourne Manor, 6

  Hooker, Robert, 203

  Hope, Thomas, 231

  Horologe, 209

  Horse-racing, 128, 129

  Hotel Montmorency, 1

  Hour-glass, 199, 200

  Hoyt, William M., 80, 107, 139, 213, 219


  Ince & Mayhew, 48, 49

  Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 112

  Inns, 142

  Inventories, 17, 21, 22, 26, 32, 33, 37, 38, 41, 45, 98, 100, 102,
      103, 105, 108, 109, 117, 122, 123, 133-136, 139, 142, 187

  Italian Work, 150

  Italy, 148


  Jacobean Furniture, 9, 10, 12

  James I., 9, 11, 15, 205
    II., 64

  Jamestown, 95

  Japanning, 5

  Jefferson, Thomas, 48, 186

  Joined Work, 5

  Johnson, Thomas, 48

  Johnson Hall, 187

  Josephine, Empress, 169, 170, 171

  "Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth", 26

  "Journeyman's Cabinet and Chair-Makers Philadelphia Book of Prices", 109


  Kauffmann, Angelica, 73, 74

  Kidd, Captain William, 37

  Killgore, A., 92
    Misses, 93, 111

  King's Chapel, 179, 180

  King's College, 234, 235

  King David, 189

  "King Hooper House", 114

  "King Richard's Bed", 6

  Knife-boxes, 82, 89

  Kitchen Utensils, 122


  Lacquer, 4, 145, 210

  Lady Joanne Bergavenny, 7

  Lady Moody, 13

  Lake, Mrs., 21, 119

  Lamb, Charles, 199

  Lamberton, George, 26

  Lamps, 123, 124

  Lanterns, 120

  Le Brun, 154, 155

  Lemaire, 156

  Le Notre, 150

  "Letters of Pacification", 183

  Library, 118

  Lignum-vitæ, 122

  "Lining-out", 182, 183

  Little Trianon, 165, 169

  Lloyd, Cornelius, 97

  Lock, Matthias, 48

  Lockwood, 141, 201, 219

  London, 97, 120, 122, 141

  London Cabinet-Maker's Society, 76

  London Clock-Maker's Company, 201

  Long Island, 45

  Long Island Dutch, 34

  Looking Glasses, 43, 70

  Louis XII., 149
    XIII., 148
    XIV., 71, 150-155, 157-159, 161, 172
    XV., 52, 57, 161-163, 165, 172, 173, 176
    XVI., 158, 165, 167, 172, 173

  Louvre, 148, 160

  "Lowboy", 143

  Luynes, Duc de, 157


  Madison, Dolly, 84

  Mahogany, 43, 44, 51, 54, 58, 61, 81, 84, 86, 90, 91, 109, 117, 123,
      132, 138, 140, 172, 232

  Maintenon, Madame de, 151

  Manwaring, Robert, 49

  Mansart, 151

  Marie Antoinette, 165, 166, 169, 172, 188, 222

  Marlborough, Duke and Duchess, 67

  Marquetry, 3, 46

  Martin Brothers, 164, 165

  Maryland, 96

  Massachusett's General Court, 101

  Memorial Hall, Philadelphia, 15, 56, 61, 70, 196

  Metal mounts, 55, 139, 146, 163-167, 171-173, 211

  Metropolitan Museum, New York, 46, 177, 188

  "Mischianza", 83

  Michaud, Doctor, 83

  Monticello, 186, 187

  Montgomery, General, 164

  Morris, Mrs., 126

  Moulding, 19

  Mount Vernon, 116, 117, 185, 197, 219

  Mott, Charles, 33

  "Music in America." Ritter, 184

  Musical glasses, 193

  Musical Instruments, 174-196

  Musical Societies, 195


  Naderman, 188

  Napoleon, 146, 149, 170, 171, 231

  Napoleonic style, 91

  New Amsterdam, 28, 31, 35, 36, 45
    Court records of, 11, 42

  Newbury, 101

  New England, 26, 28, 99, 103, 108, 141, 180

  New Haven Colony, 20, 26, 201

  New Jersey, State Library, 135

  New York, City of, 32, 34, 44, 45, 126, 128, 198, 215

  "New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury", 109, 113, 129, 144

  "New York Records of the Revolution", 134

  Newport, 218, 219

  Nutwood, 31, 223


  Oak, American, 18
    English, 10
    Spanish, 59

  Oeben, 165

  "Old Manse", 88

  "Old Palace Yard", 200, 201

  Old Songs, 185, 186, 195

  "Old State House", Boston, 111

  "Old Stone House", 100

  "Olden-Time Music", Brooks, 185

  Olive-wood, 14, 15

  Oliver, Mrs. B. H., 105

  Oort, John, 36

  Organs, 178-182, 184, 191

  Organists, 179, 181

  Ormolu, 4, 163, 164, 169, 211

  "Overdoors", 49

  "Over-mantels", 71


  Panelling, oak, 2

  Peabody, A. P., 235

  Pembroke Tables, 82

  Pendulum, 208-211, 215, 217

  Penn, William, 104, 105

  Pennsylvania, 104

  "Pennsylvania Stoves", 113

  Pepys's Diary, 63, 175, 191, 205, 207, 208

  Percier & Fontaine, 90

  Percy, George, 97

  Pergolese, 73, 74

  Pesaro, Domenico di, 175

  Pewter, 232, 233

  Philadelphia, 83, 84, 103, 106, 109, 112, 126, 127, 134, 215, 217

  Piano, 174, 176-178, 191, 193-196

  Pickering, Rev. Theophilus, 108

  Pomander Balls, 235, 236

  Pompadour, Madame de, 162

  Pratt, Phineas, 141

  Pringle House, 96

  Psaltery, 189


  Quare, Daniel, 204, 210

  Queen Anne, 59, 64, 211, 229

  Queen Caroline, 60

  Queen Catherine, 63

  Quincy, Josiah, 97, 181


  Rails, 18

  Raleigh, Sir W., 51

  Rappahannock, 98

  "Record of the Damages done by the British," etc., 135

  Regency, 160, 161

  Renaissance, French, 148, 149
    Furniture, 10, 14

  Revolution, 82, 97, 127, 132, 133

  Rich, Charles, 84

  Richard Coeur de Lion, 190

  Riesener, 165, 166, 222

  Ripley, Rev. Ezra, 88, 108, 114

  Rittenhouse, David, 217

  Rochefoucauld, Duc de La, 151

  Rococo, 3

  Roelantsen, Adam, 35

  Rosewood, 54, 147

  Salem, 84, 108, 121

  Santvoordt, Cornelis Van, 133

  Satin-wood, 73, 80, 81

  Schenectady, 28

  "Set-work.", 22, 27

  Sèvres, 146, 163

  Sewall, Rev. Samuel, 17

  Shaw, Henry, 6, 8

  Shearer, Thomas, 69, 76-78, 91

  Sheets, 137

  Sheraton, Thomas, 69, 71, 77, 78, 84-91, 99, 113, 140, 146, 147,
      224, 230, 231

      "     foot, 85

  Sideboards, 69, 77, 78, 86, 90

  Silver Furniture, 10

  Singleton, Miss, 28

  Singing-schools, 183

  Sleeping-bunk, 42

  Smith, George, 91

  Smith, Captain John, 15, 95

  South Carolina, 180, 181

  South Carolina College, 53

  South Kensington Museum, 8, 25, 54, 188

  "Spade-foot", 74, 81, 230

  Spandrels, 212, 213

  Spanish chairs, 23
    Foot, 23, 229
    Leather, 22, 23, 223
    Style, 25, 229

  "Specimens of Early Furniture", 6

  "Spectator", 59

  Spinet, 174, 175, 185

  Splat, 53, 58, 66, 77, 123, 229, 230

  St. Cecilia Society, 181

  St. Martin's Lane, 52

  St. Paul's Chapel, 164, 183

  St. Philip's Church, 181

  St. Simon, 153

  Staffordshire, 93

  Steenwych, Madam, 30

  Stiles, 18

  Stillrooms, 235

  Stools, 10

  Stoves, 145

  Strawberry Hill, 56, 75, 138

  "Strong-box", 134

  Stuarts, 15

  "Style" French, 149

  Sun-dials, 197, 199


  Table, old oak, 9

  Tadema, Alma, 73

  Taine, M., 152

  Tapestry, 154, 159

  Tayloe House, 94

  Tea, 62, 144
    Caddies, 57
    Tables, 61, 62

  Temple, Sir William, 198, 199

  Terry, Eli and Silas, 215, 220

  Testers, 8

  "The Cabinet-Maker & Upholsterer's Guide, or Repository of Designs for
    Every Article of Household Furniture, etc." By A. Hepplewhite, 77, 78

  "The Cabinet-Maker & Upholsterer's Drawing Book.", By T. Sheraton, 86

  "The Decorative Part of Civil Architecture", 55

  "The Gentlemen's & Cabinet-Maker's Director", 50, 52, 54, 65, 72, 123

  "The Journeyman's Cabinet and Chair-Makers Philadelphia Book of
    Prices", 138, 228

  "The London Cabinet-Maker's Book of Prices", 76

  "The Maccaroni Magazine or Monthly Intelligence of the
    Fashions & Diversions", 129

  "The Magazine a la Mode, or Fashionable Miscellany", 129

  Tinder and Steel, 42

  Tobacco, 96

  Tompion, Thomas, 202, 208, 211, 213

  Trundle-bed, 42

  "Turkey-work", 23

  Turned-wood work, 24

  "Twenty New Designs of Chinese Lattice and other Works for Staircases,
    Gates, Pailings, etc.", 49


  "Universal System of Household Furnishing", 48

  Upholstery stuffs, 223


  Van Rensselaer, 40, 41, 45, 140, 146

  Vatican, 91

  Veneering, 3

  Venetian paste, 124

  Vernis-Martin, 164, 165

  Versailles, 150-153, 159, 168, 170, 171

  Virginal, 174

  Virginia, 96-98, 115, 116, 126, 140, 185, 219


  Wainscot, 51, 111, 112, 149

  Wall papers, 113, 114, 157

  Walpole, Horace, 56, 64, 138

  Wardrobes, 72, 164

  Ware, Isaac, 50

  Waring Galleries, London, 19, 25, 42, 47, 81, 87, 89, 159, 169

  Washington, D. C., 94

  Washington, General, 90, 116, 117, 197, 220, 233, 234

  Watches, 200-202, 206

  Watches, striking, 206

  Watteau, 168

  Wayside Inn, 143

  Wedgwood, Josiah, 75, 124

  West India Company, 35

  West Indies, 112

  Weymouth, 141

  Whipple House, 90, 99, 137

  Whitfield's House, 102

  Wigs, 125

  William III., 211

  Willards, Simon, Aaron, Benjamin, Simon, Jr., 219

  Wine coolers, 61, 89, 90

  Winthrop, Governor, 100

      "     Mrs., 101

  "Wooden ware", 117, 233

  Woods, 108, 136, 137, 141, 222, 223, 226

  Worcester, 52

  "Works in Architecture by Robert and James Adam, Esquires", 74


  Yale University Library, 123

  Youghal, 51


  Zucchi, 74





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