Ancient and Modern Furniture and Woodwork — John Shaqi
Ancient and Modern Furniture and WoodworkPollen, John Hungerford
History
Ancient and Modern Furniture and Woodwork
Pollen, John Hungerford
Furniture; Woodwork
The number of excellent workmen and the size and architectural
character of so much of the woodwork of the day contributed to give
all panelled work, no matter of what description, an architectural
type; and furniture shared in this change. Coffers and chests, as well
as standards or stall-ends in churches, and bench-ends in large rooms
and halls, were designed after the pattern of window tracery. The
panel in the above woodcut from a French chest of this date, is a very
delicate and beautiful example. Little buttresses and pinnacles were
often placed on the angles or the divisions between the panels. At
South Kensington, the buffet, n^{o.} 8,439 and the chest, n^{o.}
2,789, with other pieces are of this kind; also a grand cabinet of
German make in the same collection. This last, n^{o.} 497, is of the
rudest construction, but a few roughly cut lines of moulding and some
effective ironwork give it richness and dignity that are wanting in
many pieces more scientifically made and more decoratively treated.
The quantity of tapestry employed in these centuries in fitting up
houses and the tents used either during a campaign or in progresses
from one estate to another was prodigious, and kept increasing.
Lancaster entertained the king of Portugal in his tent between Mouçal
and Malgaço, fitted up with hangings of arras "as if he had been at
Hertford, Leicester, or any of his manors." As early as 1313, when
Isabel of Bavaria made her entry into Paris, the whole street of St.
Denis, Froissart tells us, "was covered with a canopy of rich camlet
and silk cloths, as if they had the cloths for nothing, or were at
Alexandria or Damascus. I (the writer of this account) was present,
and was astonished whence such quantities of rich stuffs and ornaments
could have come, for all the houses on each side of the street of St.
Denis, as far as the Châtelet, or indeed to the great bridge, were
hung with tapestries representing various scenes and histories, to
the delight of all beholders." The expense incurred in timber work on
these occasions may be estimated from the long lists of pageants, and
the scale on which each was prepared on this and like occasions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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