The tripod table offered difficulties of construction and is not often found. The example illustrated is probably unique in form. In date it is about 1760, and is remarkable for the attempt at elaborate rococo work. Sometimes, though not often, mahogany was used in farmhouse examples. The table illustrated (p. 183) is an instance of the use of this wood instead of oak. It is about 1730 in date, and exhibits an unusual form in the round cross stretcher, a touch of originality by the maker. It is, as will be seen, a square-topped table with flaps. Elaboration of a high order was happily not often attempted by the country workman, or the results with his limited experience would have been disastrous. Instead of a fine series of really good, solid, and well-constructed furniture made for practical use we should have had a wilderness of failures at attempting the impossible. A copy of a fine Chippendale side-table illustrated (p. 187) is a case in point. There is the usual want of balance in the poise of the leg, but the carving is of exceptional character. The table beneath, with its long and tapering legs, has all the characteristics of the Adam style. The beaded decoration on the legs, the classic fluting and the carved rosette claim distant relationship with the classic inventions of Robert Adam. The wood is pinewood, and as an example it is of singular interest. The rapid survey of eighteenth-century influences bearing on the class of furniture of which this volume treats will perhaps induce the collector to scrutinise more carefully all pieces coming under his notice, with a view to arriving at their salient features in connection with the native design of more or less untutored craftsmen. [Illustration: ELABORATE TABLE. Country attempt to imitate fine Chippendale side table. Note the want of balance in leg.] [Illustration: PINEWOOD COUNTRY-MADE ADAM TABLE. Note the unusually long leg.] CHAPTER VII THE EVOLUTION OF THE CHAIR [Illustration: OAK ARM-CHAIR. DATE _C._ 1675. With elaborate scroll back.] [Illustration: OAK ARM-CHAIR. DATE 1650. With scratched lozenge.] [Illustration: CHESTNUT ARM-CHAIR. DATE 1690.] [Illustration: OAK ARM-CHAIR. DATE 1690.] (_By the courtesy of Messrs. Phillips, Hitchin._) CHAPTER VII THE EVOLUTION OF THE CHAIR Early days--The typical Jacobean oak chair--The evolution of the stretcher--The chair-back and its development--Transition between Jacobean and William and Mary forms--Farmhouse styles contemporary with the cane-back chair--The Queen Anne splat--Country Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton--The grandfather chair--Ladder-back types--The spindle-back chair--Corner chairs.