Chats on Old Furniture: A Practical Guide for Collectors — John Shaqi
Chats on Old Furniture: A Practical Guide for CollectorsHayden, Arthur
History
Chats on Old Furniture: A Practical Guide for Collectors
Hayden, Arthur
Collectors and collecting; Furniture -- History
The roofs of the Early Tudor mansions were magnificent specimens of
woodwork. But the old style of king-post, queen-post, or hammer-beam
roof was prevalent. The panelling, too, of halls and rooms retained the
formal character in its mouldings, and various "linen" patterns were
used, so called from their resemblance to a folded napkin, an
ornamentation largely used towards the end of the Perpendicular style,
which was characteristic of English domestic architecture in the
fifteenth century. To this period belongs the superb woodcarving of the
renowned choir stalls of Henry VII.'s Chapel in Westminster Abbey.
The bench of oak illustrated (p. 60) shows a common form of panel with
linen ornament, and is French, of about the year 1500. The seat, as will
be seen, is arranged as a locked coffer.
[Illustration: FIREPLACE AND OAK PANELLING FROM THE "OLD PALACE" AT
BROMLEY-BY-BOW. BUILT IN 1606.
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
The Elizabethan woodcarver revelled in grotesque figure work, in
intricate interlacings of strapwork, borrowed from the Flemish, and
ribbon ornamentation, adapted from the French. He delighted in massive
embellishment of magnificent proportions. Among Tudor woodwork the
carved oak screen of the Middle Temple Hall is a noteworthy example of
the sumptuousness and splendour of interior decoration of the English
Renaissance. These screens supporting the minstrels' gallery in old
halls are usually exceptionally rich in detail. Gray's Inn (dated 1560)
and the Charterhouse (dated 1571) are other examples of the best period
of sixteenth-century woodwork in England.
Christ Church at Oxford, Grimsthorp in Lincolnshire, Kenninghall in
Norfolk, Layer Marney Towers in Essex, and Sutton Place at Guildford,
are all representative structures typical of the halls and manor houses
being built at the time of the English Renaissance.
In the Victoria and Albert Museum has been re-erected a room having the
oak panelling from the "Old Palace" at Bromley-by-Bow, which was built
in 1606. The massive fireplace with the royal coat of arms above, with
the niches in which stand carved figures of two saints, together with
the contemporary iron fire-dogs standing in the hearth, give a picture
of what an old Elizabethan hall was like.
[Illustration: ELIZABETHAN BEDSTEAD. DATED 1593.
Carved oak, ornamented in marquetry.
(Height, 7 ft. 4 in.; length, 7 ft. 11 in.; width, 5 ft. 8 in.)
(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]
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