The table which is illustrated (p. 78) is a typical example of the table in ordinary use in Elizabethan days. This table replaced a stone altar in a church in Shropshire at the time of the Reformation. It was late in the reign of Queen Elizabeth that upholstered chairs became more general. Sir John Harrington, writing in 1597, gives evidence of this in the assertion that "the fashion of cushioned chayrs is taken up in every merchant's house." Wooden seats had hitherto not been thought too hard, and chairs imported from Spain had leather seats and backs of fine tooled work richly gilded and decorated. In the latter days of Elizabeth loose cushions were used for chairs and for window seats, and were elaborately wrought in velvet, or were of satin embroidered in colours, with pearls as ornamentation, and edged with gold or silver lace. The upholstered chair belongs more properly to the Jacobean period, and in the next chapter will be shown several specimens of those used by James I. In Elizabethan panelling to rooms, in chimneypieces, doorways, screens such as those built across the end of a hall and supporting the minstrels' gallery, the wood used was nearly always English oak, and most of the thinner parts, such as that designed for panels and smaller surfaces, was obtained by splitting the timber, thus exhibiting the beautiful figure of the wood so noticeable in old examples. RECENT SALE PRICES.[1] L s. d. Chest, oak, with inlaid panels under arches, with caryatid figures carved in box-wood, English, temp. Elizabeth. Christie, January 29, 1904. 40 9 0 Tudor mantelpiece, with elaborately carved jambs, panels, } brackets, sides, and cornice, 6 ft. by 7 ft. 3 in. high.} Herbert Wright, Ipswich, February 19, 1904 } } 155 0 0 Old oak panelling, in all about 60 ft. run and 6 ft. 6 in. } high, with 17 carved panels and 3 fluted pilasters } fitted in same, part being surmounted by a cornice. } Herbert Wright, Ipswich, February 19, 1904 } Credence, walnut-wood, with a cupboard and drawer above and shelf beneath, the corners are returned, the central panel has carved upon it, in low relief, circular medallions, pierced steel hinges and lock, 36 in. wide, 50 in. high, early sixteenth century. Christie, May 6, 1904 346 0 0 Bedstead, Elizabethan, with panelled and carved canopy top, supported by fluted and carved pillars, inlaid and panelled back, with raised figures and flowers in relief, also having a carved panelled footboard. C. W. Provis & Son, Manchester, May 9, 1904 22 10 0