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
Cane back. Seat upholstered in damask. Finely carved legs and
stretcher.]
Mirrors began to take a prominent place in interior decoration. The
house of Nell Gwynne in St. James's Square had one room entirely lined
with glass mirrors. Hampton Court is full of mirrors, and they are
arranged with considerable skill. By an artful arrangement the mirror in
the King's Writing Closet is placed at such an angle that the reflection
of the whole suite of rooms may be seen in it. The looking glasses made
in this country in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
were the work of Venetian and French workmen. The plates had a bevel of
an inch in width, and these bevels followed the shape of the frame,
whether square or oval. A factory was established near Battersea which
produced some fine work of this nature. It will be noticed by the
collector who is observant that the bevels differ considerably from
modern bevels. The angle is not such an acute one, and sometimes the
edges are double bevelled. Many of the mirrors of the time of William
and Mary had an ornamented border of blue glass. Sometimes the mirror
was painted with festoons of flowers and with birds in French manner. In
imitation of Italian style the back of the mirror, in examples a little
later, was worked upon in the style of intaglio, or gem cutting, this
presenting a dull silver surface when seen from the front.
In picture frames, in chimneypieces, or in mirror frames the school of
Grinling Gibbons was still pre-eminent in carving. Now and again are
found traces of Italian or Louis XIV. influence, but as a whole the
English carver held his own, and the traditions of Grinling Gibbons were
maintained, and he did not easily allow himself to be carried away by
foreign elaborations.
When William of Orange came over in 1688 he brought with him many of his
own countrymen as military and civil advisers, and in their train came
artists and craftsmen, who introduced Dutch art into England, and
prepared the way for the more homely style of Queen Anne. Walnut
cabinets inlaid with various woods, and with ivory squares representing
miniature Dutch courtyards in the recesses of cabinets, had found their
way into England. With the period of William and Mary the cabriole leg
in chairs and in tables became popular--at first an English adaptation
of Dutch models--but later to develop into the glorious creations of the
age of walnut.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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