Typical chairs are shown in Plates XXXIII and XXXIV from the Rijks
Museum. In the first there is a caned armchair on the left, an
upholstered armchair on the right, with turned legs and rails; and in
the middle a chair in the Marot style, with a mirror-shaped back, cane
panel, straight legs and crossed straining-rails. The example on the
extreme left of Plate XXXIV is an armchair of carved oak, with scrolled
arms and cane seat and back. It is similar to the one without arms from
Cluny in Plate XLV. A cane chair without arms appears in the centre, and
on the right an armchair with turned legs, carved top rail, and leather
back and seat. The Flemish chair on Plate XLV is constantly seen in the
rooms of the seventeenth century.
The chair on the left of Plate XXX in the Cluny Museum, called “Spanish
of the Seventeenth Century,” is a curious transitional piece. The high
back and seat are covered with Spanish leather put on with large-headed
nails. The pattern of the leather represents peacocks, flowers and human
figures. The ornamentation of the top rail consists of a leaf and
scrolls ending in sharp spikes at the corners, very much in the early
Regency style. On the rail below the seat is carved a heart-shaped
ornament. The front legs are cabriole, connected with stretchers and
ending in hoof feet. The back legs, also connected by stretchers, are
straight.
Other furniture included spinets and harpsichords, Friesland clocks,
table watches and pocket watches, which, when not in use, were placed in
little cases, as were the mirrors the ladies wore at their waists. Sand-
or hour-glasses were to be found especially in the kitchens, and the
table-bell, which had now supplanted the whistle as a call for the
servants.
The woods used for furniture were oak, walnut, cedar, olive, nutwood,
ebony (black, green and yellow); kingwood, from Brazil, a hard wood with
black veins on a chocolate ground; beef-wood, from New Holland, of a
pale red used for borders; _palissandre_, or violet wood, from Guiana,
for inlays on fine furniture; and, above all, _sacredaan_, or Java
mahogany, a very hard wood, sweet smelling and of a bright yellow or
pale orange colour. This was a favourite wood for chests, as the odour
served to protect furs and woollen stuffs from the attacks of moths,
etc.
The Dutch kitchen towards the end of the century was fully equipped with
all kinds of brushes, brooms, pots, pans and every utensil that was
necessary to effect the cleanliness and produce the good cheer so
necessary to every prosperous burgher. In 1680, a kitchen of a man of
moderate means in New Amsterdam contained the following:
£ _s._ _d._
Fourteen pewter dishes, little and great 3 5 0
Three ditto basons, one salt seller, one pye plate 0 9 0
Four chamber potts, one warming pan of brasse 0 15 0
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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