French and English furniture : $b distinctive styles and periods described and illustratedSingleton, Esther
History
French and English furniture : $b distinctive styles and periods described and illustrated
Singleton, Esther
Furniture -- England; Furniture -- France
Grates, ornamental parts of grates of wrought brass and fire-screens
also receive attention. The cornice, wall decorations, borders for
paper-hangings, designs for frets that may be applied to various uses,
patterns for “handles and escutcheons for brass-work” appear among all
the miscellaneous articles. Chamber organs, book shelves, china shelves,
terms for busts, stands for tall china vases and beakers and
fire-screens are all included. Among the latter we may note that those
that stand on four legs are commonly called “horse fire-screens.” Some
of them slide up and down, others stand on the horse-leg, and others
fold.
Clock-cases also appear; one is ornamented with Gothic columns, and one
with a serpent running around the oval dial, “representing Time lasting
to Eternity, and the Wings on the sides show how swiftly it flies away.”
Table clock-cases also occur.
One of his handsome cisterns, or wine-coolers, which always stood
beneath the sideboard table, was cut in the form of a shell supported by
cherubs with tails that rose out of the grass. This was to be executed
in “wood or marble and cut out of the solid.” The other designs “may be
made in parts and joined with the Brass-work.” Tea-kettle stands of
delicate proportions, tea-trays and tea-chests received much attention.
Some of them had brass or silver ornaments and some were in the Gothic
or Chinese taste. The breakfast table and the china table, intended both
for use and the display of porcelain, are represented.
No. 1 on Plate XXXVII. is a breakfast table. Its height is 28 inches and
its leaves 45 inches. Its carved straining-rails are interesting. No. 2
on the same plate is a china table, the straining-rail of which drips
profusely with icicles or falling water.
From a careful study of the _Gentleman’s and Cabinet-Maker’s Director_
we find that Chippendale’s favourite ornaments are the shell, the fret,
the endive and acanthus leaves, the dolphin, the wyvern, the ram’s head
holding swags, the squirrel, the crow, the fox, the long-tailed and
long-billed bird, the dog, the lion, the masque, the quatrefoil,
ribbons, flowers of various kinds, the spiky thorn, bells, the Chinese
mandarin, the Chinese pagoda, the Chinese umbrella, the Chinese canopy
with bells at the corners, the monkey’s head, the cockatrice, the pine
cone, Cupids, satyrs, Bacchantes, boys blowing horns, the rising sun,
the two cɔ, the eagle, the horn, violin, pipes, and the lion’s head. We
also note an occasional use of the fluttering ribbon, attributes of
music, poetry, hunting, emblems of war, the sea, the bull’s head, the
serpent among flowers, the caduceus, and Venus rising from the sea in
her shell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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