Illustrated History of Furniture: From the Earliest to the Present TimeLitchfield, Frederick
History
Illustrated History of Furniture: From the Earliest to the Present Time
Litchfield, Frederick
Furniture -- History
Another city hall, the interior woodwork of which dates from just after
the Great Fire, is that of the Stationers' Company, in Ave Maria Lane,
close to Ludgate Hill. Mr. Charles Robert Rivington, the present clerk to
the Company, has written a pamphlet, full of very interesting records of
this ancient and worshipful corporation, from which the following
paragraph is a quotation:--"The first meeting of the court after the fire
was held at Cook's Hall, and the subsequent courts, until the hall was
re-built, at the Lame Hospital Hall, i.e., St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
In 1670 a committee was appointed to re-build the hall; and in 1674 the
Court agreed with Stephen Colledge (the famous Protestant joiner, who was
afterwards hanged at Oxford in 1681) to wainscot the hall 'with
well-seasoned and well-matched wainscot, according to a model delivered in
for the sum of £300.' His work is now to be seen in excellent condition."
[Illustration: The Master's Chair. (_Hall of the Brewers' Company._)]
Mr. Rivington read his paper to the London and Middlesex Archaeological
Society in 1881; and the writer can with pleasure confirm the statement as
to the condition, in 1892, of this fine specimen of seventeenth century
work. Less ornate and elaborate than the Brewers' Hall, the panels are
only slightly relieved with carved mouldings; but the end of the room, or
main entrance, opposite the place of the old daïs (long since removed), is
somewhat similar to the Brewers', and presents a fine architectural
effect, which will be observed in the illustration on p. 117.
[Illustration: Carved Oak Livery Cupboard. In the Hall of the
Stationers'Company. Made in 1674, the curved pediment added later,
probably in 1788.]
[Illustration: Carved Oak Napkin Press Lent to the S. Kensington Museum by
H. Farrer, Esq. Early XVII. Century.]
There is above, an illustration of one of the two livery cupboards, which
formerly stood on the daïs, and these are good examples of the cupboards
for display of plate of this period. The lower part was formerly the
receptacle of unused viands, distributed to the poor after the feast. In
their original state these livery cupboards finished with a straight
cornice, the broken pediments with the eagle (the Company's crest) having
most probably been added when the hall was, to quote an
inscription on a shield, "repaired and beautified in the mayoralty of the
Right Honourable William Gill, in the year 1788," when Mr. Thomas Hooke
was master, and Mr. Field and Mr. Rivington (the present clerk's
grandfather) wardens.
[Illustration: Arm Chairs.
Chair upholstered in Spitalfields silk. Hampton Court Palace.
Carved and upholstered Chair. Hardwick Hall.
Chair upholstered in Spitalfields silk. Knole, Sevenoaks.
Period: William III. To Queen Anne.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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