The Old Furniture Book, with a Sketch of Past Days and WaysMoore, N. Hudson
History
The Old Furniture Book, with a Sketch of Past Days and Ways
Moore, N. Hudson
Furniture
This Spanish foot retained its popularity a long time, appearing on
many varieties of chairs almost as late as 1750. It was associated with
cane, rush, leather, and stuff bottoms, was seen on arm and side chairs
with slatted backs, and backs of cane and leather. Sometimes on the
"roundabout chairs," as those having a square seat set with one angle
pointed forward were called (see Figure 57), only the front foot was in
Spanish style, the others being turned knobs which accorded with the
turned legs and rails. Even on some of the so-called Queen Anne chairs
with spoon backs, a modified form of Spanish foot was to be found, but
this eventually gave way to the familiar ball-and-claw cabriole leg, or
the regular Dutch foot (see Figure 11). It is curious that the cabriole
leg with ball-and-claw foot was seen on pieces of furniture like both
the high and low chests of drawers before it was used on chairs (see
Figure 57), and the earliest of these Queen Anne chairs had the bandy
leg with the plain Dutch foot. This foot is used with the solid splat
and the spoon-shaped back with rounded ends to the top.
Chippendale, in his earliest work, began to use the models then in
vogue, and, with the bandy leg which was found only on the two front
legs of chairs, used also a modified Dutch foot. Very soon he used
instead the ball-and-claw foot, with or without the underbrace, and
with the more ornamental foot the splat became pierced and carved and
very ornate and rich. The later straight legged Chippendale chair (see
Chapter III) came into favour, with or without underbraces, and late
in the eighteenth century the other great cabinet-makers came along,
each with his distinctive styles and characteristics. The first of
these is Hepplewhite, who never achieved the success of Chippendale,
who preceded him, nor of Sheraton, who succeeded him, yet whose work is
often very beautiful. He did not, of course confine himself to any one
style of foot or leg, yet on many of his chairs, tables, and sideboards
he used what is called the "spade foot." This was varied in many ways,
but the most common form is shown in Figure 100.
Both Hepplewhite and Sheraton, as well as the other makers of the
eighteenth century, used a variety of shapes of feet, for bureaus,
desks, bookcases, and other pieces which were in no way distinctive.
Each maker used the bracket foot as suited him best, adding curves
to suit his fancy or the exigencies of the case, or inlay or even
carving. A plain bracket foot is shown in Figure 100. The French foot
(Fig. 100) is more ornate and slender, and comes on chests of drawers,
bureaus, etc. Inlay is very often used for its decoration, and it adds
a graceful line to the piece it is used on, which is always of choice
wood inlaid or painted.
[Illustration: _Flemish._]
[Illustration: _Spanish._]
[Illustration: _Dutch._]
[Illustration: _Dutch._]
[Illustration: _Chippendale._]
[Illustration: _Bracket._]
[Illustration: _French Foot._]
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