The adaptability and universality of wood for domestic and public purposes, its susceptibility to carving and enrichment, its beautiful texture, grain and colour, have made it one of the most useful of materials in the constructive and decorative arts.

The many chairs, tables and chests of ancient times, and the beautiful choir stalls, cabinets and screens of the middle ages are a tribute to the vitality, inventiveness and artistic perception of the old craftsman.

The universality of the chair has tended to preserve the form through many centuries. The chair has undergone various modifications, from the ornate Egyptian one to the Assyrian example with the supports of fir-cones. In the Greek example, the beauty and simplicity of profile is remarkable, while the Chair of St. Peter, 1st century A.D., is purely architectonic with enrichments of gold and ivory.

The Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey, of the time of Edward I., is one of the earliest in England, offering a strong contrast to the chairs of the 18th century by Chippendale and Sheraton.

A Venetian chair of the 16th century shows a skilful but inappropriate treatment.

The Arabians at Cairo, in the 15th century, produced some beautiful geometrical wood panelling, frequently inlaid with ebony and ivory, and having a marvellous intricacy of line and detail.

In Italy, during the 16th century, many beautifully carved cassone or chests, in walnut, enriched with gilding, were produced, similar to the one here figured from South Kensington Museum.

In Italy the beautiful carved choir stalls of the 16th century were frequently enriched with Intarsia, a light wood inlay upon a dark ground, this intarsia being afterwards slightly etched and black rubbed in, or scorched with hot sand or irons. The choir stalls at St. Organo, Verona, and the Certosa, at Pavia, are fine examples of Intarsia.

In the Renascence of France we meet with many examples of beautiful furniture, great skill, taste and ingenuity being brought to bear upon this work. Jean Goujon, Bachelier and Philibert de l’Orme were famed for their wood carvings in the 16th century.

In 1642, AndrÉ Charles Boule introduced a veneered work composed of thin tortoise-shell and brass, frequently chased or engraved; this is now termed Boule work. In some of the later work the shell is laid on a vermilion or gold ground, which greatly enhances its effect. In the 18th century, Boule work was still made in France, but new methods and new men came to the front, amongst others were Riesener and David Roentgen, who produced splendid Marquetry of flowers, festoons and diaper patterns inlaid in various coloured woods. Both these men worked in mahogany and ebony, and their lighter marquetry was frequently shaded by scorching with hot sand. These pieces of furniture were usually enriched with gilt, bronze or metal mountings by GouthiÈre, a contemporary craftsman. A beautiful mode of enriching woodwork was introduced by Vernis Martin, 1706-70; this was the use of a gold and green lac, which was transparent and brilliant, and similar to the beautiful lac work of Japan.

Of English men of this period, Thomas Chippendale produced some good furniture and published a book of designs in 1764, which undoubtedly influenced much of the furniture of that period; Mathias Lock was another noted cabinet maker. In 1789, A. Hepplewhite published a book on furniture, and, in 1795, Thomas Sheraton published a work on the same subject.

The beautiful panelling and carved mantels of the many fine halls of the time of Elizabeth and James are characteristic of English work. Contemporary with this are the beautiful English panelled chests with quaint imagery and enrichments, and the curious Jacobean bed-foot with its pierced pedestal and baluster pillar.

With Grinling Gibbons, who died in 1721, wood carving reached its culmination for delicacy and skilful craftsmanship.