ANTIQUE: EGYPT, ASSYRIA, GREECE, AND ROME.

The furniture of the antique nations has been noticed in some instances in the former volume of this work, especially in the cases of Egyptian and Assyrian examples, where fortunately we can point out the many representations of it that occur on the bas-reliefs. It is from these that we chiefly form an opinion as to how the palaces and interiors must have been furnished, for, owing to the great lapse of time, nearly every vestige of furniture of these old nations has passed away.

The British Museum and the Louvre contain a few Egyptian chairs or seats that have been made in ebony and ivory, which owe their preservation to the lasting nature of the material.

Two Egyptian chairs or thrones are illustrated at Figs. 146 and 147, in the first part of this work, and a wooden coffer at Fig. 149. At Fig. 148 carpenters are represented as occupied in chair making, the feet and legs of the chairs being designed from animals’ limbs, and the stools on which the workmen are sitting are blocks of wood hollowed out at the top. The Egyptian couch was of a straight-lined design in the body with a curved head like an ordinary sofa, the legs, feet, and other salient points being carved with heads, feet, and tails of animals. Some boxes and coffers with gable tops dovetailed together, small toilet boxes having carved or painted decoration, and mummy cases of cedar-wood having elaborate hieroglyphic decorations, may be seen in the British Museum and in the Louvre. Chariot and horse furniture are well represented in the reliefs and wall paintings. Egypt was famed for chariot building, and exported them in trade to the surrounding nations. We read that King Solomon imported his war-chariots from Egypt.

If examples of Egyptian furniture are scarce, the furniture of Assyria is practically non-existent, as the climate of the latter country was not so dry or preservative as that of Egypt, so that all examples that have not been wilfully destroyed have long ago perished. Many ornaments of bronze and of ivory decorations have been discovered that have been used as mountings to feet, ends or legs of seats, chairs, or thrones. The bas-reliefs of the latter enable us to form a fairly accurate judgment of the nature and style of Assyrian furniture, the decoration of which was of a heavier and coarser character than that of the more elegant Egyptian (Figs. 207 and 208). Forms and parts of animals were used by the Assyrians and nearly all Oriental nations as furniture decorations. The human figure was used also, but generally in the representation of slaves or conquered peoples, who were degraded to the position of bearing the weight of the seat or throne of the monarch (see Persian throne, Fig. 256, first vol., from Persepolis, which was an adaptation from an Assyrian throne). The Egyptian chairs had also carved human figures as captives tied under the seat (Figs. 146, 147, first vol.).

The furniture of the Hebrews was doubtless of the same kind as the Assyrian. From the description of King Solomon’s throne it was apparently similar to those of the Assyrian kings. It had lions for the arm supports, and had six lions in gold and ivory on the six steps on either side of the throne.

In the manufacture of the furniture of the nations of antiquity the principal materials were—in woods, ebony, rosewood, walnut, pine, teak, and, above all, cedar-wood; ivory, gold, silver, bronze, and electrum were also much used for inlays and for solid mountings.

The furniture and the chariots of the Greeks in their early period were simply copied from Egyptian and Asiatic sources, with less of the animal forms and more of plant forms as decorative details (Figs. 209, 210). Folding stools and chairs were made in wood and in metal, and the backs of the chairs were upright, or nearly so couches resembling modern sofas, elaborate footstools, and arm-chairs with sphinxes for the arms were made by the Greeks (Figs. 210, 212).

In the British Museum are some small models of Greek chairs made in lead, and wooden boxes showing the dovetail construction.

In the later Greek periods the furniture was inlaid with ivory, ebony, gold, and silver. Tripods were made of bronze, and had ornamented legs in the shapes of the limbs of lions, leopards, and sphinxes. The Roman bronze tripods were very similar to the Grecian ones in design, and were not only used for sacred purposes in the temples, but also to support braziers for heating purposes, or for burning perfumes in the houses of private people (Fig. 213).

Hand-mirrors and cistÆ were made in great quantities in bronze or in other metal alloys, in silver, and sometimes in gold. The mirrors were polished on the face, and had often rich designs of figure subjects. The Greek cistÆ were cylindrical metal boxes that rested on feet designed from those of various animals, having a lid or cover, with a handle or knot usually of figure design, the whole surface of the body being covered with engraved figure compositions and ornamental borders. They were probably used to contain jewellery and trinkets. Some very fine specimens of these hand-mirrors and cistÆ may be seen in the British Museum.

The furnishing of the houses of the Romans was very much of the same character as that of the Greeks and Etruscans, from whom the Romans inherited all their arts.

The interior plan and aspects of the Roman houses were such as those of Pompeii and Herculaneum, described in the first vol. Tables and tripods of bronze or braziers were supported on three legs, some of which were made with hinges for folding purposes (Fig. 214), and others were of sphinx and animal forms of a rich design (Fig. 213). Lamp-stand designs were quaint and elegant and were made in bronze (Fig. 215). Candelabra of architectural design were carved in marble and were from six to ten feet in height (Fig. 217).

The Romans highly prized and paid good sums for tables that were made from the pollard cross grain of different hard woods in which the knots and grain showed to advantage, the beauty of the wood being brought out by hand-polishing and by staining it with various coloured dyes. Bird’s-eye maple and the wood of the cedrus atlantica were much prized. The smaller tables, abaci, rested usually on one foot—monopodium—and larger tables had three or four legs, which had ivory claws or heads of animals as carved decoration (Fig. 216). Boxwood, beech, and palm, inlaid with ivory, ebony, and precious metals, were used in the materials of chairs and couches. The latter were also made in bronze (Fig. 218), and chairs of state were carved in marble, one of this kind being in the Louvre, a cast of which is now in the Kensington Museum (Fig. 219). The form of the Roman curule chair was like the letter X, and was so called because it could be folded and carried easily in the curules or chariots. It was used from the earliest times of the Romans down to modern days in Italy, and was often constructed of elephants’ tusks, wood, or metal, with ivory feet. The curule chairs were carried about for outdoor use and for the theatre. The sella or bisellium, to seat two persons, was often a very ornate kind of seat with turned legs similar to the couches (Fig. 220).

In the houses of the Romans a separate room or wardrobe was fitted up to keep the dresses and clothes of the family; this room had cupboards with doors and shelves, drawers, and lockers.

Portable coffers and chests were used, in which they packed their clothes and valuables when carrying them to and from their town and country houses. The Roman furniture and wooden construction of their houses were decorated with paintings and carvings of animals’ heads, limbs, and feet, and with figures of heroes and masks, as well as with the usual architectural acanthus foliage. Veneering of woods was an art in which the Romans were skilled; both small and large designs or pictures in tarsia work were the chief decorations of the best furniture.

Byzantine, Romanesque, Saracenic, and the Furniture of the Middle Ages.

The furniture, such as tables, chairs, beds, and the chariots, of the Byzantine period, was like the architecture in having something of the classic Roman mixture with some Asiatic Greek forms in its design. Scarcely any remains of such are now in existence, although we have evidence of the extreme richness of the sumptuary furniture and vessels of the great houses and palaces of Constantinople, for owing to the decadence and destruction of the Roman empire in the provinces, the capital of the East became enriched by treasures of the old Roman families, who naturally fled to Constantinople for protection for themselves and their valuable effects.

The old ivories known as consular diptychs have different varieties of seats, chairs, and footstools, on which the consuls are seated, represented in the carving. Many originals of these and casts from others may be seen in the Kensington Museum.

The chair of St. Maximian, preserved at Ravenna, is covered with ivory carvings, and is one of the finest examples of Byzantine work. It is described at page 138 and is figured in Labarte’s “Art of the Middle Ages.”

Much of the furniture of the early centuries of Christian art is represented in the Byzantine illuminated manuscripts. Beds and couches kept the old Roman forms with the turned legs. Chariots must have been used very much, as the old game of chariot racing was kept up by the Byzantines. The Iconoclasts of the Eastern Empire under Leo the Isaurian (A.D. 726)—whose injurious rule lasted about one hundred and twenty years—were responsible for much destruction of sumptuary furniture, as well as for other productions of an artistic nature, but at the same time they were the indirect means of causing a new development in art in the western parts of Europe, and more particularly in the Rhenish Provinces, by driving the Byzantine artists and craftsmen to these places, where they were welcomed by Charlemagne, and by his powerful nobles and Churchmen. In the course of time they succeeded in founding the school of art known as Rhenish-Byzantine. The finest illustrations of this art are seen in the magnificent enamelled reliquaries or shrines. The gilt-bronze chair of Dagobert is of Romanesque design, and is one of the earliest pieces of furniture of the Middle Ages (see Fig. 134). Another mediÆval chair or throne is high seated, and exceedingly rich in design (Fig. 221). It is of Scandinavian origin, and is a good example of the Romanesque style of Northern Europe. Many forms of the Romanesque are seen in the furniture and carving of the Gothic style that immediately succeeded the former.

During the Anglo-Saxon period in England the ordinary houses usually consisted of one room. Sometimes a shed-like structure was erected against the wall of the room to contain the bed of the mistress of the house, and as a rule the inmates slept on a large table placed in the centre of the room, or on benches on which bags of straw were placed. Seats without backs, or stools, long settles or benches with backs and carved ends or arms, were the chief articles in furniture.

After the Norman Conquest domestic improvements were multiplied, more rooms were added to the houses, such as the solar or upper room, and the parloir or talking-room, and some of the rooms had fireplaces, but not chimneys. The principal room was the hall or assembly-room, which had a fireplace in the centre, the smoke escaping through the lantern light in the roof.

In the Norman times the principal additions to the furniture of English manor-houses and castles were the cupboard, presses or armoires, and chests. These pieces of furniture were introduced from France. Sometimes the portable presses and the chests were painted with tempera decorations, and were bound with wrought-iron clasps and hinges, which were just beginning to come into use.

The bed-clothes and personal clothing of the nobles and rich landowners began to assume a rich character, and were often embroidered.

Tapestry and painted cloth hangings were imported; also pottery of an ornamental description was not only imported, but made in England at this time. All this applies to the homes of the rich only, for the poorer classes remained for a long period in a very primitive condition as regards their style of houses and their furniture.

The construction of furniture and the panelling of chests began to exhibit some workmanlike appearances of good carpentry. Panels were placed in framework that was mortised and fastened with wooden pegs, which became the universal method of panelling throughout the Gothic period. Room panelling came into use in England in the early part of the thirteenth century, when pine timber was used at first for this work, but was displaced later by the more substantial oak. This oak panelling during the Gothic periods was often carved with elaborate tracery of an architectural character (Figs. 222, 223), and a common design was a carved imitation of a carefully folded textile, known as the “linen panel” (Fig. 224).

Chests were used as tables, and the tops had inlaid checkers to be used as chessboards. They were also used as sideboards on which to place dishes of food, the dining-table being a board which was placed on trestles, that could be removed and packed away when not required (Figs. 225, 226). A cross-legged chair and a three-legged stool is shown at Fig. 228, which were common shapes in the fourteenth century. The illustration, Fig. 227, is that of a bedroom of the same period, and is taken from an English manuscript of the date of 1400. For these illustrations, and many others on the subject of furniture, we are indebted to the work of Mr. J. H. Pollen on “Furniture and Woodwork.” The bed in the latter illustration has a flat canopy, or tester, with embroidered hangings. The walls of the room are panelled, and the floor is in checkered parquetry. There is a curious seat that is partly an open press, with pottery, and metal vases placed as decoration on the top.

Chests, trunks, or bahuts, were at this period, and in the time of the Normans, the most important articles in furniture: they were often made with inlaid wood decorations, and had strap-work of iron and ornate hinges. They were the usual repositories of the household valuables, money, and other treasures, and were carried on horses or mules when the family moved about from place to place. By degrees the chest, with the addition of a back and arms, became the settles or principal seats in the living-room, and the back developed with an added hood or projecting covering into the daÏs, or throne-like seat, that was placed at the end of the chief room—the place of honour.

Another and later development of the chest was to raise it on legs, and to add a back arrangement to it, with shelves for the display of household plate, to which was given the name of dressoir, or dresser, the latter in time developing into the modern sideboard.

Chests were also important articles of church furniture, in which the sacred vessels, treasures, books, and priests’ garments could be locked up, and a particular form of chest kept in church vestries was the cope chest, which took the semicircular shape of the copes when laid out flat in these chests. Examples of these chests are still to be seen in some of the large cathedrals.

The coronation chair (Fig. 229) gives a good idea of a state chair of the early Gothic period in England.

Carriages of the fourteenth century were used for the conveyance of women and children, but were not very common. They were long-shaped covered vehicles on four wheels, with or without panelled sides, and were painted and decorated (Figs. 230, 231). Carts for carrying and for agricultural purposes were used in the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods in England, and in France at the same dates: these were two-wheeled vehicles, each wheel being usually of one solid piece of wood.

The Saracens were very ingenious in the using of wood, as in carpentry, carving, and turning in the lathe. Their ingenuity and skill in carpentry and turning is seen in the Meshrebiya work and lattice, and in the carvings of the pulpit and door panels. This work has been noticed under the heading of Saracenic Architecture and Ornament in the former volume.

Regarding the furniture of the domestic dwellings of the Saracens, whether of Egypt, Arabia, or elsewhere, there was very little of a movable nature except the small tables and reading-desks. The tables of Saracenic design are usually small and of a greater height than width (Fig. 232). These tables or kursys are sometimes panelled with turned, latticed, or carved decoration, having stalactites under the top, as in the illustration, or in the kursys of a lighter construction are generally inlaid with ivory, ebony, and mother-of-pearl. Some of the richest variety are hexagonal in shape, are inlaid with brass and silver filigree ornamentation, and are of splendid workmanship. The next important article in movable furniture is the Saracen reading-desk, which is made in the form of a camp-stool, with cross legs. It is usually inlaid and decorated like the tables.

The divans are platforms raised slightly from the ground, and covered with cushions on the seats and backs. The carved cupboards or shelves on brackets placed behind and above the divans, on which vases and trays are kept for ornament or when not in use, complete the usual furniture of the Saracenic living-room. Seats or chairs of lattice-work (dikkas), on which the doorkeeper sits, are usually found in entrance-halls, and if we add the elaborate metal and coloured-glass lamps, the vases, the large metal salvers or trays, and the rugs and carpets, the furniture of a Saracenic house is complete.

Italian and other Furniture of the Renaissance.

In the early part of the fifteenth century and during the whole of the century the furniture of Europe generally was designed more or less on Gothic lines, but gradually the new forms that were now rapidly developing in the architecture of the Renaissance, but in a slower measure, began to assert themselves in furniture designs. Consequently, we find in many articles, such as armoires or presses, and cabinets, a mixture of style in the design—as, for instance, the upper panels would be in the MediÆval, and the lower ones in the Renaissance style, or the general construction would be Gothic, and the details and decoration would be Italian.

This was more often the case in the furniture and other art in Germany, where the Renaissance was tardily welcomed.

Styles of design in furniture overlap each other so much, especially in the Renaissance period, that it becomes very difficult to assign a correct date to many pieces of important work. Gothic designs continued to be used during the sixteenth century, although the Renaissance had been developing for a hundred years earlier. The most authentic means of fixing the date is when certain work can be proved to have come from the hand of a particular artist, or when there is a record of its having been made for a king or some great person, for the style is not always a sure proof of the correct date.

In the “Quattrocento” period (1400-1500), or fifteenth century, Italian furniture made for churches, palaces, or private houses, was usually decorated with paintings, sometimes on a gilt ground, which was prepared in a gesso material before the gold was applied, some parts of which had relief ornamentation.

Reliquaries, altar-fronts, panels of cabinets, chests, and marriage coffers were decorated in this way.

The work known as “tarsia,” or certosina work, was made in great perfection about this time in Italy. It is inlaid work of a geometric character in design, or is composed of floral ornament, and sometimes consists of representations of landscapes and buildings. This kind of inlay was derived from Persian sources, was developed chiefly by the Venetians, and was used mostly by them in the decoration of choir stalls, tables, chairs, cabinets, &c. Ebony, ivory, and metals were also employed in the Italian inlays of this period.

The Italian Cassoni, or marriage-coffers, were the most ornate and most imposing articles of furniture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They were placed in the long halls and corridors of the palaces and great houses, and were usually given as presents to newly married couples. They were generally used as the receptacle for the bride’s trousseau and other treasures. In the latter century they were carved in walnut with sculptural mythological subjects, and had endings or corners of half-figures and half-foliage, as caryatids, with feet designed from the claws of animals to raise them from the ground (Fig. 233). The carving was relieved by gilding in parts, and sometimes the whole of it was gilt.

Other examples of an earlier date were covered with a finely modelled decoration of gesso work, and gilded, and in other cases the large panels in the front were painted with figure subjects in brilliant colours and heightened with gold.

A less costly kind of marriage coffer was made in cypress-wood, and fitted up in the inside with drawers, having the decoration on the surface engraved or etched in brown lines, with the ground slightly recessed and punched or stamped with a fine ornamentation.

In the Kensington Museum there is an extensive collection of Italian cassoni embracing all the above varieties. Chairs carved and gilt of the same style and period as the coffers were usually placed between the rows of the latter in the halls of the Italian palaces (Fig. 235). These chairs had their backs and legs richly carved, each part being made out of a single slab of wood.

The pair of bellows (Fig. 234) is a further illustration of the design and excellence of workmanship as shown in the work of the wood carvers of Italy in the sixteenth century, or “Cinquecento” period.

Another fine specimen of wood carving is the Italian stool (Fig. 236) of the same date, which is remarkable for its delicacy of treatment.

Another form of chair of a rectangular character, with or without arms, having an embossed leather or velvet covering on the back and seat, with turned and carved legs and rails, was made in Italy about this time (Fig. 237); it was much used subsequently in Spain, France, and in England, and has continued to be in favour down to the present day.

Cabinets were made in Italy and in France in which slabs of beautifully coloured and veined marbles and rare stones were inserted as panels in various shapes, to which the name of “pietra-dura” work has been given. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries painted plaques of porcelain took the place of these marbles.

In England, France, Spain, and Germany, the great houses, both private and religious, and the king’s palaces were elaborately furnished, and kept in a state of great splendour.

Churches were also furnished with elaborate stalls, pulpits, and rich utensils, but in the latter the style of the designs was still MediÆval.

In the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. in England the style gradually altered to the Italian forms of the Renaissance, and many Italian architects and carvers found work in this country in making furniture for the royal palaces, and besides, great quantities of Italian, Flemish, and French furniture were largely imported. Jean de Mabuse and Torrigiano were employed as architects and sculptors by Henry VII., and Holbein and some Italian artists designed furniture and goldsmith’s work for Henry VIII.

In France, during the reigns of FranÇois I., Catherine de’ Medici, and Henri II., a great activity took place in architecture and in all the industrial arts, in which that country not only imitated, but sought to excel, the work of the Italian schools.

As already mentioned, the French kings and Medicean princesses in the sixteenth century had invited from Italy Cellini, Primaticcio, Il Rosso, Serlio, and others, who succeeded in founding the style of the Renaissance in France, and about the same time many French artists journeyed to Italy to acquire the newer style which had been evolved from the study of the old classic remains of that country. Among the names of the principal French artists, sculptors, and carvers of this period are those of Jean Goujon, Nicholas Bachelier of Toulouse, Jean Cousin, Germain Pilon, Philibert de l’Orme, Du Cerceau, who published designs for all kinds of decorations and carvings, and Hugues Sambin of Dijon. Most of these men were architects and also designers of the heavy and rich furniture that was characteristic of the French Renaissance. Some of these artists and their works have been noticed in the chapters on Renaissance architecture and metal work. The cabinet (Fig. 238) is a good example of the architectonic style of French furniture of the sixteenth century. French wood carving is distinguished from the Italian of this period by the great use of the cartouche and strap-work (Fig. 239), which was so characteristic of the Henri-Deux style.

When the Renaissance had taken a firm root in Germany, the designers and carvers of altar-pieces and of furniture generally proved themselves thorough masters of the style, and were especially skilful in the carving of wood, both on a gigantic and on a minute scale. Whole fronts of houses were elaborately carved in designs consisting of figure work, animals, ornament, and grotesques of a quaint and humorous description, while exceedingly minute works of figure subjects and animals were carved in box and other woods with a delicacy and quaintness often excelling the ivory carvings of the Japanese. Escritoires, buffets, cabinets, and other furniture, were made and exported from Germany into Spain and other countries.

Flemish and English furniture and carving were pretty much alike in the reigns of Elizabeth—the Tudor period of English art—and of James I., the Stuart or Jacobean. The pieces of carved furniture, both Flemish and English, were very solid and heavy both in the design and thickness of the material, which was generally of oak or chestnut. So much Flemish furniture was imported into England at this time, and the English-made work, being so close in resemblance to the former, that a great difficulty is experienced in classifying examples of this period. The table, Fig. 240, and the so-called “Great Bed of Ware,” are examples of the furniture of the Elizabethan period (Fig. 241.)

In Spain the Italian style in furniture was introduced in the first instance by the great importations from Italy and Germany, but under such excellent native carvers and designers as Felipe de BorgoÑa (sixteenth century), and Berruguete (1480-1561), the style of the Renaissance soon spread from Toledo to Seville and Valladolid, where great quantities of carved and inlaid work and elaborate altar-pieces were executed during the prosperous Spanish period of the sixteenth century.

During the same century Venice and Florence were famed for their marquetry—inlaid work of ivory and metal—in cypress, walnut, and other woods, which art had been imported from Persia and India by the Venetians, and which spread rapidly through Europe until the furniture made with marquetry decoration by degrees supplanted the heavier classical architectural designs.

This was brought about chiefly in the West of Europe by the Dutch and French marquetry work, developed during the seventeenth century.

Before leaving the Italian sixteenth-century work we must notice the mirrors, with their elaborately carved frames of Venetian design and manufacture. In this century Venice was renowned for the making of glass, for which it is still famous, and certain privileges were granted by the State exclusively to Venetian manufacturers of looking-glasses. Two Murano glass makers named Andrea and Dominico, who were the inventors, were granted in the year 1507 the sole privilege of making “mirrors of crystal glass” for a term of twenty years. Previous to this time the mirrors were made of various polished metals. The frames of the Venetian mirrors were often elaborately carved (Fig. 242), some of them being made in designs that were strictly architectural in character, representing a door, or window frame, with pilasters, frieze, and cornice, and sill or plinth. These carved frames were often partly or wholly gilt, and were exported in considerable quantities. Pictures were framed in a similar way to the mirrors, and carved and gilt frames were soon used all over Europe as picture frames. Later on gilt furniture of all kinds was made in Venice and was in great favour in the other countries of the Continent.

The manufacture of marquetry furniture by the Dutch in the seventeenth century has been mentioned as having helped in a great measure to change the style of furniture design from its former architectural character to a greater simplicity of construction. Large panel surfaces were used for the purpose of showing to greater advantage the rich and bright colours of different kinds of hard woods used in the marquetry. Both natural and stained varieties of various wood were arranged in the designs in juxtaposition, and a free and picturesque kind of ornamental foliage was employed mixed with large tulips, roses, and birds in the Dutch marquetry decoration. Other materials, such as ivory, ebony, and mother-of-pearl, were also used as inlays. In France a similar kind of marquetry was developed, but the design consisted more of figure subjects and imitations of ruins in landscapes. A complete change in the design of the furniture in the latter country was also effected by the same desire to get large surfaces on which the inlaid work could be seen to great advantage, and the spaces were not divided by architectural mouldings, or pilasters, as they had been in the preceding earlier work.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century, and during the earlier half of the seventeenth, the sumptuous furniture, the beds, and general furnishing of the better class of houses and palaces in France and other European countries, were characterized by the use of costly silk brocades, tissues, and embroidered coverings and hangings.

By thus seeking to give the furniture an appearance of the richest possible kind, such articles as chairs, couches, and beds lost in a corresponding degree their elegance and former constructive beauty. Under their gorgeous Italian and Oriental velvet coverings, their framed construction ceased to be visible. The above pieces of furniture still retained their sumptuous upholstery during the reign of Louis XIV., but the tables, armoires, cabinets, book-cases, pedestals, clock-stands and cases, came under the influence of the architecture of the period, when the king’s chief minister, Colbert, selected the best architects and cabinet-makers of the day to design the furniture for the palaces of the Tuileries, the Louvre, and Fontainebleau.

The greatest name connected with the design and manufacture of the magnificent furniture of the Louis-Quatorze period is that of AndrÉ-Charles Boulle, whose work is known under his name as “Boulle.” This celebrated furniturefurniture is an elaborate kind of marquetry of which the materials are rare woods, ebony, tortoiseshell, brass, mother-of-pearl, and white metal or tin. The mountings, mouldings, and other salient points are made in brass beautifully chased and finished, some of the mountings being in the forms of masks, foliage, cartouches, and animals’ heads and feet as termination.

AndrÉ-Charles Boulle was born in Paris in the year 1642. His father, Pierre Boulle, was also a distinguished ÉbÉniste, or cabinet-maker, but his more eminent son possessed the artistic gift in a much higher degree. In addition to making his special marquetry from his own designs Boulle also executed a good deal of his best works from the designs of Jean Berain (1636-1711), his chief collaborateur. Berain’s designs were more Italian in style, more symmetrical in the composition of the ornament, and more correct from an architectural point of view, than those attributed to Boulle himself, whose designs had much of the looseness and freedom of the prevalent Louis Quatorze.

At the death of Jean MacÉ, the king’s ÉbÉniste, in 1672, who had formerly lived in the royal galleries of the Louvre, the logement and office of ÉbÉniste to the king had become vacant, and Boulle on the recommendation of Colbert, minister to Louis XIV., was appointed as the successor of MacÉ, and was installed in his rooms in the Louvre in the year 1673. He had previously executed some important work for the king, and was known as the ablest ÉbÉniste at that time in Paris.

The origin of the Boulle marquetry can be traced to the Indian, Persian, and Damascus encrusted inlays in ivory, ebony, nacre, and metal, that found their way to Venice, Portugal, Spain, and France in the Middle Ages. These works consisted chiefly of caskets, coffers, and small pieces of furniture. In the inventories of Charles V. of France (1380) mention is made of lecterns and coffers of inlaid ivory or bone, in ebony, and similar works are mentioned in the inventories of Charles VI. (1418), and of Anne of Brittany (1498). These are the earliest notices of marquetry furniture that was made in France, and was probably an imitation of Oriental work.

In the Renaissance period FranÇois I. bought some magnificent furniture of Indian workmanship, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, from Portuguese merchants, and mention is made of chairs, tables, coffers, cabinets, and mirror-frames that belonged to Queen Marie de’ MÉdicis (1600), the Cardinal d’Amboise (1550), and other great persons of the French Court, all of which works were made in marquetry.

In France before the sixteenth century, tortoiseshell, brass, tin, and exotic woods were used as inlays, in addition to the ivory, ebony, and nacre of the East. From this it will be seen that Boulle did not invent the celebrated marquetry that bears his name. He, however, brought this sumptuous form of cabinet work to great perfection, and under the patronage of Louis XIV. he had every opportunity to develop his artistic abilities to the utmost.

The method of procedure in the making of the Boulle marquetry was, first, to prepare the veneers of wood, shell, tin, and brass of the same thickness, each having perfectly plain surfaces; these veneers were then glued together in pairs of opposite materials, according to the nature of the effect required in the finished work, and were held together firmly in a vice. The design was then traced on the surface of the upper leaf, and the veneers were then cut through the lines of the pattern with a burin, a sharp strong knife, or a fine saw; thus four pieces of marquetry were made at one cutting. When the plaque forming the design was composed of tin or brass, which was afterwards engraved or chased, it was technically called “boulle”; and when the design was formed by the shell or ebony it was called “counter”; the two effects are together known as “boulle and counter,” or premiÈre et contre-partie.

A later kind of Boulle work, known as the Second Style, has the shell veneers laid on a clouded vermilion or on a gilt ground.

Boulle was an artist of great excellence as a sculptor and chaser of metals; his mountings of foliage and masks which decorated his works are spirited in design and are skilfully chased and finished (Fig. 243). He executed a great number of costly pieces of his famous marquetry for Louis XIV. and the Dauphin of France, many of which found their way to England a century later. Examples of Boulle work fetch great prices when, as on rare occasions, they make their appearance in a sale. For instance, two armoires, or large cabinets, were sold at the sale of the Duke of Hamilton’s Collection in 1882 for the sum of £12,075. The armoire (Fig. 244) now in the Jones Collection at South Kensington, is perhaps the finest piece of Boulle furniture in England. It is much finer and better designed than the Hamilton cabinets, and would probably, if now sold, fetch the above sum, or more, that was paid for these cabinets. It appears likely, from the style of the ornament, that it was designed by Berain.

After the death of Boulle his four sons carried on the making of this celebrated marquetry, but in a coarser and feebler style of design and of inferior workmanship. Other ÉbÉnistes tried to imitate Boulle work, but their efforts were not very successful, and were only inferior imitations.

In Germany in the seventeenth century, the most prominent names as designers and makers of furniture are Philip Heinhofer, Baumgartner, and Hans Schwanhard. The former was the maker of the celebrated Pomeranian Cabinet (1611-1617) which is now in the Royal Museum at Berlin.

In this century, in Italy, Andrea Brustolone (1670-1732) was noted as a carver, gilder, and cabinet-maker who worked in the extravagant style of the Louis Quinze (Louis XV.), and in the first half of the eighteenth century (1700-77) Pifetti, a Piedmontese cabinet-maker, was honoured by the Italian Court, for which he executed many works in ivory carving and marquetry work in the style of Boulle. Many other cabinet-makers and carvers were employed to make furniture and to decorate the queen’s palace at Turin, among whom may be mentioned the names of Galleti, the successor of Pifetti, and Maggiolino of Milan, who chiefly made a kind of marquetry in light woods. We are indebted to Mr. J. H. Pollen’s handbook on furniture for some of these names, and a list of many others will be found at the end of his useful book.

Fig. 244.—Boulle Cabinet or Armoire. (S.K.M.)