Chats on Old Furniture Part 2

Coffer, oak, the front divided by six b.u.t.tresses, the steel lock pierced with tracery, 65 in. long, 46 in. high, French, late fifteenth century. Christie, May 6, 1904 126 0 0

Coffer, large walnut wood, the whole of the front and sides carved in low relief, the lock is rectangular, and pierced with flamboyant tracery, French (provincial), early part of the fifteenth century, 84 in. wide, 36 in.

high. Christie, May 6, 1904 50 8 0

Coffer, walnut wood, the front and sides divided into arch-shaped panels containing Gothic tracery, 86 in.

wide, 32 in. high, French, fifteenth century. Christie, May 6, 1904 52 10 0

Chair, walnut wood, with semicircular seat, the back composed of six upright rectangular panels, each containing various forms of Gothic tracery; below is a longitudinal panel of tracery, 27 in. wide, 29 in. high, French or Flemish, fifteenth century. Christie, May 6, 1904 91 7 0

Credence, oak, with folding doors and drawers above and shelf beneath, the corners are returned, the various door panels, &c., carved in low relief; at the back below is linen fold panelling, 54 in. wide, 62 in. high, probably French, early sixteenth century. Christie, May 6, 1904 336 0 0

Cabinet, walnut-wood, in two parts, of rectangular form, with folding doors above and below, and two drawers in the centre, carved with grotesque terminal figure and gadrooned mouldings, strapwork and duplicated rosettes, French work, early seventeenth century, 78 in. high, 48 in. wide. Christie, May 6, 1904 110 5 0

Cabinet, walnut-wood, in two parts, of rectangular form, with folding doors below and door above; at the sides are terminal male and female figures, the centres of the doors carved, 92 in. high, 49 in. wide, French work (Lyons School), second quarter of sixteenth century.

Christie, May 6, 1904 99 15 0

[1] By the kindness of the proprietors of the _Connoisseur_ these items are given from their useful monthly publication, _Auction Sale Prices_.

II

THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Hampton & Sons._

CARVED OAK CHEST.

ENGLISH; SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Panels finely carved with Gothic tracery.]

II

THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

Henry VIII. 1509-1547.

Edward VI. 1547-1553.

Mary 1553-1558.

Elizabeth 1558-1603.

1525. Hampton Court built.

1566. Increased commercial prosperity. Foundation of Royal Exchange by Sir Thomas Gresham.

1580. Drake comes home from the New World with plunder worth half a million.

1585. Antwerp captured by the Duke of Parma; flight of merchants to London. Transfer of commercial supremacy from Antwerp to London. Beginning of carrying trade, especially with Flanders.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BENCH OF OAK. FRENCH; ABOUT 1500.

With panels of linen ornament. Seat arranged as a coffer.

(Formerly in the collection of M. Emile Peyre.)

(_Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh._)]

The opening years of the sixteenth century saw the beginnings of the Renaissance movement in England. The oak chest had become a settle with high back and arms. The fine example of an early sixteenth-century oak chest ill.u.s.trated (p. 59) shows how the Gothic style had impressed itself on articles of domestic furniture. The credence, or tasting buffet, had developed into the Tudor sideboard, where a cloth was spread and candles placed. With more peaceful times a growth of domestic refinement required comfortable and even luxurious surroundings. The royal palaces at Richmond and Windsor were filled with costly foreign furniture. The mansions which were taking the place of the old feudal castles found employment for foreign artists and craftsmen who taught the English woodcarver. In the early days of Henry VIII. the cla.s.sical style supplanted the Gothic, or was in great measure mingled with it.

Many fine structures exist which belong to this transition period, during which the mixed style was predominant. The woodwork of King's College Chapel at Cambridge is held to be an especially notable example.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PORTION OF CARVED WALNUT VIRGINAL.

FLEMISH; SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRENCH CARVED OAK COFFER.

Showing interlaced ribbon work.

SECOND HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

(Height, 2 ft. 1 in.; width, 3 ft. 1 in.)

(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

The Great Hall at Hampton Court dates from 1531, or five years after Cardinal Wolsey had given up his palace to Henry VIII. Its grand proportions, its high-pitched roof and pendants, display the art of the woodcarver in great excellence. This hall, like others of the same period, had an open hearth in the centre, on which logs of wood were placed, and the smoke found its way out through a cupola, or louvre, in the roof.

The roofs of the Early Tudor mansions were magnificent specimens of woodwork. But the old style of king-post, queen-post, or hammer-beam roof was prevalent. The panelling, too, of halls and rooms retained the formal character in its mouldings, and various "linen" patterns were used, so called from their resemblance to a folded napkin, an ornamentation largely used towards the end of the Perpendicular style, which was characteristic of English domestic architecture in the fifteenth century. To this period belongs the superb woodcarving of the renowned choir stalls of Henry VII.'s Chapel in Westminster Abbey.

The bench of oak ill.u.s.trated (p. 60) shows a common form of panel with linen ornament, and is French, of about the year 1500. The seat, as will be seen, is arranged as a locked coffer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIREPLACE AND OAK PANELLING FROM THE "OLD PALACE" AT BROMLEY-BY-BOW. BUILT IN 1606.

(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

The Elizabethan woodcarver revelled in grotesque figure work, in intricate interlacings of strapwork, borrowed from the Flemish, and ribbon ornamentation, adapted from the French. He delighted in ma.s.sive embellishment of magnificent proportions. Among Tudor woodwork the carved oak screen of the Middle Temple Hall is a noteworthy example of the sumptuousness and splendour of interior decoration of the English Renaissance. These screens supporting the minstrels' gallery in old halls are usually exceptionally rich in detail. Gray's Inn (dated 1560) and the Charterhouse (dated 1571) are other examples of the best period of sixteenth-century woodwork in England.

Christ Church at Oxford, Grimsthorp in Lincolnshire, Kenninghall in Norfolk, Layer Marney Towers in Ess.e.x, and Sutton Place at Guildford, are all representative structures typical of the halls and manor houses being built at the time of the English Renaissance.

In the Victoria and Albert Museum has been re-erected a room having the oak panelling from the "Old Palace" at Bromley-by-Bow, which was built in 1606. The ma.s.sive fireplace with the royal coat of arms above, with the niches in which stand carved figures of two saints, together with the contemporary iron fire-dogs standing in the hearth, give a picture of what an old Elizabethan hall was like.