Chats on Old Furniture Part 4

III

STUART OR JACOBEAN. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of Messrs. Waring._

GATE-LEG TABLE.]

III

STUART OR JACOBEAN. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

James I. 1603-1625.

Charles I. 1625-1649.

The Commonwealth 1649-1660.

1619. Tapestry factory established at Mortlake, under Sir Francis Crane.

---- Banqueting Hall added to Whitehall by Inigo Jones.

1632. Vandyck settled in London on invitation of Charles I.

1651. Navigation Act pa.s.sed; aimed blow (1572-1652) at Dutch carrying trade. All goods to be imported in English ships or in ships of country producing goods.

With the advent of the House of Stuart the England under James I. saw new fashions introduced in furniture. It has already been mentioned that the greater number of old houses which are now termed Tudor or Elizabethan were erected in the days of James I. At the beginning of a new monarchy fashion in art rarely changes suddenly, so that the early pieces of Jacobean furniture differ very little from Elizabethan in character. Consequently the Court cupboard, dated 1603, and mirror of the same year (ill.u.s.trated on p. 70), though bearing the date of the first year of the reign of James, more properly belong to Tudor days.

In the Bodleian Library at Oxford there is preserved a chair of fine workmanship and of historic memory. It was made from the oak timbers of the _Golden Hind_, the ship in which Sir Francis Drake made his adventurous voyage of discovery round the world. In spite of many secret enemies "deaming him the master thiefe of the unknowne world," Queen Elizabeth came to Deptford and came aboard the _Golden Hind_ and "there she did make Captain Drake knight, in the same ship, for reward of his services; his armes were given him, a ship on the world, which ship, by Her Majestie's commandment, is lodged in a dock at Deptford, for a monument to all posterity."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_

OAK CHAIR MADE FROM THE TIMBER OF THE _GOLDEN HIND_. COMMONLY CALLED "SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S CHAIR."

(_At the Bodleian Library._)]

It remained for many years at Deptford dockyard, and became the resort of holiday folk, who made merry in the cabin, which was converted into a miniature banqueting hall; but when it was too far decayed to be repaired it was broken up, and a sufficient quant.i.ty of sound wood was selected from it and made into a chair, which was presented to the University of Oxford. This was in the time of Charles II., and the poet Cowley has written some lines on it, in which he says that Drake and his _Golden Hind_ could not have wished a more blessed fate, since to "this Pythagorean ship"

"... a seat of endless rest is given To her in Oxford, and to him in heaven--"

which, though quite unintentional on the part of the poet, is curiously satiric.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the Master of the Charterhouse._

OAK TABLE, DATED 1616, BEARING ARMS OF THOMAS SUTTON, FOUNDER OF THE CHARTERHOUSE HOSPITAL.]

The piece is highly instructive as showing the prevailing design for a sumptuous chair in the late seventeenth century. The middle arch in the back of the chair is disfigured by a tablet with an inscription, which has been placed there.

Of the early days of James I. is a finely carved oak table, dated 1616.

This table is heavily moulded and carved with garlands between cherubs'

heads, and shields bearing the arms of Thomas Sutton, the founder of the Charterhouse Hospital. The upper part of the table is supported on thirteen columns, with quasi-Corinthian columns and enriched shafts, standing on a moulded H-shaped base. It will be seen that the designers had not yet thrown off the trammels of architecture which dominated much of the Renaissance woodwork. The garlands are not the garlands of Grinling Gibbons, and although falling within the Jacobean period, it lacks the charm which belong to typical Jacobean pieces.

At Knole, in the possession of Lord Sackville, there are some fine specimens of early Jacobean furniture, ill.u.s.trations of which are included in this volume. The chair used by King James I. when sitting to the painter Mytens is of peculiar interest. The cushion, worn and threadbare with age, is in all probability the same cushion used by James. The upper part of the chair is trimmed with a band of gold thread. The upholstering is red velvet, and the frame, which is of oak, bears traces of gilding upon it, and is studded with copper nails. The chair in design, with the half circular supports, follows old Venetian patterns. The smaller chair is of the same date, and equally interesting as a fine specimen; the old embroidery, discoloured and worn though it be, is of striking design and must have been brilliant and distinctive three hundred years ago. The date of these pieces is about 1620, the year when the "Pilgrim Fathers" landed in America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_

CHAIR USED BY JAMES I.

In the possession of Lord Sackville.]

From the wealth of Jacobean furniture at Knole it is difficult to make a representative selection, but the stool we reproduce (p. 90) is interesting, inasmuch as it was a piece of furniture in common use. The chairs evidently were State chairs, but the footstool was used in all likelihood by those who sat below the salt, and were of less significance. The stuffed settee which finds a place in the billiard-room at Knole and the sumptuous sofa in the Long Gallery, with its mechanical arrangement for altering the angle at the head, are objects of furniture difficult to equal. The silk and gold thread coverings are faded, and the knotted fringe and gold braid have tarnished under the hand of Time, but their structural design is so effective that the modern craftsman has made luxurious furniture after these models.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_

JACOBEAN CHAIR AT KNOLE.

In the possession of Lord Sackville.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the proprietors of the "Connoisseur."_

JACOBEAN STOOL AT KNOLE.

In the possession of Lord Sackville.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: UPPER HALF OF CARVED WALNUT DOOR.

Showing ribbon work.

FRENCH; LATTER PART OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

(Height of door, 4 ft. 7 in.; width, 1 ft. 11 in.)

(_Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

Carved oak chests were not largely made in Jacobean days--not, at any rate, for the same purpose as they were in Tudor or earlier times. As church coffers they doubtless continued to be required, but for articles of domestic furniture other than as linen chests their multifarious uses had vanished. Early Jacobean coffers clearly show the departure from Elizabethan models. They become more distinctly English in feeling, though the interlaced ribbon decoration, so frequently used, is an adaptation from French work, which pattern was now becoming acclimatised. The French carved oak coffer of the second half of the sixteenth century (ill.u.s.trated p. 61) shows from what source some of the English designs were derived.

In the portion of the French door which we give as an ill.u.s.tration (on p. 91), it will be seen with what grace and artistic excellence of design and with what restraint the French woodcarvers utilised the running ribbon. The ribbon pattern has been variously used by designers of furniture; it appears in Chippendale's chair-backs, where it almost exceeds the limitations of the technique of woodcarving.

Art in the early days of Charles I. was undimmed. The tapestry factory at Mortlake, established by James I., was further encouraged by the "White King." He took a great and a personal interest in all matters relating to art. Under his auspices the cartoons of Raphael were brought to England to foster the manufacture of tapestry. He gave his patronage to foreign artists and to foreign craftsmen, and in every way attempted to bring English art workers into line with their contemporaries on the Continent. Vandyck came over to become "Princ.i.p.al painter of Their Majesties at St. James's," keeping open table at Blackfriars and living in almost regal style. His grace and distinction and the happy circ.u.mstance of his particular style being coincident with the most picturesque period in English costume, have won him a place among the world's great painters. Fine portraits, at Windsor and at Madrid, at Dresden and at the Pitti Palace, at the Louvre and in the Hermitage at Petersburg, testify to the European fame of the painter's brilliant gallery representing the finest flower of the English aristocracy, prelates, statesmen, courtiers and beautiful women that were gathered together at the Court of Charles I. and his Queen Henrietta Maria.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OAK CHAIR.

CHARLES I. PERIOD.