Illustrated History of Furniture Part 20

The dining room was sombre and heavy. The pedestal sideboard, with a large mirror in a scrolled frame at the back, had come in; the chairs were ma.s.sive and ugly survivals of the earlier reproductions of the Greek patterns, and, though solid and substantial, the effect was neither cheering nor refining.

In the bedrooms were winged wardrobes and chests of drawers; dressing tables and washstands, with scrolled legs, nearly always in mahogany; the old four-poster had given way to the Arabian or French bedstead, and this was being gradually replaced by the iron or bra.s.s bedsteads, which came in after the Exhibition had shewn people the advantages of the lightness and cleanliness of these materials.

In a word, from the early part of the present century, until the impetus given to Art by the great Exhibition had had time to take effect, the general taste in furnishing houses of all but a very few persons, was at about its worst.

In other countries the rococo taste had also taken hold. France sustained a higher standard than England, and such figure work as was introduced into furniture was better executed, though her joinery was inferior. In Italy old models of the Renaissance still served as examples for reproduction, but the ornament became more carelessly carved and the decoration less considered. Ivory inlaying was largely executed in Milan and Venice; mosaics of marble were specialites of Rome and of Florence, and were much applied to the decoration of cabinets; Venice was busy manufacturing carved walnutwood furniture in buffets, cabinets, Negro page boys, elaborately painted and gilt, and carved mirror frames, the chief ornaments of which were cupids and foliage.

Italian carving has always been free and spirited, the figures have never been wanting in grace, and, though by comparison with the time of the Renaissance there is a great falling off, still, the work executed in Italy during the present century has been of considerable merit as regards ornament, though this has been overdone. In construction and joinery, however, the Italian work has been very inferior. Cabinets of great pretension and elaborate ornament, inlaid perhaps with ivory, lapislazuli, or marbles, are so imperfectly made that one would think ornament, and certainly not durability, had been the object of the producer.

In Antwerp, Brussels, Liege, and other Flemish Art centres, the School of Wood Carving, which came in with the Renaissance, appears to have been maintained with more or less excellence. With the increased quality of the carved woodwork manufactured, there was a proportion of ill-finished and over-ornamented work produced; and although, as has been before observed, the manufacture of cheap marqueterie in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities was bringing the name of Dutch furniture into ill-repute--still, so far as the writer's observations have gone, the Flemish wood-carver appears to have been, at the time now under consideration, ahead of his fellow craftsmen in Europe; and when in the ensuing chapter we come to notice some of the representative exhibits in the great International Compet.i.tion of 1851, it will be seen that the Antwerp designer and carver was certainly in the foremost rank.

In Austria, too, some good cabinet work was being carried out, M.

Leistler, of Vienna, having at the time a high reputation.

In Paris the house of Fourdinois was making a name which, in subsequent exhibitions, we shall see took a leading place amongst the designers and manufacturers of decorative furniture.

England, it has been observed, was suffering from languor in Art industry.

The excellent designs of the Adams and their school, which obtained early in the century, had been supplanted, and a meaningless rococo style succeeded the heavy imitations of French pseudo-cla.s.sic furniture. Instead of, as in the earlier and more tasteful periods, when architects had designed woodwork and furniture to accord with the style of their buildings, they appear to have then, as a general rule, abandoned the control of the decoration of interiors, and the result was one which--when we examine our National furniture of half a century ago--has not left us much to be proud of, as an artistic and industrious people.

Some notice has been taken of the appreciation of this unsatisfactory state of things by the Government of the time, and by the Press; and, as with a knowledge of our deficiency, came the desire and the energy to bring about its remedy, we shall see that, with the Exhibition of 1851, and the intercourse and the desire to improve, which naturally followed that great and successful effort, our designers and craftsmen profited by the great stimulus which Art and Industry then received.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Venetian Stool of Carved Walnut Wood.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sideboard in Carved Oak, with Cellaret. Designed and Manufactured by Mr. Gillow, London. 1851 Exhibition.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chimneypiece and Bookcase. In carved walnut wood with colored marbles inlaid and doors of perforated bra.s.s. Designed By Mr. T.

R. Macquoid, Architect, and Manufactured by Messrs. Holland & Sons.

London, 1851 Exhibition.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cabinet in the Mediaeval Style. Designed and Manufactured by Mr. Grace, London. 1851 Exhibition.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bookcase in Carved Wood. Designed and Manufactured by Messrs. Jackson & Graham, London, 1851 Exhibition.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Grand Pianoforte. In Ebony inlaid, and enriched with Gold in relief. Designed and Manufactured by Messrs. Broadwood, London. 1851 Exhibition]

Chapter IX.

From 1851 to the Present Time.

THE GREAT EXHIBITION: Exhibitors and contemporary Cabinet Makers--Exhibition of 1862, London; 1867, Paris; and subsequently--Description of Ill.u.s.trations--Fourdinois, Wright, and Mansfield--The South Kensington Museum--Revival of Marquetry--Comparison of Present Day with that of a Hundred Years ago--aestheticism--Traditions--Trades-Unionism--The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society--Independence of Furniture--Present Fashions--Writers on Design--Modern Furniture in other Countries--Concluding Remarks.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In the previous chapter attention has been called to the success of the National Exhibition in Paris of 1849; in the same year the compet.i.tion of our manufacturers at Birmingham gave an impetus to Industrial Art in England, and there was about this time a general forward movement, with a desire for an International Exhibition on a grand scale. Articles advocating such a step appeared in newspapers and periodicals of the time, and, after much difficulty, and many delays, a committee for the promotion of this object was formed. This resulted in the appointment of a Royal Commission, and the Prince Consort, as President of this Commission, took the greatest personal interest in every arrangement for this great enterprise. Indeed, there can be no doubt, that the success which crowned the work was, in a great measure, due to his taste, patience, and excellent business capacity. It is no part of our task to record all the details of an undertaking which, at the time, was a burning question of the day, but as we cannot but look upon this Exhibition of 1851 as one of the landmarks in the history of furniture, it is worth while to recall some particulars of its genesis and accomplishment.

The idea of the Exhibition of 1851 is said to have been originally due to Mr. F. Whishaw, Secretary of the Society of Arts, as early as 1844, but no active steps were taken until 1849, when the Prince Consort, who was President of the Society, took the matter up very warmly. His speech at one of the meetings contained the following sentence:--

"Now is the time to prepare for a great Exhibition--an Exhibition worthy of the greatness of this country, not merely national in its scope and benefits, but comprehensive of the whole world; and I offer myself to the public as their leader, if they are willing to a.s.sist in the undertaking."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lady's Escritoire, In White Wood, Carved with Rustic Figures. Designed and Manufactured by M. Wettli, Berne, Switzerland. 1851 Exhibition, London.]

To Mr. (afterwards Sir) Joseph Paxton, then head gardener to the Duke of Devonshire, the general idea of the famous gla.s.s and iron building is due.

An enterprising firm of contractors. Messrs. Fox and Henderson, were entrusted with the work; a guarantee fund of some 230,000 was raised by public subscriptions; and the great Exhibition was opened by Her Majesty on the 1st of May, 1851. At a civic banquet in honour of the event, the Prince Consort very aptly described the object of the great experiment:--"The Exhibition of 1851 would afford a true test of the point of development at which the whole of mankind had arrived in this great task, and a new starting point from which all nations would be able to direct their further exertions."

The number of exhibitors was some 17,000, of whom over 3,000 received prize and council medals; and the official catalogue, compiled by Mr.

Scott Russell, the secretary, contains a great many particulars which are instructive reading, when we compare the work of many of the firms of manufacturers, whose exhibits are therein described, with their work of the present day.

The _Art Journal_ published a special volume, ent.i.tled "The Art Journal Ill.u.s.trated Catalogue," with woodcuts of the more important exhibits, and, by the courtesy of the proprietors, a small selection is reproduced, which will give the reader an idea of the design of furniture, both in England and the chief Continental industrial centres at that time.

With regard to the exhibits of English firms, of which these ill.u.s.trations include examples, little requires to be said, in addition to the remarks already made in the preceding chapter, of their work previous to the Exhibition. One of the ill.u.s.trations, however, may be further alluded to, since the changes in form and character of the Pianoforte is of some importance in the consideration of the design of furniture. Messrs.

Broadwood's Grand Pianoforte (ill.u.s.trated) was a rich example of decorative woodwork in ebony and gold, and may be compared with the ill.u.s.tration on p. 172 of a harpsichord, which the Piano had replaced about 1767, and which at and since the time of the 1851 Exhibition supplies evidence of the increased attention devoted to decorative furniture. In the Appendix will be found a short notice of the different phases through which the ever-present piano has pa.s.sed, from the virginal, or spinette--of which an ill.u.s.tration will be found in "A Sixteenth Century Room," in Chapter III.--down to the latest development of the decoration of the case of the instrument by leading artists of the present day. Mr. Rose, of Messrs. Broadwood, whose firm was established at this present address in 1732, has been good enough to supply the author with the particulars for this notice.

Other ill.u.s.trations, taken from the exhibits of foreign cabinet makers, as well as those of our English manufacturers, have been selected, being fairly representative of the work of the time, rather than on account of their own intrinsic excellence.

It will be seen from these ill.u.s.trations that, so far as figure carving and composition are concerned, our foreign rivals, the Italians, Belgians, Austrians, and French, were far ahead of us. In mere construction and excellence of work we have ever been able to hold our own, and, so long as our designers have kept to beaten tracks, the effect is satisfactory. It is only when an attempt has been made to soar above the conventional, that the effort is not so successful.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lady's Work Table and Screen. In Papier-mache. 1851 Exhibition, London.]

In looking over the list of exhibits, one finds evidence of the fickleness of fashion. The manufacture of decorative articles of furniture of _papier-mache_ was then very extensive, and there are several specimens of this cla.s.s of work, both by French and English firms. The drawing-room of 1850 to 1860 was apparently incomplete without occasional chairs, a screen with painted panel, a work table, or some small cabinet or casket of this decorative but somewhat flimsy material.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sideboard. In Carved Oak, with subjects taken from Sir Walter Scott's "Kenilworth." Designed And Manufactured by Messrs. Cookes, Warwick 1851 Exhibition, London.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A State Chair. Carved and Gilt Frame, upholstered in Ruby Silk, Embroidered with the Royal Coat of Arms and the Prince of Wales'

Plumes. Designed and Manufactured by M. Jancowski, York. 1851 Exhibition, London.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sideboard in Carved Oak. Designed And Manufactured by M.

Durand, Paris. 1851 Exhibition, London.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bedstead in Carved Ebony. Renaissance Style. Designed and Manufactured by M. Roule, Antwerp. 1851 Exhibition, London.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pianoforte. In Rosewood, inlaid with Boulework, in Gold, Silver, and Copper. Designed and Manufactured by M. Leistler, Vienna. 1851 Exhibition, London.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bookcase, In Carved Lime Tree, with Panels of Satinwood.

Designed and Manufactured by M. Leistler, Vienna. 1851 Exhibition, London.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cabinet. In Tulipwood, ornamented with bronze, and inlaid with Porcelain. Manufactured by M. Games, St. Petersburg, 1851 Exhibition.]

The design and execution of mountings of cabinets in metal work, particularly of the highly-chased and gilt bronzes for the enrichment of _meubles de luxe_, was then, as it still to a great extent remains, the specialite of the Parisian craftsman, and almost the only English exhibits of such work were those of foreigners who had settled amongst us.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Casket of Ivory, With Ormolu Mountings. Designed and Manufactured by M. Matifat, Paris. 1851 Exhibition, London.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Table, In the Cla.s.sic Style, inlaid with Ivory, Manufactured for the King of Sardinia by M. G. Capello, Turin. 1851 Exhibition, London.]