Chapter I: Preface

The number of works dealing with old English furniture has grown rapidly during the last ten years. Not only has the subject been broadly treated from the historic or from the collector's point of view, but latterly everything has been scientifically reduced into departments of knowledge, and individual periods have received detailed treatment at the hands of specialists.

Museums and well-known collections, noblemen's seats and country houses have furnished photographs of the finest examples, and these, now well-known, pieces have appeared again and again as illustrations to volumes by various hands.

It is obviously essential in the study of the history and evolution of furniture-making in this country that superlative specimens be selected as ideal types for the student of design or for the collector, but such pieces must always be beyond the means of the average collector.

The present volume has been written for that large class of collectors, who, while appreciating the beauty and the subtlety of great masterpieces of English furniture, have not long enough purses to pay the prices such examples bring after fierce competition in the auction-room.

The field of minor work affords peculiar pleasure and demands especial study. The character of the cottage and farmhouse furniture is as sturdy and independent as that of the persons for whom it was made. For three centuries unknown cabinet-makers in towns and in villages produced work unaffected by any foreign influences. Linen-chests, bacon-cupboards, Bible-boxes, gate tables, and other tables, dressers, and chairs possess particular styles of treatment in different districts. The eighteenth-century cabinet-makers scattered up and down the three kingdoms and in America found in Chippendale's "Director" a design-book which stimulated them to produce furniture of compelling interest to the collector.

The examples of such work illustrated in this volume have been taken from a wide area and are such as may come under the hand of the diligent collector in various parts of the country.

In view of the increased love of collecting homely furniture suitable for modern use, it is my hope that this book may find a ready welcome, especially nowadays, when so many of the picturesque architectural details of old homesteads are being reproduced in the garden suburbs of great cities.

It is possible that the authorities of local museums may find in this class of furniture a field for special research, as undoubtedly specimens of local work should be secured for permanent exhibition before they are dispersed far and wide and their identity with particular districts lost for ever.

In regard to the scientific study of farmhouse and cottage furniture, the ideal arrangement is that followed at Skansen, Stockholm, and at Lyngby, near Copenhagen. In the former a series of buildings have been erected in the open air, in connection with the Northern Museum, gathered from every part of Sweden, retaining their exterior character and fitted with the furniture of their former occupants. It was the desire of the founder, Dr. Hazelius, to present an epitome of the national life. Similarly at Lyngby, an adjunct of the _Dansk Folkemuseum_ at Copenhagen, the life-work of Hr. Olsen has been given to gathering together and re-erecting a large number of old cottages and farmhouses from various districts in Denmark, from Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and from Norway and Sweden. These have their obsolete agricultural implements, and old methods of fencing and quaint styles of storage. The furniture stands in these specimen homes exactly as if they were occupied. It is a remarkable open-air museum, and the idea is worthy of serious consideration in this country. Old cottages and farmhouses are fast disappearing, and the preservation of these beauties of village and country life should appeal to all lovers of national monuments.[1]

[1] Those interested in the method pursued in Sweden and Denmark
and the grave necessity for speedy measures to preserve our
national cottages and farmhouses from effacement will find
illuminating articles on the subject from the pen of "Home
Counties" in the _World's Work_, August, October, and November,
1910, and in the American _Educational Review_, February, 1911,
in an article by Lucy M. Salmon. "Old West Surrey," by Gertrude
Jekyll (Longmans & Co.), 1904, contains a wealth of suggestive
material relating to cottage furniture and articles of daily use
of old-style country life now passing away.
In connexion with farmhouse furniture, old chintzes is a subject
never before written upon. A chapter in this volume is contributed
by Mr. Hugh Phillips, whose special studies concerning this little
known field enable him to present much valuable information which has
never before been in print, together with illustrations of chintzes
actually taken from authentic examples of old furniture.

A brief survey is made of miscellaneous articles associated with cottage and farmhouse furniture. Some specimens of Sussex firebacks are illustrated, together with fenders, firedogs, pot-hooks, candle-holders, and brass and copper candlesticks.

The illustrations have been selected in order to convey a broad outline of the subject. My especial thanks are due to Messrs. Phillips, of the Manor House, Hitchin, for placing at my disposal the practical experience of many years' collecting in various parts of the country, and by enriching the volume with illustrations of many fine examples of great importance and rarity never before photographed.

To Messrs. A. B. Daniell & Sons I am indebted for photographs of specimens in their galleries.

In presenting this volume it is my intention that it should be a companion volume to my "Chats on Old Furniture," which records the history and evolution of the finer styles of English furniture, showing the various foreign influences on English craftsmen who made furniture for the wealthy classes.

ARTHUR HAYDEN.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 25

The minor collector--The originality of the village
cabinet-maker--His freedom from foreign influences--The
traditional character of his work--Difficult to establish dates
to cottage and farmhouse furniture--Oak the chief wood
employed--Beech, elm, and ash used in lieu of mahogany and
satinwood--Village craftsmanship not debased by early-Victorian
art--Its obliteration in the age of factory-made furniture--The
conservation of old farmhouses with their furniture in
Sweden and in Denmark--The need for the preservation
and exhibition of old cottages and farmhouses in Great
Britain.

CHAPTER II

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY STYLES 43

Typical Jacobean furniture--Solidity of English joiners'
work--Oak general in its use--The oak forests of England--Sturdy
independence of country furniture--Chests of
drawers--The slow assimilation of foreign styles--The
changing habits of the people.

CHAPTER III

THE GATE-LEG TABLE 83

Its early form--Transitional and experimental stages--Its
establishment as a permanent popular type--The gate-leg
table in the Jacobean period--Walnut and mahogany varieties--Its
utility and beauty contribute to its long survival--Its
adoption in modern days.

CHAPTER IV

THE FARMHOUSE DRESSER 113

The days of the late Stuarts--Its early table form with
drawers--The decorated type with shelves--William and
Mary style with double cupboards--The Queen Anne
cabriole leg--Mid-eighteenth-century types.

CHAPTER V

THE BIBLE-BOX, THE CRADLE, THE SPINNING-WHEEL,
AND THE BACON-CUPBOARD 137

The Puritan days of the seventeenth century--The Protestant
Bible in every home--The variety of carving found in
Bible-boxes--The Jacobean cradle and its forms--The
spinning-wheel--The bacon-cupboard.

CHAPTER VI

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STYLES 155

The advent of the cabriole leg--The so-called Queen Anne
style--The survival of oak in the provinces--The influence
of walnut on cabinet-making--The early-Georgian types--Chippendale
and his contemporaries.

CHAPTER VII

THE EVOLUTION OF THE CHAIR 189

Early days--The typical Jacobean oak chair--The evolution
of the stretcher--The chair-back and its development--Transition
between Jacobean and William and Mary forms--Farmhouse
styles contemporary with the cane-back chair--The
Queen Anne splat--Country Chippendale, Hepplewhite,
and Sheraton--The grandfather chair--Ladder-back types--The
spindle-back chair--Corner chairs.

CHAPTER VIII

THE WINDSOR CHAIR 243

Early types--The stick legs without stretcher--The tavern
chair--Eighteenth-century pleasure gardens--The rail-back
variety--Chippendale style Windsor chairs--The survival of
the Windsor chair.

CHAPTER IX

LOCAL TYPES 265

Welsh carving--Scottish types--Lancashire dressers, wardrobes,
and chairs--Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridge,
and Essex tables--Isle of Man tables.

CHAPTER X

MISCELLANEOUS IRONWORK, ETC. 285

The rushlight-holder--The dipper--The chimney crane--The
Scottish crusie--Firedogs--The warming-pan--Sussex
firebacks--Grandfather clocks.

CHAPTER XI

OLD ENGLISH CHINTZES. (By Hugh Phillips) 315

The charm of old English chintz--Huguenot cloth-printers
settle in England--Jacob Stampe at the sign of the Calico
Printer--The Queen Anne period--The Chippendale period--The
age of machinery.

INDEX 343

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SIDEBOARD OF CARVED OAK (ENGLISH,
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY) _Frontispiece_

CHAPTER I--INTRODUCTORY NOTE
PAGE
CHESTS (SIXTEENTH CENTURY) 29

ELIZABETHAN CHAIR 35

CHEST (SEVENTEENTH CENTURY) 35

INTERIOR OF FARMHOUSE PARLOUR 39

INTERIOR OF COTTAGE 39

CHAPTER II

MONK'S BENCH 53

OAK CHEST WITH DRAWERS UNDERNEATH 53

JOINT STOOLS 57

OAK TABLE 57

CHEST (RESTORATION PERIOD) 63

EARLY OAK TABLE (MIDDLE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY) 63

SMALL OAK TABLE (_c._ 1680) 65

JACOBEAN CHEST OF DRAWERS (_c._ 1660) 65

CHESTS OF DRAWERS 69

CHEST OF DRAWERS (CABRIOLE FEET) 73

WILLIAM AND MARY TABLE (_c._ 1670) 73

CHILDREN'S STOOLS 77

RARE BEDSTEAD (_c._ 1700) 77

CHAPTER III

TRIANGULAR GATE TABLE 87

OAK SIDE-TABLE 87

SMALL GATE TABLE (VERY EARLY TYPE) 91

GATE TABLE (MIDDLE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY) 91

RARE TABLE WITH DOUBLE GATES 93

RARE TABLE WITH DOUBLE GATES AND ONLY ONE FLAP 93

GATE-LEG TABLE (RESTORATION PERIOD) 97

GATE-LEG TABLE (YORKSHIRE TYPE) 97

GATE-LEG TABLE WITH SIX LEGS ("BARLEY-SUGAR"
TURNING) 99

GATE-LEG TABLE (BALL TURNING) 99

COLLAPSIBLE TABLE WITH RARE =X= STRETCHER 101

PRIMITIVE GATE-LEG TABLE 101

WILLIAM AND MARY GATE-LEG TABLE 105

SQUARE-TOP GATE-LEG TABLES 105

MAHOGANY GATE-LEG TABLES 109

CHAPTER IV

OAK DRESSER (ABOUT 1680) 117

OAK DRESSER (PERIOD OF JAMES II.) 117

OAK DRESSER (EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY) 119

OAK DRESSER, URN-SHAPED LEGS (RESTORATION PERIOD) 119

MIDDLE-JACOBEAN DRESSER 123

WILLIAM AND MARY OAK DRESSER 127

OAK DRESSER. SQUARE-LEG TYPE 127

UNIQUE DRESSER AND CLOCK COMBINED 131

OAK DRESSER. QUEEN ANNE CABRIOLE LEGS 135

LANCASHIRE OAK DRESSER 135

CHAPTER V

BIBLE-BOXES. EARLY EXAMPLES 143

BIBLE-BOXES (MIDDLE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY AND
ORDINARY TYPE) 145

OAK CRADLES 149

YARN-WINDER AND SPINNING-WHEEL 151

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE BOBBINS 151

CHAPTER VI

LANCASHIRE OAK SETTLES 159

CUPBOARD WITH DRAWERS 163

QUEEN ANNE BUREAU BOOKCASE 163

OAK TABLES (EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY) 165

QUEEN ANNE GLASS- OR CHINA-CUPBOARD 171

GEORGIAN CORNER-CUPBOARD 171

OAK TABLES 173

OAK TABLES, WITH TYPICAL COUNTRY CABRIOLE LEGS 177

QUEEN ANNE TEA-TABLE 181

OAK REVOLVING BOOK-STAND 181

COUNTRY CHIPPENDALE TABLE 181

SQUARE MAHOGANY FLAP-TABLE 183

TRIPOD TABLE (_c._ 1760) 183

COUNTRY CHIPPENDALE AND COUNTRY ADAM TABLES 187