FURNITURE 



3381 



FURNITURE 



FURNITURE: DEVELOPMENT & STYLES 



Percy Macquoid, Author of A History of English Furniture 



In addition to this sketch of the development of furniture, there are 



articles on all the forms of furniture, e.g. Chair ; Chest ; Table, etc. See 



also Cabinet-making: Adam style; Chippendale; Heppleivhite ; 



Sheraton ; etc. 



We must turn to Egypt for the 

 earliest known records of domestic 

 furniture. In bas-reliefs, dating 

 from 4000 B.C., beds, tables, chairs 

 and stools are all found represented. 

 The bed of the wealthy classes was 

 a horizontal frame of wood or 

 bronze, terminating with heads 

 such as a lion or hawk, and stand- 

 ing on four legs in representation of 

 the animal. The mattress was sup- 

 ported by an interlacement of 

 leather thongs, those of the middle 

 and poorer classes being a wicker 

 framework of palm sticks with a 

 straw pallet. The pillows were of 

 crescent form calculated to rest 

 the neck, and made of Oriental 

 alabaster on a grooved or fluted 

 shaft, or rare polished woods 

 painted ; the poor being content 

 with those of pottery and stone. 

 The couches were similar to the 

 beds, but with one end raised and 

 scrolling over in a graceful curve, 

 and probably wers transformed 

 from one use to the other by dif- 

 ferent coverings, being chiefly used 

 in the day for sitting, as Egyptians, 

 like early Greeks and Romans, are 

 always portrayed sitting at their 

 meals, never reclining. 



Ancient Furniture 



The chairs and thrones appear 

 to have been fabricated of metal, 

 ebony, and other rare woods inlaid 

 with ivory, the state chairs repre- 

 sented on the tombs of 'the kings at 

 Thebes (c. 1800 B.C.) being most 

 graceful and elaborate. The legs 

 were invariably those of some ani- 

 mal, the difference between the 

 fore and hind leg being carefully 

 observed ; the arms were fre- 

 quently in the form of lions passant 

 or couchant, carved and painted 

 or plated with gold, the backs re- 

 ceded gradually and scrolled over 

 like the couches, with a pillow of 

 gold and silver tissue, painted 

 leather or coloured cotton. Smaller 

 chairs were also of most interesting 

 form, some with the backs hol- 

 lowed, panelled and inlaid ; others 

 with splatted backs, the seats being 

 of wood, interlaced string or leather 

 thongs, and these chairs have 

 served as models throughout the 

 world even to the present day. Ex- 

 amples can be seen in the Cairo, 

 British, and Leiden Museums. At 

 Leiden the back of the chair is 17 

 ins. and the seat 13 ins. Stools are 

 far more frequently represented in 

 Egyptian sculptures than chairs ; 

 some were of folding form, with 

 leather seats, some inlaid and like 

 the chairs, only without backs. 



Many had solid sides, and others 

 three legs, but nearly all appear to 

 have had stretchers. 



Small tables were round, on a 

 single, central support, which was 

 often in the form of a captive, a 

 motive also much introduced 

 under chairs. Larger tables were 

 four sided, with three or four legs ; 

 some had solid sides, all varieties 

 being made in wood, stone, or 

 metal. The fragments of this furni- 

 ture, as well as the remnants of 

 stands for holding wine- jars, foot- 

 stools, chests, boxes, etc., that 

 have been discovered, prove the 

 wonderful degree of luxury these 

 people had attained. Although the 

 civilization of Chaldaea and As- 

 syria was later than that of Egypt, 

 the furniture of those countries ap- 

 pears to have been far more crude ; 

 there were no comfortable curved 

 backs to the couches, chairs, and 

 beds, and on the bas-reliefs the 

 furniture portrayed is always rect- 

 angular, with metal bosses at the 

 corners, and with heavy fringes. 



No record remains of Hebrew 

 furniture beyond the Biblical de- 

 scriptions, which are very limited, 

 for, as a nation, they were forbid- 

 den any representation of social 

 life by sculpture; but we may 

 assume their taste was based upon 

 that of Phoenicia, Assyria, and 

 Egypt. Persia, a still later civiliza- 

 tion, was more Oriental than any of 

 these nations, and its furniture con- 

 sisted of low divans, cushions on 

 the ground, stools, thrones, and 

 tables of Syrian designs. No speci- 

 mens of Greek wooden furniture 

 are in existence, only fragments of 

 those in marble or metal have sur- 

 vived, but their vases show that 

 very elegant forms existed and on a 

 par with their sculpture of 500 B.C. 

 Their chairs were strong-looking 

 and graceful, with backs rounded 

 to accommodate the body, the legs 

 sweeping outwards in fine curves, 

 and constructed of wood inlaid 

 with ivory and coloured woods, or 

 studded 'with paterae in the 

 precious metals. 



Greek and Roman Couches 



The couches and beds were gene- 

 rally rectangular, standing on 

 stout balustered legs, often over- 

 laid with plates of gold or silver, 

 but the head-rest of the Egyptians 

 was soon discarded and replaced 

 by cushions, the introduction of the 

 bedhead as part of the structure 

 being distinctly noticeable. These 

 couches were used by the Greeks 

 and Carthaginians for reclining 



during meals, a fashion adopted by 

 the Romans towards the close of 

 the Punic wars. 



The Romans quickly surpassed 

 the Greeks in domestic luxury, and 

 after the sack of Corinth by Mum- 

 mius, 146 B.C., when paintings, 

 sculptures, and works of art arrived 

 for the first time in Rome as part of 

 the spoils, these objects of art were 

 at once reproduced by the Greek 

 craftsmen who flocked to Rome for 

 employment. The furniture must 

 have remained in fashion over 200 

 years, as the ringed bronze balus- 

 tered chairs, stools, and couches 

 discovered at Pompeii are clearly 

 all evolutions from Greek designs. 

 Among the fragments of Roman 

 furniture preserved in museums are 

 portions covered with tortoiseshell, 

 silver, and mother-of-pearl ; and 

 Commodus, A.D. 180, is known to 

 have possessed a couch of ivory 

 studded with large opals. Both 

 Greeks and Romans had chests 

 made of precious woods, ornamen- 

 ted with nails, masks, and heavy 

 handles, the fronts being often 

 painted with subjects. 



Saxon and Norman Styles 



Wherever the Romans colonised, 

 they introduced a certain amount 

 of furniture, and it is easy to trace 

 its influence on both Saxon and 

 Norman motives. Beds in the time 

 of Alfred the Great, except for the 

 very wealthy, consisted of a sack 

 filled with straw, laid on the chest 

 in which it was kept during the day 

 or on boards placed in curtained - 

 off recesses in the living-rooms. The 

 term bedstead then meant only the 

 locality ; the words " bolster " and 

 " pyle " (pillow) were also Anglo- 

 Saxon. The sleepers probably 

 wrapped their naked bodies in 

 sheets and drew coverlets of bear 

 and other skins over them. 



About 1200 beds began to as- 

 sume a definite balustered form, 

 with tester and hangings from the 

 ceiling beams. Neckam, writing a 

 little later, in his description of a 

 bedroom, says that beside the bed 

 should be a chair, and at the foot of 

 the bed a bench for conversation, 

 on which a child or servant could 

 sleep at night ; there should be 

 also a pole or perch for the falcons 

 and another to hang clothes on. The 

 sheets were of linen or silk, supple- 

 mented with a cloth coverlid and 

 heavy furs in winter. Posts to beds 

 were not^ invented till the 16th 

 century. ^These were elaborately 

 carved, supporting an oak-panelled 

 tester, the backs to the beds being 

 solid and often arcaded and inlaid. 



The earliest form of English 

 chair was of turned oak, then 

 roughly carved, but every variety 

 was exceedingly scarce until the 

 17th century, being only used by 



