

12 



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT. 



WOOD-PANELLING 



Fashion in Wall-coverings Pictures versus Panelling -Inexpensive Modern Panelling 



The Uses of Deal and Inlay. 



IT is a truism that nothing is more fickle than Fashion. That it was so in Shakespeare s day we 

 have the incidental testimony ot Conrade and Borachio, as they stood talking under the pent-house 

 on that night when Dogberry was unusually alert. The fickleness, it is true, varies according to 

 circumstances ; it is more marked, for instance, in the clothing of the body, which is easily 

 changed, than in the clothing of the house, which is somewhat difficult to remove. Nevertheless, 

 the clothing of the house lias varied from age to age according to the dictates of Fashion. In Shakespeare s 

 time the commonest form of wall-covering was panelling of wood, although the yet older method of hanging 

 the walls with tapestry was still in vogue, as we learn from many of his allusions. Panelling held the 

 field for more than a&quot; century and a-half after Ins period. It survived, indeed, although reduced in 

 height to a mere dado, until the beginning ol the last century ; and it was within the recollection of the 

 fathers of middle-aged men that wood dados were removed from their parlours in order to comply with 



the custom of 

 papering the entire 

 wall. It was the 

 wall-paper that 

 ousted panelling, 

 as being cheaper 

 and brighter (for 

 the restriction of 

 window space in 

 consequence of the 

 window-tax must 

 not be forgotten), 

 and, moreover, as 

 ministering to the 

 ever-present desire 

 for change. 



In the Eliza 

 bethan period 

 wall-panelling was 

 formed in com 

 paratively small 

 oblongs; but 

 owing to the slight 

 distance which the 

 panel was recessed 

 from the surround 

 ing framework, and 

 the simple repeti 

 tion of the same 



forms over a large surface of wall space, the effect was restful and quiet ; it produced a 

 pleasant, subdued liveliness. In Jacobean work at least, in its more pretentious manifestations 

 the result was more fussy ; there was a more evident striving after effect. Then came the larger 

 handling of the later half of the seventeenth century ; the huge panels and the boldly-projecting 

 mouldings associated with the time of Wren, the kind of work which adorns so many of the City churches. 

 The flat, delicately-arabasqued pilasters of a century earlier became large columns almost disengaged 

 from the wall. The small-membered cornices grew in bulk and carried boldly-designed foliage. The 

 carving, which formerly submitted to the severe restraint of its surrounding framework, cast off such 

 trammels and appealed to the eye not as incidentally enriching the design, but as an independent work 

 ot art, to be admired for its own intricacy and marvellous modelling. It was the wonderful skill of 



I ,. A ROOM THAT COST FIFTY POUNDS TO PANEL. 



