66 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Fig. 4—A mirror 
or mythological figures and subjects. ‘The wood used in the 
construction of these pieces was oak, walnut and chestnut. 
An oak table of this period is shown in Fig. 15,— literally 
the family board, at which all the family sat and also the 
servants. Here we find the handsome acorn bulb used as 
a decoration for the six legs. A form or stool was placed 
by the side of the table as a seat for one or two of the 
children or servants, for the chair was still the seat of honor 
for the heads of the house. 
The bed, which appears in every living-room from the 
kitchen to the upper chamber, is usually the box-shaped, or 
domed four-poster, always closed in with curtains. Cur- 
tains adorned the windows, the glass of which was charm- 
ingly leaded in geometrical patterns. In the center was 
often a colored lozenge with the family arms. 
The wide chimney-piece often had shelves on which plate 
and earthenware were displayed; and sometimes the space 
above the opening was occupied by a picture, or a piece 
of tapestry. 
The walls were painted or whitewashed, and frequently 
hung with tapestry, or pictures, charts and mirrors, the 
frames being of oak, olive, or ebony, plain, gilded, or richly 
carved. 
During the Seventeenth Century, the tendency of Dutch 
furniture was to break away from the heavy carved oak 
chairs and tables and massive bedsteads and constantly to 
become lighter in form, turnery supplanting carving in the 
posts of bedsteads and in the supports of tables, chairs 
and cabinets. The Spanish chair held universal sway in 
Fig. 7—-A double chair 
Fig. 5—A settee 
February, 1911 
Fig. 6—A dressing table 
the Low Countries long after the Dutch had shaken off the 
Spanish yoke. With this chair everyone is familiar. It 
has a leather back and seat, the leather being fastened on 
with large ornamental brass nails. The back posts and 
sometimes the arms terminated in the heads of lions or 
other animals. The other common leather chair was per- 
fectly plain and square, with leather covering about two- 
thirds of the back and a leather seat, also fastened with 
nails. The legs were connected with one or more rows 
of stretchers. Following these, came the cane chairs with 
carved and turned legs connected with straight or curved 
stretchers. Sometimes, as in the caned-backed chair (Fig. 2), 
the stretchers were diagonal. This chair is an excellent 
type of the period still preserving the ‘Spanish foot” and 
showing the tall narrow back that many people like to call 
“Queen Anne.” The back of this chair is not unlike the 
mirror frame of the day. The diagonal stretchers with the 
spindle ornament at the point of the intersection are also 
characteristic of the period and are frequently found on 
tables and cabinets, where, at the point of intersection, a 
round flat space is left for a porcelain ornament to be placed. 
Towards the end of the Seventeenth Century, the great 
influx of Oriental carved wood, lacquer, porcelain, Chinese 
and Japanese silks and embroideries and India muslins, 
chintzes, calicoes and hundreds of varieties of products 
from Eastern looms entirely changed the character of the 
Dutch home. China-mania and the craze for singerie in Hol- 
land were quite equal to similar fashionable modes in France 
and in England. The walls were covered with brackets for 
Fig. 8—A double chair 
