68 AMERICAN 
green damask curtain © - , 
hangs before the _ bed, 
which is so high above the 
floor that it must be en- 
tered with the aid of a 
small stepladder that 
stands in one corner of the 
room near the brass, or 
copper warming-pan, that 
hangs on the wall. The 
bed is enclosed in the 
panels of the wall. The 
room of an Amsterdam 
bride of the same period 
shows a different bedroom. 
The floor here was cov- 
ered with fine ‘Spanish 
matting”; and the walls 
were lined with tiles 
painted with small figures. 
In one corner stood a large 
four-posted bedstead with 
twisted posts and green 
serge curtains, each post 
surmounted by a bunch of plumes. In another corner was 
a heavily-carved kas of oak, on which stood several blue 
porcelain vases. Similar vases adorned the wide mantel. 
Chairs with leather seats and sacredaan frames were 
ranged around the wall at regular intervals. Near the 
mantel-piece stood a small bookcase filled with religious 
and other works. A large Venetian mirror in a crystal 
frame hung above the dressing-table, on which stood a 
jewel casket and a toilet case filled with all the articles that 
a lady needed to make herself beautiful. Portraits in ebony 
frames adorned the walls. 
When the house was once furnished, the Dutch house- 
wife took such pleasure in it that she spent half her life 
in keeping it clean. De Parival wrote: 
“The wives and daughters scour and rub benches, chests, 
cupboards, dressers, plate-racks, even the stairs until they 
shine like mirrors. Some are so clean that they would not 
enter any of the rooms without taking off their shoes and 
putting on their slippers. The women put all their energy 
and pleasure in keeping the house and the furniture 
clean.” 
In the old comedies, the women constantly talk of their 
housecleaning. Godewijck makes the daughter of an alder- 
man say: 
“My brush is my 
sword, my besom is my 
weapon, I know no rest; I 
know no sleep. I don't 
think of my room; I don't 
think of my throat; no 
labor is too heavy; no 
trouble is too great to 
make everything tidy and 
without blemish. I will 
not let the maid touch my 
pretty things; I, myself, 
will rub and polish; I will 
splash and scrub; I will 
hunt the speck of dust. I 
do not fear the tub like a 
fine lady.” 
The house was, there- 
fore, ‘their world, their 
toy, their god” to the 
Dutch; and some of them 
went so far as to have Te 
their homes reproduced in 
Fig. 10—A crown-backed chair 
HOMES AND GARDENS 
ee ee «2SCminiature with all their 
Fig. 12—An arm chair with hoof-foot Fig. 1 3—A crown-backed arm chair 
February, 1911 
furniture, pictures and 
curios copied in wood, sil- 
ver, or ivory. In many of 
the Dutch museums, these 
so-called ‘‘dolls’ houses” 
are to be seen. The one in 
Utrecht, for instance, has 
its walls adorned with tiny 
paintings by Moucheron; 
and has also a charming 
garden attached. One of 
those in the Rijks Museum 
at Amsterdam is said to 
have cost 20,000 guilders 
($9,000) and to have oc- 
cupied five years in prepa- 
ration. 
In England there was a 
great demand for Oriental 
porcelain among the 
wealthy and the London 
East India Company could 
not supply the demand. 
The Stores of the Indies in Amsterdam became the recog- 
nized headquarters and travelers used to go to Amsterdam 
for curiosities from the east. 
Naturally, too, the china-cabinet to exhibit such wares 
became of the greatest importance as a piece of furniture; 
and judging from old wills and inventories, furniture and 
beautiful textiles were imported as well as other articles. 
The Earl of Northampton, who died in 1619, had among 
other splendid treasures “‘a China ‘guilte cabonett’ upon a 
frame; a large square China work table and frame of black 
varnish and gold (lacquer of course); one fair crimson 
velvet chair richly embossed with copper and spread eagles 
and blue and white flowers China work, the frame painted 
with gold, one small table of China work in gold and colors 
with flies and worms, a little gilded couch carved and cut, 
an ebony cabinet inlaid with mother-of-pearl; a very large 
bedstead with wreathed pillars for head, sides and feet 
all colored black and gold; a folding Indian screen; a China 
cushion embroidered with birds, beasts and flowers; and a 
field-bedstead of China work black and silver.” 
The Orient exercised as powerful an influence on French 
as it did on Dutch and on English taste. It became very 
noticeable towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV, 
and during the Regency and days of Louis XV, that the taste 
_ for Oriental goods _be- 
came a rage and the in- 
fluence of the East is seen 
in every form of decora- 
tive art. 
Indirectly, then, as well 
as directly, the Dutch had 
a great deal to do with 
popularizing Oriental 
forms and motives. It is 
also said by some author- 
ities that a Dutchman, 
named Huygens, who be- 
came famous for his 
“Sapanned work,” went to 
France, and that to him 
the Martins owed much 
in perfecting their superb 
varnish made in imitation 
of the Eastern lacquer. 
When the Huguenots 
were driven out of France 
by the Revocation of the 
Fig. | | —Chair with jar-shaped splat 
