464 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1907 



Mrs. James P. Cook, many of whose rarest pieces are 

 now photographed for the first time. The gem of the 

 collection is without doubt a table which measures over 

 four feet across the top. The carvings include a floral 

 design with feet of open-mouthed dragons; the top is of 

 Chinese marble. 



Dragon forms are popular with Chinese workmen, and 

 find a place in many of their finest pieces. There are few 

 pieces of teakwood that are carved alike, owing to individual 

 Interpretations of the common pattern which each workman 

 of a shop is supposed to follow. Formerly each family had 

 its own pattern, and an entire village would be devoted to 

 the work, each family working upon a piece until it was 



together with a table whose decorations are of dragon 

 forms, are splendid examples of the reptile's use, while a 

 screen has solid supports carved in the likeness of canines of 

 rather belligerent appearance. Half way up the standards 

 are surmounted by smaller dogs, while the screen of silk, 

 richly embroidered, is framed in a filagree design. 



Occasionally the searcher after rare teakwood comes upon 

 a bit of Spanish or Portugese furniture, which is especially 

 valuable, as the teak long ago ceased to be exported to Spain 

 and Portugal and the manufacture of these articles ceased. 

 The European designs of these Spanish artisans are less in- 

 tricate than the Oriental patterns, and for that reason are 

 more popular. For example, a chair in the possession of a 



Teakwood Furniture in the Bowling Alley of Mr. E. C. Swift, Magnolia, Massachusetts 



completed for the market. Now the artisans are banded 

 together, some twenty or more belonging to one shop, and 

 the work is carried on much the same as in any shop, the 

 workmen following the common pattern, which is seldom 

 changed, owing to the jealousies existing between the various 

 shops. Flowers are found in profusion in all the carvings 

 of the Oriental countries, the sacred lotus being most com- 

 mon among the Chinese carvings, while the cherry blossom 

 not infrequently forms part of Japanese work. The sacred 

 dog of Confucius is also found in the work of his 

 followers. 



Splendid illustrations of the favorite carvings of both the 

 Chinese and the Japanese are not wanting, and a table whose 

 standard is formed by the coils of two immense serpents, to 

 which little forms, half beast and half human, are clinging. 



Boston collector, built after the style of Charles II, and 

 carved by a Spanish workman, is valued at four hundred 

 dollars, while another chair, fully as old and four times as 

 large, was valued by the same person at only one hundred 

 dollars, because the carvings of the latter were not so well 

 designed and but indifferently executed. Indeed, the Spanish 

 designs excel all others for beauty and workmanship, which 

 consequently places them highest in intrinsic worth. The 

 specimens of Spanish work are, however, rare, and but few 

 are now to be found in America. 



It is in the smaller articles of teakwood that the most ex- 

 quisite work is wrought. The dark wood lends itself to 

 other substances, making them more beautiful by contrast, 

 and the wonderful fancies in which it is wrought add their 

 quota to the effect of the whole. Nearly all of the teakwood 



