October, 1916 25 
FURNITURE AND ITS ARCHITECTURAL BACKGROUND 
A Glimpse of the Architecture That ‘‘Came Through” 
in the Pre-Georgian and Early Georgian Days 
ABBOT McCLURE and HAROLD DONALDSON EBERLEIN 
This is the second of a series of three illuminating articles on the relation 
between architecture and furniture. The next, and last, will be devoted 
to the Late Georgian and Classical Revival. — Editor. 
T HERE was never an era 
when architectural influence 
was more patently manifest in 
furniture design than the period 
comprised between 1688 and 
1740. At its beginning we find 
the type of furniture known as 
William and Mary pushing rap¬ 
idly into favor. At its end, we 
see the culmination of architec¬ 
tural inspiration crossing into the 
mobiliary field in the so-called 
“architects’ furniture.” In the 
intervening space the architectu¬ 
ral influence enjoys a steady 
and noticeable progress. 
This half century of furniture 
making is full of interest and 
valuable furnishing lessons. It 
is particularly appropriate that 
we should examine the furniture 
of this age from an architectural 
point of view, and the architec¬ 
ture with an eye to its mobiliary 
reflections, because there has 
been a noticeable trend of taste 
in modern domestic design in 
America either toward a pre- 
Georgian type of house or else 
toward a house that is con¬ 
fessedly and essentially Georg¬ 
ian in its manifestations. 
Paneling of the Period 
At the end of the 17th Cen¬ 
tury the better rooms were often 
completely paneled from floor to 
ceiling, and even rooms of lesser 
importance were not infrequently 
paneled on one, or perhaps, two sides, the 
other sides being wainscoted from floor to 
chair rail. This is true both of English 
houses and of many old American houses 
of the same date. Even bedchambers, as 
well as the ground floor rooms, were finished 
in this characteristic manner. 
The panels were far larger than they had 
rounds of doors and windows 
and overdoor adornments were 
built up of architectural members 
which were always conspicuous. 
In addition to the lavish use of 
architectural members for the 
embellishment or ornamentation 
of interior woodwork, in the 
more elaborate houses, carving in 
bold relief appeared as an ac¬ 
cessory form of enrichment, usu¬ 
ally in swags and drops of fruit 
and flowers or in concentrated 
masses. It was the age of Grin¬ 
ling Gibbon and his school. 
These exquisitely wrought lines 
and lumps of opulent carving lent 
an air of substantial richness 
that has never been surpassed. 
Their Form and Wood 
It should be added that the 
panels were not always of uni¬ 
form width, but were varied as 
occasion seemed to require, and 
sometimes narrow panels on 
either side of a door were seized 
upon as a fitting background for 
pendent drops of deeply under¬ 
cut carving. In the mouldings 
and in other places, too, the cyma 
curve, in one form or another, 
was a constantly recurring fea¬ 
ture, and the tortus or cushion 
mould was a common motif for 
friezes and architectural decora¬ 
tions over doors. 
Oak in its natural color, espe¬ 
cially in rooms that were not en¬ 
riched with carving, was much employed for 
paneling, although pine or deal was also 
coming into common use for the same pur¬ 
pose, and, indeed, where elaborate carving 
occurred, pine or some other easily worked 
wood had to be used in their stead. 
The introduction of pine and deal for 
paneling meant also the introduction of 
An excellent example of period propriety, as shown in William 
and Mary and Queen Anne epochs. Emphasis is placed on large 
panels, mouldings of bold, vigorotis profile and rich carving 
been during the Stuart period. Sometimes 
they were three or four or even more feet 
in breadth and correspondingly high, and 
were commonly, though not invariably, fin¬ 
ished with a broad bevel around the edges. 
The mouldings surrounding and defining 
the panels were rather heavy and of bold 
profile. Overmantel embellishments, the sur¬ 
The above drawings, taken from actual examines of architecture and furniture, exhibit the parallelisms discernible in structural 
contour, contour of detail and decorative motif. The architectural designs are shown above and their furniture parallels below 
