26 
HO USE & GARDEN 
paint. It must not be imagined, how¬ 
ever, that white paint was the only 
sort in use. Greys and grey greens 
appeared with drabs and browns, and 
sometimes greens and blues of pro¬ 
nounced tones were to be found. The 
heavier colors rarely occurred where 
there was much carving unless it was 
almost wholly gilt. 
The Corresponding Furniture 
This pre-Georgian background of 
interior architecture was rich and im¬ 
pressive, and recjuired certain posi¬ 
tive features in furniture to accord 
with it. The characteristics of Wil¬ 
liam and Mary furniture are famil¬ 
iar, so that it will not be necessary, 
at this point, to do more than call 
attention to items of correspondence 
with motifs of interior architecture, 
and remind the reader of the vogue 
enjoyed by brilliant color, which was 
amply displayed in the gorgeous hued 
and bold patterned fabrics for up¬ 
holstery and hangings. 
Considering the correspondence of 
contour and proportion, it is easy to 
see how William and Mary and 
Queen Anne furniture followed, in 
the arrangement of its masses, the 
general proportions of its architec¬ 
tural background. Vertical lines in 
cabinet work were more and more 
emphasized, and horizontal lines became less 
dominant. Carcase work gradually gained 
in height and lost in breadth. But the most 
significant point to be noticed is the appear¬ 
ance of the curving line, at first merely in 
matters of joinery, such, for instance, as 
arc-curved door-fronts. Under the influ¬ 
ence of Sir Christopher Wren and his fol¬ 
lowers, baroque feeling was somewhat re¬ 
strained in English architecture and shorn 
of the extravagance into which it ran on 
the Continent but, notwithstanding this for¬ 
tunate curbing, it was there all the same, as 
was amply attested by the presence of the 
ubiquitous Flemish scroll. 
The Flemish scroll and its kindred C and 
S scrolls, singly or in combination pro¬ 
foundly affected furniture design, some¬ 
times in contour merely, sometimes in struc¬ 
ture. To the presence of the baroque curvi¬ 
An early Georgian dining-room in which the wood wort 
and paneled walls are green-grey. Carpet is mouse 
colored velvet , the furniture Hepplewhite mahogany 
linear tendency in architecture, however 
much subdued in English manifestations, 
we owe the cabriole leg, the C and S scroll 
legs that flourished for a while, hooded tops, 
crestings of cabinet work in the form of 
pediments and sundry other details. 
To give only one instance of correspon¬ 
dence of design in decorative detail between 
furniture and contemporary architecture, 
one may point to the carved and gilt pine or 
limewood cabinet stands and their kindred 
carved console supports. 
With the correspondence or contrasting 
harmony of color between furniture and 
its architectural background, a wonderfully 
suggestive and rich field of possibilities is 
opened to us. While much of the light- 
hired, walnut-veneered furniture, and such 
oak pieces as remained in use and fashion, 
preserved a correspondence in color with 
the paneled oak backgrounds, there 
was a vigorous contrast, although a 
harmonious contrast in all other re¬ 
spects—upholstery stuffs, painted or 
painted and gilt furniture, marque- 
terie and lacquer. Where the pan¬ 
eled background was painted, the 
contrast in color extended to every 
item of furnishing. In either case, 
the contrasts were welcome and even 
necessary to relieve and vivify the 
monotony of an expanse of sombre 
toned oak or a background of neutral 
paint. Fortunately oak and painted 
backgrounds alike served as excel¬ 
lent foils for the gay contrasting up¬ 
holstery fabrics and for such pieces 
of marqueterie or lacquer as were 
used in connection with them. 
The Mixed Periods 
Supposing one wished to furnish 
a William and Mary or Queen Anne 
room, paneled with large oak panels, 
or finished with painted panels, with¬ 
out introducing any characteristic 
William and Mary or Queen Anne 
pieces of furniture into the composi¬ 
tion. One essential principle will be 
the desirability of a certain amount 
of vigorous contrasting color in 
hangings and upholstery stuffs, that 
is if the room is to have any vitality. 
Old Chinese embroideries and Jap¬ 
anese brocades can always be used to good 
purpose in such a setting. Likewise one 
may draw upon some of the brighter fab¬ 
rics of India or Persia. Where there is no 
carving of the Gibbon school, and only 
mouldings or exceedingly simple architec¬ 
tural items of adornment to reckon with, 
an old piece of pierced Japanese carving, 
polychrome and gilt, might find a suitable 
place as an overdoor panel. Dutch and 
Flemish furniture of this particular period 
are so similar to contemporary English fur¬ 
niture that we may leave them out of ac¬ 
count in considering the possibilities of 
equipping a room without drawing upon 
recognized period resources. Spanish and 
Portuguese sources, however, will yield 
some useful specimens of chests, cabinets 
and chairs that may be suitably placed in 
such a room. Italy will afford marqueterie 
A study in judiciozis combination of subtle correspondences. In 
harmonious agreement are early Queen Anne chairs, an old Italian 
carved walnut chest and an early Eighteenth Century tapestry 
An early Georgian dining-room. Walls and woodwork are pinkish 
grey; the furniture, mahogany. Hepplewhite chairs. The side¬ 
board pedestals and flanking knife urns are of Adam design 
