30 
House & Garden 
EARLY ITALIAN WALL FURNITURE 
Fig. 3. A characteristic 
l%th Century carved and 
gilt mirror frame, show¬ 
ing evidence of Baroque 
influence 
The Cassone, the Cre- 
denza and the Bed 
Photographs by 
Courtesy of Nicholas Martin 
U NDER the general 
term of "wall furni¬ 
ture” are to be under¬ 
stood all those pieces which, 
from the nature of their 
design and structure, are 
intended to stand against 
the wall — in other words, 
everything not compre¬ 
hended under the head 
of seating furniture and 
tables. To be strictly ac¬ 
curate, not a few of the 
tables, ceremonial benches 
raised on a dais, and high- 
backed chairs were treated 
as wall furniture; but, as 
they have already been discussed, we may 
address ourselves directly to the cabinet 
work on which artisans and artists of the 
period often expended their best efforts. 
Fig. 1. A late 16tE 
or early 11th Cen¬ 
tury Italian cabinet 
on stand. This is 
the open view 
The Cassone 
One of the most characteristic articles 
of the Italian wall furniture of the 16th 
and 17th Centuries was the cassone or 
chest. It was not only an important item 
in the equipment of every room, but in one 
or another of its various forms it embodied 
all the decorative processes and types of 
decoration employed for the enrichment of 
furniture in that golden age of Italian mo- 
biliary art. The cassone was an object 
of utility from the earliest times, but from 
tbe middle or latter part of the 15th Cen¬ 
tury on it assumed a highly significant posi¬ 
tion as a decorative adjunct as well. In 
the exuberance of Renaissance invention it 
displayed the peculiarities of contour and 
all the wealth of decorative detail charac- 
ABBOT McCLURE & 
HAROLD DONALDSON 
EBERLEIN 
teristic of the period; early 
in the 17th Century, in like 
manner, it showed the re¬ 
straint of form and embel¬ 
lishment we see in other 
contemporary pieces of 
cabinet work. 
In considering not only 
the cassoni, but also the 
other wall furniture of the 
16th and 17th Centuries, 
it is necessary to keep con¬ 
stantly in mind two things 
that were pointed out in the 
preceding paper. These 
two things are, first, the 
character of the architect¬ 
ural background and the relation of the 
furniture to it; second, the scantiness of 
equipment as compared with the usage of 
later periods. In the first place the furni¬ 
ture had sufficient individuality and in¬ 
trinsic interest, both in form and color, to 
give the requisite contrast with its back¬ 
ground, no matter whether that background 
was elaborate or austere. In the second 
place, the furniture was designed and made 
in the full realization that each piece would 
display its excellence without crowding. 
While it manifested sundry minor varia¬ 
tions, the cassone occurred for the most 
part in one or the other of three general 
types, all unmistakably of the same family. 
Fig. 2. Closed, view 
of cabinet. Carved 
walnut with walnut 
veneer on drawers 
and front 
Three General Types 
(1) There was the cassone of sarco¬ 
phagus contour with projecting acanthus 
consoles and shaped top, such as the gor¬ 
geously ornate Florentine example of about 
1475, shown in Figure 10, or with shaped 
sides and flat top, supported on a plinth or 
Fig. 4. The console cupboard was close¬ 
ly related to the credenza. This, of late 
IQth or early 11th Century, is walnut 
Fig. 5. A IQth Century carved walnut 
cabinet of two stages, distinctly archi¬ 
tectural in the conception of its design 
Fig. 6. A madia, or Dutch-like standing 
cupboard, early 11th Century. No Renais¬ 
sance detail. Courtesy of Geo. Howe, Esq. 
