78 
House & Garden 
Cljnstmas (gifts 
3 N the Huber Galleries one will find many interesting 
and decorative things suitable as gifts—Italian Plaques, 
Pillows, Tables, Lamps, Reproductions of old Chinese Por¬ 
celain, old Paintings, unique Bird Cages with stand, Mir¬ 
rors, Spanish Decorative Objects. The prices are mod¬ 
erate. Your visit is invited or send for illustrated pamphlet 
H. F. HUBER & CO. 
New York: 13 East40th Street 
Paris: 18 Faub. Poissonniere 
I'',, GIMHEIL 
Italian Seating Furniture and Tables 
of the 18th Century 
(Continued from page 29) 
early Louis XVI provenance (Fig. 11) 
show marked evidence of Italian manip¬ 
ulation which has not lessened its artis¬ 
tic value. In similar manner we find 
Italian versions of most of tire familiar 
Adam and Louis XVI forms—round 
backs, oval backs, square backs, classic 
motifs and borrowed architectural fea¬ 
tures, but always with some distinctive 
modification. 
Square Backed Pieces 
Of all the 18th Century Italian seating 
furniture, the square-backed type, often¬ 
times so Sheratonesque that much of it 
may fitly be regarded as the close coun¬ 
terpart of the great English designer's 
synchronous creations, affords perhaps 
the greatest charm, the widest variety 
and the strongest claim to commenda¬ 
tion as a vital factor in the realm of 
mobiliary art. Structurally, chairs and 
settees of this type are strong, their 
measurements insure comfort to the 
sitter and, from the point of view of de¬ 
sign, they are well considered. In diver¬ 
sity of interpretation they range from 
classic elegance to ’ the most engaging 
playfulness. The chairs, settees and 
window seats, in which the lyre motif 
forms the chief decoration, are as grace¬ 
ful as anything one could wish. Closely 
akin to the types already noted are such 
slightly later types as are exemplified by 
the triple chair-back polychrome painted 
and parcel gilt settee shown (in Fig. 9) 
or by the cane-seated walnut and gilt 
chair (Fig. 7) with an interlacing circle 
motif in the back. Both are admirable 
in contour and decorative detail and 
both present subtly pleasing features, 
such as the slight curving of the top and 
bottom rail of each separate section of 
the settee back, or the agreeable concav¬ 
ity and bead molding of the chair back. 
And like dignity, refinements and excel¬ 
lences are to be found in a great propor¬ 
tion of the allied types. On the other 
hand, in this same square-backed family 
we meet with abundant evidence of such 
refined playfulness as is to be found in 
Fig. 14 with its twin rows of cypress 
trees gradually diminishing in size to 
the arch in the middle, or in Fig. 15, 
where fruit and leafage, carved in relief 
on toprail and front of seat rail, break 
the classical lines of the rest of the 
composition. 
It should be added that Fig. 15 was 
originally embellished with paint and 
gilding and a close inspection of the 
illustration will show how admirably tire 
design lends itself to the enlivenment of 
polychrome treatment. Although Fig. 
14 is in walnut, the design is also 
adapted to painted decoration, and one 
decorator, at least, to the knowledge of 
the writers, has successfully embraced 
the opportunity of painting reproduc¬ 
tions with cream white ground and dark 
green cypresses adding occasional 
touches of gilt and mauve. Humble 
cousins of the square backed chairs just 
noted, are the rush bottomed and painted 
peasant chairs. The body of the chair 
shown in Fig. 13 is of an old buffish 
cream tone while the decorations, of 
scrolls and urns, on the broad toprail 
and the crossrail are in black and Tus¬ 
can red. 
Devices for Painted Decoration 
The perforations on the back of Fig. 
16, forming a sort of guilloche motif on 
the upper and lower edges, represent a 
simple but highly effective device fre¬ 
quently resorted to by the makers of 
Italian furniture intended for painted 
decoration. A more extensive develop¬ 
ment of this same device is seen in the 
back of Fig. 12 in the form of an inter¬ 
lacing guilloche motif surmounting an 
arcade with shaped spindles' There is 
no attempt at carving and the shapes 
are merely cut out in flat profile. The 
painted decoration is then applied in 
motifs indicated by the contour. In this 
way the media of contour and color mu¬ 
tually assist each other in producing an 
agreeable decorative result. This prin¬ 
ciple is susceptible of endless diversity 
and was made use of by the Italian 
craftsman in felicitous manner. The 
chair shown in Fig. 12 is of bluish white 
body color with dark blue stripings, 
which to the eye largely take the place 
(Continued on page 80 ) 
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Fig. 17 . This walnutt table, whose marquetry and inlay 
top is shown above, illustrates the exuberance of dec¬ 
oration which is so characteristically Italian 
