78 
House 
A mount from a Queen 
Anne cabinet, a view of 
which is seen on page 90 
& 
VI 
\l 
\ 
A characteristic orna¬ 
mental key plate found 
on drawers of the period 
W ITH Queen Anne furniture (1702- 
1714), who can avoid the alliterative 
thought of curves and comfort; for to our 
modern way of feeling the two merge in fur¬ 
niture. Speed makes sharp edges as danger¬ 
ous in households as in automobiles. The 
older ages had time enough and space enough 
and so little furniture withal, that sharp edges 
were a negligible factor; but with modern 
crowding we are thankful for well-rounded 
edges. • So the Queen Anne period marks the 
advent of comfort. Nor is this attained at 
the expense of beauty, though possibly at the 
sacrifice of delicacy. 
Queen Anne herself was a lady of ample 
proportions. Curiously this fact seems to link 
itself with the furniture of her days. Possibly 
she made it fashionable, but this is doubtful, 
A walnut secretary of high rectangu¬ 
lar construction with double-hood 
top. This is typical of the plainer 
sort of Queen Anne furniture 
FURNITURE 
of 
QUEEN ANNE’S 
TIME 
for she stayed so closely at home that her sub¬ 
jects scarcely knew her, and she reigned a 
mere twelve years. 
In the interesting process of tracing the 
advent and development of certain characteris¬ 
tics in furniture styles, we see just how this 
idea of comfort rounded sharp corners every¬ 
where, curved the fronts into an easy swell in 
cabinets, into pleasant curves in chair backs 
with their fiddle splats, hooped the tops, 
rounded arms and seats and finally bulged 
the legs into the curve we know as cabriole —• 
the French word for a goat’s leap. This 
bandy leg, though a novelty in England, had 
long been used in China for the Chinese found 
their way to tomfort long before Europe 
thought on such matters. 
{Continued on page 118) 
Profile of a chair arm, 
showing the curves 
A pendant drop drawer 
handle of the period 
These walnut side chairs have inlay on the splat, top 
rail and seat rail. The legs are cabriole and the feet 
pad or Dutch. Upholstery is needlework 
Profile of an armchair 
to be found on page 90 
Detail of the chair splat 
shown in photograph 
A cabriole leg from a 
typical chair 
