January, 
19 21 
23 
THE PRINCELY CABINET 
Since the Sixteenth Century It lias Always Found a Place in the Home — 
Some Enthusiasts Even Collect Cabinets 
GARDNER TEALL 
AN anonymous old-time author who appears 
lx. to have devoted much thought to things 
beautiful, and to have taken note of the furni¬ 
ture of his day, has this to say of cabinets: 
“And then there be those pieces of perfection, 
so wrought in skill that men can marvel as 
anyone have crafte to perform them, those 
veritable princly objects, the cabinetts which 
now must adorn ever) 7 gentleman’s mansion.” 
Surely an enthusiasm for these “pieces of 
perfection”, these “veritable princly objects” 
will be shared by all lovers of antiques and 
curios, especially since the cabinet has come 
to be regarded as one of the desiderata of the 
attractively furnished house. 
Defining the Cabinet 
Our dictionaries define the word cabinet as 
an article of furniture containing compart¬ 
ments of drawers, shelves, pigeon-holes and 
niches, sometimes all of these. We are told 
that the word is diminutive of cabin as used 
to designate a hut or shelter. It is so used in 
the Stratiocos of Leonard Digges (1579) 
where we read “The Lance Knights encamp 
always in the field very strongly, two or three 
to a Cabbonet”. Florio, the Italian, also uses 
the word cabinetto, from which the early 
French derived their word cabanette which 
was, in time, to become cabinet. Long before 
any piece of furniture bore this name the term 
cabinet was applied to a small room, a closet 
or a private room for consultation or study. 
Drvden, for instance, says “You begin in 
the cabinet what you afterwards practiced 
in the camp”. Executive councils also came 
to be known as cabinets. 
Although the bed, the chair, the table and 
the chest may trace their ancestry to remote 
ages, it was not until about the beginning 
of the 16th Century that the cabinet had its 
origin. True it is that cabinets were evolved 
Chippendale’s weakness for the Chi¬ 
nese is evidenced by this design 
dating from his period 
There is an undeniable sturdiness 
about the 15 th Century oak cabi¬ 
nets of England 
A French cabinet of 
the early 16th Cen¬ 
tury, the style of 
Sambin 
A Syrian cabinet of 
inlay IS th Century 
design is shown be¬ 
low 
from the cupboard idea, with inclosing doors 
as a characteristic feature, doors which did 
not come to be glazed until the 18th Century. 
With the advent of the Italian Renaissance 
the cabinet-cupboard began to detach itself 
more or less from its place in the wainscoting 
where, through the Gothic period, it had main¬ 
tained its connections. Thereafter it assumed 
an artistic entity, and the proper artistic form 
of this article of furniture became established. 
Renaissance Changes 
The Renaissance cabinets dispensed with 
the foliated and pierced ornament of Gothic 
design and left to the mediaeval period the 
miniature buttress, gargoyle, bracket canopy, 
finial and the Gothic figures inspired by con¬ 
temporary mediaeval sculpture. Furniture de¬ 
signers of the Renaissance turned to classical 
design, following Renaissance architects in 
their researches, adaptations and originations. 
The cornice, column, pilaster, pendant, pedi¬ 
ment, moulding, festoon, etc., came to take 
the place of the Gothic architectural elements 
on which the furniture-makers of the Middle 
Ages had based their design. No longer did 
the cabinet look like the facade of a Gothic 
cathedral. Grace took the place of rigidity 
and cold formality gave way to the more inti¬ 
mate ornament of the period. Fine carving in 
Renaissance cabinets was also enriched by in¬ 
lays of rare woods, metal, tortoise-shell, 
mother-of-pearl, ivory, lapis-lazuli, crystal 
and other semi-precious stones (even by the 
insetting of engraved gems such as Roman 
intaglios and cameos), and sometimes 
painted panels enhanced the whole. 
The earliest Renaissance cabinets were 
probably those oblong boxes, sometimes 
fitted with their own stands, but usually 
intended to be placed on any table. Such 
(Continued on page 72) 
This early 1 9th Century Chinese 
cabinet is richly inlaid atid the wood¬ 
work and base heavily lacquered 
