24 
House & Garden 
The leg is an important factor 
in judging the period of furni¬ 
ture. On this page five En¬ 
glish periods are shown, to be 
followed in a later issue by 
two more English and three 
French. The group here is 
Sheraton, dating from 1780 
to 1806. Reading from left 
to right, we have a Sheraton 
combination of Adam and 
Louis XVI; another adapta¬ 
tion of the same; the leg of 
an American-made Sheraton 
chair; the most individual of 
Sheraton legs and, finally, the 
tapering square leg of Chip¬ 
pendale inspiration 
THE CHAIR 
LEGS OF 
FIVE 
PERIODS 
The William and Mary era is dated from 1688 to 1702. The types 
here are: an early form of cabriole leg, a late William and Mary 
design showing the collared effect; the leg of an arm chair, straight 
and turned; an octagonal leg with contemporary flat stretcher and 
ornament, and the fourth is a straight leg with the Spanish scrolled 
foot much used in groupings of chairs for settees 
Throughout the Queen Anne and early Georgian period the cabriole 
leg persists. The first example shows that type with the much-used 
claw fool and cockle shell knee decoration. The next is early Queen 
Anne with side molding decorations. The third shows strong Dutch 
influence, being an American rush-bottom chair of the period. And 
the fourth is typically Queen Anne, using the club foot 
Chippendale had many 
influences. Thus the 
first example is a cabri¬ 
ole leg clutching a claw 
foot and with acanthus 
leaf carving on the 
knee. The second dis¬ 
plays Gothic influence. 
The third shows Chi¬ 
nese influence. And the 
fourth has the pierced 
and fretted stretcher 
often used with straight 
legs carved in the Chi¬ 
nese manner. The Chip¬ 
pendale dates are 1740- 
1780 
% 
The earliest of English 
periods is Jacobean, 
1603-1688. The first 
two examples are oak 
of 1660 and 1630 re¬ 
spectively. Then a late 
Jacobean walnut chair, 
showing a carved 
stretcher and a side 
view of the leg with 
the Flemish scroll in 
profile. The last is late 
Carolean, the end of 
the Jacobean period, 
marking the transition, 
in walnut, to the cabri¬ 
ole leg 
