March, 1918 
35 
Large painted cupboard or press on 
stand. The color is greenish blue 
ground with polychrome decorations. 
Courtesy of C. M. Traver Co. 
reasonable to infer that the design for these 
table legs of archaic cabriole type, as well as 
the inspiration for the apron form, came di¬ 
rectly from a Chinese source through a Portu¬ 
guese channel. 
The blue lacquer bureau bookcase with gold 
decorations, a slightly later piece than the 
table, shows a further development of the cur¬ 
vilinear influence in the more mellow, flowing 
curve of the caribole legs, the shaping of the 
stretchers and the lines 
of the cresting with its 
cartouche - shaped per¬ 
foration which is quite 
Baroque as well as 
quite Chinese. 
(Left) A carved and 
gilt wood fire screen, 
made about 1750, shout¬ 
ing the Rococo influ¬ 
ence. Traver. 
A red lacquer bureau 
bookcase with gold deco¬ 
rations, made about 1705. 
The inside shows gilt and 
polychrome decorations. 
Courtesy of Mrs. Showman 
The Vigor'of Contour 
This early 18th Cen¬ 
tury Spanish furniture 
commands our respect¬ 
ful attention and study, 
study from which we 
shall certainly gain 
more than one note of 
inspiration for profit¬ 
able employment in our 
own decoration. There 
is a certain downright, 
buxom vigor of propor¬ 
tion and a freedom of 
line about much of that 
contrast rather strongly 
with the comparative 
restraint of contour ob¬ 
servable in contempo¬ 
rary English furniture. 
Were it not for this 
same free-flowing sweep 
and rotundity of curve 
and the generally rapid 
activity of line the 
(Continued on page 78) 
Probably of English make for the Span¬ 
ish market, a cabinet on stand. Walnut 
oystered veneer with pearl wood inlay. 
Traver 
of an Occidental hand. The significant fea¬ 
ture about this piece, seemingly an unimport¬ 
ant object but really telling an important story, 
is the contour of the legs and the treatment of 
the apron. While they bespeak the rising as¬ 
cendency of the curvilinear influence in fur¬ 
niture, which was coincident in time with the 
later phases of Baroque expression in archi¬ 
tecture and which was to dominate furniture 
design for many years to come, they do more 
than that. The excep¬ 
tionally bold and high¬ 
shouldered line of the 
legs is virtually identi¬ 
cal with the contour of 
old Chinese “inverted 
pear’’ shaped jars; like¬ 
wise, the vigorous out¬ 
line of the convex, 
shaped apron, which 
projects from the un¬ 
derframing, is plainly 
reminiscent of analog¬ 
ous lines displayed by 
early Chinese teakwood 
stands and other pieces 
of furniture. As we 
know from history the 
development o f com¬ 
merce with the Orient 
through the agency of 
Portuguese enterprise, 
and as we know also to 
what extent the Span¬ 
iards were indebted to 
their Portuguese neigh¬ 
bors for much of what 
was best in their mo- 
biliary art,'it is not un- 
(Above) Console with 
cabriole legs, painted 
black with polychrome. 
Chinese decorations. C. 
1700. Traver 
