46 
House & Garden 
SPANISH CHAIRS and TABLES of the 18TH CENTURY 
The Influence of Commerce on the Furniture Design of the Iberian Peninsula—■Queen Anne, 
Chippendale and Sheraton Tendencies in Spanish Furniture 
H. D. EBERLEIN and ABBOT McCLURE 
best in Spanish furniture admittedly owes its 
inspiration to Portuguese sources. Besides all 
this, there was a constant flow of commercial 
intercourse between Spain and England, on the 
one hand, and between Spain and Italy on the 
other, so that English and Italian influences 
alike are discernible, especially in such locali¬ 
ties as Valencia and the islands of Majorca 
and Minorca. 
The chair illustrated in Figure 6 exemplifies 
one marked characteristic of many of the chairs 
of this period, the very ornate cresting which 
forms a culmination or climax to the design 
of the whole piece and might be compared to 
the high and much-embellished combs with 
which Spanish and Portuguese ladies of qual¬ 
ity surmounted their coiffures. The fancy for 
ornate and shaped cresting extended to cabinet 
work as well. Besides the intricate carving of 
fruits, foliage and scrolls on the cresting and 
on the stretcher—the chair was painted black 
and the carving was further enriched and 
thrown into relief by parcel gilding—the em¬ 
bossed polychrome and gilt leather of the seat 
and back ministered to the Spanish taste for 
gorgeous color and complex design. The in¬ 
terrupted and curved shaping of the bottom 
and of the top of the back, irrespective 
of the carved cresting, is also thor¬ 
oughly characteristic and indicates the 
presence of strong Portuguese in¬ 
fluence. The lines marked by the 
shaped top and bottom of the back, it 
will be noticed, are precisely like the 
lines bounding the panels in some of 
the contemporary cabinet work. 
Cresting and Scrolls 
The red lacquer and parcel gilt 
chair, shown in Figure 8, not only ex¬ 
hibits the high-arched cresting and 
the so-called “Spanish scroll foot”— 
two features typically representative 
of so many of the Spanish and Portu¬ 
guese chairs of this date—but it also 
Fig. 2. Walnut gate table, closed, with polychrome 
top. From the Basque provinces. 1700-30. Courtesy 
of C. M. Traver Co. 
r I 'HE end of the 17th Century and the early 
X years of the 18th really belong together 
and form one period, so far as the development 
of furniture designs was concerned. The 
curvilinear influence, alluded to in the previ¬ 
ous article on Spanish Wall Furniture of the 
18th Century, gave rise to a number of new 
manifestations in contour that are partly at¬ 
tributable to Baroque principles and partly to 
a fresh infiltration of Oriental feeling, derived 
through the channels of commerce, and com¬ 
merce that was chiefly Portuguese. To these 
two influences we are indebted for much of the 
charm and vigor displayed by the furniture 
produced between 1685 and 1740. 
Influencing Forces 
i'he manifold forces which were working to 
mold furniture forms at this period were espe¬ 
cially active in the Iberian Peninsula and, 
thanks to the immediate proximity to either the 
sources of inspiration or to the direct avenues 
of transmission, they produced marked visible 
effects. In Spain and Portugal Baroque archi¬ 
tecture found conditions peculiarly congenial 
to its existence and development and this archi¬ 
tectural influence transmitted its effects in 
diverse ways to furniture forms. Ori¬ 
ental influences, too, kept finding their 
way into favor and making their pres¬ 
ence felt, for the great mass of Portu¬ 
guese commerce all through the 17th 
Century proved to be a prolific source 
of Far East importations in ideas and 
styles. I'he Portuguese were endowed 
not only with a genius for ready ap¬ 
propriation and successful adaptation 
but also with a genius for elaboration. 
Still further, the Portuguese possessed 
a notable genius for refinement of de¬ 
tail and finished workmanship, so that 
we can understand why early 18th 
Century Spanish chairs often dis¬ 
played so rich a diversity of form and 
ornamentation, for much of what is 
Fig. 1. Walnut armchair with carved 
splat and ornate cresting. 1710-25. 
Courtesy Karl Freund ( Zodiac, Inc.) 
Fig. 3. Painted chair show¬ 
ing Louis Quinze influence. 
1745-55. C. M. Traver Co. 
Fig. 4. South American mahogany settee or bench, reflecting the Sheraton 
influence on Spanish furniture design. 1775-90. Courtesy of John 
Wanamaker 
Fig. 5. Cane and ma¬ 
hogany chair, parcel gilt 
Baroque ornaments. Traver 
