4 pril , 1918 
47 
Fig. 7. Walnut armchair with splat back and shaped head rest. 1720-30 
It shows a mellowness of modeling familiar in English and Dutch chairs. 
Courtesy of C. M. Traver Co. 
Fig. 6. Painted and parcel gilt 
carved leather covered chair. 1680- 
1705. Penna. Museum and School 
of Industrial Art 
displays another feature of Portuguese 
and Spanish chairs that was introduced 
from the East through the medium of 
Portuguese Oriental trade—the caning 
with which the seat frame and the back 
are filled in lieu of leather, upholstery 
or wood. Another characteristically 
Spanish feature is the way in which the 
wide “splat,” which is the chief con¬ 
stituent of the back, takes the form of 
a broad, caned panel. 
Fig. 10. De¬ 
tail of one 
leaf of table. 
Courtesy of 
C. M. Trover 
The Cabriole Leg 
With Figure 15, a chair dating from 
the first decade of the 18th Century, we 
come to the cabriole leg, whose domi¬ 
nance was to endure from the beginning 
till past the middle of the century. It 
was one of the most prominent, ubiqui¬ 
tous and lasting features common to 
both the Baroque and Rococo phases of 
furniture design. Figure 3 well exem¬ 
plifies another trait which, to borrow a 
term from the phraseology of sculpture, 
may be defined as the rotund, 
fleshy modeling of the contour, 
noticeable especially in the 
proportions of the fore legs. 
The whole composition dis- 
Fig. 9. Paint¬ 
ed gate table 
from the 
Basque prov¬ 
inces. 1700 
BK Wm 
Fig. 8. Red lacquer and parcel 
gilt chair with caned seat and 
back. 1690-1710. Courtesy of 
C. M. Traver Co. 
plays an engaging suavity of line, while 
the carving of the ornamental motifs 
also discloses a mellow rotundity of re¬ 
lief that is almost pulpy. This property 
of a kind of fleshy corporeality, though 
not conducive to a classic purity of 
line, nevertheless imparted, or helped to 
impart, an engaging human quality. 
Rotundity of Form 
The same agreeable rotundity and 
mellowness of modelling are observable 
in the carved walnut chair shown in 
Figure 5, a type that was likewise fa¬ 
miliar in both Holland and England. 
In this connection it is worth noting 
that chairs of Spanish or Portuguese 
pattern generally showed some attenua¬ 
tion of proportions and sharpening of 
detail upon transference of the type 
to the Fow Countries and that the 
processes of attenuation and sharpening 
were apt to become even more pro¬ 
nounced in English manifestations of 
the same types. Still another 
feature in Figure 15 deserving 
attention is the peculiar shield¬ 
shaped contour of the back 
(Continued on page 58) 
Fig. 11. Carved and gilt uphol- Fig. 12. Walnut armchair with Fig. 13. Early 18th Century chair Fig. 14. Portuguese mahogany 
stered side chair in Louis Seize caned seat, splat and caned back. painted in the “Chinese taste.” and gilt chair of Sheraton lines, 
style. Traver 1705-25. Traver Courtesy of Woodville 1780. Traver 
