46 
House & Garden 
WALNUT FURNITURE IN THE DAYS OF QUEEN ANNE 
This Fashion Which Intervened Between Oak and Mahogany Has Its Own 
History and Distinguishing Characteristics 
A. T. WOLFE 
T HE furniture which is known 
as Queen Anne walnut re¬ 
flects in its style the history of 
the period during which it was 
evolved. 
Before the Restoration furniture 
was plain and somewhat austere, 
strength and utility were regarded as 
essentials, and little attention was 
paid to merely decorative value. Ac¬ 
cording to Evelyn, sturdy oak was 
used for the bedsteads and the mas¬ 
sive tables which were built for en¬ 
durance, and were “fixed as the 
freehold”; while “joynt stools” and 
benches were almost the only large 
movables made. With the accession 
of Charles II came “a politer way of 
living”, which brought about a com¬ 
plete change in the nature of house¬ 
hold appointments, and by degrees 
the last traces of Elizabethan modes 
and manners disappeared. There 
was a new taste for color, lightness, 
even frivolity. It was this taste 
which brought walnut into vogue; it 
had color and luster which accorded 
well with the new figured silks, 
satins, “taffetys, and mohaires”, and 
it was better adapted for turned and 
richly scrolled woodwork, being less 
liable to fracture than the stubborn 
oak. Also, it was lighter, and this 
was a consideration, since furniture 
had ceased to be fixed in its position. 
The chair, which had formerly been 
an isolated seat of honor, had come 
into common use, so that it was an 
advantage if it could easily be moved 
here and there by the court ladies for 
gossip or cards. The typical straight- 
back chair of this period, carved 
with double scrollwork and straight- 
stretched legs, was nearly always 
made from walnut, though it is not 
infrequently described as oak in the 
modern sale room. 
Plenty of wood grown in England 
was then available; the walnut trees 
which had been planted so freely in 
the time of Queen Elizabeth were 
ready for felling; the supply of in¬ 
digenous wood was ample even for 
the lavish use that was made of it— 
floors of inlaid walnut were not un¬ 
known—and when mahogany super¬ 
seded walnut as the fashionable 
wood for furniture, it had not yet 
been exhausted. 
Of the foreign influences that are 
to be traced in the furniture of the 
walnut period the Dutch was the first 
and the most potent. Furniture had 
long been imported into England 
from Antwerp, and a good deal that 
was made in England was copied 
(Below) A chest of two 
drawers and two half 
drawers surmounted by a 
cabinet is a very typical 
piece of the walnut period. 
The wood is finely figured 
(Above) The influence of 
the Dutch craftsmen who 
followed the Dutch king to 
England is evident in a 
bureau with drawers, cup¬ 
boards, and pigeonholes 
(Left) The mirror which 
replaces the usual inlaid 
panel is a very rare feature 
in a clock of walnut. The 
base moldings are particu¬ 
larly well designed 
(Below) The finely-pro¬ 
portioned cabinet which in 
the companion picture ap¬ 
pears closed is here shown 
with the door open, dis¬ 
playing the interior drawers 
