As an instance of the form of the sixteenth century continuing in use until mid-seventeenth-century days the illustration of an oak table (p. [63]) brings out this point. The heavy baluster-like legs, only just removed from the earlier bulbous types, and the massive treatment belong to the days of James I., and yet such pieces really were made in Cromwellian days.
The rude simplicity of much of the farmhouse furniture is indicated by the Monk's Bench illustrated (p. [53]). The back is convertible into a table top. The early plainness of style for so late a piece as 1650 is particularly noteworthy. This specimen is interesting by reason of its exceptionally large back.
On the same page is illustrated a chest with two drawers underneath. This form is termed a "Mule Chest," and is the earliest form of the chest of drawers. These Cromwellian chests with drawers continued to be made in the country for a hundred years, but in more fashionable circles they soon developed into the well-known Jacobean chest of drawers, the prototype of the form in use to-day. As an instance of this lingering of fashion the chest illustrated is dated 1701, quite fifty years after its first appearance as a new style.
MONK'S BENCH. C. 1650.
With back convertible into table top. Exceptionally large back.
(Note early plainness of style.)
(By courtesy of Messrs. A. B. Daniell & Sons.)
