Racks. These may be for umbrellas, hats, garments, pipes weapons, and other purposes. Great ingenuity and taste can be developed in designing them. Of one thing let the designer be very careful. Let him see that the pegs or hooks are strongly fixed and are not ornamented. I have seen such pieces of furniture, in which a four-cornered sharp-edged flower is placed once and even twice on a hook, while on others there is at the end a projection more than an inch in diameter, which is flat on the back or under side, with a sharp edge. The result is, that when a coat is hung by the loop on such a peg and is then turned or twisted once or twice, as often happens, it is almost impossible at times to get it off.
The Boss or round central projection formed a very important part or speciality in mediæval wood-carving. It can be advantageously used as a centre, and sets off to good effect surrounding flat or plain carving. It is sometimes used as a handle for chests. It is, when a simple half-circle, very easily sketched into shape. It may be formed into the head of an animal, a flower, a single curling leaf, or several leaves. The student is specially urged to copy as many as he can from Gothic designs. A boss at the bottom of a bowl, or in a saucer or plaque, produces a good effect, the concave surface round it making a beautiful effect of shade, which might be more frequently employed by picture-frame makers. This ornament, which is very easily made and very striking, is thus prepared. Get a bowl or a shallow round platter; any turner will make one for you. Then carve from a hemisphere of wood a head or a boss of leaves or flowers, or a dragon. Round the bottom with a file to fit, and with glue and a screw fasten it to the bowl. The interior of the bowl may be polished, varnished, gilded, or ivoried.
Clock Cases. A common clock is not very expensive, and when it is properly repainted and set in a well-carved frame its value will be very much enhanced. A tower is a very good subject for a clock case.
Vestibule. The small ante-hall, between the first and second door, common in very many houses. This can be ornamented with a wainscot or dados in long panels. It is very often thus decorated in America. For cottages and country houses, or even for town mansions, such panels may be beautifully and fitly decorated with gouge-work in grooves, a flat pattern in simple cutting-in, such as any person may learn how to execute in a few hours. Fill in the pattern or cuts with dark paint, and if exposed to changes of temperament or rubbing, let it be oiled or varnished. The same work is of course as appropriate to halls as any other rooms, but the vestibule, being small, may serve for a beginning.
Staircase Balusters. These afforded inexhaustible work for the artists of the olden time, and they should be tempting to every wood-carver. It is not at all necessary that they should be strictly of open work, in lattices or rails, as beautiful objects of the kind were once often made in panels. But the carver should especially be aware of projecting leaves or crochets, as they are very apt to “catch” garments.
Garden-work. Much bold wood-carving may be executed for gardens in a great variety of forms. Stands or tables for potted flowers and tubs may be decorated, panels placed in walls, and summer-houses made in far greater variety than they are at present. Poetry supplies an infinite variety of inscriptions appropriate to gardens, which may be carved and ornamented. It is worth noting that statues of Flora and Pomona and Vertumnus in simple archaic forms were used to protect gardens and orchards among the Romans, and it would be an easy matter to carve these in low relief in panels.
Gates. The gates of country places, gardens, etc., afford a wide scope for the skill of the carver, and as they are the first objects generally seen about a house they may be most appropriately ornamented. In this, as in much other work, the art of the carpenter is combined with that of the carver. It should be, however, remembered, as regards gates, as of all decoration whatever, that anything which can ever be in any manner in the way is not beautiful, sensible, or proper. There should never be a jagged or pointed ornament wherever it can “catch” clothing.
Bedsteads. The bedstead was of old considered so appropriate for carving, that I find in an excellent old Italian work on furniture more illustrations of this article than any other. Even very simple and cheap ones may be redoubled in value by a little judicious carving.
Trays. These may be made in great variety, to contain many kinds of objects. As a rule the tray is a long shallow box, but it may be carved from one piece of wood, and is then used to carry objects in, the single piece being necessary to give it strength. If ornamented with carving the tray forms an attractive object when hung up on the wall. And it may be here remarked that one great object of all carving is, that most objects which are useful in some way shall be ornamental when not in use. We do not wish to have trays and coal-boxes in the way if they are plain, but when decorated they serve as well as pictures to ornament a room.
Coal or Wood Boxes. See Wood or Coal Boxes.