Dutch and Flemish Furniture

by Esther Singleton

When Charles the Bold (1433–1477) succeeded his father, Philip the Good, in 1467, he maintained his Court with the same state, ceremony and luxury. His daily life was surrounded by pomp and punctilious etiquette. He dined in state every day and was always attended by a retinue of knights, equerries and pages. When he went to war, he always carried rich silver and tapestries, as well as costly viands and wines. The Swiss gained rich spoils after the Battle of Nancy and carried away among other articles of value tapestries which can be seen to-day in Nancy, Berne and other cities.

The meeting of Charles the Bold with the Emperor at Trèves, in 1473, occasioned a great display of magnificence. The far-famed luxury of the Burgundian Court was well exhibited during the eight weeks that the two Courts spent in the Rhenish city. Charles gave the most superb entertainments. The Abbey of Saint Maximin, which the Duke chose for his temporary residence, was fitted up for the occasion with furniture, tapestries, richly embroidered stuffs, gold and silver from his palaces. The great hall was hung with tapestries, and the chair of state for the Emperor, the canopy and the seats for the other great personages on the daïs were covered with rich embroidered hangings. The arms of Burgundy, the insignia of the Golden Fleece and other heraldic decorations were conspicuously displayed. Many of the most valuable ecclesiastical treasures collected by Philip the Good, such as silver images, candlesticks, and crucifixes, and reliquaries of gold studded with gems were brought to adorn the altars and shrines of the church; and, in the refectory, an immense dressoir, twenty feet broad, reached from floor to ceiling, its ten receding shelves gleaming with gold and silver plate.

Charles the Bold’s second marriage in 1468 to Margaret of York furnished another occasion for the display of his wealth and magnificence. John Paston, who went to Bruges to attend the wedding, was simply dazzled and overwhelmed by what he saw. Writing to his mother, he says: “As for the Dwkys coort, as of lords, ladys and gentylwomen, knyts, sqwyers and gentylmen, I herd never of non lyek it, save King Artourys cort. And by my trowthe, I have no wyt nor remembrans to wryte to you, half the worchep that is her.”

Passing by the descriptions of jousts and other entertainments, we may note that workmen—painters, decorators and machinists—had been engaged for many months to adorn Bruges fittingly for the nuptial festivities. The streets were hung with tapestries and cloth of gold, triumphal arches were erected at intervals, and at different points along the road the bride was diverted with “Histories,” the joint productions of dramatist, decorator, painter and machinist. The front of the palace was covered with paintings of heraldic devices and magnificent decorations, and behind the palace, in the tennis court, a new banqueting hall was erected for the occasion. This building was a hundred and forty feet long, seventy feet wide and more than sixty feet high. The walls were hung with some of the Duke’s most famous tapestries, one set of which represented Jason’s quest of the Golden Fleece; the ceiling was painted, and at every possible place banners and heraldic devices were hung. An enormous dressoir in the centre of the hall displayed on its tiers of shelves an overwhelming exhibition of gold and silver treasures glittering with gems. The tables were arranged lengthwise on either side of the hall, except one reserved for the Duke’s family and the guests of highest rank. This table was placed on a raised platform at the upper end of the hall, and over it was spread a canopy with curtains hanging to the floor, so as to present the appearance of an open pavilion. The chroniclers of the day note that “the hall was lighted by chandeliers in the form of castles surrounded by forests and mountains, with revolving paths on which serpents, dragons and other monstrous animals seemed to roam in search of prey, spouting forth jets of flame that were reflected in huge mirrors, so arranged as to catch and multiply the rays. The dishes containing the principal meats represented vessels, seven feet long, completely rigged, the masts and cordage gilt, the sails and streamers of silk, each floating in a silver lake between shores of verdure and enamelled rocks, and attended by a fleet of boats laden with lemons, olives and condiments. There were thirty of these vessels and as many huge pasties in a castellated shape with banners waving from their battlements and towers; besides tents and pavilions for the fruit, jelly dishes of crystal supported by figures of the same material dispensing streams of lavender and rosewater, and an immense profusion of gold and silver plate.”

The festivities continued for more than a week. Every day a tournament, banquet and dance took place. At one of the banquets, the decorations were so wonderful that the guests marched around the tables to examine the artistic creations. These consisted of gardens made of a mosaic-work of rare and highly polished stones, inlaid with silver, and surrounded with hedges made of gold. In the centre of each enclosure was placed a tree of gold with branches, foliage and fruit exquisitely enamelled in imitation of orange, pear, apple and other trees. Fountains of variously perfumed waters rendered the air deliciously fragrant.

Olivier de la Marche’s description of the banqueting hall is as follows:

“In this hall were three tables, one of which was placed across the ends of the others. This table, higher than the others, stood upon a platform. The other two tables were placed on the two sides of the hall, occupying the whole length; they were very long and very handsome, and in the centre of the said hall a high and rich buffet in the form of a lozenge was placed. The top of the said buffet was enclosed with a balustrade, and the whole was covered with tapestries and hung with the arms of Monsieur le Duc; and above rose the steps and degrees on which were displayed many vessels, the largest on the lowest, and the richest and smallest on the top shelves; that is to say, on the lowest shelves stood the silver-gilt vessels, and above them the vessels of gold garnished with precious stones, of which he had a great number. On the top of the buffet stood a rich jewelled cup, and on each of the four corners large and entire unicorns’ horns, and these were very large and very handsome. These vessels of parade were not to be used, for there were other vessels, pots and cups of silver in the hall and chambers intended for service.”

Turning now from the buffet d’apparat, he describes the “buffet d’usage.” Regarding the service, “The new Duchess was served by the cup-bearer, the carver and the pantler, all English, all knights and men of noble birth, and the usher of the hall cried: ‘Knights to the meat!’ And then they all went to the buffet to fetch the meat, and all the relations of Monsieur and all the knights marched around the buffet in the order of the great house two by two after the trumpeters before the meat.”

We sometimes get a glimpse of a luxurious chamber of the Burgundian Court from Aliénor of Poitiers, who wrote Les Honneurs de la Court. Her testimony is trustworthy, for her mother was maid of honour to the Duchess Isabella, third wife of Philip the Good; and, therefore, she undoubtedly witnessed what she describes. She tells us that the chamber of Isabella of Bourbon, wife of Charles the Bold, Count of Charolais, was very large and contained two beds, separated by a space four or five feet wide. A large ciel, or canopy, of green damask covered both beds; and from it hung curtains of satin which moved on rings, and could completely screen the beds when desired. The lambrequin of the canopy and the curtains were fringed with green silk. On each bed was an ermine counterpane, lined with very fine violet cloth. The chronicler expressly notes that the black tails were left on the fur. “La grande chambre” from which the “Chambre de Madame” was entered, called the “chambre de parement,” contained one large bed in crimson satin. The ciel was very richly embroidered with a great gold sun, and “this tapestry was called la chambre d’Utrecht, for it is believed that Utrecht gave it to the Duke Philip,” writes Aliénor, who adds: “The curtains of crimson samite are looped up like those of a bed in which nobody sleeps.” The hangings of the wall were of red silk. At one end of the bolster was a great square cushion of gold and crimson, and by the side of the bed a “large shaggy carpet.”

In each of these rooms there was a handsome dressoir; and our scribe continues: “In the chamber of the Countess de Charolais there was a large dressoir of four beautiful shelves, the whole length of the dressoir, each covered with a cloth; the said dressoir and the shelves filled with vessels of crystal garnished with gold and precious stones, and some of fine gold; for all the richest vessels of Duke Philip were there—pots, cups and beakers of fine gold, and other vessels that are never exhibited except on state occasions. Among other vessels there were on the said dressoir three drageoirs of gold and precious stones, one of which is estimated at 14,000 écus, and another at 30,000 écus. On the back of the dressoir was hung a dorset (dorsal) of cloth of gold and crimson, bordered with black velvet, and on the black velvet was delicately embroidered the device of Duke Philip, which was a gun....