French and English furniture / distinctive styles and periods described and illustrated

by Esther Singleton

A glance through Marot’s book of designs will show a most lavish use of china as an integral part of interior decoration. He piles up his chimney-pieces with tier on tier on shelves loaded with porcelain of all shapes and sizes, arranged, however, with an eye to symmetry. Brackets up the walls, in the corners, and between the panels, all along the cornice, and over the door are loaded with cups, bowls, and vases. The panels themselves are sometimes painted with Chinese subjects, or covered with real Oriental painted or embroidered fabrics. A glance at Plate [XVIII.], the walls and chimney-piece of which are reproduced closely from one of Marot’s designs, will show one of the more formal Queen Anne rooms, properly decorated in accordance with the taste of the day. This is a modest specimen of this style of decoration. One of Marot’s plates shows more than 300 pieces of china on the chimney-piece alone. The china craze was rapidly increasing. Addison writes: “An old lady of fourscore shall be so busy in cleaning an Indian mandarin as her great-grand-daughter is in dressing her baby.” In 1711, also he gives the following description of a lady’s library:

PLATE XX

“The very sound of a Lady’s Library gave me a great Curiosity to see it; and as it was some time before the Lady came to me, I had an opportunity of turning over a great many of her Books, which were ranged together in very beautiful Order. At the End of her Folios (which were very finely bound and gilt) were great jars of China, placed one above another in a very noble piece of Architecture. The Quartos were separated from the Octavos by a Pile of smaller Vessels which rose in a delightful Pyramid. The Octavos were bounded by Ten dishes of all Shapes, Colours and Sizes, which were so disposed on a wooden Frame, that they looked like one continued Pillar indented with the finest Strokes of Sculpture, and stained with the greatest variety of Dyes. That Part of the Library which was designed for the Reception of Plays and pamphlets and other loose Papers, was enclosed in a kind of Square consisting of one of the prettiest grotesque Works that I ever saw, and made up of Scaramouches, Lions, Monkies, Mandarines, Trees, Shells, and a thousand other odd Figures in China Ware. In the midst of the Room was a little Japan Table with a quire of gilt Paper upon it, and on the Paper a Silver Snuff-box made in the shape of a little Book. I found there were several Counterfeit Books upon the upper Shelves, which were carved in wood, and several only to fill up the number.”

As an example of the decorative use made of china by arranging it on brackets even above mirror or panel, the reader is referred to Plate [XXIII.], No. 2.

The Queen Anne room had its walls sometimes covered with tapestry and sometimes decorated with painted or carved panels. In accordance with the French and Dutch custom also, pictures were used with a conscious decorative effect. Sometimes they were hung on the tapestry, also, though not when the latter depicted a story of itself. In 1710, D’Aviler defines the word picture (tableau) as a subject of painting, usually in oil on canvas or wood, and contained in a frame or border. “Pictures greatly contribute to the decoration of the interior of buildings. The big ones figure in churches, drawing-rooms, galleries and other big places. Those of medium size called easel-pictures are placed in the spaces above the chimney-piece, above the doors and in the panels of the walls, or else on the tapestry against the walls. The small ones are symmetrically arranged in the chambers and cabinets of the curious.”

In the ordinary house, in the reign of Queen Anne, there was a strange jumble of the old and the new. The late Jacobean carved oak, or walnut, cane-bottom chair had not yet gone entirely out of use, but the new styles were varieties of the chair and stool on Plate [XXI.], Nos. 1 and 4. These were usually of walnut, but mahogany was just coming into fashion as a cabinet wood, and Queen Anne chairs with the frames made of that wood still exist. The characteristics of this chair consist of the cabriole leg, with and sometimes even without stretchers, the club foot, and solid curved splat which very frequently assumes the jar shape. Later in the period, the stretchers were discarded altogether. There was very little carving except on the spring of the knee. The claw-and-ball foot was rapidly coming into favour, and the tendency was constantly towards increased lightness of frame. Even where the characteristic square tapering leg of the Louis XIV. style is preserved, increased lightness is noticeable. The turned stretchers, both of chairs and settees, are shown on Plate [XIX.], Nos. 5, 6 and 7, and Plate [XXI.], Nos. 1, 4 and 10. Marot clung to the flat curved stretchers of the Louis XIV. style, and his chairs are very large and heavy. The reason of this is that he paid great attention to the upholstery, and his large and brilliant designs required a correspondingly large surface for adequate display. Many of his plates are devoted entirely to patterns for materials for upholstery, and the geometrical flower-bed is the apparent inspiration of much of his work of this nature. Some of Marot’s chairs and stools are shown on Plate [XXI.], Nos. 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9. The chairs on either side of the bed on Plate [XXII.] are also Marot’s. No. 7 on Plate No. [XXI.] shows the lighter form of frame of this class of chair. The settees, numbered 5, 6 and 7, on Plate [XIX.] should also be carefully studied as types of this style. They are taken from contemporary prints of court ladies. On one of them, Anne herself is sitting in the original. No. 6, Plate [XXI.], represents the top of a chair back which is very characteristic of the Marot school. One of the favourite ornaments of this period was the urn in some form or other. The acorn was also largely used for feet, and the flattened bulb was not entirely superseded. The effect produced by the above-mentioned detail is found in several other pieces of furniture of the day, clocks and mirrors particularly. The urn is seen in No. 5, Plate [XXIII.], and the effect is repeated in Nos. 1 and 6, Plate [XX.] Nos. 5 and 6 on that Plate also show the combination acorn and flattened bulb employed as feet. No. 6 also shows another decorative feature of the period in the heavy chutes of bell-flowers. The handsome clock, No. 6, Plate [XX.], from Marot’s design, shows many Louis XIV. features. The sun in splendour is noticeable and the winged cherub above the dial. The latter was made great use of in the Queen Anne style. The mascaron also was largely adopted. Another decorative feature which was carved on the centre lower rim of so many chests-of-drawers, and dressing-tables was the shell. The cabinet-makers were never tired of using the latter, and its constant appearance may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that it was the principal charge in the arms of the English company of cabinet-makers. It is seen on top of the mirror in No. 2, Plate [XIX.], and the mascaron is used to beautiful effect in the mirror No. 3 on the same plate. The mascaron appears as the chief ornament in No. 3, Plate [XX.] Strange to say, this is not a chair, as might be imagined, but a fire-back, as is also No. 4. The shape of this fire-back, however, is going to be that which will dominate in chair-backs in many styles and even to the present day holds its own. The chair No. 8, Plate [XX.], is transitional between Jacobean and Queen Anne. The couch (No. 9 of the same plate) is a fine example of the Queen Anne style with its scrolls, cabriole legs and stretchers. The winged effect of the scrolls connecting the legs is a very favourite feature of the day. This should be compared with the couch by Marot in Plate [XVIII.], which retains more of the Louis XIV. characteristics.

The bed on Plate [XXII.] is one of Marot’s designs and shows the Louis XIV. influence. The detail No. 3, on the same plate, exhibits another variety of head-board. No. 1 is a detail of a bed cornice and its drapery; and No. 2 shows the pattern of a valance. Specimens of lambrequin drapery, both for beds and windows, moreover, are shown in the details, Nos. 1 and 4 on Plate [XIX.]

Typical contents of a fashionable home in England during the reign of Queen Anne are to be gathered from the will and inventory of La Marquise de Gouvernet, a French Protestant refugee, who was naturalized at Westminster in 1691, and lived for thirty years in English aristocratic circles, dying in 1722. She was very wealthy, and occupied a distinguished position in London society. To her grandson and heir, she bequeathed an immense quantity of jewels, furniture, pictures and porcelain. The mere enumeration of the pieces of furniture affords a good idea of a stylish interior of the Queen Anne period.

One small calico bed, 3 foot wide and 8 foot high, for the country, being stitched with coloured flowers, with five armed chairs of the same.