In Holland, Belgium, and Germany, as has already been pointed out, the manufacturer of ornamental oak furniture, on the lines of the Renaissance models, still prevails, and such furniture is largely imported into this country.
The illustration of a carved frame in the rococo style of Chippendale with a Chinaman in a canopy, represents an important school of wood-carving which has been developed in Munich; and in the "Künst Gewerberein," or "Workman's Exhibition," in that city, the Bavarians have a very similar arrangement to that of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society of this country, of which mention has already been made, each article being labelled with the name of the designer and maker.
Italian carved furniture of modern times has already been noticed; and in the selections made from the 1851 Exhibition, some productions of different countries have been illustrated, which tend to shew that, speaking generally, the furniture most suitable for display is produced abroad, while none can excel English cabinet makers in the production of useful furniture and woodwork, when it is the result of design and handicraft, unfettered by the detrimental, but too popular, condition that the article when finished shall appear to be more costly than it really is.
In conclusion, it seems evident that, with all the faults and shortcomings of the latter part of the nineteenth century—and no doubt they were many, both of commission and of omission—still, speaking generally, there was no lack of men with ability to design, and no want of well trained patient craftsmen to produce, furniture which would equal the finest examples of the Renaissance and Jacobean periods. With the improved means of inter-communication between England and her Colonies, and with the chief industrial centres of Europe united for the purposes of commerce, the whole civilised world is, as it were, one kingdom: merchants and manufacturers can select the best and most suitable materials, can obtain photographs or drawings of the most distant examples, or copies of the most expensive designs, while the public Art Libraries of London, and Paris, contain valuable works of reference, which are easily accessible to the student or to the workman. It is very pleasant to bear testimony to the courtesy and assistance which the student or workman invariably receives from those who are in charge of our public reference libraries.
There needs, however, an important condition to be taken into account. Good work, requiring educated thought to design, and skilled labour to produce, must be paid for at a very different rate to the furniture of machined mouldings, stamped ornament, and other numerous and inexpensive substitutes for handwork, which our present civilization has enabled our manufacturers to produce, and which, for the present, seems to find favour with the multitude. It has been well said that "Decorated or sumptuous furniture is not merely furniture that is expensive to buy, but that which has been elaborated with much thought, knowledge, and skill. Such furniture cannot he cheap certainly, but the real cost is sometimes borne by the artist who produces, rather than by the man who may happen to buy it."[28] It is often forgotten that the price paid is that of the lives and health of the workers and their families.
A point has now been reached at which our task must be brought to its natural conclusion: for although many collectors and others interested in the subject, have invited the writer's attention to numerous descriptions and examples, from an examination of which much information could, without doubt, be obtained, still, the exigencies of a busy life, and the limits of a single volume of moderate dimensions, forbid the attempt to add to a story which, it is feared, may perhaps have already overtaxed the reader's patience.
As has already been suggested in the preface, this book is not intended to be a guide to "collecting," or "furnishing"; nevertheless, it is possible that, in the course of recording some of the changes which have taken place in designs and fashions, and of bringing into notice, here and there, the opinions of those who have thought and written upon the subject, some indirect assistance may have been given in both these directions. If this should be the case, and if an increased interest has been thereby excited in the surroundings of the Home, or in some of those Art collections—the work of by-gone years—which form part of our National property, the writer's aim and object will have been attained, and his humble efforts amply rewarded.
