A certain sort of revival of Gothic design took place in England about this period: and later in the century feeble attempts at Gothic woodwork were made here and there; but there was little national taste in furniture apart from a close imitation of French fashions. A still greater change was produced by Sir William Chambers, the architect of modern Somerset house, who wrote a book on civil architecture and room decorations. Another name connected with furniture has been already mentioned, that of Thomas Chippendale. He published his book of designs in 1764, containing complete sides of rooms, looking-glass frames, chimney fronts, &c. He and his contemporaries designed tables, cabinets and moveable furniture of every description, including carriages, on which, indeed, furniture designers of all periods were employed. Chippendale and his sons or assistants produced frames and cornices for gilding so different from his well-made wardrobes, &c., that there must have been more than one of the family engaged in superintending these dissimilar kinds of objects. He is a representative maker. The son has been sometimes credited with the mahogany woodwork of which delicacy and exactness are the characteristics. Satin wood came into fashion in England during the last half of the century. Both Cipriani and Angelica Kauffmann painted medallions, cameo ornaments and borders on table tops and fronts, harpsichord cases, &c., made of satin wood or coloured in the manner of the vernis-martin work. The former decorated Carlton house.
Mathias Lock, with whom was associated a cabinet maker named Copeland, also published designs of furniture of every kind. A semi-classic Pompeian or Roman arabesque feeling runs through the ornamentation of these pieces of furniture. They are light in make, often elegant, and more or less follow the taste prevailing in France and Italy. Gillow, the founder of a respectable existing firm, belongs to this period; but, as yet, nothing has come to light regarding his early history or apprenticeship. Another name connected both with furniture and decorative arts of all kinds was that of Robert Adam; he was of Scotch extraction and had travelled in Italy; and his brother John built many private houses; for example, the Adelphi and Portland place. Furniture, carriages, sedan chairs, and plate were amongst the objects for which Robert, perhaps both the brothers, gave designs. Classical capitals, mouldings and niches, circles and lunettes, with shell flutings and light garlands, were favourite features in their façade ornaments. The sideboards, bust terms (or pedestals), urn-shaped knife boxes; the chairs, commodes, &c., were all designed to accord with the architectural decorations. Polished-steel fire-grates belong to this period, and we believe to the authorship of the brothers Adam.
A cabinet maker named A. Heppelwhite published in 1789 a large set of designs for every sort of reception room and bedroom furniture. We see in these the mahogany chairs with pierced strapwork backs, library and pedestal tables, mechanical desks and bureaux, which continued in fashion during the early years of this century. Fanciful sashed glass doors closed in the bookcases; interrupted pediments and pedestals provided space for busts round the tops of these cases. Fluted legs, and occasionally lion-headed supports, uphold the tables and chairs. Knife cases to set on the sideboard, and urn stools for the breakfast table, are among these designs. Tea chests and tea caddies indicate that tea was then coming into general use. Thomas Sheraton, another cabinet-maker, published towards the end of the century an extensive "Dictionary" of his trade. His designs, like those just mentioned, embrace beds, sofas, &c. Mechanical dressing and washing tables, very ingeniously contrived, were among his productions. We meet with these still; of Spanish mahogany, and admirable workmanship. The structure of all these pieces was light and strong. Time has had little effect on wood so well seasoned and on pieces put together in so workmanlike a manner.
The French revolution put a complete stop to the old arts of domestic life in France. As in the sixteenth century, so in the eighteenth the new ideas rushed extravagantly in the direction of republican antiquity and Roman taste and sentiment. It was under the empire, after the Italian wars and the Egyptian expedition, that the means and taste for expenditure upon civil furniture and decorations revived, with an assumption of classicalism. The art of the time however, inspired by the hard paintings of David, is but a dry and affected attempt at a fresh renaissance. In furniture mounts, chairs, &c., of supposed classical designs, it is known as the art of the "empire." This country copied the fashion as soon as the return of peace opened the continent to English travellers. Furniture and room decorations were designed after classical ideals, and we see chairs and tables imitating bas-reliefs and the drawings on antique vases. It is probable that collectors, such as Sir William Hamilton and the members of the Dilettanti society, sensibly influenced the prevailing style.
James Wyatt the architect, about the end of the last century, rebuilt or cleared out many of our mediæval churches and houses, and took to designing what he called Gothic for room decoration and furniture. Sir Jeffrey Wyatt or Sir Jeffrey Wyattville (as he became) made great changes at Windsor castle, under George the fourth. Pugin designed some flimsy Gothic furniture for the same palace. At a later period of his life, however, he did much, both as a designer and a writer upon art, to turn attention to the principles on which mediæval designs of all kinds were based.
We are now, perhaps, returning to renaissance art in furniture, and it is certain that collections such as those lately exhibited by Sir Richard Wallace; the Exposition Retrospective in Paris in 1865; the loan exhibitions of 1862 in London, and that of Gore house at an earlier period; and above all the great permanent collection at South Kensington, must contribute to form the public taste.
In the review which we have made of what may be called the household art of so many ages, it would be difficult to assign an absolute superiority to the artists of any one generation, considering what countless beautiful objects have been made for the personal use and enjoyment of men. The sculptured thrones of ivory and gold, the seats and couches of bronze overlaid with gold and damascened with the precious metals, the inlaid chariots, tables, chests, and jewelled caskets of antiquity; the imagery, the shrines, the stalls, and roofs of the middle ages; the wood sculpture, tarsia, pietra dura, damascening and the endless variety of objects produced during the days of Leonardo, Michel Angelo, and Raphael, down to the carving of Gibbons, and the splendid work of Boule, Riesener and Gouthière, are all in various ways excellent.
We must not venture to call one class of productions finer than another where the differences are so great and such high perfection has been attained in each. Every style and fashion when at its best has resulted from the utmost application of mind and time on the part of trained artists; and the highest art can never be cheap, neither can any machinery or any help from mechanical assistance become substitutes for art. Beauty which is created by the hand of man is not the clever application of mechanical forces or of scientific inventions, but is brought to light, whether it be a cabinet front or the Venus of Milo, often with pain, always by the entire devotion of the labour, the intellect, the experience, the imagination and the affection, of the artist and the workman.