The cup-and-ball design of turned legs with curved stretchers was used for chairs, settees, tables, cabinets. China cupboards with their double-hooded tops and soft colored brocade linings were used to display the wonderful china collections so much in vogue. There was much upholstered furniture covered with beautiful petit-point, which is perfectly reproduced nowadays, but is naturally expensive. Silks, velvets, and damasks were also used, and Queen Mary had a "beautiful chintz bed."
The handles used were of various kinds, the favorite being the drop from a round or star-shaped boss. The furniture was beautifully polished but did not have a bright gloss.
When Anne came to the throne in 1702, the English cabinet maker had became an expert craftsman, and we have the beginning of the finest period of English cabinet-making, which later, in the Georgian period, blossomed into its full glory. The furniture of this time was of walnut. The chairs had a narrow, fairly high back, with a central splat spoon-shaped and later fiddle-shaped. The corners of the back were always rounded. The cabriole legs were often carved with a shell on the knees, the acanthus being used in the more elaborate pieces of furniture, and ended chiefly in a club foot. Stretchers became less common, but if they were used were pushed back and did not form such an important part of the chair design. Seats were broader at the front than at the back, and all furniture showed a real desire for comfort and convenience. Marquetry and lacquer were both in great favor, and there are wonderful examples of both reproduced, but especially lacquer. Petit-point, damask, velvet, and chintz were all used for upholstery and hangings. Chintz was becoming more plentiful, but it was not until the Georgian period that it reached its perfection.
The Georgian period covers the work of Chippendale, the Adam Brothers, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton, who gave to the eighteenth century its undying decorative fame.
A glassed-in sun-porch furnished with comfortable wicker furniture adds much to the joy of life.
When Chippendale began his fine work, the Dutch influence of Queen Anne's reign was still strong, and this shows in his furniture; but his genius lightened and improved it. The characteristics of his style which remained fairly stable through his different phases were the use of mahogany, a certain squareness and solidity of design which has no appearance of heaviness because of the fine proportions, chair backs with a center splat reaching to the seat. The curving top rail always had curving up corners (see drawings page 84). The center splat was solid at first, but soon was pierced and carved, and went through the many developments of his style such as ribbon-back, Chinese, and Gothic. In some chairs he also used horizontal rails, and what are called "all-over backs." The legs of his earlier furniture were cabriole, and later they were straight. He used much and beautiful carving, gave great attention to the beauty of the wood and the perfection of workmanship and finish. Chippendale's settees were at first designed like two chair backs side by side, and if a larger settee was made either a third chair back of the same design or a different but harmonizing one was used. His dining-tables were made up of two center pieces with wide flaps on each side, and two semicircular tables, and all four pieces could be fastened together into one long table by brass fasteners. The end pieces were used as side tables or sideboards, for the sideboard as we know it did not come until later. He also made oblong sidetables, some with marble tops, which were used as sideboards with wine-coolers placed underneath, and usually a large tea-caddy or tea box on top. The beds which Chippendale made were large and elaborate four-posters, with beautiful carved cornices and posts. The curtains hung from the inside of the cornice, and silks or chintz were used for the curtains. His mirror frames were very elaborately carved, and in his rococo period were fairly fantastic with dripping water, Chinese pagodas, rocks, birds with long beaks, and figures. They were gilded, and some were left in the natural mahogany. He made folding card-tables with saucer-like places at the corners for candles, and later when the candle-stand came into fashion, the tables were made without them.
An admirable example of the Sheraton style mahogany settee with original silk covering.
| While this nest of mahogany tables is attractive in the room its appearance in the picture is of an inappropriate and heavy mission table. | A lamp would be an addition to this corner. The footstool is Victorian and a bit clumsy. |