FURNITURE.
“Jane, I hate æsthetic carpets;
High-art curtains make me swear.
Pray cease hunting for the latest
Queen Anne chair.
I care nothing for improvements,
On the simple style of Snell,
Which will suit both you and me ex-
tremely well.”
Robert Cust, “Parody of the Last Ode of the First Book of Horace.”
“First, as you know, my house within the city
Is richly furnish’d with plate and gold;
Basons and ewers, to lave her dainty hands;
My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry;
In ivory coffers I have stuff’d my crowns;
In cyprus chests my arras, counterpoints,
Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss’d with pearl,
Costly apparel, tents and canopies,
Valance of Venice gold, in needlework;
Pewter and brass, and all things that belong
To house, or housekeeping.”
Shakespeare, “Taming of the Shrew,” Act II., Scene I.
The last chapter on [hangings], their history and uses, and the preceding account of [tapestries], naturally lead to the consideration of the furniture which may accompany them.
Homer’s description of Penelope’s bridal couch is very curious. The central idea is the bedpost, fashioned out of the stem of an olive-tree growing in the court, and inlaid by Ulysses himself with gold, silver, and ivory, and bands of dyed purple ox-hide. The stone walls and roof were built over to cover it in, as it stood yet rooted in the ground.[461]
The illustration is a very quaint delineation of a Chaldean four-roomed house, where the rooted tree with its stem and branches is suggestive of the state of the domestic art of the architect and the upholsterer in those Archaic days.[462]
